Caótica Ana

Chaotic Ana
a film by Julio Medem

The story of Ana during four years of her life, from age 18 to 22. A countdown, ten, nine, eight, seven... until zero, like in hypnosis, through which Ana discovers that she does not live alone, that her existence seems like a continuation of other lives of young women who died in a tragic way, all at the age of 22, and who live in the abyss of her unconscious memory. This is her chaos. In this feminist fable, Ana is the princess and the monster of the story against the tyranny of the white man; a tyranny of gender, male against female, the first cause of the misfortunes of mankind. On her journey Ana will attempt to break this chain of violence.

Ana is a naive young artist who has known only the natural world, living a secluded bohemian existence with her German father, Klaus, in a cave high above the sea on Ibiza. Ethereal and free-spirited, she supports herself and her father by selling her colourful paintings at various arts and craft fairs across the island. Ana is then discovered by a French woman, Justine, and lured away to her workshop in Madrid, to live and work with other young artists in complete creative freedom, the only commitment being to study.

Once there, Ana is confronted with a life she has never even imagined – a life that reveals both profound love and near-unbearable pain. As she takes her first step towards womanhood, Ana gradually discovers that life is more than a geographical and linear journey; it is also temporal and cyclical as evidenced by the many lifetimes she has lived before her current existence. Justine recognises Ana's chaos, a chaos which can also inspire the imagination – creativity through disorder – and she becomes her guide on the journey into the abyss.

Eventually, in a transcendental bid to explore her many past lives and deaths, Ana turns to regressive hypnosis to open the doors. It is this journey that reveals to Ana the source of her chaos – the hideous commonality that has followed her from her very first journey. Instilled with the wisdom of her many past experiences, Ana is propelled ever further back in time and across the continents, knowing that one day the time will come for her to use this power to create life.

An intimate and sensual tale of personal transformation. The film is visually stunning, with dynamic cinematography and editing, and a magnificent score by Jocelyn Pook. It is also a searing indictment of masculine aggression that has led to a legacy of warfare, occupation, terrorism, and subjugation. Writer/director Julio Medem dedicates this work to his younger sister Ana, who died tragically at the age of 22 – the striking and vibrant artworks that appear throughout the film are hers. It is jointly dedicated to his daughter, also named Ana.

Ping Guo

Lost in Beijing
a film by Li Yu

Every year, China's turbulent economic expansion tempts thousands of impoverished peasants to the prosperous region surrounding the capital. The promise of higher wages and an attractive modern lifestyle prompts many migrants to burn their bridges. Set against the frenzied backdrop of Beijing, where a fast growing economy has created a new class of urban socialites and nouveau riche, the film follows a struggling young couple whose indiscretions and greed ultimately threaten the future of their relationship.

One of the two million people who have recently moved to the area is the pretty Liu Ping Guo and her husband An Kun. Having both found a job, they now earn enough to lead a modest life, even managing to save a little. Ping Guo works as a masseuse at Gold Basin Foot Massage Palace owned by Lin Dong and his wife, Wang Mei, a childless couple who are desperate to have a baby. Ping Guo's boss, Lin Dong, shows her all the right moves to please her upwardly mobile clients and get better tips. During a party with her colleagues, Ping Guo drinks too much, and taking advantage of her drunken state, Lin Dong rapes her.

An Kun, who works as a window cleaner, observes the assault. His jealousy and rage soon dissipates however when he hits on the idea of blackmailing the rapist. As long as Lin Dong pays him and lets him sleep with Lin Dong's wife, he promises to remain silent. When Ping Guo falls pregnant, her husband suspects Lin Dong to be the father. His attempt to squeeze more money out of his wife's employer ends in a fateful deal by which An Kun will get the money he demands and Lin Dong will get the child. Their wives are not consulted.

Shortly after the birth, Ping Guo starts working in Lin Dong's household as a nanny for the child she has had to give up. Seeing how happy Lin Dong is with the baby, An Kun grows increasingly jealous and before long the situation involving the ménage-à-quatre escalates dramatically. In a brokered deal, the fate of the child will join the two couples in an emotional game of tug-of-war, where the sides will split over money and revenge, but where love and redemption will eventually rise above them all. Quietly, Ping Guo gathers the money and taking her child, walks out the door.

Li Yu's third feature, her most high profile film yet, premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival 2007. The result was over a year of controversy with the Chinese Film Bureau concerning both the appropriateness of that screening and of the content of the film. Though briefly screened in a heavily edited state, the film was eventually banned outright.

The Motorcycle Diaries

Diarios de motocicleta
a film by Walter Salles

Based on the journals of both Alberto Granado and Ernesto Guevara, the man who would later become 'Che', the film follows a journey of self-discovery, tracing the origins of a revolutionary heart. With a highly romantic sense of adventure, the two friends leave their familiar surroundings in Buenos Aires on La Poderosa, 'The Mighty One', a rickety 1939 Norton 500. Although the bike breaks down during the course of their eight month journey, they press onward, hitching rides along the way. As they start to see a different Latin America in the people they meet on the road, the diverse geography they encounter begins to reflect their own shifting perspectives. By the end of their journey the two are questioning the value of progress as defined by economic systems that leave so many people beyond their reach – and their experiences awaken within them the men they will later become.

In December 1951, 23-year-old medical student Ernesto Guevara de la Serna, 'Fuser' to his friends, one semester away from graduation, decides to postpone his studies to accompany his 29-year-old biochemist friend Alberto Granado, 'Mial', on a projected four month, 8,000 km long dream motorcycle trip throughout South America, starting from their home in Buenos Aires. Their quest is to see things they've only read about in books about the continent on which they live. Their planned route is ambitious, taking them first south into Patagonia, then north across the Andes, along the coast of Chile, through the Atacama Desert and into the Peruvian Amazon in order to reach Venezuela in time for Granado's 30th birthday. However, due to La Poderosa's breakdown, they are forced to travel at a much slower pace, taking a further three months to arrive in Caracas, and covering a total distance of 13,240 km.

During their expedition, Guevara and Granado encounter the poverty of the indigenous people, and begin to gain a better sense of the disparity between the "haves" (to which they belong) and the "have-nots" (who make up the majority of those they encounter). In Chile they meet a penniless and persecuted couple forced onto the road because of their communist beliefs. Guevara and Granado ashamedly admit that they are not out looking for work as well. They then accompany the couple to the Chuquicamata copper mine, where Guevara angrily witnesses the treatment of the workers. Later, there is also an instance of recognition when Guevara, on a luxurious river ship, looks down at the poor dark-skinned indians on the small wooden boat hitched behind.

However, it is a visit to the ancient Inca ruins of Machu Picchu in Peru that solidifies something in Guevara. His musings are then sombrely refocused to how an indigenous civilisation capable of building such beauty could be destroyed by the creators of the now decaying and polluted urban sprawl of nearby Lima. His reflections are interrupted by Granado, who shares with him a dream to peacefully revolutionise and transform modern South America, to which Guevara quickly retorts: "A revolution without guns? It will never work."

Later, in Peru, they volunteer for three weeks at the San Pablo leper colony. There, Guevara observes both literally and metaphorically the division of society between the toiling masses and the ruling class, as the staff live on the north side of the river, separated from the deprived lepers living to the south. To demonstrate his solidarity, Guevara refuses to wear rubber gloves during his visit choosing instead to shake bare hands with the startled leper inmates.

On their last evening at San Pablo, spent celebrating with the staff, Guevara confirms his nascent egalitarian, anti-authority impulses, while making a birthday toast, which is also his first political speech. In it he evokes a pan-Latin American identity that transcends both the arbitrary boundaries of nation and race. His encounters with social injustice transform the way Guevara sees the world, and by implication motivate his later political activities as a Marxist revolutionary. He makes his symbolic 'final journey' that night when despite his asthma, he chooses to swim across the river separating the two societies of the leper colony, to spend the night in a leper shack, instead of in the cabins of the doctors. This journey implicitly symbolises Guevara's rejection of wealth and aristocracy into which he was born, and the path he would take later in his life as a guerrilla, fighting for what he believed was the dignity every human being deserves.

A beautiful and tender insight into the early life of Che Guevara, one of the most memorable and iconic figures of the 20th century. The film closes with an appearance by the real 82-year-old Alberto Granado, along with pictures from the actual journey and a brief mention of Che Guevara's eventual 1967 CIA-assisted execution in the Bolivian jungle.

Les amants réguliers

Regular Lovers
a film by Philippe Garrel

In the aftermath of the era-defining Paris student riots of May 1968, a group of youngsters involved in the revolt abandon themselves to a bohemian existence and the fumes of opium. At the centre of the group, romance develops between François and Lilie, but they soon find their love and idealism under threat from the harsh realities of everyday life.

