The tension is palpable, the excitement is mounting and the heady scent of competition is in the air as hundreds of eager contestants from across America prepare to take part in what is undoubtedly one of the greatest events of their lives – the Mayflower Dog Show. The canine contestants and their owners are as wondrously diverse as the great country that has bred them. A 2000 American mockumentary comedy film directed by Christopher Guest whose previous films include the spoof rockumentary This Is Spinal Tap.

Seventy-year-old Mahin has been widowed for 30 years and her two children live abroad. She is living a lonely life in Tehran. But one day, she decides to join her friends for the afternoon tea and finds a new spark in her heart. She meets someone who makes her feel alive again, and the evening brings unpredictable surprises and memories. A bittersweet film.

Episodic and strange, Satyricon offers a hedonistic tour through an ancient Rome that exists not in history books, but from Federico Fellini’s singular imagination. Loosely based on Petronius’ fragmentary work Satyricon which was written during the reign of Emperor Nero and set in Imperial Rome, the film is divided into nine episodes, following Encolpius (Martin Potter) and his friend Ascyltus (Hiram Keller) as they try to win the heart of a young boy named Gitón within a surreal and dreamlike Roman landscape. Also featuring fashion models Donyale Luna (the “first black supermodel”) and Capucine who worked for Christian Dior, Hubert de Givenchy and Pierre Balmain.

It received international acclaim from critics, with particular praise for Fellini’s direction and Danilo Donati’s vivid and striking production design.

A searing drama based on the true story of Fahrije (Yllka Gashi), who, like many of the other women in her patriarchal village, has lived with fading hope and burgeoning grief since her husband went missing during the war in Kosovo. In order to provide for her struggling family, she pulls together the other widows in her community to launch a business selling a local food product. Finding healing and solace in considering a future without their husbands, their will to begin living independently is met with hostility: the men in the village condemn Fahrije’s efforts to empower herself. Against the backdrop of Eastern Europe’s civil unrest and lingering misogyny, Fahrije and the women of her village join in a struggle to find hope in the face of an uncertain future. Hive is a pithy, devastating portrait of loss and uphill journeys to freedom.

From visionary director Hirokazu Kore-eda (I Wish, After Life) comes a critically-acclaimed portrait of a makeshift family in Japan. After a successful shoplifting spree, Osamu and his son rescue a little girl in the freezing cold and invite her home with them. Osamu’s wife Nobuyo reluctantly agrees to shelter her. Although the family is poor, they live happily together until an unforeseen incident upsets the delicate balance they have created, revealing long-buried secrets.

The first Hollywood studio feature with a black female director is a compelling account of a South African who turns against the ruling caste. Donald Sutherland stars as a liberal but blinkered schoolteacher who gradually becomes radicalised after a series of brutal events affecting his gardener that eventually splits his family apart. Susan Sarandon plays a sympathetic journalist and Marlon Brando, in a juicy comeback cameo that evokes Orson Welles, plays an anti-apartheid lawyer. The plot is effectively set up and expertly pursued, and Hugh Masekela makes some striking contributions to Dave Grusin’s musical score. With Janet Suzman, Jürgen Prochnow and Zakes Mokae. A film that will make you angry!

Kirsty Macleod (Hermione Corfield) dreams of a better life away from the isolation that suffocates her in a small village on an island in the Outer Scottish Hebrides. Suppressing these aspirations, she sees her lover Murdo (Will Fletcher) conscripted for service in the First World War, soon to set off and fight alongside the other young men from the village. A road dance is held in their honour the evening before they depart, and on this fateful evening Kirsty’s life takes a dramatic and tragic turn.