Fanny and Alexander

A film by Ingmar Bergman

The story is a rich tapestry of one year in the life of a large and well-to-do theatrical family living in a Swedish provincial town at the turn of the century. The central characters are two young children, Fanny and Alexander, whose lives are turned upside down when their father dies and their mother, Emilie, falls for the icy charms of the puritanical local Bishop.

Much to the concern of their grandmother, the children are mistreated under the Bishop's strict regime and Emilie is powerless to act. But, to the children's rescue comes an old family friend, in whose magical and mysterious emporium Alexander encounters supernatural forces which contribute to the family's eventual reunion. An optimistic and enchanting evocation of childhood, Fanny and Alexander is, without doubt, Bergman's masterpiece, described by him as being the sum total of his life as a filmmaker.

Dancing at Lughnasa

A film by Pat O'Connor

It is the summer of 1936 and Europe is on the verge of terrible change. But far removed from the frightening violence, the Mundy family are sheltered in their close-knit home in Ballybeg, Donegal. Michael, the illegitimate son of the youngest sister, feels the joy and security of his family, but when his father comes home, the cracks begin to show. Secrets and sorrows break through the happiness and repressed passion is unleashed. Lingering below the surface lie concealed anxieties which will tear their world apart and change the Eden of Ballybeg forever.

As a man, Michael is called again and again to the summer that eclipsed the Mundy sisters. Memories of Uncle Jack and his waking dreams of Africa. Memories of those wonderful sisters; the abandon with which they loved him and each other. And images from that night, when they joined together to capture the light and the dance within themselves. It was as though they were the last altar of the Lughnasa fires before the flames must go out. For Michael, that sweet music created by the Mundy sisters would forever echo in his life.

The memory of that summer is like a dream to me. A dream of music that is both heard and imagined, that seems to be both itself and its own echo. When I remember it, I think of it as dancing. Dancing as if language had surrendered to movement. Dancing as if language no longer existed, because words were no longer necessary.

Straw Dogs

A film by Sam Peckinpah

David Sumner is a quiet American mathematician who has moved with his wife Amy back to a remote Cornish farmhouse near the village where she grew up. The couple have relocated to rural England in an attempt to flee the violence of America but their placid life is brutally interrupted when the savagery and violence they sought to escape engulfs them and threatens to destroy their lives.

When released in 1971 this film caused outrage and controversy among critics and was for many years banned from home viewing. It still seems to be considered one of the most disturbing films ever made. Peckinpah's choice of location was the village of St Buryan in west Cornwall, used for the exterior shots. While a number of its inhabitants served as extras, no-one in the village was told anything about the story or its violent nature when the film unit were working there, so this came as an unpleasant shock for most on seeing the completed movie.

The farmhouse where the couple live, Trencher's Farm in the story, is situated near Morvah on the north coast of West Penwith. It is called Solomon's Island (or Isle) but is known also as Tor Noon, the name of a nearby natural feature. It was used for the exterior shots of the farmhouse and its surrounding countryside.

La fille aux yeux d'or

A film by Jean-Gabriel Albicocco

Paris in 1960. Henri Marsay is a rich play-boy who runs a fashion agency. One of the pleasures in which he likes to indulge, with the aid of a circle of accomplices, is to capture more or less consenting young women. But then he meets a beautiful and mysterious woman, an enchanting and capricious young girl with golden eyes, who has been secretly following him.

He photographs her and she captures his interest immediately, but while her interest in him is very apparent, she is also unforthcoming and secretive. Henri becomes obsessed with both her beauty and her mystery, soon realising that she is not just another conquest but that he is falling in love with her. However, despite his attempts to discover who she is, her identity remains a mystery.

After some time Henri begins to understand that the girl with whom he has fallen in love is actually the lesbian partner of the jealous and possessive Eléonore, his mistress and associate in the fashion agency, who keeps her in a life of elegant baroque luxury. The strange, complex and unstable love triangle that ensues cannot be sustained as possession becomes the ultimate object of desire.

Director Jean-Gabriel Albicocco's film, released in 1961, is a modern adaption of the story by Honoré de Balzac based on the rivalry of heterosexual and homosexual love. The scenery and symbolism he uses, with the film's striking black-and-white images, combine to accentuate the mood of mystery and muted perversity, in an almost overwhelming sense of the romantic. Marie Laforêt was to become known as la fille aux yeux d'or throughout her long career as an actress and singer.

Paris, Texas

A film by Wim Wenders

Paris, Texas is probably Wim Wenders' most well-known, critically acclaimed, and successful film, winning a number of international prizes including the Cannes Palme d'Or for Best Film of 1984. This unusual road movie, tells the story of Travis, a man lost in his own private hell. Presumed dead for four years, he reappears from the desert on the Mexico border, world-weary and an amnesiac. A doctor traces his brother Walt who is bringing up Hunter, his seven-year-old son, Travis's ex-wife Jane having abandoned the child at Walt's door several years before. As virtual stangers, Hunter and Travis begin to build a wary friendship and conspire to find Jane and bring her back to be a real family.

