Pick of the week
The Banshees of Inisherin

“I just don’t like you no more.” With these words, Brendan Gleeson’s Colm sets in train an increasingly acrimonious series of events in Martin McDonagh’s witty, bitter yarn, set on an island off the Irish coast in the early 1920s. The recipient is his erstwhile best friend Pádraic (Colin Farrell). An easygoing man, Pádraic is generally acknowledged as a bit dull but a despairing Colm’s attempts to shun him turn surprisingly bloody. The civil war simmering away on the mainland is barely registered by the insular islanders, whose thwarted ambitions and dark secrets are given the weight of Greek tragedy by McDonagh. A superb cast also features Barry Keoghan and Kerry Condon.
Saturday 22 February, 9.15pm, Channel 4

***

Thelma

Shifting smartly from delightful to distressing and back again, Josh Margolin’s debut feature centres on a spirited performance by June Squibb. She plays independent-minded 93-year-old grandmother Thelma, who is scammed out of $10,000 but then decides to hunt down the con artists herself. Co-opting the mobility scooter of her less gung-ho pal Ben (Richard Roundtree, in his final role), she pootles off across Los Angeles, raging against the dying of the light, in a comic paean to ageing on your own terms.
Saturday 22 February, 10.10am, 8pm, Sky Cinema Premiere

***

Godland

Hlynur Pálmason’s elemental period drama is a fascinating study in opposites. Coloniser v colonised, civilisation v nature, faith v human fallibility – these problems assail late 19th-century Danish priest and amateur photographer Lucas (Elliott Crosset Hove) as he treks across the big, bleak, beautiful landscape of Iceland one rainy summer to the site of his new church. His guide – and potential nemesis – is Ingvar Sigurdsson’s Ragnar, who resents the incomer but is drawn to his religion, though Lucas seems to care more for his camera than his flock.
Saturday 22 February, 10.40pm, BBC Four

***

Corsage

We’re in Vienna in 1877, and Empress Elisabeth of Austria (Vicky Krieps) is bored rigid. Railing against the restrictions of her role as wife to Emperor Franz Joseph (Florian Teichtmeister), though still carrying around the baggage of privilege, she seeks a way out through dieting, excessive horse riding and flirting with her instructor (Colin Morgan). But the itch to escape won’t be eased. Marie Kreutzer’s costume drama is a fabulous, cheekily anachronistic tale of female agency (or the lack of it) with the luminous Krieps a mesmerising presence.
Monday 24 February, 11.20pm, Film4

***

The Battle for Laikipia

Daphne Matziaraki and Peter Murimi’s affecting documentary tells the story of a seemingly intractable land dispute in Kenya. As a drought persists, pastoralist tribes who migrate with their cattle across the Laikipia plateau come into conflict with commercial ranchers and wildlife reserve owners over grazing rights. The colonial history of land appropriation is the backdrop to increasingly entrenched attitudes, but a focus on individual farmers provides a valuable personal dimension.
Tuesday 25 February, 10pm, BBC Four

***

Pretty Red Dress

Questions of Black masculinity and gender identity are explored sensitively in Dionne Edwards’s London-set film. Coming out of prison, Travis (Natey Jones) tries to settle back into domestic life with his partner, aspiring musical theatre actor Candice (an all-singing Alexandra Burke), and grumpy teenage daughter Kenisha (Temilola Olatunbosun). But when Candice gets the titular dress for her audition for a Tina Turner play, Travis can’t resist trying it on. However, roleplay masks a deeper need in him that begins to put stress on the family unit. A promising first feature from a film-maker to watch.
Friday 28 February, 11.05pm, BBC Two

***

Cold War

Focusing on a grand passion that is buffeted by the chilly realities of the Soviet era, Paweł Pawlikowski’s bittersweet drama traces a couple of decades in the relationship of Wiktor (Tomasz Kot), a composer at a Polish state-sanctioned folk ensemble, and one of his young singers, the ambitious, lively Zula (Joanna Kulig). Shot in crisp black-and-white, which gives the film a nostalgic, romantic feel – particularly in its Paris sections – the film asks what love is strong enough to persist across political divides and the stresses and strains of ordinary life.
Friday 28 February, 2.15am, Film4