Named after the practice of clandestine dissemination of censored and forbidden texts in communist states, Samizdat Eastern European Film Festival is an audience-focused film festival based in Scotland. The festival takes place annually, with a main programme of screenings in Glasgow taking place over a week in early autumn, and selected screenings in other locations: in 2026, returning to Edinburgh and Aberdeen, and, for the first time, travelling to Cromarty and Dunfermline. With a diverse programme of meticulously curated retrospectives and new films, as well as special events such as animation collections and short film showcases, Samizdat is the first Scotland-based festival dedicated exclusively to cinema from Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and the Caucasus.

Cinetopia presents a double bill of Ken Loach’s Sweet Sixteen (2002) and Michael Caton-Jones’ Our Ladies (2019), as part of TRANSMISSION: Youth Across Generations, exploring youth culture, memory and identity in Britain across the decades. Curated by two of our young programmers, Vama Urban and Eva Rodrigues, the event invites audiences to explore themes of rebellion, escape and belonging through cinema and an interactive sound archive. Tickets: £6 per film or £9 for both films. Sweet Sixteen (Ken Loach, 2002, 106 mins, cert 18) Ken Loach’s gritty coming-of-age drama follows Liam, a teenager from Greenock determined to build a better life for himself and his imprisoned mother despite his troubled upbringing. As Liam becomes involved in street crime, the film raises questions about morality, opportunity and how our surroundings shape our identities and futures. Sweet Sixteen also marked the screen debut of Scottish actor Martin Compston, who had never acted before. Programmed by Vama Urban Vama is currently on a gap year after completing high school. Her growing interest in filmmaking has led her to the Young Filmmakers Hub, BFI Academy and NFTS x Disney Academy. Particularly drawn to storytelling and screenwriting, she is fascinated by representations of youth across generations. “I have an obsession with films set in the 80s/90s/2000s, especially about youth, as it’s so interesting to see how teenagers like me lived but in a different generation. Lately, I’ve been especially drawn to these kinds of films when they’re set in Scotland. Watching Trainspotting (1996) was really interesting as it was set in my own hometown but in the 90s, so it looked familiar yet vastly different to now.” Our Ladies (Michael Caton-Jones, 2019, 100 mins, cert 15) Set in 1990s Scotland, Our Ladies follows five teenage girls from a Catholic school in Fort William travelling to Edinburgh for a choir competition. Away from the constraints of school, family and small-town life, their trip becomes an opportunity to assert independence and test boundaries. Exploring friendship, sexuality, rebellion and ambition, the film challenges nostalgic representations of adolescence, offering a bold portrayal of young women navigating expectations inherited from previous generations. Programmed by Eva Rodrigues Glasgow-based Eva recently graduated with an MA in Spanish. Having made her first documentary short in Barcelona and worked with IberoDocs Film Festival, she is passionate about bringing together her love of languages and cinema. “With the intention of breaking free from the common notions of nostalgia that often overwhelm engagements with media depicting youth cultures, I hope that this screening of Our Ladies will instead encourage discussions around female friendships, every-day rebellion and restrictive gender norms that we contend with from our teenage years into adulthood.” Eva is particularly interested in the film’s portrayal of young women’s rebellion and its representation of growing up in Scotland outside the Central Belt. She hopes the screening will encourage audiences to consider where they found escape in their youth and how they continue to challenge expectations in adulthood. Developing Youth Archive Between screenings, audiences are invited to share their own stories of rebellion, escape and belonging through an interactive sound and listening booth. Participants can contribute memories, songs and reflections to the Developing Youth Archive, creating a collective record of youth experiences across generations. By bringing these two films into conversation, the event creates space for stories to be heard and connections to emerge, using cinema as a starting point for wider discussions about identity, community and the circumstances that shape us. Venue Norton Park Conference Centre 57 Albion Road, Edinburgh EH7 5QY About TRANSMISSION This screening is part of Cinetopia’s TRANSMISSION: Youth Across Generations, a multi-event programme exploring how youth culture has shaped identity, belonging and collective memory in Britain from the 1980s to the present. TRANSMISSION is part of Rip It Up, supported by Film Hub Scotland as part of the BFI Film Audience Network (FAN), made possible by the National Lottery. About Cinetopia Cinetopia is an Edinburgh-based film events and exhibition company connecting audiences and the film industry through screenings, pop-up cinema, workshops, masterclasses and networking events.

