Pick of the week
The Testament of Ann Lee
Mona Fastvold’s astonishing drama about the founder of the Shakers Christian sect in the 18th century defies simple classification – which may be why it was unjustly shunned during awards season. At heart it’s a historical biopic: Manchester cotton worker Ann Lee (a performance of great intensity from Amanda Seyfried) joins the Quakers, then forms her own group founded on celibacy, and ends up migrating to America to seek religious freedom. It’s also a highly choreographed folk musical, centred on the Shakers’ ecstatic singing and dancing. And it’s a fascinating tale of female empowerment in an age when the obstacles to self-determination were vast.
Out now, Disney+
The Teachers’ Lounge
The conceit of the school as a microcosm of wider society is used brilliantly in İlker Çatak’s German drama. Leonie Benesch plays new teacher Carla, who investigates after thefts from the staff room. Issues of racism, surveillance, trust and the delicate power balance between educators, pupils and parents crop up as her discoveries throw the entire institution into turmoil – much of it focused on her favourite pupil, Oskar (Leonard Stettnisch). The excellent Benesch exudes empathy, as Carla strives to do the right thing while events overwhelm her.
Saturday 16 May, 9pm, BBC Four
God’s Creatures
How much can a mother’s love forgive? That’s the life-changing question facing Emily Watson’s Aileen after her prodigal son, Brian (Paul Mescal), returns home from Australia to their Irish fishing village. When Sarah (Aisling Franciosi), her young colleague at the seafood processing factory, is raped and accuses Brian, Aileen is quick to give him a false alibi. Saela Davis and Anna Rose Holmer’s claustrophobic drama shows how a tight-knit community’s first instinct when challenged is denial and exclusion – and how it’s the women who invariably lose out.
Sunday 17 May, 10.40pm, BBC Three
Brother
Tragedy is baked in to Clement Virgo’s heartfelt sibling drama about the long reach of trauma. We first meet Lamar Johnson’s young Jamaican-Canadian Michael as he ekes out an existence with his grief-numbed single mother, Ruth (Marsha Stephanie Blake), on their urban estate. In a parallel timeline, the teenage Michael is guided to adulthood by his older brother, Francis (Aaron Pierre), a charismatic would-be hip-hop musician who struggles to rise above the police racism, gang violence and homophobia that surround them.
Sunday 17 May, 10.50pm, BBC Two
Destroyer
It is ironic that Nicole Kidman hiding her face behind layers of bad-skin makeup led to some of her most convincing film work in years. Karyn Kusama’s gripping 2018 crime thriller follows Erin Bell – alcoholic cop, bad mother – as she is forced to revisit a 17-year-old undercover FBI operation into bank robbers that went wrong. The plot teases us with cause and effect, as the persistent Bell pursues escaped lead criminal Silas (Toby Kebbell) with little regard to procedure or personal safety.
Monday 18 May, 11.45pm, BBC Two
Glory
The film that bagged Denzel Washington his first Oscar brings a necessary spotlight on the history of the 54th Massachusetts infantry regiment – one of the first Black Union army units of the civil war. It’s unfortunate that Edward Zwick’s drama is told through the eyes, and letters home, of its white commander, Col Robert Gould Shaw (Matthew Broderick). But there is valuable time given to the African American enlisted men, with Washington as the prickly recruit Trip and Morgan Freeman as his wiser sergeant major Rawlins, the pick in a bloody tale of bigotry, heroism and freedom.
Thursday 21 May, 11.40pm, Film4
The Bride!
An unholy splicing of Bonnie and Clyde and Baz Luhrmann (with a knowing wink to Mel Brooks), Maggie Gyllenhaal’s 1930s-set gothic horror is a riot from start to finish. Chicago gangster’s cohort Ida (a stupendously energetic Jessie Buckley) is possessed by the spirit of Mary Shelley, then dies and is resurrected – at the behest of Frankenstein’s monster, Frank (Christian Bale) – as a punky rebel. Frank’s love of film musicals is the thread that ties together a wild fantasy of girl power rage and outsider romance.
Friday 22 May, 9.50am, 8pm, Sky Cinema Premiere