KINGSBRIDGE Kino is celebrating five years of screening foreign cinema to the town.

Kino is the word for cinema in many European languages, and signals that the films shown at the club are bit different to the usual Hollywood fare.

Founder of the club, Simon Keyes is standing down after five years as chair. Here he explains what the club has achieved: ‘Kingsbridge Kino came from a conversation with Phil and Sue Pritchard, then the owners of the Reel cinema, about offering a wider range of films in Kingsbridge. When they created a third screen they wanted to show more foreign films but the response had been disappointing. To make this commercially viable it needed a loyal audience prepared to take risks on films they might not know much about. Creating a club with membership, social functions and talks seemed the best way to achieve this.

‘In our first five years we’ve shown 95 films and the club is financially stable. This season we will show our 100th film. We keep the geographical focus as wide a possible – we’ve had films from 32 countries so far - and include a wide range of genres, from westerns to musicals. Our introductory talks are an important way of helping the audience appreciate unfamiliar styles and cultures.’

Simon continued: ‘I’m proud that we’ve offered Kingsbridge people an opportunity to see dozens of interesting films that otherwise wouldn’t have been shown. I’m pleased that we regularly include short films, including some made by students at the community college.’

When asked what the future holds for the club, Simon explained: ‘Kingsbridge Kino is in rude health and will continue to enrich the town’s cultural life. It has an engaged and vigorous committee, it’s financially sound, and has plenty of ideas for future screenings. I’m delighted that Barney Greenhill has agreed to take over as chair after doing a superlative job as treasurer.’

To celebrate five years of Kingsbridge Kino, the club is offering the opportunity to come and watch their first film of the 2016 spring season for free. The film is Untouchable - Olivier Nakache and Éric Toledano’s film from 2011 about an unlikely friendship that develops between a wealthy quadriplegic and his carer, who has just been released from prison. The film is a huge success and is the highest-grossing non-English film worldwide.

The film will be shown on Sunday, January 31 at 6pm at Kingsbridge community college. To get the opportunity to see this for free, just send an email to [email protected]. One free entry per each email application.

Further details can be found on their website: www.kingsbridgekino.org.