Two unlikely guests are invited to recall their moments of revolutionary glory on a small-town TV station. Romanian director’s sardonic take on heroism won the Camera d’Or at Cannes this year.

A Soviet roofer is drawn to play a deadly French game. “This diabolical thriller, filmed in inky black and white, is as cold and sharp as razor blades stored in a subzero freezer.” — NY Times

The most riveting real-life television series of them all began 42 years ago with the documentary 7 Up, about the expectations of a group of seven-year-old British children. Meet them again, at 49.

In an impressive cinematic operation, Yoav Shamir (Checkpoint) records the Israeli army’s eviction of Jewish settlers from their homes on the Gaza Strip.

As widower father moves out of the family house, filmmaker son unpacks the secrets of his parents’ 55-year marriage. One of the year’s most involving and moving investigative documentaries.

Gripping documentary account (produced by Jane Campion) of the outrageous conspiracy exposed in the aftermath of a 13-year-old Japanese girl’s abduction in 1977.

Terse, character driven drama set in the quiet mountains of Ardèche, in France, where a staunchly independent woman tries to connect with her wary, mistrustful teenage son.

A documentary for everyone who hates reality television – two struggling sitcom writers sell their souls to pitch a show in which contestants may have to eat each other.

Riveting documentary follows sarcastic, anarchistic rebels on a sonic assault from Los Angeles to NYC for the birth of Straight Edge – the early 80s American answer to punk rock.

The myth of Tibet as a peaceable kingdom is shaken by this documentary portrait of Gendun Choephel (1903-1951) an angry, sensualist monk who riled the Tibetan government.

Art, fun, folly, fairytales, folkstories and more feature in this collection of animation for ages four to seven.

Diversity is the word this year in our annual collage of animated gems – films that dare you to reach out and run your hands over the textures of paint and pencil.

Ans Westra, whose photographs of New Zealanders constitute a uniquely expressive record of who we are and have been, contemplates her career with amusement and gratitude.

John Hughes’ fascinating documentary about dissent in Cold War era Australia offers a timely commentary on the challenges facing oppositional voices in dark times.

Classic insider’s account of the French Resistance and one of the all-time great suspense movies (1969). “Tough, adrenaline-charged, utterly uncompromising.” — The Nation

Argentine director Fabian Bielinsky’s follow up to Nine Queens is a spellbinding, character driven heist film set in the magnificent mountain wilderness of Patagonia.

Israeli director’s inflammatory documentary critique of his own nation’s continuing reverence for suicidal Zealots in the face of rising terrorism. “Explosively provocative.” — Screendaily

We revisit British director Mike Newell’s 1982 dramatisation of the 12-day manhunt for mass-murderer Stanley Graham on New Zealand's remote West Coast.

This fascinating “making of” the wonderful Ten Canoes, is quite unlike any other you’ve seen as balanda filmmaker Rolf de Heer learns the traditions of aboriginal storytelling on the job.

Rich, lovely history of the rival ballet companies, originally founded in Paris in 1909, whose troupes toured the world in costumes by Dali, Picasso and Matisse.

Carlos Reygadas’ spectacularly grandiose follow-up to the startling Japón turns the struggle for the soul of its protagonist into an epic art-porn critique on the role of religion in Mexican life.

Filmmakers survey Beijings’s surprising underground punk rock scene in a celebration of gutter trash wannabes, throat-singing rockers and all-girl expletive-ridden riff magnets.

French documentary offers a cerebral, reasoned, humanistic reflection on retribution centred on the family of a young man who was murdered in 2002 by three skinheads.

Formidable Korean director of The Quiet Family and A Tale of Two Sisters returns with stunning blend of icy noir, ultra-violence and wicked black humour.

Eye-opening documentary explores the world coffee trade – from the glitzy World Barista Champs to the Ethiopian farmers who grow the world’s finest coffee but live in near starvation.

