English PEN presents two documentaries on the Nobel Peace and Literature Prize winners, Chinese dissident writer Liu Xiaobo and Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa.

Liu Xiaobo, Honorary President of the Independent Chinese PEN Centre, was arrested in 2008 for his role in Charter 08, a declaration calling for political reform, greater human rights, and an end to one-party rule. In 2009, Liu was convicted of incitement to subversion and sentenced to 11 years in prison where he remains today. The film I have no enemies explores the impact of the Nobel committee’s controversial decision to award Liu last year’s Peace Prize on Liu and his supporters, and in China. A Portrait of Maio Vargas Llosa explores the life experiences of Vargas Llosa from military dictatorship, a dominating father and political extremes and how these memories are mirrored in his writing. The screenings will be followed by a Q&A on the work of English PEN with Amanda Hopkinson (Professor of Literary Translation at Manchester University), and poet John Siddique.