Ralph Fiennes in The Choral, part of the London Film Festival

A SMALL Yorkshire settlement has seen the war bring tragedy to its front doors. A place that prides itself on its choral society, the musical director finds its voices are being lost as men go off to fight and die.

This is the opening premise of the new film by South End Green based-film director Nicholas Hytner, The Choral, from a story by Primrose Hill’s Alan Bennett.

The tale of how Dr Guthrie (Ralph Fiennes) manages to find new voices among the village teenagers, who are in turn due to be conscripted, is having its premiere at the London Film Festival in October. Hytner and Bennett’s previous collaborations were the smash hits The Madness of King George and The Lady In The Van – and audiences can expect the same style of downplayed British folk tale.

The film is just one highlight from a packed programme for the festival, which runs from October 8-19. Started in 1953, the London Film Festival celebrates everything connected to the British movie industry, and is packed with gala screenings, actor and director Q&As, workshops, shorts and special features. Organised by the British Film Institute, the festival screens more than 300 international films, celebrating diversity in storytelling and offering a place for emerging film makers.

Other highlights include Highgate Newtown-based actor Matt Smith’s latest film The Death of Bunny Munroe, with a screenplay by Peter Jackson, based on a novel by Nick Cave.

It tells the story of widower Bunny, who embarks on drug-fuelled road trip across the south of England with his nine-year-old in tow. The film explores destructive behaviour in all its tarnished glory, with a message of the tragedy and miracle of human consciousness and the part love plays woven through.

And finally, two more Camden connections can be found in the latest whodunnit offering by director Rian Johnson. Camden Town’s Daniel Craig and Kentish Town’s Andrew Scott are leads in the Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, which features detective Benoit Blanc (Craig) in the third chapter of Johnson’s reinvention of the Agatha Christie-style murder mystery series.
https://whatson.bfi.org.uk/lff

• The Choral is screened at 2.30pm on Sunday October 12 at the Southbank Centre, Royal Festival Hall