SamsaraU

Directed by Lois Patiño | Spain | 2023 | 1h 54m | Lao & Swahili w/ English subtitles | Starring Amid Keomany, Toumor Xiong, Simone Milavanh, Mariam Vuaa Mtego, Juwairiya Idrisa Uwesu

Amidst the Buddhist temples of Laos, a young man reads a sacred text to a dying woman. This text serves as a guide for finding one’s way through the afterlife. When the woman passes away, her spirit moves toward reincarnation in its next body. Experimental filmmaker Lois Patiño takes us on an immersive and sensory journey across continents via the cosmos in this meditative and transcendent examination of life after death.

Winner of the Special Jury Prize at the 2023 Berlin Film Festival.

Warning: this film contains flickering or flashing lights that may affect those with photosensitive epilepsy.

Reviews

‘Transcendent and transformative…its feels like new cinematic ground is being broken before our eyes, and the impact is exponentially increased if experienced with people in the dark of the cinema’
★★★★★
David Jenkins, Little White Lies

Sorry - you missed it!

We showed Samsara between February 16, 2024 and February 22, 2024.

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What else is on?

Tomorrow (Friday 21st November)

15:15

Springsteen: Deliver Me 12A
Descriptive Subtitles
1h 59m
After The River’s success, Bruce Springsteen retreats to rural New Jersey, battling fame’s pressures and past traumas while forging the raw masterpiece Nebraska. Jeremy Allen White leads a powerhouse cast in this electrifying portrait of ‘The Boss’ standing at the cusp of iconic stardom.

Book here

18:00

Bugonia 15
1h 58m
Two conspiracy-obsessed cousins kidnap a tech CEO they believe is an alien overlord. Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons star in Yorgos Lanthimos’s darkly comic, unsettling satire about paranoia, misinformation, and the terrifying absurdity of the modern age.

Book here

20:45

Die My Love 15
1h 59m
Grace pursues her writing dream in a remote country house with partner Jackson, but motherhood’s isolation fractures her reality. Jennifer Lawrence delivers a mesmerising performance in Lynne Ramsay’s (We Need to Talk About Kevin) visceral, uncompromising portrait of a woman’s psychological unravelling.

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Saturday 22nd November

15:15

Johnny Guitar PG
1h 50m
Saloon owner Vienna faces a lynch mob after being framed for robbery, fighting for her life and freedom on the town’s edge. Misunderstood in its time, Nicholas Ray’s feminist western now burns with passion, subtext, and unforgettable intensity.

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15:15

Johnny Guitar / Women on the Ver 12A
From Nicholas Ray’s feverish western of passion and paranoia to Pedro Almodóvar’s riotous farce of love and betrayal, this pairing delivers colourful chaos and volcanic emotion. Double-feature screenings plus live musical introduction by The August List.

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18:00

Women on the Verge of a Nervous 12A
1h 29m | Spanish w/ English subtitles
Pepa’s frantic search for her vanished lover spirals into a whirlwind of jealous fiancées, hostage-taking terrorists, and absurd chaos. Almodóvar’s breakthrough comedy dazzles with surreal humour, bold melodrama, and a riot of colour, energy, and eccentricity.

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20:30

Bugonia 15
1h 58m
Two conspiracy-obsessed cousins kidnap a tech CEO they believe is an alien overlord. Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons star in Yorgos Lanthimos’s darkly comic, unsettling satire about paranoia, misinformation, and the terrifying absurdity of the modern age.

Book here


Plan your visit

Our beautiful art deco inspired auditorium can be found just off East Oxford's Cowley Road. We are open 7 days a week. We open the cinema and box office 30 minutes before the scheduled start time of each film, and the Box Office then closes 10 minutes after the film starts. We don’t show adverts, just a couple of trailers, so don't be late as the film itself starts very close to the advertised time!