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...

In a Catholic boarding school during the Nazi occupation of France, Julien Quietin, played by Gaspard Manesse as the character based around Malle, is no ordinary student, he is intelligent and different from the others. A new student arrives at the school one day and becomes a sort of intellectual rival to Julien, but, after some early hostilities, the boys begin to connect and eventually become good friends. Malle does not rely on overly dramatic sequences where not necessary as a way to build find out more...

Utterly compelling true story of a young Jewish boy who avoids capture by the Nazis in 1939 by pretending to be Aryan. By a series of almost unbelievable events he ends up in the Hitler Youth academy where he is taught how to recognise and kill a Jew. Beautifully filmed and incredibly moving. find out more...

This is a striking stylised dramatisation of the young Beat Generation icon Allen Ginsberg, focusing particularly on the infamous 1957 obscenity trial of his seminal work ‘Howl’ during the tail end of McCarthyism. While the performances from all involved are excellent and the story an intriguing one it is the visual cool of this film that lingers longest. find out more...

Forget that this is a Scorsese movie, 'cos there's not a gangster or a grifter in sight. Stunningly shot, this is the visually breathtaking account of the early life of the 14th Dalai Lama, starting with his discovery by Buddhist monks in the northern Tibet of 1935. Meticulously detailed but well-paced, it's a rich, riveting movie with a powerfully haunting soundtrack from Philip Glass. find out more...

From Julian Schnabel,director of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Before Night Falls and Basquiat, comes 'Miral': the story of four women whose lives intertwine in their search for justice, hope and reconciliation. The story begins in war-torn Jerusalem in 1948 when Hind opens an orphanage for refugee children. One of the children is seventeen year old Miral, who gets assigned to teach at a refugee camp where she falls for a political activist. Better received by audiences than critics, Miral find out more...

Christy Brown was an Irish cerebal palsy victim who overcame his severe handicap to become a talented painter and author with just the use of his left foot. Daniel Day Lewis is totally and utterly convincing as Brown - using method acting he became Brown and his thoroughness makes the film a great one. find out more...

Internationally feted on release, this is the remarkable true story of a young Sardinian boy, so dominated by his father that he grew up not only an illiterate shepherd, ignorant of the outside world, but, in his long sojourn alone guarding the sheep, lost the power of speech. He returned from national service a wiser man able to liberate himself from his father's tyranny. Brilliant.

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An award-winning and arty biopic, adapted from his memoirs, of the great composer Dmitri Shostakovich, focusing on the period between the 30s and 60s and his deeply ambivalent relationship with Stalin. Worthy and with a resonant cinematic understanding of Shostakovich's opuses. find out more...

Bresson's remarkable and detailed account of the brilliantly conceived escape of imprisoned and condemned to death real-life resistance fighter Andre Devigny. The intensity of the direction is augmented superbly by the music; Mozart's Mass in C Minor. Superb. find out more...