A Banquet (2022)
Director: Ruth Paxton Run Time: 97 min. Rating: NR Release Year: 2021
Starring: Jessica Alexander, Kaine Zajaz, Lindsay Duncan, Ruby Stokes, Sienna Guillory
Country: United Kingdom
Language: English
About the film:
Premiered at the 2021 Toronto Film Festival. Widowed mother Holly is radically tested when her teenage daughter Betsey experiences a profound enlightenment and insists that her body is no longer her own, but in service to a higher power. Bound to her newfound faith, Betsey refuses to eat but loses no weight. In an agonizing dilemma, torn between love and fear, Holly is forced to confront the boundaries of her own beliefs.
“an intense combination of apocalyptic nightmare and family psychodrama”
—Allan Hunter for Screen Daily
About the filmmaker:
Scottish filmmaker, writer and visual artist Ruth Paxton crafts surreal and often humorous stories on the complexities of life. She has helmed several short films, including Paris/Sexy, a grim tragedy about a young caregiver and her brain-damaged father that premiered at the Edinburgh International Film Festival in 2010. She has also directed six episodes for BBC’s acclaimed series River City. Paxton is a professional mentor with Raindance’s International MA program and an Associate Lecturer at Cambridge University and Screen Academy Scotland.
With a screenplay from Justin Bull, A Banquet is Paxton’s debut feature.
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