A BANQUET | RUTH PAXTON
90 minute feature film
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A widowed mother is radically tested when her teenage daughter insists a supernatural experience has left her body in service to a higher power.
A Banquet is a 2021 British horror film directed by Ruth Paxton and written by Justin Bull. The film stars Sienna Guillory as widowed mother Holly, whose husband, the father of her daughters Betsey (Jessica Alexander) and Isabelle (Ruby Stokes), died by suicide. One night, Betsey has what she believes to be a supernatural experience, that results in her refusing to eat.
At the beginning of December 2020 IFC Midnight acquired the North America distribution rights to the film.
A Banquet had its premiere at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival. It was released in select theaters and on digital platforms on 18 February 2022. It was released on Blu-ray in 2021 by UK distributor Second Sight Films as a special edition including the Blu-ray and essays by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, Heather Wixson, and Jennie Kermode.
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Peter Bradshaw gave the film 4 stars in the Guardian saying in his review:
' Paxton’s movie sketches out the sinister dread just under the happy-family surface; she is in expert control of her film, achieving her effects with economy and force. It is really unnerving.'
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Contact me directly to view full selected scenes from the film.
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staring | Sienna Guillory, Jessica Alexander, Ruby Stokes and Lindsay Duncan
director | Ruth Paxton
writer | Justin Bull
cinematographer | David Liddell
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producers | Leonora Darby, Nik Bower, James Harris and Mark Lane
Hanway Films, Tea Shop Productions, Riverstone Pictures, IFC Midnight
