“lutfl‘u: patterns so look load of fabric and patterns so look out. that's it for the papers tonight. don't forget, you can see the front pages of the papers online on the bbc news website. it's all there for you, seven days a week at bbc.co.uk? papers. and if you miss the programme any evening, you can watch it later on bbc iplayer. thank you, penny and claire. goodbye. —— thank you, penny and claire. goodbye. hello and welcome to the film review on bbc news. to take us through this week's cinema releases is mark kermode. so mark, what do we have this week? very interesting week, we have the breadwinner, which is an oscar—nominated animation. solo: a star wars story, another one. and mckellen: playing the part. and the breadwinner, based or taken from a book?

yes, by deborah ellis. directed by nora twomey. this is from the studio that gave us song of the sea and secret of curls. this is adapted from deborah ellis‘ book. taliban—era, turn of the century, a young girl is selling bread with her father. he has lost a leg in the war with the taliban. clearly, they are struggling materially, but he teaches her the power of history, and most importantly, the power of stories. let's have a look at the clip. clip: our people have always told stories, from our very beginning when we were pathia and a fractured land and the claws of the hindu kush mountains, scorched by the fiery eyes of the northern deserts. black rubble earth against ice

peaks, our land was the petrified skeleton of a monster. the land of the noble and honourable, we were a pathway to everywhere, carrying goods from east to west. we studied the stars and began to see order amidst the chaos. we were scientists, philosophers and storytellers. questions sought answers, and then more questions. we began to see our place in the universe. on the one hand you have that sort of animation with the circling and cut—outs, then you have the more realistic backgrounds of the streets of kabul. they are almost photorealistic backgrounds with these simply drawn but very expressive faces. what happens is the father is arrested by the taliban, and the mother and sister are unable to get food, because you can't go out without a male chaperone. yes, yes. our young heroine cuts her hair, puts on her dead brother's clothes

and goes out disguised as a boy. she discovers that as a boy you can go wherever you want. a whole new world. she is also on a mission, not only to do provide for her family, but also to get her father from jail. i just thought this was wonderful. it deals with very dark subject matter, brilliantly directed by nora twomey. this is what i was thinking. the situation is very bleak for women in afghanistan. absolutely what it is about. it is very much a feminist story, but a universal story, but it is told through the eyes of the central child, an 11—year—old girl, and because we see it through her eyes, we can see terrible things, and yet her bravery, courage, humour and laughter sees us through. i think the way that the animation is done, in different styles, with the very realistic portrait of the streets and markets, juxtaposed against the cutout cycling of the story within the story, in which there is a story about a young boy having to go up against a dreadful elephant king which kind

of mirrors our heroine's journey, and those two fits together. the mix of eastern and western influences. i have seen it three times, and every time, i saw something i missed. i genuinely think it is universal. it is 12a certificate. it is telling a very difficult and very important story for audiences of all ages. you will love it. i can't wait. i wonder if the animation makes it more bearable, something that is difficult. is that true? absolutely. animation can sometimes talk about subjects that live—action movies couldn't deal with because of the transformative power of the animation. we are living through a golden age of animation. you have things like coco. we are in a wonderful time for animation. this is at the forefront. it is wonderful. it is called the breadwinner, you will have to seek it out, because many screens are showing another movie this week, but do seek it out because it is wonderful. are other cinemas perhaps showing another star wars? there is another one.

the other one was only six months ago. this is another one of the stand—alone spin offs. solo: a star wars story. it is the back story of han solo and his first meeting with chewbacca. his growing love affair with the millenium falcon. it had a very troubled production. it was originally directed by the guys who made the lego movie. very long into the production they left. they were told to go and they brought in ron howard. that seems, wow, that's a really big deal! it is surprisingly coherent. it does have a coherent tone. the tone is basically flimsy and fun, and alden ehrenreich is very, very good as the young han solo. we see him as the character we know and love as harrison ford. it has the throwback but rogers stuff the original star wars movie had. they also have the force and the religion and the samurai stuff. this doesn't, itjust seems it much more like something... landa calrissian is good fun.

it does seem like, i'm not entirely sure i needed this. did i really want another one of these? it's a bit baggy in the middle. it's fine, but hardly essential. it was a very sort of... i didn't feel there was a huge amount of jeopardy. it's not rogue one, which is a war movie. we are going to get to the point of any gap of the star wars story, they will make another movie to explain it. if someone goes through a door, oh, what happened when they went through that door? now there's three movies to fill in the gap. moving on, ian mckellen, if you're watching this on friday, happy birthday, ian mckellen, and there is a whole film to celebrate? you were saying before it is a documentary. him looking back at his life, college, theatre, sexuality,

becoming a political activist for lgbt causes, and then going back to schools and taking his vast knowledge to schools. he talked about how for a long time theatre was the centre of his life, then of course how he moves into movies. didn't he just, yes! and they filmed our progress up the ridge. i think only once because we'd have left our footprints in the snow, therefore couldn't do it twice. as we're going along, and i'm going snow up to my knees, with a perilous drop on one side, and a bit of a peak at the other, i could be on everest. it's about as far away from green screen as you can get. we were there. constantly, we were there.