Documentary inspired by the experience of artist Hugues de Montalembert, who was blinded by muggers in 1978. “A film about blindness that makes us see the world hungrily, deeply, anew.” — Daily Telegraph

Visceral documentary traces the radicalising effect of the US occupation on one Shi-ite family. “A revealing insight into the war in Iraq from the locals' point of view.” — Variety

A sassy, flamboyant 12-year-old boy falls for a cop in the slums of Manila. “No less than its precocious protagonist, the film is alarming, endearing, and utterly unflappable.” — Village Voice

Joseph Gordon-Levitt channels Bogart to investigate the disappearance of his ex-girlfriend in this inspired fusion of teenage confidential and film noir set in a Southern California high school.

Steven Soderbergh shoots gripping true crime on high-def video in a small town near the Ohio-West Virginia border, proving he is one of America’s most restless and inventive filmmakers.

Larger than life and ten times as funny, this richly nostalgic story of a Montreal family spans the 60s to the 80s. "A zippy, colourful coming-of-age tale… buoyed along by engaging central turns, iconic pop tunes and a pleasingly meandering narrative." — Time Out

Director of Oscar-nominated The Story of the Weeping Camel follows up with an enchanting fable woven from the real lives of a nomad family on Mongolia’s grassy plains.

Life in a Chinese garment factory through the eyes of one of its 14-year-old workers. "A must-see film for anyone interested in global politics, economics, and the socio-cultural issues of contemporary China." — Globe and Mail

Modest but lovely road movie set in the vast, arid expanses of the Brazilian Sertão, during World War II, where Johann, a German avoiding the war, sells aspirin. “Very fresh, very charming." — Time Out

Israeli girl soldiers on border patrol in Jerusalem skive off to smoke, window shop and stalk hot guys. Captures the spirit of rebellion and apathy that turns teenage girls into hell on wheels.

Michel Gondry directs comedian Dave Chapelle’s joyous celebration of all that is affirmative, soulful and triumphant in black music now. Don’t miss the party of the year on the giant screen.

Mesmerising, suspenseful, darkly funny, shrewdly humane and spiritually challenging drama about a 63-year-old drunk trying to get the medical attention he’s convinced he needs. We mean it! A masterpiece.

Sinking of the Rainbow Warrior is commemorated 20 years on at Matauri Bay and filmed by director Claudia Pond Eyley who traces the history of the ship and its campaigners.

This year’s Digital Space programme stretches its wings to take a broader view than ever of the continually evolving world of digital animation.

Artworld superstar Matthew Barney, creator of the Cremaster series, joins forces with wife Björk to dumbfound the rest of us with this spectacular epic of bizarre courtship rituals and even weirder consummation.

Norwegian director of Kitchen Stories gives a lovely doleful glow to beat poet Charles Bukowski’s autobiographical account of his early life as a low-life slob. Starring Matt Dillon.

A 14-year-old boy adjusts to the horrors of life in a Nazi death camp. “The eerie beauty of Lajos Koltai’s child’s-eye view of the Holocaust as it sank its teeth into Hungary in 1944 is profound." — The Times

Far from limping to the finish line, Fearless is 42-year-old kung-fu icon Jet Li’s most ballsy and brutal martial arts flick since his peak Hong Kong period.

The scarred tropical paradise of Sri Lanka conceals purgatory in this haunting, pressingly sensual picture of life in the backwaters of a long war. Best First Film, Cannes Film Festival 2005.

Delicious, serio-comic tale of four friends in affluent, liberal, west LA takes on an avoided subject: money. Stars Jennifer Aniston as a pot-smoking housecleaner.

A return visit from Thomas Köner, who accompanies his haunting video-cycle images of becalmed suburbia with a live music mix.

“fps” presents two evenings of performance cinema and live-sound by a selection of Auckland’s finest experimental moving image makers. Curated by Phil Dadson and Sam Hamilton.