François is a 20-year-old poet, dodging military service. He takes to the barricades, but refuses to throw a Molotov cocktail at the police. He smokes opium and talks about revolution with his friend, Antoine, who has an inheritance and an apartment where François can stay. François then meets Lilie, a sculptor who works at a foundry to support herself, and they fall in love. A year passes and François continues to write, talk, smoke, and be with Lilie. But then opportunities come to Lilie to move her life forward – what will she and François do?

In his award-winning feature from 2005, conceived as a response to Bertolucci's 'The Dreamers', which also starred Louis Garrel, writer/director Philippe Garrel reflects on his own experiences as a 20-year-old at the barricades in 1968 and atmospherically recalls the pioneering cinema of the nouvelle vague. An affectionate, dream-like elegy to youthful idealism, this beautifully shot and bittersweet portrait is also a haunting and mesmerising evocation of a lost age.

Sin Nombre

Nameless
a film by Cary Fukunaga

Focusing on the plight of Honduran illegal immigrants making the dangerous journey through Mexico, the story follows teenager Sayra who is risking everything to find a better life in America with her family. On this fateful first step of her journey she encounters Casper, a tough gang member placed in an impossible situation when a violent retaliation turns his gang against him. As Sayra and Casper's paths cross on a train leading out of the country, with the gang in close pursuit, they must rely on each other if either of them is to make it across the border alive.

El Casper is initiating a young boy into his notoriously brutal gang. The boy is given the name El Smiley following a violent initiation. Casper is romantically involved with a girl, Martha Marlene, but fearing for her safety, keeps their relationship a secret from the other gang members. When she follows him to a gathering of the gang, the leader, Lil' Mago, insists on escorting her away in private, despite Casper's protests. Following his failed rape attempt, Lil' Mago accidentally kills the girl, then coldly tells Casper "You'll find another".

Mago then brings Casper and Smiley to La Bombilla, a location along the train tracks where illegal immigrants stow away on passing trains for travel to the United States. Among the many making this journey is the Honduran family – Sayra, her father and her uncle, who are on their way to New Jersey to live with relatives. Mago, Casper and Smiley board the train and rob the passengers of any money they have until Mago spots Sayra and attempts to molest her. Casper, still grief-stricken and seeing parallels with Mago's treatment of his girlfriend, intervenes, killing Mago and urging Smiley off the train. Throughout the train journey, Sayra repeatedly approaches Casper with concern and curiosity, despite her father's advice. Smiley returns to the gang, telling them what happened. Furious, the new gang leader, El Sol, accuses Smiley of collusion. Smiley timidly protests, begging to be sent to kill Casper to prove his loyalty.

On the train, Casper, who has smuggled gang members in the past, knows the nuances of the journey, instructing fellow passengers when to get off the train and run around the station to avoid immigration officers. At one point Casper is with Sayra's family, but not wanting the girl to face the dangers that surround his own life, he leaves the train quietly while they are sleeping, only to discover that Sayra has followed him. The two journey north on a car transporter, Casper evading local franchises of his gang which are all helping Smiley to track him down.

At a river crossing Casper pays their fares with the digital camera containing the cherished pictures of his murdered girlfriend and insists Sayra goes first. Just as she is half way across, the gang find Casper and after a desperate chase along the riverbank, he encounters Smiley, who shoots him dead. Sayra, now across the border in Texas, calls the phone number she had committed to memory and finally makes contact with her dead father's second family in New Jersey. Smiley, the young boy initiated into the gang by Casper, is now accepted by its members and gets a tattoo commemorating his loyalty.

The recipient of numerous major awards, writer/director Cary Fukunaga's debut feature is an unflinching and controversial tale of gang warfare, loyalty and redemption, set against the harsh backdrop of modern Mexico. Part road movie, part gangster film, part love story, this bleak yet humane film paints a vivid picture of the reality of life in Central America for would-be immigrants to the United States.

Foreign Land

Terra Estrangeira
a film by Walter Salles & Daniela Thomas

The story chronicles the union between Paco, an aspiring actor living in São Paulo, Brazil, and Brazil-born Alex, who works as a waitress in Lisbon, Portugal and lives with Miguel, a musician-smuggler addicted to heroin. It is set in 1990 when Brazilian president Fernando Collor de Mello threw his country into economic turmoil by suddenly confiscating the savings accounts of the entire population. At this time, Paco is living with his elderly mother in a poor São Paulo neighbourhood. Tired of living in squalor, his mother's only dream is to return to her native Spain, but on learning that her savings have been seized, the old woman dies of shock. Now without his mother, Paco feels little desire to stay in Brazil and so meets with the sleazy Igor, an antiques dealer, and agrees to smuggle a violin stuffed with raw diamonds to Lisbon to pay for his travel to the homeland.

Paco is to take the violin to a certain hotel where he will be paid by a contact. When the contact does not arrive as planned, and after losing the package, Paco is led down a twisting road filled with murder, danger and intrigue that eventually ends in the arms of Alex. But now Alex and Paco must somehow avoid the murderous thugs who Igor has sent to kill them. In their attempt at escape to begin a new life together, the two lovers flee to the Spanish border, heading for San Sebastián in northern Spain, the birthplace of Paco's mother.

This beautifully shot Brazilian film noir mystery from 1996, with its high chiaroscuro grainy cinematography, is a gripping tale of innocence, love and adventure. It explores the loneliness experienced by immigrants, their feelings of alienation, desperation, and the uncertainty of whom to trust when finding themselves alone in a foreign land. The film's final scenes famously feature the beautiful song "Vapor Barato" by Gal Costa.

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest

Luftslottet som sprängdes
a film by Daniel Alfredson

A Swedish mystery and crime thriller adapted from the novel by Stieg Larsson, the third book in his Millennium series. Lisbeth Salander is hospitalised after the meeting with her father, and later put on trial. Mikael Blomkvist takes on the task of proving she is innocent as he continues to uncover the reasons why Lisbeth has been treated so harshly by the Swedish authorities.

Lisbeth is airlifted to a hospital in Gothenburg where surgeons remove bullets from her shoulder, hip and head, bullets fired by her father, Alexander Zalachenko. She is cared for by Dr Anders Jonasson, who prevents anyone except her lawyer from visiting. At the same time Evert Gullberg and Fredrik Clinton, old colleagues from the Section, a group within the Swedish Security Service, reconnect and decide that they must silence Zalachenko and Lisbeth to preserve Cold War secrets. Still alive, Zalachenko is in a hospital room down the corridor from Lisbeth.

Blomkvist asks his sister, Annika, to be Lisbeth's lawyer in her forthcoming murder trial. Gullberg arrives at the hospital at the same time as Annika, proceeds to Zalachenko's room, and shoots him dead. Annika saves Lisbeth by barricading the door to her hospital room, preventing Gullberg from killing her too. Gullberg then shoots himself. Clinton visits psychiatrist Dr Peter Teleborian, and explains his plan to silence Lisbeth by having her committed to St Stefan's mental hospital again. Teleborian tries to meet with Lisbeth to conduct a psychiatric assessment but is prevented by Dr Jonasson.

Blomkvist persuades Dr Jonasson to sneak an internet phone into Lisbeth's room, whereupon Lisbeth immediately contacts her information source, Plague, to see if he can find something on Teleborian, and then tells Blomkvist that Annika has permission to use a video of Bjurman – her former guardian and one of the people she is accused of murdering – raping her. Blomkvist compels a civil servant, Bertil Janeryd, to reveal that Gullberg and Hans von Rottinger had visited the Prime Minister years ago to urge a cover-up of the Zalachenko affair.

Lisbeth starts working on an autobiography to document her actions and motives from childhood to the present. She continues to have nightmares of memories about her time at St Stefan's, her father and half-brother, and of her rape by Bjurman. Blomkvist continues to pursue Teleborian, with Christer's help. They also follow a Section member to a flat that Clinton had been to four hours before. Lisbeth finishes her autobiography and sends it to Blomkvist, and Dr Jonasson informs Lisbeth she cannot remain at the hospital but must be transferred to prison in a couple of days. He is surprised that she is not worried about the trial.

The strongman Niedermann, who previously tried to kill Lisbeth's best friend, has remained a fugitive, wanted for killing a police officer. Sonny, of the motorcycle gang is informed that he was searched, but found clean, and that his friend had sent Niedermann to hide out in his home. There, he finds his brother dead and his girlfriend tied, gagged, and apparently assaulted. She tells him that Niedermann was the culprit, and Sonny vows revenge. Clinton, in dialysis, is given a copy of Lisbeth's autobiography, and is told that none of it can be proven. Meanwhile, Erika, who has left her job at Millennium to take over as editor of a large daily newspaper, has been receiving anonymous, violently obscene hate mail, which causes an uproar in the office. In prison, Lisbeth is interrogated by the prosecutor but says nothing. Annika is later given Lisbeth's computer and the DVD, which she watches. Teleborian finally meets with Lisbeth, who again remains silent.

