In the shared courtyard of a house in Mali's capital, two interlocking trials take place, one describes the disintegration of a couple's marriage, the other the inept and deceitful policies of the World Bank and the IMF; but as pleas for common sense and decency swirl through the building, the simple necessity of life continues to dominate the communal courtyard. Both a beautifully observed drama and a keenly knowing satire, Bamako is an eminently watchable piece of modern African cinema. find out more...

Far more a portrait than a biopic this stunning film dissects the later years of Giulio Andreotti, a key player in Italian politics from the 70s through till today (he still sits in the Italian Senate (2009)), implicating him as the central instigator behind 'The Strategy of Tension', a policy that involved the murders of hundreds of innocent people, and blaming 'the left/Red Brigades' so as to allow the growth of an authoritarian state. Sorrentino fingers Andreotti for many political assassinat find out more...

When THE fast food chain issued a libel action against activists Helen Steel and Dave Morris in 1990, demanding an apology for allegations they had made in a leaflet, the corporate giant didn't expect the pair to not only refuse to apologise, but to actually invite McBully to bring it on. Absolutely nobody expected it to take 15 years and a victory for the pair at the European Court of Human Rights for the case to come to an end. Here the whole story is told with the requisite amount of humour find out more...

Starting with the murder in an Afghan prison of an innocent taxi-driver by American soldiers, this brilliant documentary outlines the lines of command from Cheney and Rumsfeld down to those on the front line. We learn about the techniques of torture and who authorised which methods. We hear about some of the history of CIA torture methods, the irrelevance of torture to extracting information and its use as a weapon of terror and political posturing by those in power in Washington. find out more...

Before Iraq, before the Bush Administration, before the Dixie Chicks, Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam and before Sir Bob and Bono.... there was John Lennon, the celebrated musical artist who used his fame and fortune to protest against the Vietnam War and advocate for world peace. Filmmakers David Leaf and John Scheinfield trace Lennon's metamorphosis from loveable mop-top to anti-war activist to inspirational icon as they reveal the true story of how and why the US tried to silence him. There are find out more...

It's been months since Jafar Panahi, stuck in jail, has been awaiting a verdict by the appeals court. By depicting a day in his life, Panahi and Mojtaba Mirtahmasb try to portray the deprivations looming in contemporary Iranian cinema.

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In 1947, Dalton Trumbo (Bryan Cranston) was Hollywood's top screenwriter until he and other artists were jailed and blacklisted for their political beliefs. TRUMBO (directed by Jay Roach) recounts how Dalton used words and wit to win two Academy Awards and expose the absurdity and injustice under the blacklist, which entangled everyone from gossip columnist Hedda Hopper (Helen Mirren) to John Wayne, Kirk Douglas and Otto Preminger.

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