Strange Victory
Leo Hurwitz, 1948, 64 min 

Introduced by Ehsan Khoshbakht

“In 1945, the free world rejoiced over the defeat of fascism. But the sense of peace was short-lived, and as the Cold War began, the United States entered a period of national paranoia and political repression. In response, boundary-pushing publisher and producer Barney Rosset and director Leo Hurwitz joined forces to create Strange Victory. This rarely seen, stylistically bold documentary equals the visual brilliance of landmark works like Battleship Potemkin and I Am Cuba while delivering an extraordinary cry for equality and justice. Skilfully combining real-life footage of World War II combat, post-war refugees, and the Nuremberg trials with powerful dramatic re-enactments, Hurwitz weaves an extraordinary cinematic portrait of post-war American fascism. How could it be, the film asks, that servicemen returning home from defeating a racist and genocidal enemy found a United States plagued by prejudice, Jim Crow, anti-Semitism, anti-Catholicism, and xenophobia?” – Milestone Films

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On the Bowery
Lionel Rogosin, 1956, 65 min

Introduced by Ehsan Khoshbakht

Lionel Rogosin’s landmark of American neorealism chronicles three days in the drinking life of Ray Salyer, a part-time railroad worker adrift on New York’s skid row, the Bowery. When the film first opened in 1956, it exploded onto the screen, burning away years of Hollywood artifice, jump-starting America’s post-war independent-film scene, and earning an Academy Award nomination for best documentary. Developed in close collaboration with the men Rogosin met while spending months hanging out in neighbourhood bars, On the Bowery is both an indispensable document of a bygone Manhattan and a vivid and devastating portrait of addiction.

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One Way or Another
Sara Gómez, 1977, 73 min

Introduced by Ehsan Khoshbakht

“A landmark of Cuban and feminist cinema, One Way or Another was the first feature from Cuba directed by a woman, Sara Gómez – and it was to be her last. Gómez, who got her start making short documentaries and assisting Agnès Varda and Tomás Gutiérrez Alea (Memories of Underdevelopment), died while editing the film, leaving Alea and cowriter Tomás González Pérez to complete it. She shot the film with a handheld 16mm camera during the so-called quinquenio gris (Five Gray Years), the period in which the Cuban regime’s Sovietization of the economy radically transformed all aspects of society: jobs, housing, health, education, the place of women, and artistic censorship. Gómez brings a neorealist, even ethnographic sensibility to this love story of a middle-school teacher and a factory worker on the outskirts of Havana. Bravely unflinching in her depictions of race, class, and gender inequality, she reveals a country attempting to wrest itself from its colonialist past while hurtling into an uncertain future.” – MoMA

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Llévame en tus brazos
Julio Bracho, 1954, 98 min
UK premiere of the new restoration

Introduced by Viviana García-Besné & Ehsan Khoshbakht

“After having been fired from a sugar mill, José can no longer marry Rita, the fisherman's daughter. When Rita agrees to marry the mill owner to save her father from ruin, violence looms large... Class conflicts and erotic torments – all in one visually stunning film!” – Locarno Film Festival

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Misunderstood
Luigi Comencini, 1966, 105 min

Introduced by Ehsan Khoshbakht

John Duncombe, the British consul in Florence, returns home from his wife’s funeral to his two children, who are unaware of their mother’s passing. He makes the decision to tell his eldest son, Andrea, but hides the truth from his sickly younger son, Milo. Director Luigi Comenicini captures the innocence and carefree moments of youth alongside the agonising feelings of grief, creating one of the finest films about childhood, one which can stand alongside The 400 Blows, The Spirit of the Beehive and L'enfance nue.

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Never on Sunday is a series of screenings of rare classics, archive masterpieces, obscure delights and forgotten gems carefully curated and introduced by Ehsan Khoshbakht and taking place the last Sunday of each month at Close-Up.