Erika's bedroom window has been smashed, and in desperation she has called Milton Security. Blomkvist learns that someone has just broken into his apartment and planted cocaine and cash there. He concludes that they are trying to frame him, since they cannot hurt the magazine. Blomkvist decides to meet Erika at a restaurant named Samir's Gryta. The police try to warn Blomkvist of an attempt to kill them there, and he fends off the assault as the police hurry towards the restaurant. The Section is dismayed to find their hired hit men have failed.

On the day of her murder trial, Lisbeth enters court with piercings, a mohawk hairstyle, black makeup, and dark clothing. Called as an expert witness for the prosecution, Teleborian characterises Lisbeth's autobiography as merely the product of her paranoid delusions. Annika gradually demolishes Teleborian's credibility, using Lisbeth's words and files from the hospital. She shows the video proving Bjurman raped Lisbeth, demonstrating that her statements were completely true. As Annika presents her case, the police arrest the people involved with the Section and seize their place of operation. Called to the stand, Blomkvist shows that Teleborian had written his psychiatric assessment before he had even been allowed to interview Lisbeth. Then Annika calls Edklinth to the stand, and he states that the opinions were formulated in cooperation with Jonas Sandberg, using his computer as proof. Teleborian is left speechless. Edklinth tells Teleborian he is to be arrested on charges of possessing over 8,000 items of child pornography, which Plague had discovered after hacking his laptop, and his computer is seized as evidence. After Teleborian is arrested, the court rules that there is no further need for Lisbeth to be detained in custody.

The Millennium workers celebrate their victory, as Erika leaves the newspaper job and returns as editor in chief. Lisbeth is encouraged by Annika to check the property she has inherited from Zalachenko and discovers the warehouse where Niedermann is in hiding. Niedermann attempts to trap her in the warehouse and kill her, but she is too fast for him. She uses a nail gun to nail Niedermann's feet to the floor. She considers nailing him in the head but instead phones Sonny and tells the bikers where to find him. Then she calls the police after the bikers arrive. Lisbeth returns home and Blomkvist visits to tell her that the motorcycle gang killed Niedermann and were arrested soon after. Lisbeth and Blomkvist have a brief, but emotionally tense conversation, in which she thanks him for everything. As he is about to leave, Lisbeth agrees to stay in touch, which may or may not be a prelude to a future relationship.

The Girl Who Played with Fire

Flickan som lekte med elden
a film by Daniel Alfredson

A Swedish mystery and crime thriller adapted from the novel by Stieg Larsson, the second book in his Millennium series. The film follows Lisbeth Salander returning to Sweden after spending a year abroad. Having returned, she falls under suspicion of having committed the murder of a journalist and his girlfriend as well as her guardian Nils Bjurman. Mikael Blomkvist has to do what he can to find her before the authorities do.

With her new wealth, Lisbeth purchases an apartment in Stockholm. On returning to Sweden, she reconnects with her girlfriend, Miriam Wu and offers her free use of her previous apartment in return for forwarding her mail. Later, Lisbeth confronts her guardian, Bjurman after hacking into his email account and discovering he has an appointment booked with a tattoo removal specialist. Threatening him with his own gun, she warns him not to remove the tattoo that she etched on his stomach as revenge for sexually abusing her, marking him as a pervert, a rapist and a sadistic pig.

Millennium magazine welcomes Dag Svensson, a new journalist who is writing an exposé on prostitution and human trafficking in Sweden. Dag's girlfriend, Mia Bergman, is writing her doctoral thesis on sex trafficking. Dag is nearly finished with the story and is confronting those who will be exposed by the article. Dag and his girlfriend are about to leave on a holiday and he asks Blomkvist to come to his apartment and collect some photographs. At the same time Dag also asks Blomkvist to inquire about someone called Zala, who may have a connection to his present research. Blomkvist arrives at their apartment late at night to collect the photographs for the article but finds them shot dead. The gun used is traced to Bjurman, who is also dead. Lisbeth is the prime suspect, as her fingerprints are on the gun.

Bublanski, the police officer leading the investigation, advises Blomkvist that he should stay out of it. Lisbeth tells Blomkvist she did not kill Dag and Mia and that he needs to find the mysterious Zala. In an effort to find Lisbeth, Blomkvist contacts her boxing trainer and friend, Paolo Roberto. While he is unaware of Lisbeth's whereabouts, he does know Miriam, who also trained with them, and promises to pay her a visit. Near her apartment, Paolo witnesses Miriam being kidnapped by strongman Niedermann. Paolo follows his car to a deserted barn, where he hears him beat Miriam for information about Lisbeth. Paolo comes in to rescue her but Niedermann incapacitates him. Niedermann sets the barn aflame, believing he has killed Paolo and Miriam, but they have actually escaped.

News breaks of the attack and Paolo gives his account to the police. After Blomkvist leaves information he has discovered about the case on his computer for Lisbeth to hack into and read, she leaves a message to him saying, "Thank you for being my friend". He realises that she intends to set out alone to find the man who framed her and that she may not survive. A disguised Lisbeth visits Miriam in hospital to apologise for getting her involved. Without giving anything away, Lisbeth confirms the police sketch of Niedermann with Miriam and then disappears. Knowing now that he is Lisbeth's friend, Miriam calls Blomkvist to the hospital to give him keys that Lisbeth dropped accidentally during her visit. Noticing they are for a post office box, Blomkvist is able to access and read Lisbeth's mail and track down her apartment. Meanwhile, Lisbeth continues her efforts to find Niedermann by watching his post office box. She sees someone check the post box and follows him to a small house near Gosseberga. Searching through the material in her apartment Blomkvist finds the video of Bjurman raping Lisbeth.

In the offices of Millennium magazine, Paolo explains he tracked down Niedermann and learned that he has congenital analgesia, he is unable to feel pain. They trace Niedermann to a company owned by Karl Axel Bodin. Blomkvist has Erika Berger make copies of the documents including the 1993 police report, forwards the originals to Bublanski, and sets out to find Lisbeth.

Lisbeth crosses the grounds and enters the Gosseberga house, but Niedermann has been alerted by motion detectors and knocks her out. She awakens to see her father, Zalachenko, an old man who walks with a stick and is heavily scarred by the burns she inflicted as a child. He dismisses her mother as a whore and belittles her rape at the hands of Bjurman. He reveals that Niedermann is her half-brother. Niedermann killed Bjurman to prevent him from revealing any of Zalachenko's secrets. Zalachenko is confident he will not be caught, since being an invalid means the idea of his involvement in the murders lacks plausibility.

They lead Lisbeth to a shallow grave in the woods. She tells him the police will find him soon and all that he has said has been published online through her hidden cellphone. Seeing through her bluff, he shoots her as she attempts to escape and buries her alive. Left for dead, Lisbeth digs her way out using her cigarette case. Hidden in the woodshed, she surprises Zalachenko with an axe to the head. Lisbeth scares Niedermann off with the help of Zalachenko's gun, just as Blomkvist finds them. Ambulances and police arrive to take away Lisbeth and a still living Zalachenko.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Män som hatar kvinnor
a film by Niels Arden Oplev

A Swedish mystery and crime thriller adapted from the novel by Stieg Larsson, the first book in his Millennium series.

Mikael Blomkvist, an investigative journalist with the magazine Millennium, loses a libel case against industrialist Hans-Erik Wennerström, and is sentenced to three months in prison. Blomkvist is under covert surveillance by Lisbeth Salander, a troubled but brilliant 24-year-old hacker from a security firm. She delivers her report on him to Dirch Frode, a lawyer for the powerful Vanger Group. Blomkvist is then invited to a meeting with industrialist Henrik Vanger, who hires him to investigate the disappearance of his niece, Harriet, who vanished on Children's Day in 1966. Henrik not only believes that Harriet was murdered, but that a member of the Vanger family is responsible. He shows him a collection of framed single dried flowers that he had received from Harriet on his birthdays. Strangely, he has continued to receive them every birthday since and he suspects that the sender is Harriet's murderer.

Meanwhile, Lisbeth's probationary guardian is incapacitated by a stroke, and she is introduced to his replacement, a lawyer named Nils Bjurman, who takes control over her finances. One night, she asks for money to replace her broken laptop. Bjurman, a sexual sadist, forces Lisbeth to perform oral sex on him in exchange for a fraction of the money she needs. Bjurman eventually rapes Lisbeth, who secretly videotapes the attack, and later returns to his apartment. After torturing Bjurman, she takes control, allowing her to regain access to her own finances and to terminate his guardianship over her in a year's time. Failure to respect her demands will result in her releasing the evidence of the rape to the media. While he is secured she tattoos Bjurman's abdomen with the words "I am a sadist pig and a rapist". Later, she hacks into Blomkvist's computer to continue monitoring him.

