Director: Hany Abu-Assad

Screenplay: Hanu Abu-Assad, Bero Beyer & Pierre Hodgson

Cast: Lubna Azabel, Hamza Abu-Aiaash, Kais Nashif, Lutuf Nouasser, Ali Suliman, Mohammad Bustami, Ahmad Fares, Waleed On-Allah

Academy Award: Nomination for Best Foreign Film

Tense, thoughtful and emotional drama that is as absorbing as it is relevant.

Inside the mind of a Palestinian suicide bomber is this story which involves two days in the lives of Said (Kais Nashef) and Khaled (Ali Suliman), two Palestinians, garage mechanics and best friends, who are recruited to cross into Israel and blow themselves up. This thoughtfully constructed film attempts to examine why people would be driven to such extremes. The two men are not shown as fanatics. They prepare for their task as one would prepare for any difficult assignment. The organization that supports them provides training, encouragement, praise, shaves and haircuts, suits and ties, a ceremonial dinner, and a chance to make videos that will be shown on television.

Despite the grim nature of the story, the screenplay finds room for moments of black humour. Instead of a penetrating psychological study, the film is fashioned as a thriller. Conviction mingles with vacillation, and once an unexpected hitch in the suicide plan arises, all bets are off. The film continues to twist and turn until the very end, keeping us guessing as to what the would-be martyrs will do. Ultimately action speaks louder than words, even for men who walk softly but carry big sticks of dynamite.

Director: Wong Kar-Wei

Screenplay: Wong Kar-Wei

Cast: Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung, Siu Ping-Lam, Tung Cho "Joe" Cheung, Rebecca Pan, Kelly Lai Chen, Man-Lei Chan

Cannes Film Festival: Best Actor - Tony Leung

Visually beautiful and emotionally moving film about an understated romance. The film provides profound and moving reflections on life's fundamentals as it takes on the themes of love, betrayal, loss, missed opportunities, memory, the brutality of time's passage and loneliness.

In 1962 British Hong Kong, Shanghai expatriates, a journalist (Tony Leung), and a secretary (Maggie Cheung) at a shipping company, rent rooms in adjacent apartments. Each has a spouse who works and often leaves them alone on overtime shifts. Although they are initially friendly to each other they grow closer as they realize that their spouses are having an affair. As time passes, they acknowledge that they have developed feelings for each other but are forced to keep their relationship platonic in order to do the 'correct thing'.

Stylish and very moving film is sumptuously mounted with gorgeous cinematography, sets and costumes. Both stars give superb performances in a film of stolen glances and fleeting touches, as they both master this quiet and chaste dance.

Director: Dino Risi

Screenplay: Dino Risi, Ettore Scola & Ruggero Maccari

Cast: Vittorio Gassman, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Catherine Spaak, Claudio Gora, Luciana Angiolillo, Linda Sini, Franca Polesello

David Di Donatello Award: Best Actor (Vittorio Gassman)

An Italian road movie about an unlikely friendship that develops after a chance encounter between a liberal man (Vittorio Gassman) and a conservative law student (Jean-Louis Trintignant).

Like a whirlwind the student's entire life is transformed as they both go on this impromptu frantic journey with their contrasting personalities and outlooks on life, leading to a number of fascinating conversations, as the two traverse the roads of Italy. The stunning historic architecture of Rome and the scenic vistas of the countryside roads act as a delightful backdrop which the director exploits to its full potential, painting a magical picture of an enticing part of Italy.

The charming comedy is the personification of the Swinging Sixties as the pair indulge in fun involving bars, the beach and a bevy of beautiful women. Also like many great comedies, there is a tragic undercurrent to the story that adds depth to its humour as the senseless decadence reaches a heart-stopping climax. The film is shot entirely on location and without the use of back projection which provides a sense of immediacy and realism to the story.

Director: Santosh Shivan

Screenplay: Cathy Rabin

Cast: Linus Roache, Rahul Bose, Nandita Das, Jennifer Ehle, Leopold Benedict, John Standing, Lal, Dr. Ambikathmajan, Lakshmi Krishnamurthy

Awards: Houston Film Festival: Best Theatrical Feature

The story, set in Kerala - South India - during the British Raj, is a dispassionate study of how power, when threatened, ruthlessly exercises its prerogatives.

Henry Moore  (Linus Roache),  an English tea planter in southwestern India during a time of mounting resentment towards British rule, has borrowed heavily to finance the building of a road for the fantastically lucrative spice trade. He has his faithful ''man'', an educated Indian  (Rahul Bose),  well read and devoted, whom he treats as a friend but up to a point. He also has a mistress. Unbeknownst to his wife  (Jennifer Ehle) , he has become involved with the housemaid  (Nandita Das) . He says he loves her and she, wed to a man in the village, risks everything to carry on the affair, but when two boys playing in the woods spot the adulterers, a series of tragic events are set in motion.

The luscious scenery, shot by director-cinematographer Santosh Sivan is gorgeous to behold as his camera captures stunning images of mist rising from tea plantations and angry villagers marching with torches. The film is fervently acted with Nandita Das providing a powerful, emotional force.

