Rheged and Keswick Film Festival go back to Bhutan

For the 15th year, Rheged are delighted to give Keswick Film Festival their giant screen on 8 and 9 March, for a weekend programme of films, which will take audiences around the world from Bulgaria to Mumbai and France to Bhutan.

When the organisers of Keswick Film Festival heard that the Director 2023’s stand out movie, Lunana:A Yak in the Classroom, had a new film out, it was one of the first to be pencilled in to the 2025 programme.

As with Audience Award winner Lunana, The Monk and the Gun is set in Bhutan and the country’s vast landscapes are shown to best effect on the Rheged screen. Back in 2006 when the film is set, Bhutan was the last country to connect to the internet and television and it is preparing for its first election. At a time of massive change, old and new cultures clash in this wryly satirical film.

Festival Director Ian Payne commented ‘David Miller, our programmer, did quite a bit of detective work to find the distributors for the film and negotiated for its screening here at Rheged – time and money well spent to bring this superb film to Penrith’

Four other films, all created in 20204, are screening at Rheged, from across the world. Tarika is a drama set in Bulgaria where a father’s love for his gifted daughter puts him at odds with prejudiced townsfolk in this visually stunning tale with supernatural elements. The Marching Band is a French comedy drama with its own musical journey. Set in the mountains of Taiwan, Mongrel is about a Thai migrant who care for the elderly and disabled. Sister Midnight will round of the Rheged programme in great style as an arranged marriage spirals into darkness in this quirky comedy/horror film .

Tickets and times for each film are available on the Rheged website and can be bought in advance or on the door. There is also a free shuttle bus running from Keswick to Rheged on Sunday 9 March

Keswick Film Festival runs from 6th – 9th March 2025 at The Alhambra Cinema, Rheged and the Theatre by the Lake