Honour of the Knights 2006

At turns wry and melancholy, this wilfully idiosyncratic take on Don Quixote is a pared back, absurdist escapade in which the famous elderly gent and his stout, docile sidekick, like a pair out of a Beckett play, stumble around a rustling countryside doused in light and night. Albert Serra's beautiful first film, shot in natural light and with directly-recorded sound, celebrates the senses and is alert to simple joys such as contemplating the cloud-scudded Catalan skies, listening to the wind caressing tall grasses, bathing in a river, sleeping beneath the stars, or simply eating a nut. Their search for adventure appears to lead Don Quixote and his mute and loyal squire in circles; perhaps the true quest is their deepening friendship, their floating adrift together in a world where words and major action are rare and ultimately unnecessary. If you're seeking straightforward narrative or toppled knights, you won't find them here; instead, a serene vision of two men in landscape in a comic and vaguely bewildered state of grace.