Part 1 of Wajda's trilogy of wartime films, the hopeful one, is set in Wola, a working-class area of Warsaw in 1942, and deals with the graduation of a bunch of semi-delinquent street kids, through individual acts of defiance and courage, into a youth resistance group. The heroism is not simple, neither loyalties nor self-sacrifice are assured, but united they will be. find out more...

Belfast, 15 August 1969. Surrounded by sporadic violence and growing danger, nine-year-old Buddy finds himself confronted with the ugly reality of sectarian conflict. And, as the suffocating stranglehold of increasing turmoil tightens around his once-peaceful working-class neighbourhood, Buddy tries his best to understand The Troubles--after all, someone must be responsible for forcing people to flee their homes. Now, Buddy's family must come face to face with a nearly impossible, life-alteri find out more...

Two soldiers return from Vietnam, one mentally scarred, the other physically. We flashback to their childhood and the fascination the slightly crazy one has with flying. So maybe after the horror of war it's a more logical decision to be a bird! A brilliant film about disillusionment, growing up and existential madness. find out more...

Elem Klimov's powerful, mesmerising and dynamic award winning feature has been deservedly hailed as one of the greatest war films ever produced. find out more...

A carefully constructed epic telling the story of a rich young English boy whose privileged life is upturned by the Japanese invasion of Shanghai. Separated from his parents he is eventually captured and taken to Soo Chow confinement camp next to a captured Chinese airfield. As he and the other civilians are gradually starved, he turns from a child to an adolescent while learning the art of survival. When the war ends, the boy attempts to find his parents. Based on JG Ballard's autobiographical find out more...

John Boorman's semi-autobiographical story of London during the Blitz, as seen by the nine-year-old son of an ordinary suburban family. Air raid shelters, shrapnel, and GIs "stealing our women"; a clever blend of tragedy and irony make this a superb film, head and shoulders above average. find out more...

During the making of "Soundtrack to War" director Gittoes asks soldier Elliot Lovett how it feels to be in Iraq getting shot at, Elliot replies "man, I get shot at less here in Baghdad than at home in Miami". Amazed and intrigued by the statement Gittoes heads to Brownsville Miami to find out what is so bad about ‘Brown Sub'. What Gittoes finds stands testament to an America at odds with its own lofty values, a world few want to acknowledge and none want to experience first hand. find out more...

A willful young boy follows his equally obstinate grandmother in a journey across Iraq, determined to discover the fate of her missing son, Ahmed's father, who never returned from war. A stunning piece of work that shifts the focus from the national strife, which most post-Iraq films focus on, to a more personal and highly affecting level. find out more...

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Mismatched city girl trio Stella, Ag and Prue (one sensible, one shy, one saucy) head for Devon to be "land girls" - working the fields while the boys go off to fight WW2. Needless to say, the uncommonly attractive sophisticats cause quite a stir down on the farm, not least in wannabe pilot Steven Mackintosh's trousers. The war itself seems almost incidental in this "growing-up" movie which, though somewhat uneventful, all looks very pretty. find out more...