With 45 Years (2015), director Andrew Haigh displayed a Bergmanesque mastery of portraying emotional devastation. Starring Paul Mescal and Andrew Scott, actors already known to excel in roles of surpassing emotional intensity, whether in Aftersun (Charlotte Wells, 2022) or Simon Stephens’s theatre piece Sea Wall, All Of Us Strangers is a beautiful, mysterious, deeply moving meditation on identity, loneliness, love, happiness, and loss that navigates its terrain on an even more profound level. Screenwriter Adam (Scott, giving a career-best performance) lives an isolated life in a soulless tower block. His work on a project vaguely inspired by his relationship with his deceased parents (Claire Foy and an unrecognisable Jamie Bell) is interrupted by his encounters with neighbour Harry (Mescal). As memory, reality, and imagination intertwine, becoming difficult to separate from each other, Adam seeks a stable place of comfort and warmth.

All of Us Strangers contains several sequences with flashing lights that may affect those who are susceptible to photosensitive epilepsy or have other photosensitivities.

There will be Open Captioned screenings on Sunday 28th at 13.00 and Tuesday 30th at 18.20.

Notes by Kevin Coyne