Based on Ikiru by Akira Kurosawa, Living stars Bill Nighy as a man determined, in the time he has left, to wake from his slumber and make a mark on the world.

Having lived in a stupor since his wife’s death, Williams (Nighy) lives out his life through the observance of daily rituals. But then the civil servant receives some shocking news. A modest man, Williams embarks on an odyssey of discovery, encountering seaside bohemian Sutherland (Tom Burke) and opening up to co-worker Margaret (Sex Education’s Aimee Lou Wood).

Director Oliver Hermanus (Moffie), screenwriter Kazuo Ishiguro (author of Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go), and producer Stephen Woolley (Carol), have created a film of tremendous balance and grace, which hums with their shared love of cinema. Sandy Powell’s costumes are crisp monotones with eager accents of colour, while cinematographer Jamie Ramsay’s chilly silvery frames perfectly capture Whitehall in the 1950s. And Nighy, in one of the finest performances of a distinguished career, imbues every scene with a quiet and wistful sense of wonder.

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