England, 1941, sisters Thomasina and Martha have created a machine, LOLA, that can intercept radio and TV broadcasts from the future. This delightful apparatus allows them to embrace their inner Bowie years before he was even born and place bets knowing what the outcome will be. But with World War II escalating the sisters decide to use the machine as a weapon of intelligence, with world-altering consequences.

In a clever meta-narrative twist, the events of the film are chronicled by Martha, an aspiring filmmaker. The 16mm sound film we are watching is hers. Andrew Legge’s fascination with found footage, early cinema and ingenious inventions, explored with such confident whimsy in his short films (The Unusual Inventions of Henry Cavendish, Chronoscope, The Girl with the Mechanical Maiden), is here given full flight to create a time-travel odyssey that transports us to a cleverly imagined past, underscored by the music of The Kinks, Elgar and Neil Hannon (of the Divine Comedy).

This screening will be followed by a Q&A with Andrew Legge and Neil Hannon, hosted by Stuart Clarke (Hot Press).

For all other LOLA screenings, click here.

See also this month’s Archive at Lunchtime for programmes of Andrew Legge’s short films.

Notes by Sunniva O’Flynn