The recent releases<\/h2>\n\n\n\nSteve<\/em> (2025)<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\nSteve<\/em> is a bleakly brilliant and surprisingly beautiful tale of well-meaning teachers\u2019 love for \u2018their\u2019 kids and of troubled teenagers\u2019 struggles, quietly revealing the lengths that teachers go to meet students where they are. Interwoven and mounting psychological challenges confront the two leads \u2013 Cillian Murphy\u2019s eponymous Steve and Jay Lycurgo\u2019s Shy, the original novella\u2019s<\/a> protagonist \u2013 building to a tearjerking yet heartwarming climax. <\/p>\n\n\n\nThe film is also a dose of blunt social realism, exposing the impact of ideologically-driven budget cuts on young people\u2019s sanctuary spaces. The social analysis isn\u2019t subtle at points \u2013 a teacher decries the \u2018cuts, cuts, cuts\u2019 \u2013 but its condemnations don\u2019t need to be gentle. Steve<\/em> also critiques the establishment British media, as a BBC-esque film crew invasively arrives to frame the reform school as either \u2018radical social solution or waste of taxpayer money\u2019. Later machinations implicate the media in supporting austerity-driven threats to shut the school down. <\/p>\n\n\n\nThe respect and admiration shown by Steve, father of two girls, to \u2018his boys\u2019 \u2013 complex, struggling teens \u2013 powerfully reminds us how great educators can (or should) see their work. But it shows, too, how much work is done beyond the remit of educating; how social work, counselling, support, life coaching and more is demanded of school teachers. Youth engagement \u2013 a word with different meaning in Steve<\/em>\u2019s 1990s setting \u2013 remains vital. Cameron Baillie<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nDirected by Tim Mielants. Watch on Netflix<\/a> (no free trial, but you can cancel at any time)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Steve-2025.jpg\")
<\/figure>\nJay Lycurgo and Little Simz in Steve <\/em>(2025)
CREDIT: ROBERT VIGLASKY\/NETFLIX<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nDecember<\/em> (2025)<\/h3>\n\n\n\nOffering welcome to strangers is the<\/em> key theme of the Nativity story. Today in Britain (and many places elsewhere) far-right agitators are demanding that Christian \u2018tradition\u2019 be at the forefront of the festive season. The painful ironic truth, of course, is that without an inn keeper finding space for a family in need when Bethlehem was \u2018full\u2019, Jesus would have been born into a deadly, freezing night.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAs the festive season rolls into Poland and Belarus, this is the scene awaiting refugees moving through the border region\u2019s snow-covered forests. Grzegorz Paprzycki\u2019s chilling documentary charts their experiences through their own testimonies, contrasted at turns with shots of factories spitting out barbed wire, soldiers with weapons raised, local communities\u2019 solidarity actions and Christmas celebrations in the warm. This important film is a difficult watch. While the \u2018true\u2019 meaning of Christmas remains a topic of dubiously-intended debate, human suffering continues unabated. Siobh\u00e1n McGuirk<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nDirected by Grzegorz Paprzycki. Watch on Vimeo<\/a> (rent for \u00a32.27)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nKneecap<\/em> (2024)<\/h3>\n\n\n\nBelfast\u2019s famous hip-hop trio shot fully into the public eye in 2025, following the May arrest of member Mo Chara (Liam \u00d3g \u00d3 hAnnaidh) under counter-terrorism measures and the BBC\u2019s July decision<\/a> not to live-stream the band\u2019s Glastonbury set. Fewer column inches were devoted to the September ruling<\/a> that the charge against \u00d3 hAnnaidh was \u2018unlawful\u2019 and \u2018null\u2019. The avowedly pro-Palestine, anti-Imperial and fearlessly political band continue to riot within the mainstream entertainment industry \u2013 as their 2024 film (released by Sony Picture Classics, no less) attests.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIf you missed the cinema release of this eponymous fictionalised-biopic-cum-comedy-drama \u2013 in which the singers ably play themselves \u2013 this is the perfect time to catch up. A propulsive, funny and even thrilling film, it asks serious questions about modern pathways into political education, struggles for language and civil rights and long legacies of colonialism and sectarianism. SM<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nDirected by Rich Peppiatt. Watch on BFI Player, Sky, Apple and more<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\nMo Chara, M\u00f3gla\u00ed Bap and DJ Pr\u00f3va\u00ed in Kneecap <\/em>(2024)<\/p>\n<\/div>![\"Three](\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Kneecap-still.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nSnowy scenes and family drama<\/h2>\n\n\n\nThe Eight Mountains<\/em> (2022)<\/h3>\n\n\n\nMost accounts of this film focus on the deep bond between the two male protagonists at the heart of the story, but it takes in so much more than friendship. Set high in the Italian Alps \u2013 revealed through sweeping cinematography and glimpses at the steady, but almost imperceptible, attrition of village life \u2013 the film mourns the loss of everyday connection with community and the land. That dynamic is attributed to the pull of the city with its associated opportunities and aspirations, which leads to a hollowing out of life\u2019s richness as people become alienated wage slaves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Deeply sad at points but ultimately profoundly uplifting, The Eight Mountains<\/em> is a meditation on life and how time and connections can slip away. At a time of year prone to over-consumption and for spending time with