National Theatre Live: Dear England(2024)

Mao’s Last Dancer(en)

At the age of 11, Li was plucked from a poor Chinese village by Madame Mao's cultural delegates and taken to Beijing to study ballet. In 1979, during a cultural exchange to Texas, he falls in love with an American woman. Two years later, he managed to defect and went on to perform as a principal dancer for the Houston Ballet and as a principal artist with the Australian Ballet.

Farewell(fr)

An intricate thriller about an ordinary man thrust into the biggest theft of Soviet information of the Cold War. Right after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. A French businessman based in Moscow, Pierre Froment, makes an unlikely connection with Grigoriev, a senior KGB officer disenchanted with what the Communist ideal has become under Brezhnev. Grigoriev begins passing Froment highly sensitive information about the Soviet spy network in the US.

Desert Flower(en)

The autobiography of a Somalian nomad who was sold in marriage at 13, fled from Africa a while later to become finally an American supermodel and is now at the age of 38, the UN spokeswoman against female genital mutilation.

Diary of a Chambermaid(fr)

Celestine has a new job as a chambermaid for the quirky M. Monteil, his wife and her father. When the father dies, Celestine decides to quit her job and leave, but when a young girl is raped and murdered, Celestine believes that the Monteils' groundskeeper, Joseph, is guilty, and stays on in order to prove it. She uses her sexuality and the promise of marriage to get Joseph to confess -- but things do not go as planned.

Easy Virtue(en)

Unjustly accused of adultery in a scandalous divorce, Larita Filton flees to the French Riviera. She soon falls in love with a young Englishman, John Whittaker, and begins anew under an assumed name. But when John brings her home to his disapproving family, Larita’s past begins to resurface.

Silence of the North(en)

Director Allan King's 1981 drama, based on true events, stars Ellen Burstyn as a strong-willed woman struggling to survive with her family in the Canadian wilderness.

The Kid(en)

New Mexico Territory, 1880. Rio Cutler and his older sister Sara must abandon their home after an unfortunate event happens. In their desperate flee to Santa Fe, they cross paths with the infamous outlaw Billy the Kid and his gang, who are ruthlessly pursued by a posse led by Sheriff Pat Garret.

Compulsion(en)

Two close friends' plan to execute a flawless crime is crushed when one of them inadvertently leaves his glasses at the crime scene.

Sarafina!(en)

The plot centers on students involved in the Soweto Riots, in opposition to the implementation of Afrikaans as the language of instruction in schools. The stage version presents a school uprising similar to the Soweto uprising on June 16, 1976. A narrator introduces several characters among them the school girl activist Sarafina. Things get out of control when a policeman shoots several pupils in a classroom. Nevertheless, the musical ends with a cheerful farewell show of pupils leaving school, which takes most of act two. In the movie version Sarafina feels shame at her mother's (played by Miriam Makeba in the film) acceptance of her role as domestic servant in a white household in apartheid South Africa, and inspires her peers to rise up in protest, especially after her inspirational teacher, Mary Masombuka (played by Whoopi Goldberg in the film version) is imprisoned.

Coup de Torchon(fr)

A pathetic police chief, humiliated by everyone around him, suddenly wants a clean slate in life, and resorts to drastic means to achieve it.

The Hell of '63(nl)

When extreme weather suddenly hits the Netherlands in 1963, a 120-mile tour skating event taking place on natural ice forces its contestants to contend with life-threatening race conditions.

Touched by a Killer(en)

When reporter Nicki Barrington investigates a man on death row for the murder of a young woman, she discovers the evidence was circumstantial and has his conviction overturned. After she falls in love with him, she is nagged by doubts of his innocence.

Faidra(sk)

Jääkärin morsian(fi)

It is the year 1915, and five Finnish men ski to Sweden via the Gulf of Bothnia to get military training in Germany. Among the men are Martti and Kalpa from the 27th Army Ranger Battalion. In the reserve, the troops spend their free time in a café called the Golden Anchor, owned by Sonja Strand. Sonja's captain serves in the Russian army, and Sonja has a relationship with Baron von Lichtenstein, who exploits Sonja who spies on Russia using Jew Isaac as her messenger.

The Boys in the Band(en)

A witty, perceptive and devastating look at the personal agendas and suppressed revelations swirling among a group of gay men in Manhattan. Harold is celebrating a birthday, and his friend Michael has drafted some other friends to help commemorate the event. As the evening progresses, the alcohol flows, the knives come out, and Michael's demand that the group participate in a devious telephone game, unleashing dormant and unspoken emotions.

Instant Family(en)

When Pete and Ellie decide to start a family, they stumble into the world of foster care adoption. They hope to take in one small child but when they meet three siblings, including a rebellious 15 year old girl, they find themselves speeding from zero to three kids overnight.

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind(en)

Against all the odds, a thirteen year old boy in Malawi invents an unconventional way to save his family and village from famine.

The Lost Battalion(en)

Fact-based war drama about an American battalion of over 500 men which gets trapped behind enemy lines in the Argonne Forest in October 1918 France during the closing weeks of World War I.

The Rescue(en)

The enthralling, against-all-odds story that transfixed the world in 2018: the daring rescue of twelve boys and their coach from deep inside a flooded cave in Northern Thailand.

Sound of Freedom(en)

The story of Tim Ballard, a former US government agent, who quits his job in order to devote his life to rescuing children from global sex traffickers.