7.2

The Young Victoria

2008, UK, USA

• Actors: Emily Blunt, Rupert Friend, Paul Bettany, Miranda Richardson, Jim Broadbent, Thomas Kretschmann, Mark Strong, Jesper Christensen, Harriet Walter, Jeanette Hain, Julian Glover, Michael Maloney, Michiel Huisman, Genevieve O'Reilly, Rachael Stirling, Morven Christie, Josef Altin, Tom Brooke, Michaela Brooks, Grace Smith, Sophie Roberts, Charlie Clarke, Robert Cambrinus, Tom Fisher, Shaun Dingwall, Alice Glover, David Horovitch, Jo Hartley, Bernard Lloyd, Johnnie Lyne-Pirkis
• Genre: Biography, Drama, History, Romance
• Director(s): Jean-Marc Vallée
• Available languages:
  • English English.

Dominated by her possessive mother and her bullying consort, Conroy, since childhood, teen-aged Victoria refuses to allow them the power of acting as her regent in the last days of her uncle, William IV's rule. Her German cousin Albert is encouraged to court her for solely political motives but, following her accession at age eighteen, finds he is falling for her and is dismayed at her reliance on trusty premier Melbourne. Victoria is impressed by Albert's philanthropy which is akin to her own desire to help her subjects. However her loyalty to Melbourne, perceived as a self-seeker, almost causes a constitutional crisis and it is Albert who helps restore her self-confidence. She proposes and they marry, Albert proving himself not only a devoted spouse, prepared to take an assassin's bullet for her, but an agent of much-needed reform, finally endorsed by an admiring Melbourne.

  7.8

Boy A

2006, UK

• Actors: Andrew Garfield, Peter Mullan, Siobhan Finneran, Alfie Owen, Victoria Brazier, Skye Bennett, Madeleine Rakic-Platt, Josef Altin, Dudley Brewis, Leigh Symonds, Maria Gough, Taylor Doherty, Jeremy Swift, Shaun Evans, Carlene Hanson, Katie Lyons, James Young, Anthony Lewis, John Catterall, Tilly Vosburgh, Philip Rowson, Luke Broughton, Paul-Michael Giblin, Helen Wilding, Steven Pacey, Jared Garfield, Cyriack Stevenson, Tom Cottle, Nathan Kershaw, Josh Moran
• Genre: Crime, Drama, Romance
• Director(s): John Crowley
• Available languages:
  • English English.

A young man is released from prison after many years and given a new identity in a new town. Aided by a supervisor who becomes like a father to him he finds a job and friends and hesitantly starts a relationship with a compassionate girl. But the secret of the heinous crime he committed as a boy weighs down on him, and he learns that it is not so easy to escape your past.

  7.8

Eastern Promises

2006, UK, Canada, USA

• Actors: Josef Altin, Mina E. Mina, Aleksander Mikic, Sarah-Jeanne Labrosse, Lalita Ahmed, Badi Uzzaman, Naomi Watts, Doña Croll, Raza Jaffrey, Sinéad Cusack, Jerzy Skolimowski, Tatiana Maslany, Viggo Mortensen, Vincent Cassel, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Shannon-Fleur Roux, Lillibet Langley, Mia Soteriou, Radoslaw Kaim, Donald Sumpter, Rhodri Wyn Miles, Tereza Srbova, Elisa Lasowski, Cristina Catalina, Alice Henley, Faton Gerbeshi, David Papava, Tamer Hassan, Gergo Danka, Michael Sarne
• Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
• Director(s): David Cronenberg
• Available languages:
  • English English.

In London, the Russian pregnant teenager Tatiana arrives bleeding in a hospital, and the doctors save her baby only. The Russian descendant midwife Anna Khitrova finds Tatiana's diary written in Russian language in her belongings and decided to find her family to deliver the baby, she brings the diary home and ask her uncle Stepan to translate the document. Stepan refuses, but Anna finds a card of a restaurant owned by the Russian Semyon inside the diary and she visits the old man trying to find a lead to contact Tatiana's family. When she mentions the existence of the diary, Semyon immediately offers to translate the document. However, Stepan translates part of the diary and Anna discovers that Semyon and his sick son Kirill had raped Tatiana when she was fourteen years old and forced her to work as prostitute in a brothel of their own. Further, Semyon is the dangerous boss of the Russian mafia "Vory v Zakone", jeopardizing the safety of Anna and her family. Meanwhile, Semyon's driver Nikolai Luzhin gets close to Kirill and Semyon, climbing positions in the criminal organization, but he helps Anna, her family and the baby.

  5.6

Stoned

2004, UK

• Actors: Leo Gregory, Paddy Considine, David Morrissey, Ben Whishaw, Tuva Novotny, Amelia Warner, Monet Mazur, Luke de Woolfson, David Walliams, David Williams, Gary Love, Johnny Shannon, Melanie Ramsay, Rüdiger Rudolph, Ralph Brown, Alfie Allen, Guy Flanagan, Josef Altin, James D. White, Vanessa Langford, Lisa O'Reilly, Jenna Aarons, Tom Espiner, Anna Madeley, Gerard Bell, Angela Sims, Paul Raffield, Dirk Von Bruck, Lisa Dolan, Simon Chandler
• Genre: Biography, Drama, Music
• Director(s): Stephen Woolley
• Available languages:
  • English English.

Fact-based story about the drug-addled and sordid life of The Rolling Stones founder Brian Jones. Unfortunately the story moves so quickly into the sensationalized decadence and drug-induced state of Jones, that the unknowing viewer has to wonder why anyone would care. There are only a few framing sequences with members of The Stones, particularly Keith Richards, that show they had a great respect for him and tried to bring him back into the band as he drifted away. Mixed into the destruction of Jones is a common builder, Frank Thorogood, who is given the unenviable task of trying to please Jones by rebuilding his estate and to watch him per Jones' manager's instructions. Thorogood's life is so far removed from all of the sex and drugs that he sees, that he envies and desires the tawdry life as well, but never quite fits in. Unfortunately, at least according to this film and according to a supposed death bed confessional of Thorogood in 1993, it led to Thorogood's murder of Jones in a swimming pool "accident".

  7.5

Dirty Pretty Things

2002, UK

• Actors: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Kriss Dosanjh, Israel Aduramo, Yemi Ajibade, Nizwar Karanj, Deobia Oparei, Jeffery Kissoon, Zlatko Buric, Audrey Tautou, Sophie Okonedo, Sergi López, Benedict Wong, Kenan Hudaverdi, Damon Younger, Paul Bhattacharjee, Darrell D'Silva, Sotigui Kouyaté, Abi Gouhad, Jeillo Edwards, Rita Hamill, Ron Stenner, Jemanesh Solomon, Naomi Simpson, Barber Ali, Jean-Philippe Écoffey, Josef Altin, Fisun Burgess, Sabina Michael, Michael Mellinger, Noma Dumezweni
• Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller
• Director(s): Stephen Frears
• Available languages:
  • English English.

Okwe, a kind-hearted Nigerian doctor, and Senay, a Turkish chambermaid, work at the same West London hotel. The hotel is run by Senor Sneaky and is the sort of place where dirty business like drug dealing and prostitution takes place. However, when Okwe finds a human heart in one of the toilets, he uncovers something far more sinister than just a common crime.