France

A Soviet roofer is drawn to play a deadly French game. “This diabolical thriller, filmed in inky black and white, is as cold and sharp as razor blades stored in a subzero freezer.” — NY Times

Terse, character driven drama set in the quiet mountains of Ardèche, in France, where a staunchly independent woman tries to connect with her wary, mistrustful teenage son.

Art, fun, folly, fairytales, folkstories and more feature in this collection of animation for ages four to seven.

Diversity is the word this year in our annual collage of animated gems – films that dare you to reach out and run your hands over the textures of paint and pencil.

Classic insider’s account of the French Resistance and one of the all-time great suspense movies (1969). “Tough, adrenaline-charged, utterly uncompromising.” — The Nation

Argentine director Fabian Bielinsky’s follow up to Nine Queens is a spellbinding, character driven heist film set in the magnificent mountain wilderness of Patagonia.

Carlos Reygadas’ spectacularly grandiose follow-up to the startling Japón turns the struggle for the soul of its protagonist into an epic art-porn critique on the role of religion in Mexican life.

French documentary offers a cerebral, reasoned, humanistic reflection on retribution centred on the family of a young man who was murdered in 2002 by three skinheads.

This year’s Digital Space programme stretches its wings to take a broader view than ever of the continually evolving world of digital animation.

The scarred tropical paradise of Sri Lanka conceals purgatory in this haunting, pressingly sensual picture of life in the backwaters of a long war. Best First Film, Cannes Film Festival 2005.

The always watchable Emmanuele Devos stars in this quietly crazy love story about a woman in her 30s, panicked by her boyfriend’s persistent proposals of marriage.

Avoiding the clichés of the teen film, Maurice Pialat directs a minutely observed, uncommonly honest profile of disaffected French youth in a northern provincial city.

Laurent Cantet (Time Out, Human Resources) sets his third film in a beach resort in late 70s Haiti, where middle-aged North American women go to be sexually pampered by young black men.

A downtrodden office worker scopes out the most formidably gorgeous prostitute (Monica Bellucci, no less), tells her he's won the lottery and invites her home to spend his money. French sex comedy at its most outrageous.

Perfect for children and challenging to adults, the great Miyazaki has cited this 1980 French animation and its warped world of fairytale characters as a major influence.

Michel Ocelot's splendid animated feature from 1998 tells a sensual, guilt-free fairy tale – a West African fable about the power of original innocence.

He's tiny, he's black, he's naked and he's back! Kirikou, the razor-sharp little boy who moves as fast as the Road Runner, is the problem-solving lynchpin to four new stories. Animation.

Bosnian Danis Tanovic (No Man’s Land) directs a formidable array of French talent in this tale of three Parisian sisters whose lives have been determined by the devastating antagonism between their parents.

Maurice Pialat’s last film (1995) is a family drama featuring a dazzling performance from his own four-year-old son, with Gérard Depardieu unforgettable as the jealous, philandering father.

Maurice Pialat’s unsettling tale of erotic obsession led US critic Andrew Sarris to proclaim leads Isabelle Huppert and Gérard Depardieu "the sexiest couple in the history of cinema.” (1980)

Abel Ferrara (Bad Lieutenant) takes on Mel Gibson style showbiz religiosity, starring Matthew Modine as a man who directs a movie in which he plays Christ, with Juliette Binoche as Mary Magdalene.

Maurice Pialat’s truthful, oddly funny and moving take on what could have been an uninviting theme: a middle-age woman dying of cancer and how this affects her husband and son. (1974)

Maurice Pialat's first feature is a delicate study of a ten-year-old boy and his decline into delinquency when boarded out with foster parents. (1968)

Director Maciej J. Drygas charts a day in the life of Cold War era Poland.

Restored version of Antonioni’s brilliant hybrid of Hollywood thriller and existential mystery. The hippest film of 1975 was inexplicably withheld from circulation until now by its owner and star Jack Nicholson.

Maurice Pialat retrospective continues with violent, metaphysical, unconventional policier featuring Gérard Depardieu, named Best Actor at Venice in 1985 for his performance.

Popular French animated feature with Noah’s Ark theme comes across like a much loved children’s book sprung to life. Primary audience is children 8-12. Subtitles.

In luminous black & white, Philippe Garrel’s affectionate, dreamlike elegy to youthful idealism laid waste in the aftermath of the 1968 Parisian student riots is an effective rebuttal to Bertolucci’s sex-besotted The Dreamers.

Michel Gondry’s follow up to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is super-kinetic lark starting Gael Garcia Bernal as a shy guy whose dream world overlaps with reality.

Korean Hong Sang-soo (Turning Gate, The Virgin Stripped Bare…) continues his distinctly personal brand of filmmaking with this wry story about sex, lies and cinematic one-upmanship.

Romanian WWII tale from absurdist Lucian Pintilie (The Oak) told with bite and acidic flair as Romanians confront German officers in a commandeered schoolhouse toward the end of WWII.

Sandrine Bonnaire is transfixing in Maurice Pialat’s 1983 classic as 17-year-old Suzanne, who seeks refuge from a disintegrating family in a series of impulsive promiscuous affairs.

Winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 1987 (the first French film so honoured in 21 years), Maurice Pialat's Under Satan's Sun is a dark and demanding study of priesthood, faith and evil.

The living master of French farce, Francis Veber (The Dinner Game), pulls it off again in this tale of a ruthless tycoon (Daniel Auteuil) who pays a valet to cohabit with his mistress to confuse his wife.

Maurice Pialat’s 1991 portrait of Van Gogh’s last months eschews sensationalism for the director’s trademark realism. “Arguably the greatest biographical film about an artist ever made." — Sight & Sound

Maurice Pialat's remarkable second feature is an uncompromising study of the break-up of a relationship, based on his own autobiographical novel. (1972)

Spectacular documentary traces the creatures and seasons of the Arctic, reminding of nature’s magnificence and providing powerful anti global-warming message: Enjoy the show while it lasts.

Werner Herzog fashions a sci-fi fantasy of paradise lost around actor Brad Dourif, recutting amazing NASA footage and gorgeous submarine imagery. An unclassifiable oddity.