and you can ask any of the actors. there were other locations i remember other locations in the hobbit where we were lifted up by helicopter, with a fantastic view over some lake or other, surrounded by mountains. you could listen to his voice all day, couldn't you ? couldn't you ? this is directed by the same guy who made chicken. there were clips, some great archives. he has also done dramatisations in which mckellen's word and lip—synched by actors recreating key moments. like the moment he auditioned to get a place in college. those dramatisations works surprisingly well. really, surprisingly well. scott chambers who was so brilliant in chicken features as well. i thought the whole thing was like a lovely leather armchair. you could just sit there and let these stories wash over you. what's great is how engaged he is, how passionate he is. and the sweep of the career, theatre actress to some,

a film actor to others, and that's what is so glorious. here he is withjudi dench. he says it is very difficult to play with her, because the audiences just love her. if you're playing with her they are not interested, theyjust lovejudi dench! which is absolutely true. this is playing later on on sunday, and opens properly on friday, previews of it on sunday. but it is a real pleasure to watch. your best out won an award at cannes for best debut? jeune femme, young woman. brilliant central performance. you will have to seek it out, but really, really good. interestingly enough, all the heads of department on the film were all female, the director, everything. so it is just a terrific piece of work and i think you will really like it.

and dvd, the post? cracking performance from meryl streep. is it a safe film, and i allowed to say that, will i be shot down for saying that? it is a film by steven spielberg, a historical film set in the ‘705 about the battle between the freedom press and a corrupt president. i don't know why, but it seemed terribly contemporary. i love it when you say what you think, mark. the post is enjoyable, a very enjoyable film to watch on dvd. it is a great film, don't let me be too rude about it. good to see you as ever and a reminder that you can find all the film news and reviews from across the bbc, on the website. all our previous programmes on the iplayer as well. that is it for this week, it's a really, really interesting week. thanks for being with us. see you next time. happy cinema—going.

iam i am showing you behind, an artist ‘s impression of what is going on outside many a front door across the southern half of the british isles. over the past three hours, the storms have gotten going. about half an hourago, we storms have gotten going. about half an hour ago, we were showing you live pictures from just outside the bbc here in central london but you don't have to be in central london. brains behind the scenes tells me that in the past couple of hours, the south—east has seen about 5000 lightning flashes. you are in with a pretty fair chance. don't take it too literally but the zone where we suspect that sort of thing will go on into the wee small hours, not an awful lot of rain at the moment for many but there is still that possibility, the atmosphere very u nsta ble possibility, the atmosphere very unstable indeed. it is a southern half of the british isles' feature. further north, dry and bright and

bridges in single figures for many. humid and fair across the south will top manifesting in these thousands of lightning flashes. here is how we get on into sunday, similar sort of thing, i suspect, get on into sunday, similar sort of thing, isuspect, across get on into sunday, similar sort of thing, i suspect, across the southern counties and initially and then moving into the midlands, wales, in towards northern ireland and further north and east, a lovely day. temperatures really responding to the sunshine. don't get caught out by the stroke of the sun at this time of year but i am not your mother. it is worth bearing in mind that if you are going up to any of the big festivals, we are showing some rain here. you have seemed a possibility. swansea and coventry. swa nsea possibility. swansea and coventry. swansea probably later in the day with dry conditions as the band of whether moves north but coventry, you have sunday and monday with the biggest —— biggest weekend moving on. the chance of a shower on monday that it on. the chance of a shower on monday thatitis on. the chance of a shower on monday that it is more likely to be the strength of the sun that will be a concern. you will see, we are not alone. not only are there plenty of

thunderstorms going across western europe at the moment but we are importing the heat from africa and through the continent. the western side of europe. we have got that combination because we are sitting on the tail end of that great flow. monday, fewer showers initially but they are not many miles away and some of them will come into the south—eastern quarter probably to finish the day. don't hold me to that and keep up—to—date with the forecast at what i will tell you is that the bridges are really responding to that sunshine, albeit hazy at times. don't get caught with that. a lot going on, keep up—to—date with the forecast. this is bbc news. i'm duncan golestani. our top stories: ireland votes an overwhelming yes to overturn its abortion ban. the irish prime minister says he hopes a new abortion law will be passed this year. today is a historic day for ireland. a quiet revolution has taken place and today is a great act of democracy.

real madrid win the champions league, beating liverpool 3—1 in the final. these are the live pictures from madrid as fans celebrate their team's historic win. on again? a surprise meeting between the two korean leaders and now the white house says it's sending a team to prepare for a possible summit with north korea next month.