Blomkvist moves on to the Vanger estate and learns that Henrik's three brothers were all members of the Swedish Nazi Party. Harriet's father, Gottfried, was an abusive alcoholic who drowned the year before his daughter's disappearance. Inside Harriet's bible, Blomkvist finds a list of five names alongside what appear to be phone numbers. Police Inspector Morell informs him that his original investigation was unable to decipher them. He had tried reaching all possible combinations of the numbers, in vain. Using photographs taken during the Children's Day parade, Blomkvist learns that Harriet saw someone that day who may have been her killer. After hacking into his computer, Lisbeth finds and decodes the numeric clues, discovering that the numbers relate to verses from the Book of Leviticus concerning divine retribution.

Lisbeth discloses the results of her research in an e-mail to Blomkvist, thus revealing, intentionally, that she has hacked his computer and has been monitoring him. Upon discovering this, Blomkvist is directed by Dirch Frode to Lisbeth's apartment. He convinces her to help him with the case, and they embark on the trail of a serial killer whose crimes stretch back to 1949 in towns all over Sweden. Lisbeth finds herself attracted to Blomkvist, the first man whom she can trust and who treats her as an equal, and they become lovers while they are working together.

At a meeting with the Vanger family, during which he is urged to abandon the case, Blomkvist notices Harriet's cousin Cecilia wearing Harriet's necklace. Cecilia asserts that she inherited it from her sister, Anita. Blomkvist then realises that the indistinct photo Henrik had given him of Harriet is actually that of Anita. Sometime later, while jogging in the woods, he is shot at by an unknown gunman but escapes serious injuries.

The following day, Inspector Morell reveals that a set of initials from Harriet's diary match the name of a woman who had worked for Gottfried Vanger. As the women all had Jewish names, Blomkvist and Lisbeth believe their murders were motivated by anti-Semitism. They suspect the reclusive Harald Vanger to be the culprit, as the two other Vanger brothers had already died by the time she disappeared. Lisbeth searches through Vanger's business records to trace Harald to the crime scenes, while Blomkvist breaks into his house. There, Harald confronts Blomkvist, but Harriet's brother, Martin, shows up and instead escorts Blomkvist to his home. When Blomkvist reveals what he has uncovered, Martin drugs him. In the meantime, Lisbeth discovers that Martin and his father were responsible for the murders, finding a picture of the two together. In it, Martin's blue sweater matches the one on the man who scared Harriet in the Children's Day parade photo. Lisbeth returns to the cottage to find Blomkvist missing.

Blomkvist wakes to find himself bound in Martin's cellar. Martin boasts of decades of rape and murder, but denies killing Harriet. While he is garroting Blomkvist, Lisbeth appears and attacks the killer with a golf club. She frees Blomkvist, but Martin flees in his car and Lisbeth gives chase on her motorcycle. Martin clips a truck and his car rolls down an embankment. When Lisbeth arrives at the wreck, he pleads for help, but she leaves him to die when the car catches fire. The incident reminds Lisbeth of a moment in her youth when she splashed petrol in the face of a man sitting in a car, then igniting it and watching him burn.

Blomkvist later meets with Henrik and Morell to inform them that Martin did not kill Harriet. Returning to his cottage, he finds a note from Lisbeth, revealing Harriet's whereabouts. Blomkvist flies to Australia and discovers Harriet living under her dead cousin Anita's name. He returns her to Sweden to be reunited with Henrik. In his office, she reveals that she killed her father, who, along with Martin, had been sexually abusing her. Fearing for her life when she saw Martin at the Children's Day parade, she fled the estate with Anita's help.

Blomkvist then serves his prison term. Lisbeth visits him and furnishes him with secret financial records that reveal Wennerström's complicity in drug trafficking and black market arms dealing, which is more incriminating than his previous evidence against him. Blomkvist publishes a new story on Wennerström, who subsequently kills himself, and launches Blomkvist and Millennium to national prominence. Lisbeth hacks into Wennerström's off-shore bank account, steals millions of Swedish kronor, and travels to the Cayman Islands.

Sex and Lucía

Lucía y el sexo
a film by Julio Medem

Lucía is a young waitress in a restaurant in the centre of Madrid. After the loss of her long-time boyfriend, a writer, she seeks refuge on a quiet, secluded Mediterranean island. There, bathed in an atmosphere of fresh air and dazzling sun, Lucía begins to discover the dark corners of her past relationship, as if they were forbidden passages of a novel which the author now, from afar, allows her to read.

The film opens with Lucía at work, talking on the phone with her depressed boyfriend Lorenzo. Worried, she goes home to console him and finding an empty apartment, Lucía frantically searches for him. She then receives a phone call from the police and finds a suicide note, but she is so afraid of the bad news that she hangs up, assuming the worst has happened to Lorenzo. Looking for a new beginning, Lucía decides to travel to the mysterious Balearic Islands that Lorenzo had always talked about.

The story shifts to six years before, when Lorenzo and a woman named Elena, without even knowing each other's name, have a magnificent sexual encounter in the ocean one night under a full moon. They part ways, expecting never to see each other again but Elena conceives his child and gives birth to a daughter who is raised without a father.

Lorenzo talks with Pepe, his literary agent at a restaurant, discussing his writer's block. Lucía catches his attention as he gets up from his table. She tells him that ever since she read his latest novel, she has been following him and has fallen desperately in love with him. A very surprised yet smitten Lorenzo immediately engages the beautiful, passionate Lucía and they begin their relationship, living together in Lorenzo's apartment.

The film then continues interweaving past and present, people in real life and the characters in Lorenzo's novel. In the past, we see Lorenzo repeatedly stalling for time on his new book with his editor while his relationship with Lucía deepens. Lorenzo learns from Pepe that he has a daughter as a result of his encounter with Elena and begins to visit the child at her school while meeting her babysitter, Belén. Lorenzo uses his new encounters as content for his book. Belén flirts with Lorenzo and invites him over to Elena's house while she babysits the daughter, Luna. Lorenzo tells Luna a bedtime story, and after she falls asleep, he and Belén begin to make love. They are interrupted as Luna knocks at the bedroom door, and they watch in horror as the family's dog attacks and kills the child. Lorenzo runs away and falls into a deep depression. As he writes about his new experiences with Belén, Lucía reads it, believing it to be fiction.

In the present, Lucía meets a scuba diver on the island, Carlos, and through him, Elena, who runs a guest house there whilst trying to come to terms with the grief of losing her daughter. Elena invites Lucía to rent a room at the guest house. As the past is gradually revealed, each has to cope with its devastating significance in the present and understand the entanglements of their interwoven relationships.

Featuring a circular narrative with repeated visual metaphors, it is a complex, passionate and beautiful love story, told in the style of magical realism. Revolving around the hidden connections within relationships, the film explores the interplay of reality and imagination, cause and effect, and how our past and present lives unknowingly intersect.

Room in Rome

Habitación en Roma
a film by Julio Medem

In a hotel room in the centre of Rome two young women, who have just met, go on a physical journey which will touch their very souls. Before they leave to go back to their respective lands, Spanish Alba and Russian Natasha embark on an unforgettable one-night stand.

Alba and Natasha have just met at a club. As they walk together through the streets Alba invites Natasha to her hotel room for what seems merely a harmless sexual adventure crowning their last night in Rome. Natasha is at first reluctant and politely refuses the invitation, insisting that she is not a lesbian and that she likes men. Shocked by her own attraction towards Alba, yet intrigued by the idea of being seduced by her, Natasha feels excitement at this unexpected liaison. Gently, yet persistently, Alba encourages Natasha to allow herself to experience these feelings.

Guarded at first, they engage in games of fabricated identity, telling each other histories where the teller is actually the other character in the story, only gradually peeling off the layers of fantasy to reveal the often tragic secrets that have made them who they are. As the night progresses, through stories, memories and interaction with artworks in the room, the two experience a profound emotional connection, descending ever more into perilous depths of truth and honesty as their trust grows. As they reveal more about themselves their relationship also grows, becoming something far deeper and both women begin to realise they are falling in love.

As the new day dawns each has to confront the fact that they have agreed to part ways, to return to their previous lives in Russia and Spain. Natasha is shortly to marry her fiancé after a long engagement; Alba has been in a relationship for two years with her partner Edurne and her young daughter. Both women have now to decide where their hearts and commitments lie, and both know that the choice will be final, with no chance of going back.

