MEMOIRS OF A SURVIVOR (1981) IN SOUTH AFRICA

Julie Christie stars in an award-winning adaptation of Doris Lessing's famous dystopian novel of 1974. This complex, haunting science-fiction feature - screened in the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival in 1981 - is presented in a brand-new transfer from the original film elements in its as-exhibited theatrical aspect ratio. Set in Britain at an unspecified point in the near-future, Memoirs of a Survivor tells the story of 'D', a housewife trying to carry on after a cataclysmic war that has left society in a state of collapse. Rubbish is piled high in the streets among near-derelict buildings covered with graffiti; the electricity supply is variable, and water is now collected from a van. 'D' spends her time examining her relations with authority, with the marauding gangs of brutalised children who roam the streets, and with Emily, the traumatised, orphaned teenager who is delivered into her care.