Director: John Curran

Screenplay: Ron Nyswaner, based on the novel by W. Somerset Maugham

Cast: Edward Norton, Naomi Watts, Liev Schreiber, Juliet Howland, Toby Jones, Ian Renwick, Diana Rigg, Maggie Steed, Anthony Chau-Sang Wong, Sihan Cheng, Yu Xia, Lu Yan

Awards: Spirit Award Nominations: Best Actor (Edward Horton), Best Music Score

W. Somerset Maugham's classic story about a mismatched couple during the 1925 cholera epidemic in China was first filmed in Hollywood with the great Greta Garbo. This third film version brings a modern sensibility and more realism to the tragic story.

On a brief trip to London, an earnest, bookish bacteriologist (Edward Norton) is dazzled by a bored socialite (Naomi Watts). He proposes marriage, she accepts and after a romantic honeymoon in Venice they end up at a medical post in Shanghai where he is stationed in a government lab studying infectious diseases. The couple is ill-suited and she is much more interested in the social life of the British expatriates. When she embarks on an affair with a married British vice consul (Liev Schreiber) her husband threatens divorce for adultery unless she accompanies him to a remote area of China where he has volunteered to treat victims of a cholera epidemic. The story deals in the ways in which marriage in ruins is slowly and inexorably repaired as two disappointed individuals struggle in an alien and dangerous environment to find common ground and the love that has so far eluded them.

The film is shot on stunning locations in China with sumptuous cinematography, exquisite period detail and a rousing score accompanying this romantic but tragic love story.

Bruno Antony thinks he has the perfect plot to rid himself of his hated father, and when he meets tennis player Guy Haines on a train he thinks he's found the partner he needs to pull it off. His plan is relatively simple: Two strangers each agree to kill someone the other person wants gone. For example, Guy could kill his father and he could get rid of Guy's wife Miriam, freeing him to marry Anne Morton, the beautiful daughter of a U.S. Senator. Guy dismisses it all out of hand, but Bruno goes ahead with his half of the "bargain" and disposes of Miriam. When Guy balks, Bruno makes it clear that he will plant evidence to implicate Guy in her murder if he doesn't get rid of his father. Guy had also made some unfortunate statements about Miriam after she had refused to divorce him. It all leads the police to believe Guy is responsible for the murder, forcing him to deal with Bruno's mad ravings.

Screenplay: Cathy Rabin

Cast: Linus Roache, Rahul Bose, Nandita Das, Jennifer Ehle, Leopold Benedict, John

Standing, Lal, Dr. Ambikathmajan, Lakshmi Krishnamurthy

Awards: Houston Film Festival: Best Theatrical Feature

The story -set in Kerala,South India ,during the British Raj- is a dispassionate study of how power when threatened ruthlessly exercises its prerogatives!

Henry Moore (Linus Roache) an English tea planter in southwestern India during a time of mounting resentment towards British rule, has borrowed heavily to finance the building of a road for the fantastically lucrative spice trade.

He has his faithful  ''man'' (Rahul Bose) an educated Indian

-well read and devoted- whom he treats as a friend, but up to a point. He also has a mistress...

Unbeknownst to his wife (Jennifer Ehle) , he has become involved with the housemaid (Nandita Das) . He says he loves her and she, wed to a man in the village, risks everything to carry on the affair, but when two boys playing in the woods spot the adulterers, a series of tragic events are set in motion.....

The luscious scenery, shot by director-cinematographer Santosh Sivan is gorgeous to behold, as his camera captures stunning images of mist rising from tea plantations and angry villagers marching with torches. Brilliant acting by all, Nandita Das specifically provides an powerful,emotional force...

Duration: 1 hr 49 mins

Director: Zhang Yimou

Screenplay: Jingzhi Zou based on the book by Geling Yan

Cast: Gong Li, Chen Daoming, Zhang Huiwen, Guo Tao, Yan Ni, Li Chun, Zhang Jia-yi

Awards: Asian Film Award: Gong Li (Best Actress) / Zhang Huiwen (Newcomer)

A haunting drama about a family torn apart by the violent Cultural Revolution in the 1970s when Party officials and local police publicly humiliated and harassed people, seized property, tortured some and arbitrarily imprisoned others. The story is ultimately one of triumph of the human spirit and the endless love it is capable of as well as the phenomenal power of such love to emancipate and create beauty from the bleakest of circumstances.

Duration: 1 hr 50 min

Director: Matthew Heineman

Screenplay: Arash Amiel & Marie Brenner, based on a Vanity Fair article

Cast: Rosamund Pike, Alexandra Moen, Tom Hollander, Faye Marsay

Awards: Golden Globe Award Nomination: Rosamund Pike (Best Actress)

A haunting film about the legendary Sunday Times war correspondent Marie Colvin.The film does an incredible job recreating the tension and anxiety of moving through a war zone and at its center is the remarkable performance of Rosamund Pike who captures with sharp precision the flawed but brave character of Marie Colvin…

Duration: 1 hr 37 mins

Director: Jafar Panahi

Screenplay: Abbas Kiarostami

Cast: Hossain Emadeddin, Kamyar Sheisi, Azita Rayeji, Shahram Vaziri, Ehsan Amani, Pourang Nakhael. Kaveh Najmabadi, Saber Safael

Award: Cannes Film Festival Jury Award

A man stands just inside the doorway of a posh jewelry shop, holding a gun and looking in bewilderment at the crowd gathering outside. Eventually he points the pistol at his head and kills himself. The film then leaps back in time to trace the causes of this violent, seemingly abrupt event...