Subscribe to watch - 14-day free trial, then £4.99 a month
Taxi Tehran
Following a personally difficult but artistically rewarding spell making films under house arrest, Jafar Panahi is back on the streets of Tehran.
Documentary 2015 81 mins
Director: Jafar Panahi
Overview
But inspired by the limitations of his incarceration, he continues the use of confined settings by locating his film entirely inside a taxi-cab, in a formal structure that references 10, another classic of Iranian cinema from Panahi’s old associate Abbas Kiarostami.
After giving rides around Tehran to a motley array of passengers – from a rabid reactionary and a liberal teacher to a man selling pirate DVDs and women heading to a shrine – he finally collects his niece, a sassy youngster making a little movie herself for school. Cue a discussion of how film should represent reality (or not!): a subject clearly close to Panahi’s heart, given his standing with the Iranian authorities. Despite its concern with ethics, aesthetics and politics, the film oozes disarming charm and mischievous wit, slyly reminding us that cinema, for better or worse, always trades in illusion.
moderate bloody injuryRelated
Documentary
Love Child Love Child
Documentary 2019 111 mins Director: Eva Mulvad
Hope is defiant and love is strong in this moving, intimate documentary of one young family's battle to find a new homeland.
The Street The Street
Documentary 2019 95 mins Director: Zed Nelson
The working-class community of Hoxton Street face the upheavals of gentrification, austerity and the eruption of Brexit, in this portrait of a rapidly changing London.
Glastonbury Fayre Glastonbury Fayre
Documentary 1971 87 mins Director: Peter Neal
Nic Roeg made this film of the first Glastonbury Festival to feature the pyramid stage - with a line up including Melanie, Terry Reid, Family, Fairport Convention, Traffic, Linda Lewis and Arthur Brown.
Varda by Agnès Varda by Agnès
Biopic 2018 115 mins Director: Agnès Varda
In her final film, Agnès Varda offers a personal insight into her oeuvre, using excerpts from her work to illustrate her unique artistic visions and ideas.
Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema Part 5 Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema Part 5
Documentary 2019 122 mins Director: Mark Cousins
The journey ends with the biggest themes of love, death and the meaning of life.
Mifune : The Last Samurai Mifune : The Last Samurai
Documentary 2016 80 mins Director: Steven Okazaki
The on and off-screen character of Toshiro Mifune, Japan’s first international movie star, is explored in this illuminating documentary exploring the life and legacy of this mercurial icon.
Award Winning
Winter Sleep Winter Sleep
Drama 2014 197 mins Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Modern master filmmaker Nuri Bilge Celyan’s Palme d’Or winner: an extraordinary, epic drama.
Stranger by the Lake Stranger by the Lake
Drama 2013 100 mins Director: Alain Guiraudie
A young man witnesses a violent crime at a gay cruising ground and becomes obsessed with the killer in Alain Guiraudie’s acclaimed mystery-thriller.
Bicycle Thieves Bicycle Thieves
Drama 1948 89 mins Director: Vittorio De Sica
Vittorio De Sica’s story of a father and son searching for a stolen bicycle on the streets of Rome is a classic of post-war Italian cinema.
L'avventura L'avventura
Drama 1960 137 mins Director: Michelangelo Antonioni
Antonioni’s masterpiece of modern alienation, with Monica Vitti as the young woman searching for her friend who's inexplicably disappeared.
Festen Festen
Drama 1998 101 mins Director: Thomas Vinterberg
A family reunion turns both incredibly dark and unexpectedly hilarious, in the infamous first film of the Dogme 95 movement initiated by director Thomas Vinterberg and Lars von Trier.
Picnic at Hanging Rock Picnic at Hanging Rock
Period drama 1975 107 mins Director: Peter Weir
The film that established Peter Weir as a major filmmaker remains one of the most chillingly atmospheric and beautifully enigmatic films ever made.
New
Alps Alps
Drama 2011 94 mins Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
Yorgos Lanthimos directs this odd drama in which a group of people start a company where they impersonate the dead to help customers through the grieving process.
Bait Bait
Drama 2018 89 mins Director: Mark Jenkin
Simmering tensions between locals and newcomers in a modern-day Cornish fishing village reach boiling point in this hugely acclaimed British independent film.
Il Divo Il Divo
Biopic 2008 113 mins Director: Paolo Sorrentino
Giulio Andreotti, arguably the most famous and notorious Italian politician of the post-war era, was Prime Minister in his country no less than seven times. Accused of corruption and Mafia involvement, this is far from stodgy history.
Timbuktu Timbuktu
Drama 2014 96 mins Director: Abderrahmane Sissako
Living in the sand dunes just outside the city of Timbuktu, a cattle herder and his wife find their peaceful existence disturbed by forces attempting to dictate their lifestyle.
Querelle Querelle
Drama 1982 109 mins Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Jeanne Moreau plays a jaded brothel madam caught up in the violent sexual awakening of Brad Davis' naïve young sailor in Fassbinder's fever dream of subversive eroticism.
Hidden Hidden
Drama 2004 113 mins Director: Michael Haneke
A literary TV chat-show host (Daniel Auteuil) discovers the drawbacks to celebrity when he and his wife (Juliette Binoche) start receiving anonymous messages in the form of videos of their home and naively violent drawings.