SIMON MAGUS (UK - 105 mins)
Directed by Ben Hopkins. With Ian Holm, Nosh Taylor, Stuart Townsend, Embeth Davidtz, Rutger Hsuer and Sean McGinley.

One doesn’t often see films with the tantalising magic aura of ‘Simon Magus’, but that’s because directors with the creativity and intelligence of Ben Hopkins don’t emerge too often. This incredibly rich and demanding debut by one of Britain’s truly promising talents recreates ‘a tale from a vanished world’. An almost medieval Jewish village, set somewhere in central Europe during the 19th century, is facing a crisis of modernisation. The Talmudic community is faltering. bypassed by the outside world, and even lacks the ten men necessary for a religious quorum. Simon Magus, dirty, dishevelled and perhaps mad is the object of the villagers’ taunts and derisions... Hopkins has fashioned a wonderfully fantastic fable that blends love and enlightenment, social disharmony and the tormented soul of the forsaken. A film of impressive scope and imagination. (Sundance Film Festival)

"Magical" (Times)
"Seductive, intelligent and escellenfy crafted" (Time Out)
"life affirming" (Heat)
"Visually astonishing" (Financial Times)