About Elly follows a group of professional couples from Tehran on a weekend break by the Caspian Sea. With them is Elly, a young school teacher who’s joined them to look after their children, but whilst enjoying a picnic on the beach, she goes missing. Tensions rise amongst the families as they second guess their involvement in what happened to Elly and who may be at fault for her disappearance. As Farhad immerses us in the centre of a tense situation, he provides a window into the troubling power dynamics at play between men and women both in modern Iranian society, as well as that around the world.

Korean cinema was catapulted into the limelight in 2020 after Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite took home a host of awards at ceremonies across the globe. But before that came the thrilling story of The Handmaiden. Loosely based on a Victorian crime novel, The Handmaiden depicts a Korean con-man devising a plan with the help of an orphaned pickpocket to seduce and trick a Japanese woman out of her inheritance. With compelling characters, an intriguing storyline and impeccable cinematography, Park Chan-Wook’s masterpiece is yet another testament to the excellence of Korean cinema.

In the poverty-stricken favelas of Rio de Janeiro in the 1970s, two young men choose different paths. Rocket is a budding photographer who documents the increasing drug-related violence in his neighbourhood, while José “Zé” Pequeno is an ambitious drug dealer. A shocking and profoundly compelling study of the vibrant yet equally terrifying life in the favela, City of God is a film that leaves you with no time to stop and think as the story unfolds. Filled with iconic moments, this thought-provoking coming-of-age film is one to watch.