Last Friday 4 of us attended an early showing of Midwinter Break at The Glasgow Film Theatre ( known locally as the GFT) This was shown as part of The Glasgow Film Festival 2026. The GFT is an independent cinema, the UK’s 1st purpose built art-house cinema outside London which opened in 1939.
We all enjoyed this gentle film which is a about a quiet marriage in crisis. It’s set in Glasgow and Amsterdam and features a retired couple who had relocated from Belfast to Glasgow during ‘The Troubles’. They have been married for over 30 years and take a ‘midwinter break’ trip to Amsterdam where their inner struggles unfold. She is a devout Catholic and is bored and frustrated with her life. He is struggling with alcoholism and no longer follows his former faith. He doesn’t respect his wife’s religious beliefs and rituals. There’s a telling scene where she is kneeling bedside the bed quietly praying and he keeps asking her unimportant questions whilst he is cleaning his teeth.
At one point the female lead played by Lesley Manville was trying to explain her frustrations with her current life and marriage to her husband, played by Ciaran Hinds, saying she needed to do something more, have more discussion about different topics, just something different. We all wanted to shout “Join NWR!” We all thought this clip would have made a great advertising campaign for NWR – if only NWR could afford the royalty rights.
