In the immediate aftermath of her break up from Maxine, Persian, Bisexual Shirin refuses to accept their relationship is irrecoverable and sets about trying to win her back, with varying degrees of failure, whilst navigating the sociopolitical landscape that her life inhabits. Superbly written and directed by Desiree Akhavan - who also plays Shirin, well, superbly. So, all round superb, in my best Brooklyn accent. (Brett Atkinson)

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At the peak of her international career, Maria Enders is asked to perform in a revival of the play that made her famous twenty years ago. But back then she played the role of Sigrid, an alluring young girl who disarms and eventually drives her boss Helena to suicide. Now she is being asked to step into the other role, that of the older Helena. She departs with her assistant to rehearse in Sils Maria; a remote region of the Alps. A young Hollywood starlet with a penchant for scandal is to take find out more...

The wonderful people over at Second Run DVD have released another hidden gem: 'Daisies' (Sedmikrasky), originally made in 1966 by Vera Chytilova, who has since been called 'the first lady of Czech cinema' and whose efforts also earnt her a screening at the First International Festival of Women's Films in New York in 1972. find out more...

A strange and often engaging mixture of pseudo documentary and downright fiction starring Naomi Watts as Ellie Parker, an aspiring actress struggling to deal with the day to day humiliations, set backs and frustrations of her chosen career. That you spend so much of the film wondering how much is true, from the monster that is Hollywood to the do anything weirdness of its ‘star' makes Scott Coffey's film a fascinating, amusing, if not altogether believable minor pleasure. find out more...

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If you thought Hedwig and the Angry Inch was a film unlike any other you'd seen before, get ready for Shortbus: a frank and fun film about the sex lives of humans, ostensibly set in New York, but relevant to every one of us. The plot plays a supporting role in what is, in many ways, a beautifully disguised self-help documentary. Sex therapist Sofia (played by Canadian radio star, Sook-Yin Lee) has frequent, athletic (yet frustratingly unfulfilling) intercourse with her boyfriend. Her seeming ina find out more...

Alone in a Parisian theatre after a day of auditions, director Thomas  is complaining over the phone to his fiancée about the poor quality of the actresses. Then Vanda  suddenly appears: an unbridled and brazen whirlwind of energy who embodies everything Thomas hates. But when he reluctantly lets her try out Thomas is amazed to see Vanda transformed. The audition lengthens and intensifies, and Thomas's attraction starts to develop into an obsession. An acting tour de force br find out more...

Three sisters are visited by their deceased mother, a return that doesn't seem to faze them unduly, and her reason for returning? To put right a past deed that has continued to blight the family and, in the process, provide some peace for her troubled children. "Volver" is a witty yet emotionally charged journey of discovery and, while still distinctly an Almodovar film, this is a delightful and beautifully performed pleasure. find out more...

'Waiting Women' is an episodic work composed of three segments, the third of which represents Bergman's first foray into comedy, later honed in the erotic farce 'A Lesson In Love'. Three sisters-in-law talk about their marital problems while waiting for their husbands at a summer cottage. The first story concerns Rakel and an adulterous episode that changed her marriage forever. In the next, Marta tells of her difficult relationship with an artist, her future husband, in Paris. In the acclaimed find out more...