The always watchable Emmanuele Devos stars in this quietly crazy love story about a woman in her 30s, panicked by her boyfriend’s persistent proposals of marriage.

Avoiding the clichés of the teen film, Maurice Pialat directs a minutely observed, uncommonly honest profile of disaffected French youth in a northern provincial city.

The most brutal, disturbing and clever thriller of the Internet age sees a feisty 14-year-old girl turn the tables on the 32-year-old fashion photographer she met online.

Laurent Cantet (Time Out, Human Resources) sets his third film in a beach resort in late 70s Haiti, where middle-aged North American women go to be sexually pampered by young black men.

Documentary follows hoop dreams of Seattle schoolgirl team. "A smartly paced chronicle that nails the socialization of girls, the costs of playing ball, and the perils of female adolescence." — San Francisco Bay Guardian

Public school prat Nick Broomfield attempts to catch up with Eugene Terre’Blanche, leader of the South African neo-Nazi party and subject of his earlier documentary.

Love, whether it is romantic, catastrophic or familial, is fertile ground for storytelling, as these emerging local short filmmakers have all discovered.

Love, death and abandonment characterise this year's batch of shorts on film, presented by the Moving Image Center.

Selected from over 150 submissions, this year's video programme offers an exciting blend of action, animation and comedy with a distinctly offbeat sensibility.

This Cannes hit from Korea is a full-bodied horror show that's both scary and hilarious.

This witty, involving Korean indie charts the uneasy, incredibly odd friendship that develops between an irascible film scholar and a naïve young Christian.

Moving, ravishing and gripping saga follows three generations of women forced to eke out an existence in the spectacular desert wilderness of Brazil’s Maranhão region.

A downtrodden office worker scopes out the most formidably gorgeous prostitute (Monica Bellucci, no less), tells her he's won the lottery and invites her home to spend his money. French sex comedy at its most outrageous.

Documentary filmmaker Caveh Zahedi’s itch for anonymous, commitment-free sex is fatally paired with a need to confess his peccadilloes – ideally to a totally committed girlfriend.

A young Indian doctor immigrates to England in 1965, leaving behind his distraught family. Forty years later, his daughter tells their moving story, using period Super-8 footage.

Korean American So Yong Kim explores the ghost world of teenage alienation with watchful, intelligent minimalism. Judged Best Film in the Sundance dramatic competition.

In a landmark year for hard-hitting activist cinema, Al Gore’s straightforward and devastating film on global warming stands out as exceptionally well-honed and persuasive.

German documentary about Roman Catholic monks who barely utter a word runs to 162 engrossing, entrancing, enlivening minutes. “A masterful object of contemplation.” — Slant Magazine

Beautifully crafted, poetic documentary frames war-torn Iraq through three male clans: a Sunni master and apprentice, a young Shiite commander and his men, and a Kurd farmer and son.

An independent, 30-something single woman fights for self-esteem in the least chic suburb of Tokyo. "Powerhouse writing, directing and acting … truly honest, human cinema.” — Midnight Eye

Smoldering with a sexual energy unprecedented in Iranian cinema, a man drifts across the snowbound flatlands in search of work and whatever love and companionship he can find.

Ray Lawrence’s follow-up to Lantana is a powerful psychological drama that envelops four men and their families after they discover a murdered woman’s body on a fishing trip.

Globalization gets a human face and an eerie spiritual dimension in this artful documentary about the lives of young Indian workers in a Mumbai call centre.

The rise and fall of the Peoples Temple movement, whose charismatic founder convinced hundreds of his followers in Jonestown, Guyana to participate in a mass ‘suicide’ on November 18, 1978.

The beauty of San Francisco imbues every frame of Jenni Olson’s compelling hybrid of city symphony, personal lament and political activism against suicide.

A man searches for his lost daughter, imprisoned by his own guilt and shame. Haunting, expressionistic psychodrama from the director of Clean, Shaven.

