The series (11 episodes) tells the story of the village of Schabbach, on the Hunsrueck in Germany through the years 1919-1982. The central character is Maria, at the beginning a teenage girl, by the end an elderly matriarch, and her family who, like the rest of the German people, live through the crises of 1920s, Nazism and eventual rebirth following WWII. Heimat is a superb cinematic chronicle of social and political change, beautifully shot and breathtaking in its depth and scope. The honesty find out more...

The series (11 episodes) tells the story of the village of Schabbach, on the Hunsrueck in Germany through the years 1919-1982. The central character is Maria, at the beginning a teenage girl, by the end an elderly matriarch, and her family who, like the rest of the German people, live through the crises of 1920s, Nazism and eventual rebirth following WWII. Heimat is a superb cinematic chronicle of social and political change, beautifully shot and breathtaking in its depth and scope. The honesty find out more...

China in the turmoil of Japanese occupation is the evocative setting for this unusual and visually stunning tale. Recruited before she is truly aware of her purpose, a young woman is groomed to become an irresistible siren, an icon of contemporary eroticism to ensnare a collaborator who has wreaked havoc amongst her people. Ang Lee's stunning follow up to "Broke Back Mountain" is in essence a thriller but as with all his films it is the richness and depth of the characters that really drive the find out more...

An acclaimed and gloriously visual epic that follows the life of Avik, a young half-Eskimo boy, in his search for love and identity. It takes him across continents, through the hell of war, and into a painful reunion with Aubertine, his childhood sweet-heart. Moving, beautiful and superbly filmed. find out more...

Taken from Arthur Golden's immensely successful novel, this is a visually ravishing adaptation of lowly young geisha girl Chiyo and her transformation into Sayuri, a legendary courtesan and the focus of desire for every man of any status. Directed by the man behind ‘Chicago', the beautifully rendered glamour is hardly surprising but it does come at the expense of the tale itself, and while much of the acting is more than worthy, the use of Chinese actors to tell a Japanese tale does seem somethi find out more...

Laura Henderson has just lost her husband, but while others might grieve she decides to refocus her considerable energies and on an apparent whim buys London's Windmill Theatre. A firm believer of demonstrative eccentricity, Mrs Henderson soon finds herself in trouble with the law when she decides to boost the theatre's faltering ticket sales by introducing nudity to the stage - a stroke of genius that is not without its pitfalls, particularly since her decision coincides with the arrival of WWI find out more...

This is the most powerful and best known documentary on the holocaust ever made. Commissioned by the French Comittee for the History of the Second World War in 1955, it contains some of the most chilling and haunting images of human brutality ever seen. The director uses a simple approach to what must have been a very daunting project, managing not to aestheticise the grim subject matter. A very important film. find out more...

Set in the Sino-Japanese war, Yasuzo Masumura's black-and-white anti-war film tells of an army nurse who sexually services an amputee and falls in love with a drug-addicted surgeon. This can't be recommended to the squeamish, but neither can its nuanced eroticism nor its passionate, unpredictable moral focus, be easily shaken off. Comparable with Altman's MASH, it suggests a less comic treatment of the same theme, how to preserve one's humanity in impossible circumstances, but its ethics are con find out more...

The film version of Kurt Vonnegut Jr's famous anti-war sci-fi novel. Slipping back and forth along his own life line a suburban optometrist experiences the fire bombing of Dresden and captivity on the planet Trafalmardore. A powerful and seemingly unfilmable book that turned out to be a great movie. find out more...

Set during WW2 and loosely based on war hero Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema's memoir, we follow the varying fortunes of a group of friends under Nazi occupation and the ultimately disastrous mission by the two of them who join the Dutch resistance. Soldier of Orange is an early Paul Verhoeven film, and ranks as one of his best, tense, gripping but also intimate and intelligent. find out more...