Sally Campbell

This wild, emotional, funny and upsetting film is a powerful attack on capitalism through the prism of the food industry.

On Monday 22 May, a few days before we went to press, Salman Abedi detonated a bomb at the Manchester Arena, killing 22 people. The horror of this attack, targeting young people attending a concert, pulled the general election campaign to a sudden halt.

Theresa May’s immediate response was to announce that the terror threat level had been raised to “critical” and to put 5,000 troops on the streets of Britain, as well as formally suspending national political campaigning for the rest of the week.

As soon as Corbyn’s manifesto was leaked, the election campaign began to take a turn. Corbyn’s supporters began to feel more confident; people who hadn’t been sure made up their minds to vote for him. Taxing the rich, abolishing tuition fees and putting an end to privatisation all proved very popular and contributed to a serious shift in the polls before campaigning was suspended after the Manchester bombing.

This lovingly made stop-motion animation tackles difficult realities in a straightforward way that can speak to adults and children alike. The brightly coloured models with huge heads and even huger eyes convey a remarkable range of emotion.

Dealing with trauma is not new in animations aimed at a family audience, but rarely is it done entirely without irony or metaphor or cute animals.

When Theresa May called a snap general election at just seven weeks’ notice it came as a shock. She had insisted, since her coronation as leader following David Cameron’s accidental self-removal, that she would not call an early election and would instead steer a steady path through the Brexit negotiations until 2020.

With negotiations over Britain’s future relationship with the EU now under way, Theresa May still hasn’t spoken out to unilaterally guarantee the rights of EU nationals currently living in Britain. Instead the Tory government has stated that it wants to wait until it gets an offer from EU member states securing the rights of British nationals abroad. People’s lives, their relationships, homes and future plans, are all being used by politicians as bargaining chips.

Our protagonist, Katherine, is trapped. In an arranged marriage to a weak and bitter man twice her age; in an isolated house out on the moors, where she is repeatedly advised to stay indoors; in the corseted dresses which her maid, Anna, straps her into each morning. Katherine, luminously played by Florence Pugh (who also lit up Carol Morley’s The Falling), is bored.

Tory cuts to school funding in England, which could see the first real term cuts in 20 years, have prompted a fightback by teachers and parents. Hundreds have attended meetings across England to organise resistance to the attacks on education.

Reports last month revealed that girls and young women have missed days of school because they can’t afford to buy sanitary products.

Teachers in Leeds noticed that some of their female students seemed to be missing school regularly. They found that it was because they had no cash for tampons or sanitary towels and were embarrassed to ask for help. One girl told BBC radio, “I wrapped a sock around my underwear just to stop the bleeding, because I didn’t want to get shouted at.”

The first round of the French presidential election takes place on Sunday 23 April. The latest polls put fascist Marine Le Pen of the Front National level with neoliberal centre candidate Emmanuel Macron, both on 26 percent. In third place is disgraced conservative Francois Fillon, who is under fire for corrupt practices. The left is last, with mainstream Parti Socialiste candidate Benoit Hamon struggling to stay ahead of far-left candidate Jean Luc Melenchon, both on 12 percent.