An icy-cool study of violence both mediated and horribly real, the film follows a handful of seemingly unrelated characters all of whom — perhaps by chance, perhaps by divine intervention, have the grave misfortune to be in an Austrian bank when a 19-year-old student starts unloading his revolver. find out more...

1999 and Sierra Leone is in the midst of civil war, the rebels infamously using an army of indoctrinated children to do their genocidal work. In the midst of this bloodshed two unlikely men are drawn together, one a desperate father whose son has become a rebel soldier, the other a self-serving white Rhodesian mercenary in search of an immense uncut diamond. The two are bound together by their wildly divergent, but inextricably linked, quests and it is here that the action of the film lies as th find out more...

Set in Johannesburg (more than a welcome change to the usual formulaic Hollywood paradigm whereby LA or New York are not only the backdrop for disaster but act too as the centre-point of planet Earth), An ominous mothership hovers above Johannesburg containing an alien race of insectoid refugees. Derogatively referred to as 'Prawns' by humans they are cordoned off in an apartheid-esque fashion and forced to live a desolate and slum-like existence in the titular District 9. While forcibly relocat find out more...

In 1994 in the East African state of Rwanda long simmering resentment between the 2 largest ethnic groups erupted into one of history's worst ever bloodbaths. In the midst of this emerged a hero, the manager of Rwanda's only four-star hotel, who, armed with little more than his wit and tremendous courage, succeeds in keeping the fascist killing hordes from slaughtering him, his family, and the over 1,000 refugees sheltering in his hotel. An awesome indictment of racism, mass murder and the poli 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...

Johnny Mad Dog is the name of one of the boy soldiers whose inhumane exploits we follow in a tribal uprising in an unnamed African country. Themselves orphans or abductees from the killing they find their 'family values' in the hyped up kill, kill, kill atmosphere of the mini war machine that they've become. These little toughs have no respect for human life - they've been stripped of all respect for human life outside the group. We also follow the story of a young teenage girl trying to keep find out more...

Based on the novel 'Post Mortem: The Story of Katyn' by Andrzej Mularczyk this film tells the horrific story of the 1940 Soviet NKVD's massacre, and subsequent cover-up, of an estimated 22,000, mainly Polish, military officers, police and intellectuals. Rarely does a film about the horrors of organised genocide achieve in its representation such an honest and harrowing account of crimes against humanity. find out more...

Eight months after a disastrous job in Kiev left him physically and mentally scarred, ex-soldier turned contract killer, Jay, is pressured by his partner, Gal, into taking a new assignment. As they descend into the dark and disturbing world of the contract, Jay begins to unravel once again, his fear and paranoia sending him deep into the heart of darkness. An find out more...

Guillermo Del Toro's blockbusting tale of a young girl struggling to make sense of the violent world around her was a big 2006 arthouse hit. Continuing his exploration of the impact of the Spanish Civil War on his generation (it was also the backdrop for his excellent ghost story, The Devil's Backbone) Del Toro's fantasy mixes strong horror with fairytale-style aesthetics to great effect, making Ofelia's escape into an imaginary realm a poignant response to the cruel realities of her existence. find out more...

Peter Watkins' astonishing pseudo-documentary comes blistering onto the screen in this long overdue re-release of his 1971 classic. Punishment Park tells the bleak story of a section of society whose political and social beliefs have landed them in a courtroom, facing ill-defined charges of hostilities against the state. Once found guilty, an inevitability I'm afraid, they face the choice of spending 20-odd years in prison or, and alarm bells should be ringing right about now, 4 days in Punishme find out more...