LRB Screen, the London Review Bookshop’s long-running screening series, continues its exploration of visions of London created by non-British filmmakers: films in which the city is a key player, rather than a backdrop; in which its buildings, streets, parks and rivers cast a distinctive shadow over the drama; in which a fresh encounter makes the city unfamiliar and mysterious again.

The series continues with Moonlighting, the remarkable, surprisingly underappreciated study of exile, precarious labour and the rapidly financialising city from one of Poland's greatest directors, Jerzy Skolimowski. It was the second of his films to be set in London (the first being the 1970 cult classic Deep End). It follows the travails of Polish labourers working illegally in London during the weeks just before and after the banning of the Solidarity movement in Poland, a period of great uncertainty and turmoil. It won the best screenplay award at Cannes, and was acclaimed internationally: the New York Times called it one of the two best films ever made about exile, and the Chicago Reader praised its leading actor, Jeremy Irons, for delivering ‘a performance worthy of Chaplin’.

We are delighted that Irons will be joining us to introduce the film, and discuss it after the screening with Gareth Evans.

Cast:
Jeremy Irons, Eugene Lipinski, Jirí Stanislav