Show Boat

Ian McKellen is in delicious form as London's most vicious critic, who strikes a Faustian pact with a struggling actor (Gemma Arterton).

Enchanting tale of female empowerment in 19th century France, based on the true story of a famed ‘bearded lady’.

Using an advanced oil painting animation technique, The Peasants is a visually thrilling rendering of Władysław Reymont’s Nobel Prize-winning tale.

Thorold Dickinson's most dazzling success, based on Pushkin’s 1834 tale of black magic and gambling.

Kubrick charts the rise and fall of an 18th-century charlatan as an acerbic study of self-destruction amid social ritual.

Kon Ichikawa's wildly melodramatic tale of a kabuki female impersonator who exacts a long-delayed revenge.

A black London docker becomes a famous opera singer in this stirring musical drama starring Paul Robeson

Paul Robeson made an auspicious film debut in a twin-role, in this key work from pioneering black filmmaker Oscar Micheaux.

Deeply moving mining drama that provided the legendary American singer/actor Paul Robeson with his best British film role.

Alexander Korda’s colonial epic was disowned by its star Paul Robeson, but became a pivotal film in his fight for screen representation.

The first adaptation of H. Rider Haggard’s famous novel, featuring Paul Robeson as a usurped king accompanying Allan Quartermain on an African adventure.

Sleepwalking into submerged depths of memory, a mother’s dream and a daughter’s beckoning, this fascinating film tenderly untangles the knots of the past.

Oscar-winning director Asif Kapadia's unsettling drama-documentary delivers a powerful commentary on the state of the world today… and tomorrow.

A striking portrait of an artist deserving of greater recognition, directed by Mark Cousins (A Story of Film).

Johan Grimonprez’s involving film essay, anchored by the rhythm of American jazz, reveals disturbing truths about the decolonial struggle between global political powers.

This powerful documentary from a Palestinian-Israeli collective might be one of the most important films of this year.

Shujun Wei's slow-burn noir draws us inexorably into its mysterious psychological journey.