Month-long film festival telling powerful stories in Peterborough
A month-long film programme celebrating powerful stories of migration, resilience and human connection is coming to Peterborough Museum in October.
Gateway Film Festival in collaboration with 62 Gladstone Street and Platforma Festival have curated the Platforma Festival Film Programme, which gets under way on October 6. The thought-provoking documentaries, dramas and short films invite the audience to reflect, discuss, and engage with the urgent themes of displacement, identity, and solidarity.
Here is the line up:
Return to Life (1960, 29 mins) Dir. John Krish
October 6, 6pm
BFI archive documentary on refugee resettlement in Britain, originally made to mark World Refugee Year (1959).
Hostile (2022, 93 mins) Dir. Sonita Gale
October 6, 6.45pm BAFTA-recognised film exploring the impact of the UK’s ‘hostile environment’ immigration policies. Admission free
Millfield of Dreams (24 mins)
October 11, 4pm
Co-created by Peterborough Presents with 100+ residents, capturing community life in Millfield, Gladstone, and New England.
Bitter Greens, Tangled Roots (20 mins) –
Reflection on childhood, olive harvesting, and displacement.
Station (8 mins)
Archive short offering a glimpse into migration experiences.
One Aloe, One Ficus, One Avocado and Six Dracaenas (8 mins)
A meditation on what we take or leave behind when fleeing for survival. Admission free.
Io Capitano (2024)
October 11, 6pm A real world drama focusing on two Senegalese cousins who leave their home in search of better opportunities abroad. Admission free.
Seeking Sanctuary on a Scottish Island (15 mins) by Children Migrant Stories
October 18, 4pm
The film highlights the experiences of refugee and asylum-seeking children in Scotland. Home (11 mins) by Children Migrant Stories Draws on child migrants’ feelings of home and belonging. CHILDREN ( 50 mins) Dir Lora Arkhypenko Follows the impacts of the Ukrainian war on children of a variety of ages. Admission free.
WOMEN (2024, 28 mins) Dir. Lora Arkhypenko + Director Q&A
October 18, 6pm Impact of the war in Ukraine through the lives of three women. We Are Not Princesses (2018, 75 mins) Dir Bridgette Auger & Itab Azzam Portrait of Syrian refugee women in Lebanon reclaiming their voices through theatre and storytelling. Admission free.
Lyd (2023)
October 25, 4pm
A story of a city that once connected Palestine to the world –what it once was, what it is now, and what it could have become Lyd explores a 5,000-year-old Palestinian town taken over in 1948, using archival footage and animations to show the trauma and an alternate reality. Admission free
No Other Land (2024)
October 25, 6pm
Winner of the 2025 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, No Other Land is the result of a five-year collaboration between Palestinian activist Basel Adra and Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham.
Filmed in the West Bank, it offers a powerful, intimate portrait of life under occupation, and the shared struggle for justice, resistance, and solidarity. Admission free.