Sunday, November 22 - 2.00pm

Recent Release - The Pianist, 2002 (M)

The Pianist is an extraordinarily true story about a privileged Polish Jewish musician who spent five years struggling against Nazi occupation in Warsaw.

Wladyslaw Szpilman who works as a pianist for a local radio station and his family are aware of the looming presence of the Nazis but in their naivete they think the menace will pass and that England and France will come to their aid.

As the German occupation continues, Wladyslaw and his family are deported to a Nazi concentration camp. However, they became separated as they await their trains.

Rescued by a Jewish police guard, Wladyslaw goes into hiding and he spends the next few years living in the ruins of Warsaw going from one abandoned home to another, desperately avoiding capture. In the early 1940s, Wladyslaw's world goes from piano concert halls to the Jewish Ghetto of Warsaw and he finds himself conscripted to a forced German labour camp.

He learns of a coming Jewish revolt and helps the resistance by smuggling weapons into the ghetto.

Eventually Warsaw is liberated by the Russian army and Wladyslaw returns to playing piano for the radio station.

Cast: Adrien Brody, Thomas Kretschma, Frank Finlay and Maureen Lipman

READ MORE:

Sunday, November 29 - 2.00pm

Art Sunday - Prince Edward Island, 1985 (G)

Situated nine miles off the Eastern Seaboard of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island is Canada's smallest Province.

The documentary is about Vernon McGuigan whose family has lived and farmed on the Island for over 250 years. As old age creeps up on the residents of the Island and most of its young have moved to the mainland, Vernon takes a nostalgic look at his life as he is forced to auction his prized possessions.

Prince Edward Island is regarded as the birthplace of Canada. In 1864, a small group of elected officials gathered in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. They met to discuss the possibility of uniting three Maritime jurisdictions, but representatives also appeared at the conference to raise a broader issue and sow the seed of a concept to establish a larger union and create a country. This historic event of 1864 led to the founding of Canada.

The Island also is associated with the story of "Anne of Green Gables", a 12 year old orphan, Anne Shirley is living in servitude with the cruel Hammond family in Nova Scotia. However, when Mr Hammond dies, Anne is sent to an orphanage where she eventually receives the news that she has been adopted by a family on Prince Edward Island.

In 1897, upon arriving in the small town of Avonlea, Anne is met at the railway station by the elderly Matthew Cuthbert who is surprised to find her there instead of the boy he was expecting. Matthew and his sister Marilla had requested a boy to help them on their farm, "Green Gables".