This is the middle story of Satyajit Ray's Bengali trilogy and, after Pather Panchali, we find Apu on the cusp of adulthood. The young lad moves with his family to Benares but with the death of his father, Apu's desire to continue his learning is affirmed and as his passion for knowledge grows so he and his mother find themselves drifting apart, especially as he wants to leave home and go to Calcutta to study. Aparajito is a beautifully drawn film and an immaculate observation of the characters find out more...

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'Happiness' tracks the bittersweet transition as an innocent, simpler lifestyle slowly fades to the seduction of technology and progress in the village of Laya, nestled deep in the Himalayan mountainside of Bhutan. Told through the eyes of Peyangki; a captivating and dreamy nine year old boy, who is sent by his mother to study at the local monastery because she cannot afford to raise all six of her children. Beautiful, sad and... inevitable.

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'Sex, Lies and Videotape' director Soderbergh returns with this low key and very effective portrayal of Depression hardship as seen through the eyes of an imaginative 12-year-old boy growing up fast and learning to fend for himself on the streets of St Louis. Excellent well-filmed drama. find out more...

The definitive gangster-epic; violent? Yes, but never mindless. The Jewish Mafia's coming of age on the Lower East Side in 1923, their rise to wealth during Prohibition, and their fall in 1933, provide the background to a story of friendship and betrayal, love and death. Leone's masterful cinematography evokes both the harshness of the vice-ridden decades before and after Prohibition, but also the philosophy behind it. Splendid performances by De Niro and Woods and a stupendous score by Ennio Mo find out more...

French drama co-written and directed by Nicolas Vanier. The film follows Paul (Jean Scandel), a young Parisian orphan sent to stay with Célestine (Valérie Karsenti) and her gamekeeper husband Borel (Eric Elmosnino) on a big estate in the Sologne countryside. While learning about life away from the city, Jean accompanies Borel as he attempts to track down elusi find out more...

The film adaptation of author James T. Farrell's "Studs Lonigan" trilogy takes place in the slums of Chicago's South Side in the 1920s. It centres on the growing pains of the eponymous hero, including his tempestuous relationship with his father, his attempts to make easy money with his buddies, and his randy ways with the two women in his life. A cracking tale about growing up hard and fast in an unforgiving world. find out more...