For Natasha, the night has brought possibilities that she never thought existed but she knows that beyond the four walls of their room, their relationship must remain a secret, a memory. For Alba, their moments shared have been like nothing else she has ever experienced and even as it pains her deeply, she accepts she must let Natasha go. After delaying the moment of parting for as long as possible, when the time comes they attempt an unemotional goodbye. But is it possible in these final moments to find the courage to act upon one's feelings and to follow your heart? Alba is in little doubt that she can, but she knows that if they are to have a future together the decision must ultimately rest with Natasha.

A tender portrayal of love and sensuality, exploring different facets of the personalities of the characters, their openness to new experiences and willingness to confront and embrace their personal truths. The atmospheric camera work incorporates visual elements of the room's surroundings, decoration and artwork into the story, and the highly evocative soundtrack features an original score by Jocelyn Pook.

Vagabond

Sans toit ni loi
a film by Agnès Varda

An effecting and tragic story of a fiercely independent young drifter. Through her encounters with various people that she meets on her travels across an inhospitably wintry France, Mona Bergeron is revealed to be an enigmatic, complex and difficult character. The film observes several weeks in her life with a thoughtful, uncritical eye, producing a splintered portrait of a courageous woman who has chosen liberation from the conformity of a conventional society.

The film opens with the image of a frozen, contorted body of a young woman lying dead in a ditch. From the point of view of an unseen and unheard interviewer, we then meet the last men and women to have seen her and briefly known her – the people whose lives she had touched. Each gives an account of their meeting with Mona and their impressions of her, and in doing so they reveal much about themselves.

We see Mona at the roadside, avoiding the police and hitching rides. Along her journey she meets and takes up with other homeless drifters, a Tunisian vineyard worker, a family of goat farmers, an academic researching diseased plane trees, and a housekeeper who envies what she perceives to be a beautiful and passionate lifestyle. During one conversation Mona explains that at one time she worked as a secretary with skills in English and shorthand, but becoming unsettled with the way she was living, chose instead to wander the country, free from any responsibility, picking up what work she could to survive.

With each encounter Mona has with another person, whether they want to help her out of compassion or interest, or simply to use her for their own purposes, she takes from them what she can and when they have nothing more to offer she moves on, leaving each with just confused memories. Ironically, seeking independence and total freedom as a wanderer, forces her dependence on others and on the system she tries so desperately to reject.

The goat farmer is possibly the person who best understands Mona, initially seeing her as a kindred spirit although one who has clearly lost her way. After getting his master's degree in philosophy he chose to drop out of conventional society to create a sustainable back-to-the-land lifestyle with his wife, rearing goats and growing produce. Whilst he may share some of Mona's sentiments he is critical of her lack of direction and motivation. When she casually mentions that she would like to grow potatoes he offers her part of his land but it soon becomes evident that she has no interest in sharing his particular alternative lifestyle. "She blew in like the wind. No plans, no goals, no wishes, no wants. We suggested things to her. She didn't want to do a thing. By proving she's useless, she helps a system she rejects. It's not wandering, it's withering."

In knowing her fate from the beginning of the story, we can observe Mona's initial strengths, determination and courage; her progressive physical deterioration; the sheer fragility of her day-to-day existence; and finally that her survival has become reduced to "only a matter of time". Spending her last hours drenched to the skin, hungry and wrapped only in an old blanket in sub-zero temperatures, Mona crosses a field, trips on a pipeline and falling into the ditch from where she is unable to move, dies alone from exposure.

A subtle and disturbing portrait of alienation and lost direction, this award-winning, lyrical and resonant masterpiece from 1985 features starkly beautiful photography and a stunning central performance from Sandrine Bonnaire.

Koktebel

A film by Boris Khlebnikov & Alexei Popogrebsky

Following the death of his wife and loss of his job, a Russian engineer sets off from Moscow with his 11-year-old son for his sister's house in the Black Sea resort of Koktebel. With no money nor means of transport, they drift through Russia's expansive and mesmerising landscape at the mercy of chance. The father is content to drag his feet, stopping occasionally for the odd job to raise money while the son impatiently dreams of reaching the Crimean coastal resort to see gliders fly in the wind. For the father, the journey is an attempt to restore self respect, piece together his broken life and win back the trust of his son. For the boy, the mythic coastal town holds the key to a new life and emancipation.

During their journey they are met with many hurdles but the last encounter is with Xenia, a beautiful young village doctor who tends to the father's wounds. Since she is single and lonely they begin to fall for each other and this emerging relationship, as well as the father's recovery, threatens to delay the journey until the following spring. The son, who sees Xenia as an intrusion on the only loving relationship in his life, sets off to complete the journey by himself.

With a landscape of tracks, forests and wide open spaces integral to the conception of the story, this hypnotic road movie portrays the temporary liaisons that travel brings – with an understated tone of initial threat in the encounters, which comes from being exposed and homeless. The relationship between father and son is genuinely expressed through illuminating details; the story balanced between an earthly realism and a parable open to symbolism and interpretation. The simple plot is gracefully composed, with stunning lyrical visuals and an atmospheric soundtrack by Chick Corea. Wonderfully acted, delicately observed and beautifully shot, this award-winning debut feature from 2003 is also the story of the Russian landscape and the people living in the countryside.

Voices from the Shadows

A film by Natalie Boulton & Josh Biggs

A compassionate and moving exposé, bearing witness to the devastating consequences of psychiatric prejudice and medical ignorance about ME (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis), one of the most prevalent illnesses of the 21st Century.

Hidden away in darkened, silent rooms for years or even decades, are men, women and children suffering a cruel and invisible injustice. Although shockingly ill many are disbelieved, denigrated and blamed, suffering medical neglect and sometimes even abuse by the very professionals who should be caring for them. The isolation imposed by the illness means that the daily reality of these sufferers' lives remains invisible. Their courage and determination remain unseen and unheard as many are too ill to make their plight known, and others live in fear of retribution. Few doctors are willing to speak out to protect them since by doing so they risk damage to their careers and livelihoods. It is often left to carers, to partners and parents, to act as advocates.

ME (also known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome or CFS), which affects up to 250,000 people in the UK, has been systematically denied and misdiagnosed. Medical ignorance is endemic, causing irrevocable harm to many patients. International biomedical research has been stifled; deliberate misinformation and prejudice are widespread; irrevocable harm is being caused by inappropriate and sometimes enforced 'treatment'. The situation is getting worse. However, new medical research is bringing hope and highlighting this travesty, but it could be many, many years before change occurs in the UK. Meanwhile, lives are being destroyed and children and young people remain especially vulnerable.

The film presents interviews with medical experts and people with ME/CFS and their carers, together with archive and other material provided by them in a collaborative effort. All involved testify to the shocking severity of this physical illness and challenge the deeply unethical professional conduct of sections of the medical and the psychiatric professions who deny the biological basis of a neurologically debilitating, severe, chronic and occasionally fatal illness, even though it has been officially recognised as such by the World Health Organisation for over 40 years. The film shows how children and young people have been coerced or forced, under threat of removal from their parents and/or admission to psychiatric wards, to undertake exercise programmes that have resulted in years and even decades of bedridden isolation, often in darkened rooms, suffering long-term paralysis and even death. As one of the medical experts involved makes clear, these tragic circumstances are the consequence of a situation where research funding follows political policy rather than medical need.

A profoundly moving, intimate and disquieting film by two carer/patient advocates – a mother and son. It reveals the enduring love, courage and determination of five sufferers and their families as they struggle for health, acknowledgement and respect.

How I Ended This Summer

Kak ya provyol etim letom
a film by Alexei Popogrebsky

A polar station on a desolate island in the Arctic Ocean. Sergei Gulybin, a seasoned meteorologist, and Pavel Danilov, a recent college graduate, are spending months in complete isolation on the once strategic research base. Their daily routine consists of recording and processing meteorological data which they submit at timed intervals by radio to a control centre – their sole contact with the rest of the world. They also have to monitor the now dangerously high level of gamma radiation being emitted by the old radioisotope thermoelectric generator, or RTG, still in use as a power source for the nearby navigation beacon.

Pavel receives an important radio message when Sergei is away on a fishing trip, but while he tries to find the right moment to tell him, his innate fear of the older man prevents him passing on the shocking news. From this deception, lies and suspicions poison relations between the two to such an extent that Pavel is in fear of his life, not just from the polar bears that roam the island, but from Sergei.

With the atmosphere of isolation and buried tension between the two very different characters
we see how distrust can so easily grow when given the right conditions. Pavel is young, bored and resentful of Sergei's dominance yet dependent on it. Sergei has spent a great many years in service at the station and cannot accept Pavel's perceived lack of commitment and acknowledgement of his own lifetime's work. In an environment and situation which is so unpredictable, and in which anything could happen, we cannot control how people react to things – and sometimes trying to prevent bad things from happening can be the worst choice, even though it is often the choice that most people will make.

