It was the treatment of the Holocaust as a subject for a comedy that divided critical opinion, but audiences were won over both by the film's story, a warm-hearted tribute to men and women facing the most appalling circumstances, and some very funny jokes.


Roberto Benigni, the film's director, also takes the leading role, as Guido, who in 1939 courts and marries Dora, a schoolteacher. Five years later, along with their son Giosué, they are shipped off to a concentration camp, where Guido sets out to protect Giosué by pretending that it's all part of an elaborate game.


Life Is Beautiful, Certificate PG, will be shown at Louth's Playhouse Cinema, starting at 7.30pm. Tickets £3 for members, normal cinema prices (£5 or £4 concessions) for non-members. Louth Film Club's programme for 2008/9 and details of membership from Off The Beaten Tracks record shop in Aswell Street, Louth, or at the cinema.