The 1980s were the zenith of Japan’s bubble economy, an era which saw the accumulation of vast wealth, alongside rapid technological and commercial growth. City centres sprouted neon-emblazoned shrines to multinational capitalism, built upon the most expensive real estate in the world. But whilst Sony and Nintendo came to dominate the home entertainment market domestically and in the West, Japanese cinema from this decade tells a different story…
Here for Life is the Artangel-commissioned and produced feature from artist-filmmaker Andrea Luka Zimmerman and Adrian Jackson, founder of Cardboard Citizens theatre company. Hosted by Gareth Evans.
LRB Screen is the long-running film series from the London Review of Books, Europe’s leading literary journal of culture and ideas, hosted by the Garden Cinema since 2023.
Recorded on 8th December 2025
Lucile Hadžihalilović’s uncompromising cinematic visions are surreal, unsettling, and chilly. Here she talks about the themes and inspiration behind her work, and the ingredients, such as sound and costume design, that make it stand out. Hosted by Fatima Serghini.
Recorded on 26th November 2025 at The Garden Cinema
39-41 Parker Street, London WC2B 5PQ
This is also available as a podcast, if you prefer to listen on the go:
Film writer Savina Petkova discusses Fiume o morte! (Fiume or death!) with its director, Igor Bezinović. In defiance of the Paris Peace Conference Italian poet and military officer Gabriele D’Annunzio led a rogue, short-lived, and ultranationalist occupation of Fiume (now Rijeka, Croatia) in 1919. Over a century later, filmmaker Igor Bezinović revisits this strange historical episode, blending archive, reenactment and interviews with residents in the present, interrogating how a city remembers and forgets, and the enduring presence of European fascism.
A stark and peculiar lesson in the history that is not past, Fiume o morte! won the Tiger Award at the International Film Festival Rotterdam 2025 and is Croatia’s submission for the Oscars.
Ken Loach’s longtime collaborator Rebecca O’Brien joins Gareth Evans for a discussion following Sweet Sixteen, showing as part of Ken Loach: A Retrospective at the Garden Cinema.
This is also available as a podcast, if you prefer to listen on the go:
Director Paul Andrew Williams and actors Andrea Riseborough and Brenda Blethyn join host Joe Miller and a Garden Cinema audience to discuss Dragonfly.
Recorded on 8th November 2025 at The Garden Cinema
Also available to listen to as a podcast:
As part of our recent season of Taiwanese films, Tony Rayns recorded introductions to three films: City of Sadness; That Day, on The Beach; and A Confucian Confusion, including behind-the-scenes photos from his private collection.