21 January 2021 / Jamie Sellers

Why you should see: Supernova

With our YourScreen partnership you can enjoy this intense and impressive film and support the Electric Palace while you watch.

Supernova is one of the selections in the current roster of films on virtual cinema platform YourScreen. You can see the film for under £10 and Electric Palace receives 30% of your ticket fee. The initiative has been helping to support cinemas during Covid-19 lockdown.

We asked writer and Electric Palace volunteer, Jamie Sellers, to give us his verdict on Supernova:

Polish director Bartosz Kruhlik’s debut feature Supernova is a film that unsettles almost from the off. We see a long shot of a country road on a glorious sunny Sunday, hear distant voices fade in, and then a woman and two children come into view, she struggling with luggage, pulling the kids along. They turn a corner. It's apparent she's trying to escape her drunken husband. When we see him stagger into focus, we’re momentarily relieved for the family, because he’s in no fit state to administer any real violent, aggressive behaviour. He briefly pleads and then falls hopelessly into the gutter.

Review continues below...

See the trailer for Supernova:

As the woman and children move along the narrow road, a car approaches. There is an accident. What follows for the rest of the film’s 78-minute running time, is a series of shocking moments, beginning with the driver, somewhat artificially stimulated, abandoning his vehicle and disappearing.

The real-time action never leaves the stretch of narrow road, as police and paramedics appear, locals converge – some in a terrible state of agitation, some rubbernecking - and the sad, inebriated husband eventually joins the commotion.

The absent driver, we learn, is a politician. He’s arrogant from the off, and apparently without remorse. He rejoins the scene, speaks with the ill-disciplined and ineffectual police officers, and is recognised by bystanders, camera phones set to record.

What follows is a series of vignettes unfolding simultaneously within a few yards of each other...

Supernova is impressive, with some very strong performances. The device of having events unfold in real-time can sometimes make for mundane viewing, but you can't take your eyes off the screen here. A useful and terrible reminder of how quickly lives can be changed forever. And yet you sense some things will stay just the same.

Supernova is available to watch on YourScreen until 31 January 2021.

How to watch films to help Electric Palace

To watch Supernova, and a range of new films from across the globe via YourScreen whilst supporting the Electric Palace Cinema at the same time, simply visit the YourScreen website and enter the codes below at checkout.

Tickets are £9.99 per household viewing of a single title, at any time.

Use the promo code for 25% off your virtual ticket: HASTYS

Use the promo code for 35% off your concessionary virtual ticket if you are under 25yrs, unemployed or over 65yrs: HASTCONC

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