The film's wonderfully slow pace and one-to-one dialogues capture the essence of relationships where people have become rather more than strangers to each other. As the story progresses each gradually learns more of the others' recent past and thus attempts to find their place within a new and unexpected context. The soundtrack music by Ry Cooder perfectly expresses the film's sun-bleached landscapes and melancholy undertones.

Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter ...and Spring

A film by Kim Ki-duk

This exquisitely beautiful and very human drama, filmed in Korea and starring director Kim Ki-duk, is entirely set on and around a tree-lined lake where a tiny Buddhist monastery floats on a raft amidst a breath-taking landscape. The film is divided into five segments with each season representing a stage in a man's life.

Under the vigilant eyes of Old Monk, Child Monk learns a hard lesson about the nature of sorrow when some of his childish games turn cruel. In the intensity and lushness of summer, the monk, now a young man, experiences the power of lust, a desire that will ultimately lead him, as an adult, to dark deeds. With winter, strikingly set on the ice and snow-covered lake, the man atones for his past actions, and spring starts the cycle anew.

With an extraordinary attention to visual details, such as using a different animal (dog, rooster, cat, snake) as a motif for each section, writer/director/editor Kim Ki-duk has crafted a totally original yet universal story about the human spirit, moving from Innocence, through Love and Evil, to Enlightenment and finally Rebirth.

Himalaya

Himalaya: l'enfance d'un chef
a film by Éric Valli

In a village of the Dolpo, high in the Himalaya, a proud old chieftain, Tinle has just lost his eldest son, Lhakpa. Tinle accuses Karma, the leader of the young Dolpo-pa for the death of his son and refuses to grant permission to Karma to lead the annual yak caravan, which journeys across the mountains to exchange salt for grain.

Karma decides to challenge Tinle by leading the young villagers and their yaks before the date set by ancient ritual. Determined to keep his leadership, Tinle leads a second caravan on the ritual date, choosing a shorter but more dangerous route in order to gain time. Accompanying Tinle is his second son, Norbou, a monk and painter; his grandson and future Dolpo chieftain, Passang; the boy's mother, Pema; and the other elders of the village. The journey becomes an ancestral duel and a struggle ensues between man and nature in the heights of the Himalaya.

Shot entirely on location in the Dolpo region of Nepal at altitudes of over 5,000 metres, the film features the most incredible high mountain scenery, especially around the stunning Lake Phoksundo. Éric Valli is an award-winning writer, photographer and filmmaker who is a specialist on the Himalaya.

Time of the Gypsies

A film by Emir Kusturica

Inspired by a report published in 1985 on the kidnapping of one hundred children, all Roma, by Yugoslavs who sold them to Americans and Italians, Dom za vesanje is the story of an orphaned boy who leaves his home and falls prey to ruthless exploiters of children.

Perhan is an idealistic young man who is adept at telekinesis. He lives just outside of Skopje with his grandmother Hatidja, his uncle Merdjan and his sister Danira, who suffers from a bone disease. The film strongly emphasises the traditional values of Romani culture personified by the warm and caring grandmother whose healing powers are well known to the village. The main theme of the film is the punishment meted out by the spirits to Perhan when he moves away from these values. Perhan is in love with a village girl named Azra but his attempts to marry her are rejected by her stern mother because he lacks money, uncharacteristically placing material wealth over spiritual values.

Determined to be considered worthy of marrying Azra, Perhan is easy prey for Ahmed, a criminal originally from the village, who has become rich by selling children to Italians and forcing them to beg and steal for him. Ahmed comes to Perhan's grandmother for help for his dying son and, when she restores his son to health, demands that Ahmed pay for a much needed operation for Danira. After he vows to pay for an operation and brings Danira and Perhan to Ljubliana, Perhan soon discovers his true way of life when Ahmed stops to collect young people along the way. The message that what appears good may be hiding darker intent is symbolised by Danira's vision of the spirit of her dead mother who has come to warn her of impending evil.

At first unwilling to earn money dishonestly, Perhan soon discards his idealism for the pursuit of money and goes into business with Ahmed, recruiting children for sale and putting beggars to work collecting money. In the process, Perhan becomes as ruthless and unforgiving as Ahmed when, after Ahmed suffers a stroke, he takes over the business. As Perhan continues to reject the values of his culture, where survival rests upon the adherence to core Romani values, he moves further away from the balance and so his misfortunes multiply.

A hauntingly beautiful, tragic and cautionary tale, replete with Romani symbolism and powerful soundtrack music by Goran Bregovic, featuring Ederlezi, the Romani name for the Feast of St George.