THE UK’s largest rural film festival opens in 20 venues across the Powys border this week, returning after a two-year hiatus.

Borderlines Film Festival is celebrating its 20th anniversary and returns on Friday, March 4, with venues in Knighton, Presteigne and Hay-on-Wye taking part.

The Courtyard in Hereford kicks things off before a varied and packed programme commences over the ensuing 17 days

Supported by the BFI, awarding National Lottery funding, the Elmley Foundation and Hereford City Council, Borderlines has become much more than a regional event over its 20-year lifespan. It is now recognised as a film festival of national significance alongside metropolitan counterparts, it has grown hugely since its inception in 2003, building from 5,000 attendances to a peak of 23,264 in 2020.

Set up initially by the Rural Media Company in order to stimulate and foster a vibrant screen media culture for audiences, local media producers and young people it has now grown into a cultural phenomenon in its own right. With 267 in-venue screenings, a total of 78 films will be shown across this year’s festival, which will conclude on Sunday, March 20. The festival has become a big draw for local audiences, visitors to the area and, since 2021 when it moved very successfully online, for viewers across the whole of the UK.

The festival’s opening day showcases some of its range and diversity. The opening evening includes Friday-night screenings at four village halls on the Flicks in the Sticks network, including Knighton, as well as at Presteigne Screen.

The very first film in the programme is quiet, cinematic and contemplative Il Buco, a magical true story about cave exploration from Italy that works almost entirely without dialogue. It screens alongside Forest Coal Pit, a short film shot in super 8mm, around conversations between two elderly brothers who live together on a farm in south Wales.

As well as Italy, Chad and Spain, the Borderlines opening day features films from Japan (Drive My Car), Belgium (Playground), Malta (Luzzu), Nepal (I Am Belmaya) and Iceland (Lamb). British films are also well-represented with Cow, The Duke, The Courier and Mothering Sunday and The Phantom of the Open.

Female directors such as Andrea Arnold (Cow), Laura Wandel (Playground), Sue Carpenter and Belmaya Nepali (I Am Belmaya) are a strong presence both on the opening day and throughout the festival.

Festival director Naomi Vera-Sanso, who has been with Borderlines since the very beginning, said: “Over the years we’ve brought over 1,200 feature films from all over the globe to this rural area.

“Our audiences have thrilled to stories that plunge them deep into the life, culture and politics of remote, barely accessible parts of the world. For our 20th anniversary we offer a top-notch cinema experience that embraces watching brilliant films together again on the big screen alongside the cut and thrust of differing views and opinions.”

Other highlights in the programme that link up to the very first Borderlines are a screening of This Filthy Earth, an imaginative adaptation of Zola’s The Earth, originally screened at a special Cinema and Countryside event in 2003.

Borderlines 2022 continues the tradition of hosting silent films with live musical accompaniment in collaboration with South West Silents.

Tickets and passes for both live and online sections of the festival are on sale through borderlinesfilmfestival.org and in person or by phone through the Courtyard Hereford (01432 340555).

The full list of Powys locations participating are: Knighton Community Centre* (01547 520602); Presteigne Screen, The Assembly Rooms (01544 370202) and Hay-on-Wye, Booth’s Bookshop Cinema (01497 820322). *Enquiries only, tickets on door.