English films about suffering

A terminally ill mother invites her family to their country house for one final gathering, but tensions quickly boil over between her two daughters.

London, England, May 2000. The peaceful life of elderly Joan Stanley is suddenly disrupted when she is arrested by the British Intelligence Service and accused of providing information to communist Russia during the forties.

Susan is a scientist searching for answers to important questions. So important that she has given up on other things, like love - until she meets Micheal. Susan and Michael find themselves embarking on a sensual adventure while the world around them seems to be falling apart. A life-affirming look at what it means to love and be loved in turbulent times.

A Victorian surgeon rescues a heavily disfigured man being mistreated by his "owner" as a side-show freak. Behind his monstrous façade, there is revealed a person of great intelligence and sensitivity. Based on the true story of Joseph Merrick (called John Merrick in the film), a severely deformed man in 19th century London.

A woman learns about the death of her Orthodox Jewish father, a rabbi. She returns home and has romantic feelings rekindled for her best childhood friend, who is now married to her cousin.

Two siblings share their Friday night dinners at their parents home and, somehow, something always goes wrong.

Buddy is a young boy on the cusp of adolescence, whose life is filled with familial love, childhood hijinks, and a blossoming romance. Yet, with his beloved hometown caught up in increasing turmoil, his family faces a momentous choice: hope the conflict will pass or leave everything they know behind for a new life.

London, 1974. As Britain prepares for electrical blackouts to sweep across the country, trainee nurse Val arrives for her first day at the crumbling East London Royal Infirmary. With most of the patients and staff evacuated to another hospital, Val is forced to work the night shift, finding herself in a dark, near empty building. Within these walls lies a deadly secret, forcing Val to face both her own traumatic past and deepest fears.

Despite their age difference, Lesbian couple Olivia and Alex are very much in love. But as the question of pregnancy rears its head and their neighbour John befriends them, they both start making some truly disastrous decisions.

A tough, renegade cop is dispatched to take down a serial killer who has been targeting police officers.

A dramatisation of Christopher Reid's narrative poem that tells the story of an unnamed book editor who, fifteen years after their break-up, is meeting his former love for a nostalgic lunch at Zanzotti's, the Soho restaurant they used to frequent.

Yorkshire, 1974, the Maynard family moves into their dream house. It's a dream that quickly descends into a panic stricken nightmare as the family discovers a horrifying truth, a truth that will make the history books. The house is already occupied by the most violent poltergeist ever documented, a poltergeist that will tear you from your bed as you sleep and drag you helplessly into the darkness.

33 years after the infamous Rendlesham Forest UFO incident, three metal detector enthusiasts hunting for Saxon gold in the same region, capture incredible footage of UFO's whilst filming their expedition. As night falls and with their navigation equipment failing, they find themselves facing a terrifying encounter with an unforgiving alien presence.

During the Blitz of World War II, a female screenwriter (Gemma Arterton) works on a film celebrating England's resilience as a way to buoy a weary populace's spirits. Her efforts to dramatise the true story of two sisters (Lily Knight and Francesca Knight) who undertook their own maritime mission to rescue wounded soldiers are met with mixed feelings by a dismissive all-male staff.

Anna's marriage is on the rocks after her husband John discovered she was having an affair with a much younger man. Confronted by her other half in the honeymoon suite of a Stratford-Upon-Avon hotel, Anna must try to save their marriage, deal with hapless hotel staff and come up with a plan to get through the experience. Unknown to either John or Anna, the suite’s bathroom is occupied by a semi-naked and comatose 21-year-old, who’s trying to sleep off a stag do.

British comedian Jimmy Carr unleashes his deadpan delivery and wickedly funny one-liners to a sold-out audience at the UK's Hammersmith Apollo.

A mother desperate to reconnect with her troubled daughter becomes embroiled in the urban legend of a demonic witch.

When the magic powers of The Tablet of Ahkmenrah begin to die out, Larry Daley (Ben Stiller) spans the globe, uniting favorite and new characters while embarking on an epic quest to save the magic before it is gone forever.

A young newspaper writer returns to her hometown in the English countryside, where her childhood home is being prepped for sale.

Beth, a bookish teenager, befriends Emilia, an aspiring novelist who has just arrived in town. Emilia soon begins an affair with Beth's father that threatens to have devastating consequences.

A look at the life of Margaret Thatcher, the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, with a focus on the price she paid for power.

Growing up poor in Madras, India, Srinivasa Ramanujan Iyengar earns admittance to Cambridge University during WWI, where he becomes a pioneer in mathematical theories with the guidance of his professor, G.H. Hardy.

After a bleak childhood, Jane Eyre goes out into the world to become a governess. As she lives happily in her new position at Thornfield Hall, she meet the dark, cold, and abrupt master of the house, Mr. Rochester. Jane and her employer grow close in friendship and she soon finds herself falling in love with him. Happiness seems to have found Jane at last, but could Mr. Rochester's terrible secret be about to destroy it forever?

The film is a semi-biographical story based on the experiences of former prison guard Ronnie Thompson who spent seven years working in some of the UK's most dangerous prisons. Based on Thompson's book of the same name, the project stars James D'Arcy (Master & Commander), Noel Clarke (Kidulthood), Frank Harper (The Football Factory), Jamie Foreman (Layer Cake), Andrew Shim (This Is England) and Kate Magowan (Stardust). The story revolves around former soldier Sam Norwood who takes a job as a prison officer when he returns from Iraq and becomes exposed to the underworld of prison culture - including corrupt guards and drug trafficking.