family we might otherwise rarely see, the film\u2019s examination of what really<\/em> makes life good \u2013 as well as its snowy mountainous landscapes \u2013 make it a perfect alternative \u2018seasonal\u2019 film. The themes, cinematography and Daniel Norgren\u2019s haunting soundtrack will linger in your consciousness long after its end. Darcy White<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nDirected by Felix van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch. Italian with subtitles. Watch: MUBI (free trail available), BFI Player, Sky, Apple and more<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nProfoundly uplifting, The Eight Mountains<\/em> is a meditation on life and how time and connections can slip away<\/p>\n\n\n\nKomi, a Journey Across the Arctic<\/em> (2024)<\/h3>\n\n\n\nThe Indigenous Komi people live close to the Arctic Circle, herding reindeers through the harsh Siberian landscape. This largely observational documentary, with minimalist narration and interviews explaining key details, follows two families as they undertake their annual migration to escape the brutal winter and feed their 5,000 reindeer (which remain part-owned by the state). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The filmmakers condense the group\u2019s four-month journey\u00a0across the Urals, from Europe into Asia, into a meditative, 50-minute film that offers stark reminders of human endurance and life in sync with nature alongside stunning visuals of a desolate tundra. With stirring music throughout, Komi<\/em> will be unlike any reindeer films you\u2019ve seen before. <\/p>\n\n\n\nDirected by Andreas Voigt. Watch on YouTube via Slice Documentary<\/a> (free ‘Premium’ trial available \u2013 or free with adverts)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nRevisit a comedy classic<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\nIn The Loop<\/em> (2009)<\/h3>\n\n\n\nIn dark times, with wars and militarism proliferating and threatened everywhere, satire can be fortifying. In the Loop\u2019s<\/em> fumbling, conniving war-instigators and media-spinsters feel both relevant and from a different time, as mid-2000s US legislators carve a warpath for invasion of an unnamed Middle Eastern country (the vagueness is highly intentional). <\/p>\n\n\n\nAs Whitehall aides and a hapless international development minister are tasked in to present a united, chauvinistic, transatlantic front, viewers are left with no doubts about power (im)balances in the \u2018special relationship\u2019. Political manoeuvres run through calculated press leakages and shrouded committee hearings. Knives plunge into backs from SW1 to Capitol Hill. It\u2019s classic Iannucci, who wrote<\/a> in 2020 that Donald Trump was beyond satire. In the Loop<\/em> is a reminder that Starmer is not the first US President\u2019s lap dog<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Steve<\/em> is a bleakly brilliant and surprisingly beautiful tale of well-meaning teachers\u2019 love for \u2018their\u2019 kids and of troubled teenagers\u2019 struggles, quietly revealing the lengths that teachers go to meet students where they are. Interwoven and mounting psychological challenges confront the two leads \u2013 Cillian Murphy\u2019s eponymous Steve and Jay Lycurgo\u2019s Shy, the original novella\u2019s<\/a> protagonist \u2013 building to a tearjerking yet heartwarming climax. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The film is also a dose of blunt social realism, exposing the impact of ideologically-driven budget cuts on young people\u2019s sanctuary spaces. The social analysis isn\u2019t subtle at points \u2013 a teacher decries the \u2018cuts, cuts, cuts\u2019 \u2013 but its condemnations don\u2019t need to be gentle. Steve<\/em> also critiques the establishment British media, as a BBC-esque film crew invasively arrives to frame the reform school as either \u2018radical social solution or waste of taxpayer money\u2019. Later machinations implicate the media in supporting austerity-driven threats to shut the school down. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The respect and admiration shown by Steve, father of two girls, to \u2018his boys\u2019 \u2013 complex, struggling teens \u2013 powerfully reminds us how great educators can (or should) see their work. But it shows, too, how much work is done beyond the remit of educating; how social work, counselling, support, life coaching and more is demanded of school teachers. Youth engagement \u2013 a word with different meaning in Steve<\/em>\u2019s 1990s setting \u2013 remains vital. Cameron Baillie<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Directed by Tim Mielants. Watch on Netflix<\/a> (no free trial, but you can cancel at any time)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Jay Lycurgo and Little Simz in Steve <\/em>(2025) Offering welcome to strangers is the<\/em> key theme of the Nativity story. Today in Britain (and many places elsewhere) far-right agitators are demanding that Christian \u2018tradition\u2019 be at the forefront of the festive season. The painful ironic truth, of course, is that without an inn keeper finding space for a family in need when Bethlehem was \u2018full\u2019, Jesus would have been born into a deadly, freezing night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As the festive season rolls into Poland and Belarus, this is the scene awaiting refugees moving through the border region\u2019s snow-covered forests. Grzegorz Paprzycki\u2019s chilling documentary charts their experiences through their own testimonies, contrasted at turns with shots of factories spitting out barbed wire, soldiers with weapons raised, local communities\u2019 solidarity actions and Christmas celebrations in the warm. This important film is a difficult watch. While the \u2018true\u2019 meaning of Christmas remains a topic of