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...

Coining the new term 'action noir' in Korea, director Kim Ji-woon follows up his extraordinary features A Quiet Family and A Tale Of Two Sisters with this blackly comic thriller. Lee Byeong-heon stars as sartorially elegant Sun-woo, a unique character with a curious lifestyle - he's not only the proprietor of a hotel bar but also the right-hand man to the powerful gang leader, Mr Kang. When Kang suspects that his beautiful young mistress Hee-soo might be messing around with another man, he enlis find out more...

Elem Klimov's powerful, mesmerising and dynamic award winning feature has been deservedly hailed as one of the greatest war films ever produced. find out more...

The highly eccentric and totally brilliant Alexandro Jodorowsky doesn't make films like anybody else. Directed, written by and starring the man himself "El Topo" is a violent, surreal, quasi-religious Western, if that makes sense (which like the film it doesn't). AJ plays the nomadic lone gunslinger of the title, mostly shooting people for the first half, before being reincarnated as the comedian-cum-holyman protector of a community of deformed outcasts. No doubt some would attempt to read all s find out more...

Gus Van Sant's take on the shooting at Columbine High School is a masterpiece. Using a cast of unprofessional actors, he has created a unique and highly affecting film, rich in atmosphere and style. The non-linear narrative follows the experiences of the key characters, giving a different perspective of events in the short time frame (most of the events shown in the film take place in about an hour). While the tension in the film obviously comes from the impending violence, the film's strongest 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...

Another superlative cinematic tour de force from the Coen brothers. A Vietnam Vet stumbles across the bloody remnants of a shoot out, pockets some booty and disappears pursued by Javier Bardem's relentless, dead eyed assassin. An ageing, disillusioned sheriff, the excellent Tommy Lee Jones, whose small town rural values have been eroded by the inexorable rise in brutal drug-crime related violence is the reluctant, but dogged, cop in pursuit of both hitman and thief. What follows is a battle of w find out more...

Jack is a hit man and weapons expert who finds himself hurriedly relocating from the icy savannah of Sweden to the remote mountains of northern Italy. It is here, when he’s presented with the unexpected chance of happiness, that Jack resolves to end his morally bankrupt profession; but he has become more prey than hunter and the noose is tightening. Anton Corbijn has created a beautifully atmospheric and minimalist film, rich in a visual mood more evocative of some of the best of European cinema find out more...

The Magician follows a volatile charismatic hitman around Melbourne while he is being filmed by a friend and neighbour. As he goes about his chilling business - threatening violence and in some cases making good on those threats - the camera continues to roll. The super funny offbeat dialogue and utter moral conviction of the hired heavy transform this rough diamond into a jewel of a film. Darkly humourous. find out more...

Crusading frontier policeman Captain Stanley captures the fugitive Burns brothers, Charley and Mikey, at the scene of a bloody rape and murder. Informing Charley that he must kill his older brother, Arthur, in order to avoid the execution of Mikey, Stanley retreats to an old jailhouse and awaits the bloody outcome. Director John Hillcoat's second collaboration with Nick Cave (here contributing the film's screenplay and soundtrack), is a taut and often brutal character study of desperation ami find out more...