Lido Cinemas

The Story

A fierce and tumultuous love story that follows British-Pakistani landlord Ali (Adeel Akhtar, Four Lions) and Ava (Claire Rushbrook), an Irish-born teacher and single mother of five.One rainy day, while picking up one of his tenants’ children from school, he offers a lift to Ava. They bond almost instantly through their love of music, though Ali favours the high energy of Buzzcocks and hip-hop while Ava takes refuge in the quieter comforts of Bob Dylan and Karen Dalton. Despite their divergent backgrounds, differences in their stages of life along with Ali’s failing marriage and Ava’s fraught relationship with her adult and adolescent children, each finds themself irresistibly drawn to the other.

Enveloped in music, humour and emotion, ALI & AVA is a heartfelt contemporary love story written and directed by BAFTA-nominated Clio Barnard.