Perfect for children and challenging to adults, the great Miyazaki has cited this 1980 French animation and its warped world of fairytale characters as a major influence.

Michel Ocelot's splendid animated feature from 1998 tells a sensual, guilt-free fairy tale – a West African fable about the power of original innocence.

He's tiny, he's black, he's naked and he's back! Kirikou, the razor-sharp little boy who moves as fast as the Road Runner, is the problem-solving lynchpin to four new stories. Animation.

Provocative documentary explores the legacy of Nazi death camp Mauthausen in Austria, which now functions as a major contributor to the local tourist economy.

Bosnian Danis Tanovic (No Man’s Land) directs a formidable array of French talent in this tale of three Parisian sisters whose lives have been determined by the devastating antagonism between their parents.

The theme of Paradise Lost gets a local twist in this documentary about foreign ownership of New Zealand land and infrastructure by filmmakers Abi King-Jones and Errol Wright.

Incisive Swedish documentary explores the worldwide practice of granting prisoners on death row the right to choose a final meal, hours before execution.

Australia’s tautest, most cunningly scripted psychological thriller since The Interview unfolds over the course of one hot summer night on the midnight train to Freemantle, Perth.

Maurice Pialat’s last film (1995) is a family drama featuring a dazzling performance from his own four-year-old son, with Gérard Depardieu unforgettable as the jealous, philandering father.

Three great directors Victor Kossakovsky (Tishe!), Joe Apichatpong (Tropical Malady) and Iranian Abbas Kiarostami dig deep in short films about love, self-cognition and roads.

Yamashita Nobuhiro, Japan's young poet of slackerdom (No One's Ark) distills the listless energy of 21st century high school girls into a comedy of punk attitude.

Five real life dramas from the pediatric oncology centre at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital testify to the resources of science, moral imagination and compassion dedicated to the care of children with cancer.

Failed writer Jim (Casey Affleck) heads home for a nervous breakdown, where kind-hearted nurse (Liv Tyler) takes a shine to him. Steve Buscemi directs this deadpan comedy with downbeat charm.

The simplest love story on earth, about a man truly in love with two women, becomes a wonderfully lucid mix of vérité and eternity, a radiant little masterpiece set in small hamlet near Berlin.

Luis Buñuel's violent drama of life without love in the dog-eat-dog slums of Mexico City has lost none of its shocking power after 56 years. (1950) “A great, great movie.” — J. Hoberman, Village Voice

Boston band The Pixies reunite for a world tour, 12 years after their acrimonious split. “Onstage … they sound as good – if not tighter, leaner and actually better – than ever.” — salon.com

Maurice Pialat’s unsettling tale of erotic obsession led US critic Andrew Sarris to proclaim leads Isabelle Huppert and Gérard Depardieu "the sexiest couple in the history of cinema.” (1980)

Czech surrealist Jan Svankmajer’s (Otesánek, Alice) latest provocation combines the sinister atmosphere and psychological horror of Edgar Allan Poe with the decadence of the Marquis de Sade.

Abel Ferrara (Bad Lieutenant) takes on Mel Gibson style showbiz religiosity, starring Matthew Modine as a man who directs a movie in which he plays Christ, with Juliette Binoche as Mary Magdalene.

An animation retrospective (1921-78) featuring some of the most iconic, important abstract animated films ever created: a virtual “Who’s-Who” of the genre.

The most baffling film in the Festival (Drawing Restraint 9) is elucidated in this admiring career portrait of artist/filmmaker Matthew Barney.

James Scurlock’s alarmist exploration of the vastness of the debt that underlies the American economy, is as visceral as it is illuminating.

Allan King’s insightful, utterly compassionate film about Alzheimer’s, aging and memory loss was shot over four months at a Jewish geriatric care facility in Toronto.

Masculinity and idiocy are put to the test in Mani Haghighi's wonderfully offbeat comic allegory about four middle-aged Iranian men on a ski trip who find a mysterious phallic symbol.

