1966 USA Cert 12 131 mins

Elizabeth Taylor won a second Oscar in the film that became synonymous in the public consciousness with her marriage to Richard Burton. They wed in 1964, divorced a decade later, remarried

in 1975 and split again the following year. So, it's a stormy story of a tempestuous relationship.

This gripping documentary follows the travails of the farmer Mike Campbell and his family who had the temerity to take legal action against President Mugabe. They claimed that he had no right to confiscate land legitimately acquired from the Zimbabwe government. It's a chilling and high risk encounter.

2009 France cert 15 119mins

SUBTITLES

Andrei was a famous Soviet conductor purged for his decent treatment of Jewish musicians. He is now a cleaner at the Bolshoi and intercepts an invitation for the orchestra to perform in Paris. He decides to hide it and gather fellow outcasts to fulfil the engagement. Will he tap his baton against the odds?

Solo is a Senegalese taxi driver in North Carolina and picks up a morose old guy who asks to be taken to a dangerous beauty spot on a certain date. But Solo suspects something bad and befriends the guy. The film is a gripping story of friendship and the difficulty of really getting to know another person.

2009 Argentina cert 18 129mins

SUBTITLES

This dark and sinewy thriller won the 2011 Oscar for best foreign film. Parallel stories of crime, corruption, love and friendship arc over 25 years in Argentina. The film's great skill is to cut between them as the handsome police man nudges towards the final twists and redemption for himself.

Women car workers in Dagenham commanded headlines and galvanised political debate in 1968. The women sewing seat covers for Cortinas and Zephyrs went on strike for the same wage as the men. It's a jaunty film with a subversive core: a film about strikers who were not evil, deluded, or defeated. These women fought effectively for a principle which is now a foundation of the workplace.

It's part road trip of deadpan eccentrics and part enveloping drama handled with some delicacy. Elijah Wood plays a buttoned-up American who visits the Ukraine to find the women who saved his grandfather from the Nazis. His interpreter is equally unbuttoned and a lot of fun.

2001 China Cert PG 113mins

SUBTITLES

This is a genial and diverting tale of a country-boy bike messenger trying to recover his stolen steed in modern Beijing. It's a dual between two guys over one bike. There are riveting scenes in the teeming city and the world of bicycle theft and counter theft has the lawlessness of the playground.

Prosperous Elisabeth (Brenda Blethyn) and migrant worker Ousmane have come to London, suspecting that their missing children were killed in the 7/7 bombings and a hesitant friendship ensues. With intelligent acting the film honourably elucidates common ground between Muslim and non-Muslim worlds.

2009 Romania Cert 12a 131 mins

SUBTITLES

Inspired by urban legends in Romania during Ceausescu's last 15 years (officially known as the Golden Age), these five darkly humorous tales are concerned with the pettiness, cruelty and vindictive stupidity of an authoritarian government.

This immaculately acted film is set entirely in a tank. It's a cramped tale of four conscripts – the insecure commander, the trigger happy gunner, the fretting driver and the loader. They only see light when the hatch opens for a dangerous visitor.

2010 USA Cert 15 110mins

The Coen brothers' excellent western is a new version of Charles Portis's novel, rather than a remake of the 1969 film. Jeff Bridges plays marshal Rooster Cogburn pursuing felons in 19th century Arkansas and his grizzled life is overturned when Mattie Ross hires him to catch the man who killed her father.