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...

The wonderful people over at Second Run DVD have released another hidden gem: 'Daisies' (Sedmikrasky), originally made in 1966 by Vera Chytilova, who has since been called 'the first lady of Czech cinema' and whose efforts also earnt her a screening at the First International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

Simon is an in-house corporate psychologist who is asked to look into the erratic behaviour of his company CEO. His investigations lead to the uncovering of dark secrets about the corporation's links to a Nazi past and the Final Solution, forcing him to question his loyalty to the system of which he is a part. 'Heartbeat Detector' is an immersive, brooding, art house, expressionist corporate drama. Original and challenging. 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...

In Fellini's sardonically humorous, yet powerfully dramatic, 'Il Bidone' three small-time crooks impersonate priests in Rome to con poor people out of their money. Broderick Crawford is extraordinary as the group's world-weary leader whose chance meeting with his own daughter opens his eyes to his wrongdoing. Too late, he suffers a crisis of conscience in this absorbing tale of hope, desperation and tragedy. 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...

A gentle, simplistic postman living on a small island off the coast of Italy falls in love. Unable to express his feelings he learns the power and beauty of words from his new found friend, the exiled Chilean poet Pablo Neruda. A film of sublime beauty in it's a radiant portrayal of love, friendship and life....breathtaking. find out more...

Part 2, and surely the greatest, of Wajda's trilogy describes the last days of the failed 1944 Warsaw uprising against the Nazis. The imagery of the sewers, to which the Polish fighters retreat, is superbly used to represent both their desperation and their new Soviet prison. Made in 1956 despite Stalinist censorship. find out more...

Godard's brilliant dialectical farce in which five Parisian students, members of a Maoist cell, discuss the implications of the Chinese Cultural Revolution and the chances of using terrorism to effect a similar upheaval in the West. Dazzlingly designed as a collage of slogans and poster images, it was criticised at the time for playing with politics. But Godard was well aware what he was doing and his film stands as a prophetic analysis of events of May 1968 in all their desperate sincerity and find out more...

A haunting and highly emotive film about the tough lives of Sicilian villagers, in a small fishing community, in the face of exploitative businessmen. The images of isolation and frustration capture the villagers' plight. Beautifully shot, Visconti's realist vision encapsulates the whole film. Produced by the Italian Communist Party. find out more...