Exactly what it says on the label: a bighearted tour of Metal, heavy and otherwise, from fans, critics and legendary performers. "The soundtrack, as might be expected, kicks ass." — Variety

Seven executives compete in a boardroom until the last suit standing gets the job in this suavely savage corporate thriller that makes Neil La Bute seem sentimental.

One of the most unpredictable, complex, brilliant and headily original animated features ever created – a major breakthrough in anime, winning awards and critical favour around the globe.

Geoff Burton’s graceful documentary examines the treatment of a student’s life-threatening brain disease shortly upon arriving in Australia, and the quiet stoicism of his wife, a devout young Bangladeshi woman.

Maurice Pialat’s truthful, oddly funny and moving take on what could have been an uninviting theme: a middle-age woman dying of cancer and how this affects her husband and son. (1974)

Joan Plowright is the 70-something widow who befriends an aspiring young writer in this refreshing look at a friendship that transcends age to focus on kindness and wisdom.

Perceptive comedy around an incipient ménage-a-trois set on the fringes of the indie-pop world in hipster Brooklyn. “Nails the walk and talk of twentysomething iPeople like nothing else.”— Slate

Maurice Pialat's first feature is a delicate study of a ten-year-old boy and his decline into delinquency when boarded out with foster parents. (1968)

In the great Terrence Malick’s (Badlands, The Thin Red Line) new film, the romance of Pocahontas and Captain John Smith (Colin Farrell) becomes a breathtaking ode to Eden before the fall. Ravishing.

The great Barry Barclay’s landmark feature film centred on a Māori community in the 1940s.

A loving and bittersweet tribute to the asphalt desperadoes of Aotearoa in the 70s who took skateboarding from a fun pursuit into a full blown national phenomenon.

Ardent teenage girl soccer fans masquerade as boys to crash the Iran-Bahrain game at Tehran stadium in this surprisingly funny, exuberant film from the director of The White Balloon and The Circle.

In this well-constructed barrage of terrifying information and images, energy experts and oil industry authorities detail just how close we are to imminent global oil collapse.

The rise and fall of the short-lived North American Soccer League gets juiced-up E!-style coverage in this often hilarious account of 70s excess.

Director Maciej J. Drygas charts a day in the life of Cold War era Poland.

This visually startling window on the world of industrial food production in Europe is an ambiguous ode to the staggering efficiency of modern harvesting – as well as a substantiation of Western gluttony.

Compelling minimalism sees first-time writer/director skewer floundering patriarchal authority (her dad!) in a 50-square-metre Beijing apartment.

Restored version of Antonioni’s brilliant hybrid of Hollywood thriller and existential mystery. The hippest film of 1975 was inexplicably withheld from circulation until now by its owner and star Jack Nicholson.

We present Merata Mita's incendiary documentary on the 1981 Springbok tour protests – a landmark in New Zealand film history.

A Live Cinema performance of one of the greatest hits of the silent era and an early benchmark in movie horror, with a thrilling orchestral score composed by Carl Davis. (1925)

Maurice Pialat retrospective continues with violent, metaphysical, unconventional policier featuring Gérard Depardieu, named Best Actor at Venice in 1985 for his performance.

An immigrant cop from Senegal patrols a David Lynch-like Seattle on a bicycle. Strange and hauntingly memorable. “A deceptively quiet, and completely genuine thing of beauty." — Film Comment

Stunningly violent, Danish animated, anti-porn revenge drama hot and fresh from Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes. A clergyman turns Taxi Driver for a crusade against porn.

Belated NZ debut a hair-raisingly eerie ghost thriller, unjustly eclipsed by glut of J-horror imitations in the wake of Ring’s success. The last word in diabolical technological horror. (2001)

Fans of The Sopranos take note: Third in the Danish Pusher series is up there with the best portrayals of casual gangsterism – and you don’t need to have seen the other two.

