Adelaide, South Australia 1958, and a young Aborigine man is on trial for the brutal rape and murder of a nine-year-old girl. His initially reluctant lawyer, David O'Sullivan, sees no hope for either himself or his client, facing as they are the might of the legal establishment, the wrath of white public opinion and a signed confession. However, when it becomes increasingly clear that the defendant had an admittance of guilt beaten out of him by the local police an epic battle for justice ensues find out more...

Shin Dong-Huyk was born as a political prisoner in a North Korean re-education camp from where no-one leaves alive. Forced to labor in the mines from the age of 6 years he suffered from beatings, torture and permanent hunger, always at the mercy of the wardens and unaware of a life outside the barbed-wire fences. At the age of 23, encouraged by a recently interned work-mate and in order to find out what meat tasted like, he escaped. Staggered by the clothes and freedom he saw that other North find out more...

Bobby Sands was the IRA member who led the 1981 Long Kesh hunger strike as part of a campaign to achieve the status of political prisoners and not that of criminals. The first section of film deals with daily prison life, the 'dirty' protest and the violence, the second is a long discussion on the meaning of life with a sympathetic priest and the third depicts the last weeks and death of a man voluntarily dying of starvation. find out more...

After a one-night stand with a military officer, a cabaret singer is imprisoned by the secret police, without ever being informed of her alleged crime. For the next five years, she is subjected to harrowing torture and harassment, which she doggedly withstands in a struggle to maintain her dignity and sanity. Interrogation was banned by the Polish government for being 'inflammatory and dangerous'. Years later director Bugjaski smuggled a copy out of the country where it debuted at Cannes in 1990 find out more...

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Luis Molina and Valentin Arregui are cell mates in a South American prison. Luis, a trans individual, is found guilty of immoral behavior and Valentin is a political prisoner. To escape reality Luis invents romantic movies, while Valentin tries to keep his mind on the situation he's in. During the time they spend together, the two men come to understand and respect one another. Absolutely brilliant.

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We follow the everyday travails of a group of WW2 French resistance fighters in Marseille, including their engineer leader and a middle-aged woman who sets up anti-German attacks without telling her husband or daughter, as they do battle against the occupying Nazis, collaborators and traitors in their own camp. This tense and atmospheric classic, based partly on Joseph Kessel's novel and partly on Melville's own experiences as a resistance fighter who later escaped France to join the Free French find out more...

Spike Lee's mainstream take on the ex-petty crook turned Islamic preacher and leading 60s Civil Rights spokesman Malcolm X. Washington's performance is riveting in this epic. find out more...

A pretty good dramatization of Nelson Mandela's extraordinary journey from childhood in a rural village through to his election as President of South Africa. It explores the Mandela unknown to most of the world; the lover of fancy cars, a lady's man, the boxing enthusiast and playboy, the skilful lawyer and a freedom fighter. An intriguing portrait of the making of a modern icon.

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Peter Watkins' astonishing pseudo-documentary comes blistering onto the screen in this long overdue re-release of his 1971 classic. Punishment Park tells the bleak story of a section of society whose political and social beliefs have landed them in a courtroom, facing ill-defined charges of hostilities against the state. Once found guilty, an inevitability I'm afraid, they face the choice of spending 20-odd years in prison or, and alarm bells should be ringing right about now, 4 days in Punishme find out more...