Chris Petit,UK1979, b/w, 102’

One of the most striking feature debuts in British cinema, Chris Petit’s (anti)road movie is both a hymn and homage to the dreamed imperatives of the clear highway, while remaining ruefully aware that, in England at least, the road soon runs out and the journey must turn in other directions, not least inward.

Following a young man (David Beames) as he travels toBristolto investigate the mysterious death of his brother, it offers a unique, compelling and even mythic vision of a late 1970sEngland, stalled between failed hopes of cultural and social change and the imminent upheavals of Thatcherism. As Beames drives, he encounters figures as rootless as himself: an army deserter fromNorthern Ireland, a German woman looking for her lost child, and a garage mechanic (Sting in an early singing cameo).

Stunningly photographed in luminous monochrome, and driven by a startling new wave soundtrack (Bowie, Kraftwerk, Lene Lovich, Ian Dury, Wreckless Eric and more), Radio On is ripe for rediscovery in an age more attuned to its dramatic understatement and keen eye for the aesthetic possibilities of the emergent architecture. Capturing the sense of faltering communication and lurking disenchantment in a country uncertain of its place and future, it remains quietly and subversively optimistic that redemptive change might come, but not necessarily from the expected sources.

Chris Petit will be present at the screening on 8 October to discuss his work and the links with the Robert Frank exhibition.