A slow-paced minimalistic psychological drama exploring themes of responsibility, generational conflict, human fragility and self-preservation. Shot entirely on location in one of the remotest and bleakest places in the world, with a striking emphasis on both sound and image. This outstanding and award-winning film becomes a stunning existential tale of survival as the two men are forced to form a relationship of trust and, ultimately, forgiveness in the desolate Russian Arctic.

Postmen in the Mountains

Nashan naren nagou
a film by Huo Jianqi

Set in the remote mountain wilderness of China's southern Hunan Province in the early 1980s, a subtle, poetic and often poignant film of life's passages and the age-old story of the relationship between fathers and sons, tradition and change.

Slowed down by arthritis and forced to retire, a middle-aged postman passes his route on to his son, whom he accompanies on his final trip. Together, they deliver mail on a three-day, 115km-long walking route into the rural heart of China, and in the process the son learns from the inhabitants of the isolated communities more about the father he hardly knew. As the pair and the old postman's loyal and resourceful dog wander over the misty terrain like figures in a Chinese landscape painting, love, pride and dedication are revealed as deep as the rich emerald backdrop.

With his father often away on duty while he grew up, the son came to resent and fear his father, and felt bad for his seemingly abandoned mother. The old postman is deeply moved as his son relates his mother's anxiety whilst she waits for him to return home from every trip. But now as they journey together through the mountains, the young man truly experiences the toil and burden that his father has carried for years. He witnesses his father's deep friendship with the villagers he serves, and participates in a wedding celebration with the Dong people. As he comes to realise that the far-flung communities along the route totally depend on the old postman for much more than just the sending and receiving of mail, the son begins to appreciate the nobility of his father's profession.

This enchanting and very beautiful film is a heart-warming insight into the relationship of a father and son getting to know, and learning to appreciate each other after long periods apart throughout the years of the boy's upbringing. Wonderfully slow-paced and serenely poetic, with visually stunning scenery and gorgeous cinematography. Huo's outstanding third feature won top prizes at the Golden Rooster Awards 1999 in Beijing, followed by numerous nominations and awards in Japan, India, US and Canada.

Warm Spring

Nuan Chun
a film by Wulan Tana

Seeking refuge from abusive foster parents, a seven-year-old orphaned girl runs away and finds safety under the care of a poor, illiterate old man from another village. Despite his lack of money and despite being taunted by friends, the elderly man does everything in his power to protect the young child whom he believes was delivered to him by fate.

Xiao Hua has escaped from her abusive foster parents and finds herself starved and barely conscious in a village of strangers. Though the villagers feel sorry for her, only an infirm old man is willing to take her in and provide for her care. The uneducated, elderly man is a hard worker, so he could afford to send Xiao Hua to school, even though he is barely able to support his own needs. Xiao Hua works hard at school and forms a close bond with the old man, whom she calls Grandpa, but he endures constant bitterness and betrayal from his son, Bao Zhu, and daughter-in-law, Xiang Cao, who is unable to conceive. Xiao Hua attempts to fill this void for them, but her innocence is rejected repeatedly by Xiang Cao's selfishness as she tries desperately to send Xiao Hua away.

The old man's only wish is to provide Xiao Hua with a home and a bright future and he will do anything he can to deliver his promises. While the villagers and his son don't understand what he could possibly expect from the young orphan, the old man's kindness melts away all the boundaries and gradually Xiao Hua thaws the hearts of Bao Zhu and Xiang Cao. This poignant story of selfless love is a study in patience and humility, with a stirring conclusion when the daughter-in-law must face her own intolerance and ingratitude when the truth about her husband is finally revealed.

Adapted from a true story and drawn from the real lives led by many poor, ordinary people, this heart-rending and deeply moving drama with its simple but profound message, illustrates their kindness and suffering endured for the sake of love. Writer/director Wulan Tana's first feature won her the prestigious Golden Rooster Award for Best Directorial Debut at Beijing in 2003.

Lou

A film by Belinda Chayko

Living in rural New South Wales, 27-year-old single mother Rhia is struggling to evade debt collectors and raise three young daughters, Louise, Leanne and Lani. The eldest, and hardened beyond her years, Lou blames Rhia for the departure of her father, who walked out ten months ago and hasn't been seen since. Mother-daughter relations hit bottom when Rhia takes in Doyle, her father-in-law, who is in the beginning stages of Alzheimer's. Doyle turns Lou's initial hostility around with exciting tales of his South Seas adventures. But coursing deepest in his mind are fractured memories of Annie, his late wife, and before long, Doyle sees Annie in Lou and imagines he is courting her all over again.

Eleven-year-old Lou's life was instantly turned upside down when her father walked out on her mother and two sisters. Feeling abandoned, she copes by building a protective shell around her heart – afraid to let anyone hurt her again. Lou blames her mother for her father's departure and refuses to let her get close. However, life suddenly becomes more interesting when her estranged grandfather temporarily moves in to the family's home.

Doyle brings chaos with him, not least because he is ill and befuddled – living largely in the past. In his confused state, Doyle mistakes his granddaughter for his long departed wife, showering her with attention in an attempt to win her affections. Lou, intrigued, plays along with the fantasy, using her bond with Doyle against her mother. As the game progresses, Lou begins to experience genuine care from Doyle. Her tough shell begins to be chipped away and Lou ultimately understands what it is to be loved and to place her trust in adults – in the most unexpected of circumstances.

An intimate, insightful and contemplative slow-paced drama told from a child's point of view; a child taking that step through imagination and affection to discovering a more confident self. With remarkable performances and exceptional naturalism, the film is beautifully shot in and around the cane-growing area of Murwillumbah in northern NSW, the hometown of writer and director Belinda Chayko.

La ciénaga

The Swamp
a film by Lucrecia Martel

Two families spend the summer in the mountains of Salta in north-western Argentina. We hear the insistent clinking of ice cubes in glasses, the scrape of metal chairs on a concrete patio; we observe people splayed in beds trying to sleep through the humidity. Before long, the crowded domestic situation in both homes strains the families' nerves, exposing repressed family mysteries, and tensions that threaten to erupt into violence.

Mecha, the family matriarch, lives in a dilapidated country retreat near La Ciénaga with her husband Gregorio and her teenage children. The humidity is stifling and the only pastime the adults can think of is to drink – constantly. One drinking session by the pool leads to a trip to the hospital, leaving the children, with no adult supervision, to their own devices – sunbathing, hunting, dancing, driving illegally, and diving in the stagnant pool. The only adults who seem to care at all are the Indian servants who are constantly being harassed by Mecha for allegedly stealing towels. What unfolds is a subtle and sly look at intimacies of a middle-class family in crisis, with the microscope artfully observing the infidelities, alliances, prejudices and secret infatuations.

The many disturbing, and somewhat confusing images and dialogue, succeed in conveying the oppression, ills and limitations that plague the lives of the characters. This stunning 2001 debut feature from writer/director Lucrecia Martel offers a glimpse into Argentina's dysfunctional class dynamics and tortured race relations. Its striking and almost feral imagery creates a hypnotic portrait of the torpor and decadence of a decaying bourgeois society.

Maria Full of Grace

A film by Joshua Marston

María Álvarez, a bright, spirited 17-year-old, lives with three generations of her family in a cramped house in rural Colombia. Desperate to leave her job, María accepts a lucrative offer to transport packets of cocaine, which she must swallow, to the United States. Far from the uneventful trip she is promised, María is transported into the risky and ruthless world of international drug trafficking as she becomes entangled with both drug cartels and immigration officials.

Working in sweat shop-like conditions, stripping thorns from roses at a flower plantation, María's income helps support her family, including an unemployed older sister who is a single mother. But when she becomes pregnant by a man she does not love, and after unjust treatment from her supervisor, she quits work despite her family's vehement disapproval. On her way to Bogotá to find a new job, she is offered a position as a drug mule. Desperate, she accepts the risks and swallows 62 pellets of cocaine sealed with latex and dental floss and flies to New York City with her immature friend Blanca.

On arrival, María is interviewed by US customs who are suspicious of her movements but she avoids being X-rayed due to her pregnancy, and they ultimately believe her story that the father of her child paid for her air ticket. The traffickers collect María and several other mules and they are sequestered in a hotel room until they pass all the drug pellets. Fellow mule Lucy falls ill when a pellet apparently ruptures inside her and the traffickers cut her body open to retrieve the pellets she is carrying. When the traffickers leave to dump Lucy's body, María convinces Blanca to escape with her and they abscond with the drugs they have passed.

With nowhere to sleep, María goes to Lucy's sister's apartment but doesn't reveal to the sister that Lucy is dead. Soon Blanca joins her there but eventually the sister is told the truth and throws them out. Blanca and María return the drugs to the traffickers and receive their payment. María uses some of her drug money to send Lucy's body home to Colombia. Her mission having become one of determination and survival, she ultimately emerges with the grace that will carry her forward into a new life. Finally, at the airport, as she is about to board the plane with Blanca back to Colombia, María decides she must stay.

