Bonobo

Far too few films address the concerns of middle-aged women, but debut director Matthew Hammett Knott and co-writer Joanna Benecke offer some shrewd insights in this eccentric but unexpectedly touching drama. Dismayed that her 20-something daughter (Eleanor Wyld) has abandoned her law studies to join a commune inspired by the behaviour patterns of bonobo monkeys, prim widow Judith (Tessa Peake-Jones) vows to bring her home. However, on meeting stubborn resistance, Judith agrees to stay for a night to see how founder Josie Lawrence puts this philosophy into action. Subplots involving a pregnant woman and competing suitors don't quite come off, while some of the New Age sequences feel a touch twee. But the script avoids scoring easy points off alternative lifestyles, and Peake-Jones deftly explores the meaning of maternal instinct as her character opens her mind to a long-suppressed side of her own personality.