The Film Premiere of.... CAESAR: The Ides or March Will be on Sunday 25th Oct at Brass Monkey, Drummond Street, Edinburgh. SCREENING TIMES 8:00pm - 9:15pm 9:45pm - 11pm The story is about Julius Caesar, a gifted Roman commander who conquers Gaul and seeks to return to Rome. However, he is faced with potential prosecution from Pompei and the senate if he returns so formulates a plan. He will cross the Rubicon with his 13th Legion and enter the city of Rome. This was filmed over the course of 6 years from 2020-2026 and it was all filmed in Scotland but local amature film makers. Written, Directed and performed by Jody Butler this proof of concept feature film highlights the struggle and determination it takes to make a full feature film on limited budget. Giving hope to young aspiring film makers with next to no budget. Please come along to show your support. For those that cannot make it you can also watch it via the YouTube link below. YouTube- https://youtu.be/ALjxnY9K4qY?is=wcTgsoqVeS8InvSb See you there!l and many thanks for all the support. IOM team.

“Delphine Seyrig’s prescient and passionate 1981 documentary both critiques the cinema and seeks to change it.” The New-Yorker In 1975 Delphine Seyrig recorded interviews with twenty-four actresses in France and the US, including Maria Schneider, Jane Fonda, and Shirley MacLaine, about their experience across the industry. Through their words, Seyrig reveals the frustrations of working within the patriarchal studio system.

Join us for a Halloween screening of this 90s horror classic which combines scares with rich social commentary. Tickets £3/£5/£7 on a sliding scale, with free entry for Grassmarket Community Project Members, open door meal attendees, and anyone else in need of a free ticket. Please select the ticket price that feels right to you; all income from tickets will be directly used to support the continued running of our cinema screenings. Notes Duration: 99 minutes Certificate 15 -strong violence, horror, gory images The film will screen with English descriptive subtitles, transcribing both dialogue and key audio information from the film The film will start promptly at 7pm without trailers The Grassmarket Community Project is a wheelchair accessible venue

Jali Film Weekender returns 28 October – 1 November 2026 for its second edition, presenting a five-day celebration of Black, African and diaspora film, extended realities and more. This year’s programme theme is Rebellion, which manifests across both cinematic forms and narratives told, as well as who audiences will be introduced to both on and off screen. The programme probes what it can mean to do things differently; to create work that is unexpected, to journey through lives that do not fit into long established cinematic gazes, and to carefully hold the multiplicities of Black, African and diaspora experiences. Rebellion runs through our expansive screen programme, spanning narrative, documentary, animation, experimental and short film, and continues through filmmaker Q&As, panel discussions, gatherings and workshops, as well as our Extended Realities (XR) Exhibition of virtual and expanded reality works. For full programme details visit: www.jalicollective.co.uk Jali Film Weekender 2026 is supported by the Screen Scotland National Lottery Film Festival & Screening Programme Fund and by Film Hub Scotland (part of the BFI’s Film Audience Network, awarding funding on behalf of Screen Scotland and the BFI National Lottery), and other partners. Spotlight: Geração 80 is made possible through the support of Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation UK Branch’ and their Gulbenkian Exhibitions Fund.

As part of the Spotlight: Geração 80 programme we welcome Ery Claver from Geração 80 for a special Lunchtime Talk Masterclass. Founded in 2010 by Tchiloia Lara, Jorge Cohen and Mário Bastos, Geração 80 was born from a burning desire to tell Angolan stories with authenticity, innovation and vision. A film production company dedicated to connecting generations and strengthening Angolan cinema, their mission is to bring Angola to the screen, tell African stories and collectively make films. Geração 80 has played a key role in shaping contemporary Angolan cinema, with productions spanning feature films and documentaries, showcasing at major international film festivals across five continents. Every Thursday, they transform their backyard into Cine Geração, where they’ve been screening films for over 200 weeks. This Masterclass is an exciting opportunity to deeply explore Geração 80’s extensive archive. Where did it all begin; how has the shape of their work, and the context(s) they navigate changed over a decade and a half; what does collective filmmaking look like in practice; and how they continue to create space for Angolan talent and audiences.

