An entertaining, genre-bending adventure of a band of misfits who help a noodle-shop owner in her quest for the perfect recipe to make ramen (noodles). Many elements of the film closely and knowingly parallel classic Westerns – a ‘spaghetti Eastern’ no less with nods to Clint Eastwood and Luis Buñuel along the way. A mysterious stranger rides into town and saves the pretty widow from being harassed by bad men. Interspersed with the erotic exploits of a gastronome gangster, a crazy lady who squeezes all the fruit in a shop and the glimpses of food culture both high and low, the sweet, sexy and surreal Tampopo (Dandelion) is a lavishly inclusive paean to the sensual joys of nourishment and one of the most mouthwatering examples of food on film ever made.

Halla, a choir conductor and eco-activist, plans to disrupt the operations of a Rio Tinto aluminium plant in the Icelandic highlands, purposely damaging electricity pylons and wires to cut their power supply. One day, a long-forgotten application to adopt an orphan child from Ukraine is approved. At the same time, the government ramps up police and propaganda efforts in order to catch and discredit her. The film revolves around her attempts to reconcile her dangerous and illegal activism with the upcoming adoption. All the while, the film’s soundtrack players, consisting of a three-man band and Ukrainian traditional singers, interact with the plot and characters.

Two women, Janis and Ana, meet in a hospital room where they are going to give birth. Both are single and have become pregnant by accident. Janis, middle-aged, doesn’t regret it and she is exultant. The other, Ana, an adolescent, is scared, repentant and traumatised. Janis tries to encourage her while they move like sleepwalkers along the hospital corridors. The few words they exchange in these hours will create a very close link between the two, which by chance develops, complicates and changes their lives in a decisive way.

Shot in black-and-white and without dialogue, Gunda chronicles the unfiltered lives of a mother pig, some chickens and a herd of cows with masterful intimacy. Using transcendent cinematography and the farm’s ambient soundtrack, director Kossakovsky invites the audience to slow down and experience life as his subjects do, taking in their world with a magical patience and an other worldly perspective. What is not shown, what is not said, is as much a part of this film as any character. The human presence is so prevalent, in terms of how the sequences were filmed, but more importantly in the lives of the animals who live on farms and who have been specifically bred and raised by and for humans. Gunda asks us to meditate on the mystery of animal consciousness, and the role played by humanity.

This re-imagining of Shakespeare’s ‘Crookback King’ relocates the story to the 1930s and features an indelible star turn for Ian McKellen as the monstrous and magnetic King Richard III. A murderous lust for the British throne sees Richard descend into madness. He aspires to a fascist dictatorship, but must first remove the obstacles to his ascension – among them his brother (Nigel Hawthorne), his nephews and his brother’s wife (Annette Bening). When the Duke of Buckingham (Jim Broadbent) deserts him, Richard’s plans are compromised. Also starring Maggie Smith, Kristin Scott Thomas, Dominic West and Robert Downey Jr. Hugely entertaining.

In the plains of central Greece, Byzantine monasteries are perched atop sandstone pillars, suspended between heaven and earth. A young Greek monk and a Russian nun have devoted their lives to the strict rituals and practices of their community, but a growing affection for one another puts their monastic life under question. Torn between spiritual devotion and their carnal human desire, they must decide which path to follow. The film takes its title from the Byzantine monastery complex Meteora, in Thessaly, a series of structures built on natural sandstone pillars whose tops often disappear into the clouds.

A hardworking Maltese fisherman, Jesmark, is faced with an agonising choice. He can repair his leaky luzzu – a traditional, multi-coloured wooden fishing boat – in the hopes of eking out a meagre living at sea for his wife and newborn son, just as his father and grandfather did before him. Or he can decommission it in exchange for an EU payout and cast his lot with a sinister black-market operation that is decimating the Mediterranean fish population and the livelihoods of the local families who depend on the fish.

When a daughter becomes concerned about her mother’s well-being in a retirement home, private investigator Romulo hires Sergio, an 83-year-old man who becomes a new resident – and a mole – inside the home. He struggles to balance his assignment with becoming increasingly involved in the lives of several residents. Warm and funny, The Mole Agent offers audiences a poignant reminder that it’s never too late to forge new connections and embark on new adventure.

Peter Greenaway became a director of international status with this witty, stylised, erotic country house murder mystery. In an apparently idyllic 17th century Wiltshire, an ambitious draughtsman is commissioned by the wife of an aristocrat to produce twelve drawings of her husband’s estate, in return for which he will receive payment, board and bed – hers. Extravagant costumes, a twisting plot, elegantly barbed dialogue and a score by Michael Nyman make the film a treat for ear, eye and mind.

Few true stories tread the thin line between good and evil as precariously as that of Jan Mikolášek, a 20th century Czech herbal healer whose great success masked many secrets. Mikolášek won fame and fortune treating celebrities of the interwar, Nazi and Communist eras with his uncanny knack for “urinary diagnosis”. But his passion for healing welled up from the same source as his incapacity for love that only one person could ever quell – his assistant, František. As a show trial threatens to pry open these secrets and undo him, Jan’s dichotomies are put to a final test, with the fate of his life’s only love in the balance. A breathtaking tale as replete with twists as the century itself, and a reflection on the price one pays for single-mindedly following one’s calling.