Marquise de Merteuil, former lover of Vicomte de Valmont, incites him to corrupt the innocent Cecile de Volanges before her wedding night, but Valmont has targeted the peerlessly virtuous and beautiful Madame de Tourvel.

Tom and Anna Wright, a young American couple, fall into severe debt while renovating Anna's family home in London. As the couple faces the loss of their dream to have a house and start a family, they discover that the tenant in the apartment below them is dead, and he's left behind a stash of cash—$400,000 worth. Though initially hesitant, Tom and Anna decide that the plan is simple: all they have to do is quietly take the money and use only what's necessary to get them out of debt. But when they start spending the money and can't seem to stop, they find themselves the target of a deadly adversary—the thief who stole it—and that's when very bad things start happening to good people.

Mike Leigh’s much praised 2010 tragicomical drama. During a year, a very content couple approaching retirement are visited by friends and family less happy with their lives.

In the bleak days of the Cold War, espionage veteran George Smiley is forced from semi-retirement to uncover a Soviet mole within his former colleagues at the heart of MI6.

Sitcom about a former rural parish vicar trying to cope with the varied demands of running an inner-city church.

A British intelligence officer has to ensure that a captured German scientist helps the British develop jet aircraft.

Homeless and on the run from a military court martial, a damaged ex-special forces soldier navigating London's criminal underworld seizes an opportunity to assume another man's identity, transforming into an avenging angel in the process.

Set in late-1970's Dundee, Schemers is based on writer-producer David McLean’s early years in the music business. After a run in with a local gangster, a fledgling promoter and his two friends raise their ambitions to booking major bands in order to escape their debt.

Gamers enter virtual reality video game contest for money only to realize things are not the way they seem.

At the height of the London blitz, Dr Lennox Collins, pioneer of the new forensic science, is enlisted by DI Wilkins after prostitute Mary Williams is strangled and a swastika carved on her tongue.

Billy Hill and Jack 'Spot' Comer were among the most notorious criminals in London up until the 1950s. Dramatising the violent reign of two of London's most notorious gangsters, Billy Hill (Leo Gregory) and Jack 'Spot' Comer (Terry Stone), ONCE UPON A TIME IN LONDON charts the legendary rise and fall of a nationwide criminal empire that lasted until the mid-fifties and which paved the way for the notorious Kray Twins and The Richardsons. This is the story of their rise and fall.

The story of the Polish fliers who found themselves fighting for the freedom of their own country in foreign skies. Seen through the eyes of a Polish fighter ace and adventurer, it tells how the Poles—driven across Europe by the German war machine—finally make their last stand. Flying Hurricanes for the RAF over Britain, they became a key component in the legend of ‘The Few’. Up against the might of the Luftwaffe they hoped that, by saving Great Britain from Nazi invasion, they were keeping the dream of a free Poland alive.

An elderly man pieces together his childhood memories after finding his diary from 1900, which he wrote when he was 13 years old.

A sleep doctor tries to protect a family from a demon that feeds on people in their nightmares.

The story of Len, who made a billion dollars from inventing a new toilet roll, and his 12-year-old son Joe who appears to have everything he could want but what he really needs is a friend.

Late Bloomers stars Isabella Rossellini and William Hurt as a married couple pulled apart by the threat of old age. Each reacts in a different way: Hurt’s distinguished architect chases after his glory days, while Rossellini’s housewife installs handrails about the house.

Two schoolboy delinquents learn a lesson that they will never forget when a teacher at the end of his tether decides to abduct them.

Based on the literary classic by Thomas Hardy, Far from the Madding Crowd is the story of independent, beautiful and headstrong Bathsheba Everdene, who attracts three very different suitors: Gabriel Oak, a sheep farmer, captivated by her fetching willfulness; Frank Troy, a handsome and reckless Sergeant; and William Boldwood, a prosperous and mature bachelor. This timeless story of Bathsheba's choices and passions explores the nature of relationships and love – as well as the human ability to overcome hardships through resilience and perseverance.

A group of volunteers find themselves fighting for their lives when a drug trial goes horribly wrong.

Queen Victoria strikes up an unlikely friendship with a young Indian clerk named Abdul Karim.

A teenager finds himself transported to an island where he must help protect a group of orphans with special powers from creatures intent on destroying them.

The story of Joseph a man plagued by violence and a rage that is driving him to self-destruction. As Joseph's life spirals into turmoil a chance of redemption appears in the form of Hannah, a Christian charity shop worker. Their relationship develops to reveal that Hannah is hiding a secret of her own with devastating results on both of their lives.

With their golden era long behind them, comedy duo Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy embark on a variety hall tour of Britain and Ireland. Despite the pressures of a hectic schedule, and with the support of their wives Lucille and Ida – a formidable double act in their own right – the pair's love of performing, as well as for each other, endures as they secure their place in the hearts of their adoring public

In a rambling, isolated house, Emily’s first night-shift as carer to an elderly dementia patient turns into a nightmare as she is tormented by a vengeful spirit and uncovers the house's dark secrets.

An old firm leader returns to Green Street for Revanche after receiving a call that his little brother was killed, but is he able to cope with a new type of hooliganism and can he find his killer?

Action epic sees a passionate young man transform into a brutal warrior as he travels the unforgiving landscape in search of his long lost brother Hakan The Ferrocious, whose people are relying on him to restore order to their kingdom.