Special collaboration between Peacock Cinema and the 2026 Samizdat Film Festival. This film will take place in the Studio at Carnegie Hall. We’re excited to be collaborating with Samizdat in presenting their first-ever screening in Dunfermline: a Halloween special of a landmark of Polish cinema, Mother Joan of the Angels – an austere religious horror that follows a priest sent to a remote 17th-century convent following reports of demonic possession. This screening will be preceded by a short in-person welcome and a pre-recorded introduction. Dir: Jerzy Kawalerowicz Cast: Lucyna Winnicka, Mieczyslaw Voit Country of production: Poland Production Year: 1961

Cinetopia Salon Halloween special: Häxan (1922) + Live music by Jane Gardner & Hazel Morrison This Halloween, experience one of early cinema’s most gloriously eerie and unsettling masterworks accompanied by an original live score from two exceptional Edinburgh-based musician/composers. Danish filmmaker Benjamin Christensen’s Häxan (Witches, 1922) – also known as Witchcraft Through the Ages is unlike anything else in the silent film canon: part scholarly dissertation, part fever dream, part full-blooded horror spectacle. Beginning as an illustrated lecture on medieval superstition and demonology, the film spirals into a series of increasingly lurid dramatisations of witchcraft, inquisition and hysteria, before arriving, with startling modernity, at the suggestion that those condemned as witches may simply have been women suffering from misunderstood mental illness. Shot in meticulous, sometimes scandalous detail, Häxan remains genuinely strange and disturbing a century on. Satan leers. The torture chambers unsettle. The nuns misbehave. It is, by turns, a work of serious inquiry and delirious provocation, and one of the most visually inventive films ever made. Jane Gardner is an Edinburgh-based pianist and composer with an extraordinary breadth of musical life behind her. She studied at York University and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland before completing a PhD in Composition at Goldsmiths College, London, and was awarded the prestigious Gullivar Bursary - nominated by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies - to study Indonesian music in Java and Bali. Her concert works have been commissioned by ensembles including the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Piano Circus, and she has composed for Shakespeare's Globe Theatre and acrobatic string group The Gogmagogs. As an orchestrator and music copyist, she has worked with composer and producer Jim Sutherland on the Disney Pixar soundtrack for Brave. As a silent film accompanist, Jane has performed at the BFI London, the Hippodrome in Bo'ness and at festivals and venues across the UK, bringing to each screening an instinctive feel for atmosphere and narrative that makes her one of the finest practitioners in the field. Hazel Morrison is a percussionist and timpanist who trained at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in the early 1990s. Her career spans an exceptional range: she has performed with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Orchestra Scotland/Brazil, toured with folk rock band Cantara, and appeared at Celtic Connections with PJ Moore of The Blue Nile. A Danny Kyle Award winner both as a solo artist and in ensemble, she released her own solo album and is currently at work on a new one. Hazel also teaches and coaches young percussionists for Edinburgh City Council. She and Jane Gardner are long-standing collaborators on silent film accompaniments, and together they bring a dynamic, layered presence to the screen that is very much their own. Cinetopia Salon is supported by Film Hub Scotland, part of the BFI’s Film Audience Network, and funded by Screen Scotland and National Lottery funding from the BFI.

Special Peacock Cinema Hallow'een screening of the 1975 musical comedy horror film The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Based on the musical by Richard O’Brien, the film follows a newly engaged young couple, Brad (Barry Bostwick) and Janet (Susan Sarandon), through the most unforgettable night of their lives. The Rocky Horror Picture Show is a hilarious romp filled with song-and-dance numbers – and enough horror to thrill you, chill you and fulfill you from start to finish. What better way to see this camp horror classic than on Halloween night and on the big screen in Dunfermline city centre. ** Dressing up for Halloween is actively encouraged. ** Dir: Jim Sharman Cast: Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon, Barry Bostwick Country of production: USA & UK Production Year: 1975