Experimental feature by acclaimed German film alchemist who draws spectacular effects from decaying film stock. “One does not so much watch a Jürgen Reble film as become immersed in it.” — senses of cinema

Popular French animated feature with Noah’s Ark theme comes across like a much loved children’s book sprung to life. Primary audience is children 8-12. Subtitles.

In luminous black & white, Philippe Garrel’s affectionate, dreamlike elegy to youthful idealism laid waste in the aftermath of the 1968 Parisian student riots is an effective rebuttal to Bertolucci’s sex-besotted The Dreamers.

In this true story a deeply religious and troubled young woman believes her epilepsy is a sign of saintly suffering and the Church sanctions exorcism. Electrifying main performance won Best Actress at Berlin.

Unique, virtually wordless documentary exploring the legacy of poet and folk singer Jivani provides a fascinating, mysterious portrait of Armenian life and traditions.

True story of the British Muslim boys who went to Pakistan for a wedding in September 2001 and ended up as tortured prisoners of the US Army. “Ferocious, partisan, and moving.” — The Guardian

Documentary portrait of a small Kyrgyz mountain village makes for a comedy as politically acute and socially affectionate as those emanating from the Czech new wave in the late 60s.

With more nerd chic than Napoleon Dynamite, this tale of three geeks who dig laser tag and medieval swordfighting is hilariously off-kilter and chock-full of wholesome fun.

Richard Linklater’s much anticipated adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s nightmarish 1977 novel has an all-star rotoscoped cast: Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey Jr. and Winona Ryder. Direct from Cannes.

Canadian filmmaker Velcrow Ripper takes us on an engaging personalised tour of the planet's dark side in search of hope, reconciliation and rebirth in the wake of catastrophe.

Michel Gondry’s follow up to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is super-kinetic lark starting Gael Garcia Bernal as a shy guy whose dream world overlaps with reality.

John Cameron Mitchell’s Cannes sensation is a joyous and expressive tragicomedy of sex and sexuality in New York City.

Hollywood director Sydney Pollack provides an engaging personal introduction to one of the most popular architects of our time, his close friend 77-year-old Frank Gehry.

Sandor Lau’s energetic documentary portrait of South-Auckland car-windscreen cleaner Starfish, who pounces with the speed and grace of a tiger.

A kiwi cultural institution for as long as the Film Festival, Rick Bryant and the Windy City Strugglers finally get their close-up in Costa Botes’ funny, affectionate musical documentary.

Korean director Park Chan-wook (Oldboy) delivers the third of his phenomenal revenge trilogy, concerning an angelic murderess who guards a deadly secret.

Korean Hong Sang-soo (Turning Gate, The Virgin Stripped Bare…) continues his distinctly personal brand of filmmaking with this wry story about sex, lies and cinematic one-upmanship.

Covet not the senior tribesman’s wife. Most perfectly realised of the many films Dutch expat Rolf de Heer has made in Australia, this time with Aboriginal story-tellers in the Northern Territory. Special Jury Prize Cannes.

Romanian WWII tale from absurdist Lucian Pintilie (The Oak) told with bite and acidic flair as Romanians confront German officers in a commandeered schoolhouse toward the end of WWII.

Aaron Eckhart was born to play the fast-talking Washington lobbyist and public affairs frontman for Big Tobacco in this gleefully cynical satire on the black art of spin-doctoring.

Kirby Dick’s gleeful assault exposes the hypocrisy, inscrutability, cronyism and downright wackiness of the all-powerful unregulated, United States film censorship board, the MPAA.

Tommy Lee Jones’ remarkable directorial debut (in which he also stars) dismantles the racism endemic in the western revenge drama genre. Written by Mexican Guillermo Arriaga (Amores Perros, 21 Grams).

The great Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien retraces history through three vignettes of romantic love. Set in 1966, 1911 and 2005, each affair is encapsulated in a film-style tailored to its period.

