Alfred and Lisa decide to divorce after only a couple of months of marriage. Alfred takes a few days off to clear his head, riding through Berlin and meeting strangers; although he ultimately returns to Lisa, but the ending remains open. In East Germany's closest counterpart to early Godard, Jürgen Böttcher grasps the life of 20-year-olds in Prenzlauer Berg with social and regional exactness and translates it into a universal language. Born in '45...

Filmmaker Phil Agland reveals the everyday drama and passion of contemporary China, a country steeped in tradition and wracked by change, by focussing on life in one small town. Interwoven throughout the four segments of this documentary are the stories of a gang fight, in which one boy is killed, and the subsequent police investigation; a hill country teacher who leaves his charges temporarily in the care of a substitute while he takes a course to...

A stunning documentary about the life of indigenous people living in the heart of the Siberian Taiga. Deep in the wilderness, far away from civilization, 300 people inhabit the small village of Bakhtia at the river Yenisei. There are only two ways to reach this outpost: by helicopter or boat. There's no telephone, running water or medical aid. The locals, whose daily routines have barely changed over the last centuries, live according to their own...

A sublime work of personal vision, the debut feature by the Mexican Ethiopian filmmaker Jessica Beshir is a hypnotic documentary immersion in the world of Ethiopia2s Oromo community, a place where one commodity khat, a euphoria-inducing plant once prized for its supposedly mystical properties holds sway over the rituals and rhythms of everyday life. As if under the influence of the drug itself, Faya Dayi unfurls as intoxicating, trance state cinema,...

Their voices are suppressed, prohibited and censored. But world-famous bloggers Yoani Sanchez, Zeng Jinyan and Farnaz Seifi are unafraid of their dictatorial regimes. These fearless women represent a new, networked generation of modern rebels. In Cuba, China and Iran their blogs shake the foundations of the state information monopoly, putting them at great risk.

In Havana, Cuba an up-and-coming singer searches for confidence, a young woman in love longs for motherhood and a veteran of the Revolution comes to terms with the death of her husband. Three women, united by blindness and a desire for independence, guide us through Cuba's current economic and social landscape while pursuing their dreams and breaking through personal and societal limitations. Jennifer Redfearn gained intimate access to her subjects...

Journey into the world of the Roma - a people who through the ages have been both romanticized and vilified in popular culture, politics and art, and who have endured centuries of intolerance and persecution. Visiting 11 countries and interviewing dozens of Roma artists, historians, musicians and Holocaust survivors, this revealing film documents their culturally rich but often difficult lives, taking us back to ancient times and forward to the little-known...

Africa Dreaming is a landmark in African television - a series drawing together for the first time broadcasters, television producers, film directors and writers from across the continent. Africa Dreaming was designed to give Africans a rare opportunity to speak directly to each other in their own words and images. It is also the first continent-wide media project in which South Africa played a leading role. Africa Dreaming may be a harbinger of what...

This disease takes away the beauty of your face. It eats up your hands and feet and makes us ugly. Other diseases eat up your insides, but they leave you looking beautiful outside." "People in the villages think it is caused by Naga spirits. So they sacrifice chickens and goats and do prayer pujas. That's what they did for me too. My parents didn't know." Since antiquity, leprosy has struck fear into human beings. Seen as contagious, mutilating and...

The story of an idealistic young politician's rise and fall in a small town, "Tableau Ferraille" ("scrap heap") paints a picture of a corrupt post-colonial elite. Tableau Ferraille offers an intimate view of how modernization, at least as practiced in today's Africa, corrodes traditional communities and retards grassroots development. Like such past Senegalese masterpieces as Ousmane Sembene's Xala and Djibril Diop Mambety's Hyenas, it deplores a...