Focusing on a global economic system that promotes the exploitation of the poor, this well-crafted and very human drama is also an understated yet brutal depiction of a young girl's journey in learning to take responsibility. Joshua Marston's debut feature was the recipient of numerous international nominations and awards, including prizes at Sundance and Berlin International Film Festival.

Norwegian Wood

Noruwei no mori
a film by Tràn Anh Hung

Tokyo in the late 1960s. Students around the world are uniting to overthrow the establishment and Toru Watanabe is a quiet and serious young college student whose personal life is in tumult. After losing his best friend Kizuki when he inexplicably commits suicide, Watanabe becomes uncertain as to how he should view life, and as he looks for a new life, he enters university in Tokyo. By chance, during a walk in a park he meets Kizuki's ex-girlfriend Naoko and they grow close since they both share the same loss. At heart, Watanabe is deeply devoted to Naoko, a beautiful and introspective young woman. But as they grow even closer, their complex bond having been forged by the tragic death of their best friend, Naoko's sense of loss also grows.

After Naoko's 20th birthday, which she shares with Watanabe, she withdraws from the world and leaves for a sanatorium in the remote forested hills near Kyoto to regain some emotional stability. Watanabe is devastated by the situation, since he still has deep feelings for Naoko, but she is unable to reciprocate. He also lives with the influence of death everywhere, while Naoko feels as if some integral part of her has been permanently lost. He continues with his studies, and during the spring semester meets an attractive girl and fellow student Midori – outgoing, vivacious, supremely self-confident – who is everything that Naoko is not. Like Watanabe, Midori is in love with another, yet as they flirt with each other they are drawn together. As Naoko becomes increasingly unreachable, so Midori becomes increasingly available, but as Naoko's state of mind worsens Watanabe finds himself falling deeper in love with her. Torn between the two women in his life, Watanabe must also choose between his past and his future.

Adapted from Haruki Murakami's bestselling novel, published in 1987 and since translated into 33 languages, Norwegian Wood is a sensitive and deeply moving story of adolescent love, loss, heartbreak and mental illness, set in a time of global instability. A tender, visually exquisite film with beautiful cinematography and superb performances, featuring soundtrack music by Can and score by Jonny Greenwood.

Eureka

A film by Shinji Aoyama

When a bus is violently hijacked in a small Japanese town, only three people survive: the guilt wracked driver Makoto Sawai, and young brother and sister, Naoki and Kozue Tamura. Two years on, each of them, still traumatised by their ordeal, struggles to re-engage with life. But then one day Makoto impulsively buys a bus and sets off with Kozue and Naoki on a long journey across Japan. Their journey becomes a cathartic odyssey of spiritual self-discovery.

Set mainly in rural Japan, it is the story of the three survivor's attempted return to normal life. The children have lost their parents and are alone in a big house. They do not speak. Makoto, the bus driver, moves in with them, acting as their parents, or simply as someone who can understand their pain and confusion. The children appear to communicate telepathically. Meanwhile, a series of murders has begun and the prime suspect is the bus driver. These numerous unfortunate events bring the three, along with the orphans' cousin, Akihiko, back together, forming a family and working towards reconciliation from the shared hijacking experience.

This beautifully shot drama, much of which is sepia-toned with long takes and slow tracking shots, is a serene and resonant meditation on the psychological scars wrought upon the victims of terror and violence, and of the courage and inner strength they must find to survive.

El aura

The Aura
a film by Fabián Bielinsky

Esteban Espinosa is a quiet, introverted taxidermist living in Buenos Aires who suffers epilepsy attacks and is obsessed with committing the perfect crime. He claims that the police are too stupid to solve the crime when it's well executed, that the robbers are too stupid to execute it the right way, and that he could do it himself relying on his photographic memory and his strategic planning skills. When he is invited on a hunting trip in the Patagonian forest, an accident gives him the chance of his life, the opportunity to commit the perfect crime.

Esteban's work is solitary and conducted in silence, paying meticulous attention to the restorative detail of the animals he prepares for museum exhibits, yet incongruously he has a strong distaste for hunting, violence and bloodshed. His obsession with planning the perfect robbery also seems in complete contrast to his passive nature and lack of criminal intent. When his friend and fellow taxidermist, Sontag, suggests he accompanies him on a hunting trip in Patagonia, to take the place of a hunting friend who has had to cancel, Esteban is reluctant to accept. But then on discovering a note from his wife who has just left him, he changes his mind and decides to go.

On his first ever hunting trip, in the calm of the Patagonian forest, with one squeeze of the trigger his dreams are made real. Esteban has accidentally killed a man who turns out to be a real criminal and he inherits his scheme, the heist of an armoured truck carrying casino profits. Moved by morbid curiosity, and later by an inexorable flow of events, the taxidermist sees himself thrown into his fantasies, piece by piece completing a puzzle irremediably encircling him. He does so whilst struggling with his greatest weakness, epilepsy. Before each seizure he is visited by the "aura", a paradoxical moment of confusion and enlightenment where the past and future seem to blend. Caught up in a world of complex new rules and frightening violence, Esteban's lack of experience puts him in real danger and whilst his quick mind and acute visual memory enable him to link all the pieces of the heist puzzle together, he overlooks one tiny detail.

An unusual, subtly crafted and superbly acted neo-noir crime thriller. Slow-paced with minimal dialogue, it draws us deep into the isolated world of this complex character. The stunningly beautiful cinematography with its palette of silvers and muted greens, together with a highly atmospheric use of soundtrack music, emphasises the sense of tension, detachment, uncertainty and unease.

The Lighthouse

Mayak
a film by Maria Saakyan

This elegiac, semi-autobiographical, humanist drama unfolds against the backdrop of the Caucasus wars that plagued Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan during the early 1990s. It is the story of a young woman, Lena, who has decided to return to her home in a remote, war-ravaged Armenian village to try to persuade her grandparents to leave with her for safety in Moscow. After spending several years in Moscow, Lena now journeys to the small mountain village where she was born and where her relatives and friends still live. The war and misery of the region are a counterpoint to the memories and emotions that bind Lena to her roots. Will she stay or flee? Lena's journey through her devastated homeland becomes a poetic journey of discovery.

Director Maria Saakyan was born in Yerevan, Armenia. As a 12-year-old girl she was forced to move with her family to Moscow, because of the war in the Caucasus. She comments on the inspiration for the film and the autobiographical nature of its main character: "This is a personal story not just for me but it is a story which has been part of the autobiography of many people of our generation. This is a personal story also for our screenwriter, who is Georgian, for our set-designer, who is from Serbia. We were all forced to leave our home countries because of local wars. And this very strong desire to return, to come back home to the country you were forced to leave, brings us to this film. For us, it was more important to try to reflect the personal truth about these 1990s local wars. We tried to make a film not only about the Nagorno-Karabakh war or the Georgian war, but one which could be understood globally."

Told with a striking emphasis on the cinematic image and set to a hypnotic soundtrack, this outstanding, award-winning directorial debut captures a dream-like emotional resonance of gender, place and culture. Haunting, mysterious and unforgettable, it combines documentary and personal perspective with visuals of immense power and beauty, as it examines themes of family, memory, war and displacement.

Nobody Knows

Dare mo shiranai
a film by Kore-eda Hirokazu

Four siblings live happily with their mother in a small apartment in Tokyo. The children all have different fathers and have never been to school. The very existence of three of them has been hidden from the landlord. One day, the mother leaves behind a little money and a note, charging her oldest boy to look after the others. So begins the children's odyssey, a journey nobody knows, following the daily lives of 12-year-old Akira Fukushima, his sister Kyoko, brother Shigeru, the youngest sister, 4-year-old Yuki, and then Saki, a schoolgirl drop-out who befriends Akira and does what she can to help him support the family.

Though engulfed by the cruel fate of abandonment, the four children do their best to survive in their own little world, devising and following their own set of rules. When they are forced to engage with the world outside their cocooned universe, the fragile balance that has sustained them collapses. Their innocent longing for their mother, their wary fascination towards the outside world, their anxiety over their increasingly desperate situation, their inarticulate cries, their kindness to each other, their determination to survive on wits and courage.

Director Hirokazu Kore-eda on the making of the film: "This film was inspired by a real event known as the "Affair of the Four Abandoned Children of Nishi-Sugamo" which took place in 1988. Born of different fathers, these children never went to school and didn't legally exist because their births were never declared. Abandoned by their mother, they lived on their own for six months. The death of the youngest girl put a tragic end to this adventure. Curiously, not one inhabitant of the building was aware of the existence of three of the children. This headline brought up various questions to my mind. The life of these children couldn't have been only negative. There must have been a richness other than material, based on those moments of understanding, joy, sadness and hope. So I didn't want to show the "hell" as seen from the outside, but the "richness" of their life as seen from the inside."

