‘Broken English’ the innovative new portrait of Marianne by Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard receives its world premiere out of competition at the Venice Film Festival on 30th August 2025. The directors, who were BAFTA nominated for their Sundance award-winning documentary ‘20,000 Days on Earth’ about Nick Cave, shot the film in the last years of Marianne’s life, capturing her in rare unguarded moments as she reflects on art, survival, and legacy.

Taking its inspiration from Samuel Beckett’s play ‘Krapp’s Last Tape,’ in which an old man sifts through recordings of his younger self, the film is led by Tilda Swinton and George MacKay, as they take on the roles of investigators within the framework of The Ministry of Not Forgetting, an undercover poetic construct committed to rescuing cultural memory from oblivion. Marianne becomes its first subject, rendered through a tapestry of interviews, archival footage, and fresh renditions of her songs by friends and admirers.

‘Broken English’ refuses to follow convention, offering a raw and electric cinematic journey into the icon’s creative life. The film becomes a moving inquiry, a reckoning with memory, mortality, and the myths we leave behind weaving a new narrative from Marianne’s fractured past.