MIDWINTER BREAK
Great Britain, Netherlands, 2025, 90min
Director: Polly Findlay
Cast: Lesley Manville, Ciarán Hinds, Julie Lamberton, Ed Sayer

 

There is a special magic to winter journeys. They always carry a faint promise of hope, of something yet to come.
What could be better for breathing new life into a comfortable marriage than a romantic escape to the city of bridges and canals? A chance to step outside the familiar rhythm of everyday life, lose yourself in unfamiliar streets, and, if only for a moment, become someone else.
Stella and Jerry are a British couple who have spent many years wrapped in the comfort of tweed and routine. They appear perfectly happy. But a marriage that does not bleed is not necessarily free from pain.
A melancholy December Amsterdam becomes more than a Christmas holiday destination. It turns into a landscape of memories, doubts, and dangerous confessions. After all, there is a reason people say: let sleeping dogs lie.
Memory is a merciless companion; it never travels light. It brings back forgotten promises, made in the hope that they would never have to be remembered again. Our sleeping vows...
Who would have imagined that the past could return at the very moment when everyone is desperately trying to keep their secrets hidden?
Sometimes all it takes is the lightest touch, a casual remark, or an unexpected encounter for the fragile world, woven from silences and unspoken truths, to lose its balance and begin to fall apart. Past and present will meet above the dark waters of Amsterdam's canals.
Something important will be said.
And nothing will ever be the same again.
"A silent explosion — a rare example of classical filmmaking at its very best. Daringly brilliant performances and a flawless masterclass in acting." — The Guardian
Gradually, the film transcends the story of one couple and becomes a poetic meditation on time, faith, memory, and the secrets we carry.
Anxiety and sorrow slowly dissolve into an overwhelming sense of love, giving way to hope and quiet reassurance — precisely what we all so desperately need.

Language: English