Discover the Charm, Edge, and Untold Stories of British Independent Cinema
There’s something unmistakable about British independent film — the way it blends sharp observation with fearless creativity. These aren’t stories built to play it safe. They’re intimate, provocative, sometimes strange, and always personal. From working-class realism to avant-garde fever dreams, each film in this collection showcases a director willing to push past convention and tell stories on their own terms. From the quiet emotional fractures of Joanna Hogg’s Archipelago to the socially charged dramas of Ken Loach and the bold visual experiments of Derek Jarman and Peter Greenaway, here are some of our favorite British indies on Kino Film Collection.
Archipelago (2010)
In Joanna Hogg’s Archipelago, a quietly devastating portrayal of a family in emotional crisis, Edward (Tom Hiddleston) is preparing to leave for a year of voluntary service in Africa. His mother and sister gather the family on a remote island for a farewell trip. When Edward's father is delayed, the unspoken forces of absence and loss bring the family's buried anger and tension to the surface.
Sorry We Missed You (2020)
British master Ken Loach is one of the only directors to win the Palme d'Or award at the Cannes Film Festival not once but twice. Known for his socially conscious filmmaking, Loach updates his tried-and-true political themes by focusing on the lives of a nurse and a delivery driver struggling to make ends meet in this intimate family drama that exposes the dark side of the so-called “gig economy”.
Scrapper (2023)
Winner of a Sundance Grand Jury Prize, this vibrant father-daughter comedy follows a resourceful 12-year-old girl who secretly lives alone in a London flat until her estranged father unexpectedly returns and she’s forced to confront reality. Scrapper is a joyful comedy about family and fresh starts that believes life’s not so much about chasing rainbows as snatching fistfuls in both hands.
The Garden (1990)
Directed by Derek Jarman and starring Tilda Swinton, this kaleidoscopic film shows the filmmaker’s genius at its most coruscating, featuring an over-the-top Hollywood-style musical number, nightmare images of tar-and-feather queer persecution, and footage of the particularly menacing-looking nuclear power plant that overlooks Jarman’s own garden.
A Zed and Two Noughts (1990)
A masterpiece of modern cinema, A Zed and Two Noughts is Peter Greenaway’s beautifully disturbing and darkly humorous take on erotic obsession and death. In a horrific automobile-swan accident in front of the Rotterdam Zoo, two women die. The two widowers, twin zoologists, fixate on their wives’ bodies, and slowly become obsessed with evolution and decomposition.
Exhibition (2014)
In Joanna Hogg’s Exhibition an artist couple’s living and working patterns are disrupted by the imminent sale of their modernist dream home they have loved and lived in for two decades. They begin a process of saying goodbye to their shared history under the same roof. The upheaval causes anxieties to surface where wife D struggles to control personal and creative aspects of her life with H.
The Old Oak (2023)
Ken Loach’s deeply moving final film explores loss, fear, and the difficulty of finding hope. When a group of Syrian refugees moves to a once thriving mining village in northern England, prejudice fuels a rift between the community and its newest inhabitants. But an unlikely friendship between the owner of the local pub and a young Syrian woman offers new possibilities for the divided village.
The Draughtsman’s Contract (1983)
Set in 17th-century England, Peter Greenaway’s erotic country house murder mystery catapulted him to the forefront of international art cinema. Adorned with intricate wordplay, extravagant costumes and opulent photography, Greenaway’s film features an aristocratic wife who commissions a young draughtsman to sketch her husband’s property in exchange for one sexual favor for each of his drawings.
The Last of England (1987)
An apocalyptic roar of a movie, Derek Jarman's The Last of England stars Oscar winner Tilda Swinton in his lament for the country he once knew and what he feared it would become. A kaleidoscopic view of England, filled with rage at Margaret Thatcher's conservative reign and haunted by the continuing scourge of AIDS, this film is both deeply personal and grimly historical.
Rude Boy (1980)
Set against a background of riots, anti-racist demos, and police hostility, this unforgettable film portraits the UK at a moment when subcultural shock troops met those of a rising right wing in the streets. Merging documentary and fiction, Rude Boy follows a roadie for The Clash—the most fiery, revolutionary rock ’n’ roll band of the era, seen in this film at the dizzying peak of their powers.
Unrelated (2007)
Joanna Hogg’s first feature follows Anna, escaping a strained relationship, to a Tuscan villa shared by old friends and their teenage children. Drawn into the adolescents’ orbit and their charismatic leader (Tom Hiddleston), Anna crosses unspoken boundaries, stirring jealousy and desire, until the holiday becomes a painful reckoning with loneliness, aging, and emotional dislocation.
COMING TO KINO FILM COLLECTION FEBRUARY 26