Martin McGartland was an unemployed Republican fence, a petty crime that led to the IRA kneecapping of his partner. Picked up by the police he soon found himself operating as both an informer for his Special Branch handler, Fergus, with whom he developed a close relationship, and at tremendous risk, infiltrating and moving up within the ranks of the Provos while routinely betraying their activities; the title coming from the 50 murders that it is believed Martin directly prevented. 'Fifty Dead M 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...

Another superlative cinematic tour de force from the Coen brothers. A Vietnam Vet stumbles across the bloody remnants of a shoot out, pockets some booty and disappears pursued by Javier Bardem's relentless, dead eyed assassin. An ageing, disillusioned sheriff, the excellent Tommy Lee Jones, whose small town rural values have been eroded by the inexorable rise in brutal drug-crime related violence is the reluctant, but dogged, cop in pursuit of both hitman and thief. What follows is a battle of w find out more...

Back in England, in the early 80s, bullied at school and mourning his father, recently dead in Thatcher's heroic Falklands War, lonely 12-year-old Shaun finds solace with a gang of older youths in the ska influenced skinhead subculture, a culture that was about to be hijacked by a nasty and virulent form of white power nationalism. Largely based round Shane Meadows' own experiences growing up on an impoverished Nottingham housing estate. Strongly recommended. find out more...