Thought-provoking documentary on the tiny Pacific nation of Tuvalu, threatened with possible extinction by the twin oppressions of global warming and economic globalisation.

Sandrine Bonnaire is transfixing in Maurice Pialat’s 1983 classic as 17-year-old Suzanne, who seeks refuge from a disintegrating family in a series of impulsive promiscuous affairs.

Steve Coogan stars in Michael Winterbottom’s po-mo adaptation of Sterne’s bawdy, untamable, 18th-century novel. “The first great, mind-tickling treat of the new movie year” — Entertainment Weekly

Deeply moving and hilarious tale switches from achingly funny to achingly sad in the twitch of a child’s finger. Could well be this precocious generation’s Stand by Me.

Winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 1987 (the first French film so honoured in 21 years), Maurice Pialat's Under Satan's Sun is a dark and demanding study of priesthood, faith and evil.

British director Paul Greengrass’ (Bloody Sunday) harrowing reenactment, in real time, of what might have happened on the one airplane that didn't fulfill the terrorists' intended goals on Sept. 11, 2001.

The living master of French farce, Francis Veber (The Dinner Game), pulls it off again in this tale of a ruthless tycoon (Daniel Auteuil) who pays a valet to cohabit with his mistress to confuse his wife.

Maurice Pialat’s 1991 portrait of Van Gogh’s last months eschews sensationalism for the director’s trademark realism. “Arguably the greatest biographical film about an artist ever made." — Sight & Sound

Actor Richard E Grant’s touching and funny movie-memoir of his 60s adolescence amongst the British diplomatic community in Swaziland in Southern Africa. With Gabriel Byrne, Emily Watson.

This good humoured, deeply fanciful mock documentary about a land claim has a distinctively Cantabrian flavour.

Indian filmmaker Deepa Mehta's third (after Earth and Fire) and most powerful chapter in her visually opulent, dramatic trilogy of female empowerment.

Absorbing documentary about four Chinese students at New Zealand high school provides a rich and finely nuanced portrayal of cultural displacement.

Maurice Pialat's remarkable second feature is an uncompromising study of the break-up of a relationship, based on his own autobiographical novel. (1972)

The amazingly true romantic adventure of a Swiss woman who marries a Massai warrior and lives with him in his mud hut in the Kenyan bush.

Spectacular documentary traces the creatures and seasons of the Arctic, reminding of nature’s magnificence and providing powerful anti global-warming message: Enjoy the show while it lasts.

Fashioned as a tongue-in-cheek murder mystery, this disarmingly entertaining documentary looks at the optimistic rise and swift demise of the electric car in 1990s California.

Brainy and playful Altmanesque comedy, set in a Japanese college for the performing arts, where an unstable mix of art and life fuels a class of film students.

A 13-year-old home-schooled genius falls in love, or thinks he does, with his gifted – and closeted – English teacher. “Consistently surprising ... a coming-of-age film that could become a Canadian classic.” — Now

Werner Herzog fashions a sci-fi fantasy of paradise lost around actor Brad Dourif, recutting amazing NASA footage and gorgeous submarine imagery. An unclassifiable oddity.

The Festival and the Auckland Philharmonia are proud to present a single rare screening of one of the great dramatic classics of the silent era from 1928.

British social realist Ken Loach picked up the Cannes Palme d’Or for this provocative drama set in County Cork between 1920 and 1922, a dangerous period before the outbreak of civil war in Ireland. “Staggeringly powerful… The Wind That Shakes the Barley had more to say about the world of today than any other film screening in Cannes.” — Scott Foundas, LA Weekly

The world’s most horrible, life-endangering jobs are the subject of Austrian Michael Glawogger’s superbly cinematic, confrontingly aestheticised documentary.

Funny, heartbreaking documentary charts the tragic tale of Roky Erickson, charming lead singer of the legendary 13th Floor Elevators, who stared into the cosmos and never came back.