Drawing on both personal taste and cultural resonance, these selections highlight how cinema can capture the complexities of movement — the hope, loss, and resilience that define what it means to journey.
This year, Arts Council England funded Journeys Festival International partners with Phoenix Cinema to bring you a special programme of films that invite you to reflect on migration, explore different journeys, and celebrate the many ways we find home.
Jake Harvey, Phoenix Programme Manager says:
“At Phoenix, we believe in the transformative power of film—its ability to open a window on the world and foster community when audiences engage with someone’s lived experience. We’re proud to work with JFI to present films offering a compassionate view of the experiences of sanctuary-seeking people.”
What films are included in this year’s programme?
NAME ME LAWAND
Friday 10 October – 7.30pm
Dir: Edward Lovelace
UK 2022, 1hr 22mins
★★★★ – Guardian.
Born profoundly deaf in Iraq, Lawand spent his early years unable to communicate with anyone around him. When his family take the desperate journey to the UK, Lawand is enrolled at the Royal School for the Deaf Derby and begins to thrive. But his family face a further fight against being deported. From the filmmaker behind the critically acclaimed The Possibilities Are Endless, this deeply moving new film documents the story of Lawand. The film will be followed by a pre-recorded Q&A with director Edward Lovelace.
Personal Recommendation:
Iraq remains a myth for many, its image shaped by fragmented news and distant headlines. Few things counter such misunderstanding better than film — where empathy is restored through the simple act of watching together.
FLOW
Saturday 11 October – 3.00pm
Dir: GIints Zilbalodis
Latvia/Belgium/France 2024, 1hr 25mins
“★★★★★ – A silent, breathtaking odyssey” – Discussing Film
Winner of Best Animated Picture at this year’s Oscars. Flow is a spectacular animated marvel following a cat as she tries to escape rising floodwaters. Ending up in a small boat accompanied by other sanctuary-seeking animals including a capybara, a secretary bird, a Labrador and a lemur, the group must work together and overcome their differences to survive their journey. Free drop-in craft workshop in the Phoenix Cinema Cafe from 1.00pm – 3.00pm as part of Cultural Quarter Earlies.
Personal Recommendation:
Flow is possibly one of the best films I’ve seen this year. Though it’s an animation, it speaks to everyone. I watched it during our holiday, in a room where the oldest viewer was in his eighties — and we were all equally moved. This is a film about journey, migration, hope, and resilience — about our shared future. It doesn’t matter which side you’re on or the colour of your skin; no one can resist the charm of a cat protagonist, nor the chance to see the world through its eyes.
FIRE AT SEA
Saturday 11 October – 7.30pm
Dir. Gianfranco Rossi
Italy 2016, 1hr 54mins
At the frontline of the European migrant crisis is the small Italian island of Lampedusa. This powerful Oscar-nominated documentary focuses on those dangerous sea-crossings made by people desperate to reach the shores of Southern Italy. Told through the eyes of a young boy from a fishing family and a local doctor treating immigrants on the island, Fire At Sea explores the devastating scale of the migrant crisis and the complex relationships between islanders and refugees. The film will include an intro by local refugee charity After 18 and a speaker with lived experience of migrant sea-crossing.
Personal Recommendation:
What makes Fire at Sea so powerful is its restraint — no voice-over, no moralising, only observation. Through stillness and silence, Rosi allows empathy to emerge naturally. The film reminds us that migration is not only about crossing borders, but also about the emotional distance between us and those we choose not to see.
PERSEPOLIS
Sunday 12 October – 3.00pm
Dir: Marjane Satrapi, Vincent Paronnaud
Cast: Chiara Mastroianni, Catherine Deneuve
France / USA 2007, 1hr 31mins
Based on Marjane Satrapi’s own autobiographical graphic novel and Oscar nominated for Best Animated Film, Persepolis is a poignant coming-of-age story of a precocious and outspoken young Iranian girl that begins during the Islamic Revolution. After she is expelled from school, Marjane’s family fear for her safety so send her to Austria to study for a better life. Alone in a strange land, Marjane encounters suspicion and prejudice.
Personal Recommendation:
When Persepolis first premiered, it opened the world’s eyes across the festival circuit. It revealed new possibilities for storytelling — offering audiences a window into a culture and a journey unfamiliar to many. Unlike traditional documentaries, animation here becomes a more effective and accessible medium, able to convey complex and unconventional stories with emotional clarity and universal reach.
GAGARIN
Sunday 12 October – 6.15pm
Dir: Fanny Liatard
France 2020, 1hr 38mins
Fanny Liatard’s gorgeous, moving feature debut is set in Cité Gagarine – a vast red brick housing project on the outskirts of Paris – concocting an urban fantasy around its real-life demolition in August 2019. Isolated, inventive 16 year old Youri dreams of becoming an astronaut, inspired by his namesake and the Gagarine’s too, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. But with the building in disrepair and scheduled to be demolished, Youri plans to save it, by transforming the estate into his very own ‘starship’. The film will include an intro from DMU Senior Lecturer in Architecture, Vinesh Pomal.
Personal Recommendation:
Visually striking and touched with a sense of new romanticism, Gagarine captivated audiences when it premiered at the Festival de Cannes in 2020. The film tells the story of a new generation of migrants — of youth, their struggles, and their imagination within a city they continue to fight to belong to.
All happening this weekend – BOOK NOW.
Support your local cinema, Phoenix.
More about Journeys Festival International (10-12 October, Leicester)