dubiously-intended debate, human suffering continues unabated. Siobh\u00e1n McGuirk<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Directed by Grzegorz Paprzycki. Watch on Vimeo<\/a> (rent for \u00a32.27)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Belfast\u2019s famous hip-hop trio shot fully into the public eye in 2025, following the May arrest of member Mo Chara (Liam \u00d3g \u00d3 hAnnaidh) under counter-terrorism measures and the BBC\u2019s July decision<\/a> not to live-stream the band\u2019s Glastonbury set. Fewer column inches were devoted to the September ruling<\/a> that the charge against \u00d3 hAnnaidh was \u2018unlawful\u2019 and \u2018null\u2019. The avowedly pro-Palestine, anti-Imperial and fearlessly political band continue to riot within the mainstream entertainment industry \u2013 as their 2024 film (released by Sony Picture Classics, no less) attests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you missed the cinema release of this eponymous fictionalised-biopic-cum-comedy-drama \u2013 in which the singers ably play themselves \u2013 this is the perfect time to catch up. A propulsive, funny and even thrilling film, it asks serious questions about modern pathways into political education, struggles for language and civil rights and long legacies of colonialism and sectarianism. SM<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Directed by Rich Peppiatt. Watch on BFI Player, Sky, Apple and more<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Mo Chara, M\u00f3gla\u00ed Bap and DJ Pr\u00f3va\u00ed in Kneecap <\/em>(2024)<\/p>\n<\/div> Most accounts of this film focus on the deep bond between the two male protagonists at the heart of the story, but it takes in so much more than friendship. Set high in the Italian Alps \u2013 revealed through sweeping cinematography and glimpses at the steady, but almost imperceptible, attrition of village life \u2013 the film mourns the loss of everyday connection with community and the land. That dynamic is attributed to the pull of the city with its associated opportunities and aspirations, which leads to a hollowing out of life\u2019s richness as people become alienated wage slaves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Deeply sad at points but ultimately profoundly uplifting, The Eight Mountains<\/em> is a meditation on life and how time and connections can slip away. At a time of year prone to over-consumption and for spending time with family we might otherwise rarely see, the film\u2019s examination of what really<\/em> makes life good \u2013 as well as its snowy mountainous landscapes \u2013 make it a perfect alternative \u2018seasonal\u2019 film. The themes, cinematography and Daniel Norgren\u2019s haunting soundtrack will linger in your consciousness long after its end. Darcy White<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Directed by Felix van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch. Italian with subtitles. Watch: MUBI (free trail available), BFI Player, Sky, Apple and more<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Profoundly uplifting, The Eight Mountains<\/em> is a meditation on life and how time and connections can slip away<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Indigenous Komi people live close to the Arctic Circle, herding reindeers through the harsh Siberian landscape. This largely observational documentary, with minimalist narration and interviews explaining key details, follows two families as they undertake their annual migration to escape the brutal winter and feed their 5,000 reindeer (which remain part-owned by the state). <\/p>\n\n\n\n The filmmakers condense the group\u2019s four-month journey\u00a0across the Urals, from Europe into Asia, into a meditative, 50-minute film that offers stark reminders of human endurance and life in sync with nature alongside stunning visuals of a desolate tundra. With stirring music throughout, Komi<\/em> will be unlike any reindeer films you\u2019ve seen before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Directed by Andreas Voigt. Watch on YouTube via Slice Documentary<\/a> (free ‘Premium’ trial available \u2013 or free with adverts)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In dark times, with wars and militarism proliferating and threatened everywhere, satire can be fortifying. In the Loop\u2019s<\/em> fumbling, conniving war-instigators and media-spinsters feel both relevant and from a different time, as mid-2000s US legislators carve a warpath for invasion of an unnamed Middle Eastern country (the vagueness is highly intentional). <\/p>\n\n\n\n As Whitehall aides and a hapless international development minister are tasked in to present a united, chauvinistic, transatlantic front, viewers are left with no doubts about power (im)balances in the \u2018special relationship\u2019. Political manoeuvres run through calculated press leakages and shrouded committee hearings. Knives plunge into backs from SW1 to Capitol Hill. It\u2019s classic Iannucci, who wrote<\/a> in 2020 that Donald Trump was beyond satire. In the Loop<\/em> is a reminder that Starmer is not the first US President\u2019s lap dog<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/figure>
CREDIT: ROBERT VIGLASKY\/NETFLIX<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nDecember<\/em> (2025)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Kneecap<\/em> (2024)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nSnowy scenes and family drama<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The Eight Mountains<\/em> (2022)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Komi, a Journey Across the Arctic<\/em> (2024)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Revisit a comedy classic<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
In The Loop<\/em> (2009)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n