Progressing gently, the film is absorbing and beautiful in its simplicity, yet intense and powerful in the emotions it evokes. Acutely observed from the perspective of the children, it highlights unsentimentally and non-judgmentally, the different ways in which they cope with their situation, isolated from the world around them.

At the Height of Summer

Mùa hè chiều thẳng đứng
a film by Tràn Anh Hung

On the anniversary of their mother's death, three sisters in contemporary Vietnam meet to prepare a memorial banquet. Intensely close, they tell each other everything and seek each other's advice on every subject, and yet each has a secret. By the end of a turbulent period of temptations, disappointments, suspicions, separations and misunderstandings, each of them will have revealed what the tact and discretion of familial relationship has always kept hidden. The story, spatially framed by anniversaries, is set within a single month starting with the family preparing the anniversary meal in honour of their departed mother and concluding just before a similar event is about to take place in memory of their father.

It is high summer and the atmosphere is languid. The three sisters run the Café Thùy Dương, situated in a luxuriant and elegant district of old Hanoi, populated by artists and intellectuals. Youngest sister Liên slowly awakens in the apartment she shares with her brother Hai. She enjoys an emotional and physical closeness with him, allowing other people to think they are a couple. Hai is uncomfortable with this and gently discourages his little sister's display of affection. However, each morning he awakes to find Liên sleeping in his bed. At their mother's memorial gathering the sisters discuss their parents' marriage and the possibility of their mother's infidelity with a fellow student but are unwilling to admit that their parents' relationship could have been less than ideal. During the month that follows each sister's hidden relationship problems and fears are gradually revealed.

Suong, the eldest sister, is married to Quôc, a botanical photographer and they have a child, Little Mouse. Since her miscarriage four years before, Quôc has led a double life, supposedly in secret, with another woman and their young son in the remote Ha Long Bay. When he is away from her with his second family, Suong seeks refuge in an affair with Tuân. Each suffers the guilt and remorse that comes from their need to feel loved and wanted. Middle sister Khanh's husband, Kiên, is a writer struggling to finish his first novel through which he expresses his fantasies about having an affair. When Khanh tells him that she is pregnant he almost betrays her in a Saigon hotel but she believes that he has been unfaithful. Liên, also with relationship problems, is naive about sexuality and biology and whilst embracing the idea that she is pregnant after sleeping with a boyfriend just once, she continues to flirt with her brother Hai.

The film tells the stories of three women in different stages of life. The young, emotionally immature girl, who lives in a fantasy world and is beginning to explore her sexuality. Her older sister, who is married and trying to have a child, whilst worrying about her husband and the larger family. And the eldest sister, who has faced much more and looks for solutions in life that work. As the three women struggle with life on different levels, they share their problems, offering help and support to each other as an opportunity for forgiveness and growth rather than confrontation. During what becomes a pivotal month in their lives, the three sisters and their brother are forced to face the nature of their relationships.

Writer and director Tràn Anh Hung comments on the imagery of his film: "The images in the film have no documentary substance, nor do they depict the present as experienced by the characters. Rather, they are incessantly repeated images, burnished into the characters' consciousnesses. Images that the characters will keep, like secrets or recall like memories of harmony. The harmony they convey has a particular beauty, a beauty tainted by bitterness and melancholy."

Exquisitely acted and photographed, this sensuous and visually rich film is an elegant and resonant combination of mood, ravishing visuals and music, detailing and reflecting upon the everyday moments in life as pure cinematic poetry.

Confessions

Kokuhaku
a film by Tetsuya Nakashima

Yuko Moriguchi is a middle school teacher whose four-year-old daughter is found dead. Her life shattered, she finally returns to her classroom only to become convinced that two of her students were responsible for her daughter's murder. With the police having dismissed the child's death as an accident, Yuko puts into motion an intricate plan of revenge and psychological warfare designed to utterly destroy the lives of the two killers and to force them to realise the impact of their actions.

In the classroom an unruly mob of teenage students are having their milk break. As their teacher speaks they pay little attention, focusing more on throwing the cartons around, bullying one another, gossiping, or sending text messages. She announces that she is to quit teaching at the end of the month. She then speaks of how she became pregnant by her fiancé, Dr Sakuramiya, a dedicated and respected teacher who was diagnosed with AIDS. They had then chosen not to marry as it would be better for the child to have no father, than to have to live with the stigma. While he had later died, both she and their daughter, Manami, were lucky since neither of them had contracted the disease.

As a single mother, when Manami turned one year old, Yuko returned to teaching and would bring her daughter to the school crèche. At the age of four Manami was found drowned in the school pool and although it was considered an accident, Yuko knows that two of the students in her present class had murdered the child. Without naming them, she makes their identities clear to the other pupils and tells the class that under the juvenile penal code minors are not criminally responsible and therefore cannot be punished for their crime. So she has decided to take matters into her own hands and has injected her former lover's HIV-positive blood into the milk that the guilty pair have just been drinking. The classroom erupts into chaos. One of the two boys, Shuya Watanabe, is an intelligent child but has a sociopathic reputation among the students who say that he devises experiments to cruelly torture animals. The other student, Naoki Shimomura, is a weak-willed loner who has fallen under Shuya's manipulative spell. As Yuko finishes her confession each boy responds to the news in a very different way.

Following further confessions and perspectives of students and parents which fill in events before and after Yuko's testimonial, we later see that conscience-free Shuya continues his attendance at school where he is taunted, beaten and abused by his classmates. Naoki however, believing he is lethally infected, locks himself away in isolation, refusing to speak, eat or wash, watched over by his over-protective mother who will not accept that her child could have done anything wrong. Equally in the dark is the young and naive, new class teacher Yoshiteru Terada, who believes in befriending the students and trying to be one of them, but he too is manipulated by Yuko. Also drawn into the revenge tragedy is the schoolgirl Mizuki Kitahara, who has her own obsession with death and murder, and is also bullied for taking the side of Shuya. Increasingly, the dark, obsessive nature of the children is revealed and as the hysteria mounts, Yuko's revenge plan twists and turns to bring about the ultimate destruction of the lives of her daughter's murderers. The sound of something important disappearing forever. Her plan is made all the more awful by the fact that it relies so coldly upon the latent callousness and sadism of her class to unwittingly carry it out.

This unique, brilliantly crafted and devastating film is based upon the award-winning debut novel by Kanae Minato. Director Tetsuya Nakashima draws superb and utterly convincing performances from the young cast. His masterly use of dramatic camera angles, focus shifts and slow motion, innovative cinematography and the dynamic inclusion of hypnotic soundtrack music, creates a sense of cold bleakness and emotional distance, but with a stunning visual beauty. Focusing on the different characters and their own mini-confessions, the film unflinchingly explores the arrogance and cruelty inherent in the human psyche and its propensity to prey upon the weak and defenceless.

The Hunter

Shekarchi
a film by Rafi Pitts

Ali Alavi has recently been released from prison and makes the most of his return, amidst much talk of the upcoming elections and promises of political change. Working as a night watchman in a Tehran factory now means that he is at least able to support his loving wife, Sara, and their six-year-old daughter, Saba. Ali tries to spend the most time possible with them, but needing also to escape the stress of urban living he retreats to his favourite pastime of hunting in the secluded forest to the north of the city.

One day, Ali comes home from work to discover that Sara and Saba have disappeared. Realising that there's no point in waiting for them any more, Ali decides to go to the police. But there's chaos at the police station and it takes hours for him to get any information. Finally, he is told that his wife was caught up in a shoot-out with demonstrators and was killed. His daughter Saba, however, is still missing.

Ali's search for his daughter drives him to distraction and ends in horror when her dead body is eventually discovered, pushing him over the edge. Desperate for revenge, in broad daylight overlooking the busy city's surrounding highways, Ali randomly shoots and kills two policemen with his hunting rifle. The police mount a ground and air search operation as Ali heads out of the city. After a high-speed chase in dense fog along a country road his car crashes and he flees into the northern forest where he is captured by two police officers. Ali is resigned to his fate and watches quietly as the arguing policemen lose their way in the woods. In such a remote landscape as this, situations become complicated and the line between hunter and hunted is difficult to define.

Commenting on the ambiguity of the narrative, writer and director Rafi Pitts explains: "The film concentrates on hunting down to explore the pressure of a time bomb society. The 'hunter' could obviously be seen as the leading character Ali, but there can also be other interpretations. Keeping things open to interpretation is an important element of my filmmaking. As a director, I try to give as many meanings as possible. My job is to question. I don't believe in trying to give answers."

A searing indictment of political corruption, The Hunter is a tense, compelling and beautifully shot minimalist thriller, set against the background of social unrest in Iran.