Discoveries from European World Cinema

It is 200 years before the birth of Christ and Rome is the new superpower of the ancient world. She believes she is invincible - but one man is destined to change that. He is a man bound by oath to avenge the wrongs inflicted on his home and, in pursuit of revenge, he will stop at nothing. Hannibal explores the man behind the myth, revealing what drove the 26-year-old to mastermind one of the most audacious military moves in history. With 40,000 soldiers and 37 elephants, he marched 1,500 miles to challenge his enemies on their own soil. It was an act so daring that few people believed it possible.

Julie just started university in Bordeaux. She moves into the house of Elizabeth, an old widow who lends her a room in exchange for her help with daily chores. There’s one condition: acting as if Victor, Elizabeth’s dead husband, was still alive. But soon, Julie starts feeling his presence… and an inescapable and dangerous love triangle begins.

In a village somewhere on Reunion Island, Nelson, 10, dreams of being a singer and has signed up for Star Kids. Her friend Mia, accompanied by her little brother Zizou, decides to find a coach for her to help her prepare for the competition. His choice fell on Pierre Leroy, singer coming from Paris on a singing tour in a hotel by the sea, where Nelson's mother works. But the current does not pass between Pierre, lonely and disillusioned, and Nelson, proud and obstinate. Will their one thing in common, the love of singing, be strong enough to bring them together and heal their wounds?

In a seaside village, a group of local young men mingle among the seasonal tourists in search of sexual conquests. Near the end of one summer, the leader of the group, Tinker, a strolling photographer, aims to conquer a fashion model from a well-to-do family, but he finds himself unexpectedly falling in love. The tables thus turned, Tinker begins to see that maybe it's not the tourists who are being used in these sexual games.

Three men are sitting around a table, two of them playing a game of Écarté. When the game is over, a domestic serves drinks.

In the early 19th century, in Seville and the surrounding area, Carmen seduces the sergeant Don José, who deserts the army to be with her. But the beautiful gypsy falls in love with the bullfighter Escamillo, much to Don José’s despair.

In a faraway future, on a wild and untamed female inhabited planet called After Blue, a lonely teenager named Roxy unknowingly releases a mystical, dangerous, and sensual assassin from her prison.

The Don Juan of a small provincial town saves from suicide a young American girl who falls in love with him. The citizens, after having discovered that the girl is very rich, will do everything to organize the marriage between them.

After two British Secret Intelligence Service agents are murdered at the hands of a cryptic neo-Nazi group known as Phoenix, the suave agent Quiller is sent to Berlin to investigate.

In eighteenth-century France, a girl is forced against her will to take vows as a nun. Three mothers superior treat her in radically different ways, ranging from maternal concern, to sadistic persecution, to lesbian desire.

Television film adaptation of the true story ("A Friend Like Henry" by Nuala Gardner) of a young autistic boy and his extraordinary friendship with his dog, Thomas.

Because of a bet, Werner and his friend have to construct the fastest vehicle to win a race, because life depends on it.

A scholarly king and his three companions swear off the society of women for three years, only to have a diplomatic visit from a French princess and her three ladies-in-waiting thwart their intentions.

Summer 1939. Influential families in Nazi Germany have sent their daughters to a finishing school in an English seaside town to learn the language and be ambassadors for a future looking National Socialist. A teacher there sees what is coming and is trying to raise the alarm. But the authorities believe he is the problem.

Gdańsk, Poland, September 1980. Lech Wałęsa and other Lenin shipyard workers found Solidarność (Solidarity), the first independent trade union behind the Iron Curtain. The long and hard battle to bring down communist dictatorship has begun.

Tracks an unknown man’s life as he sifts through memories of his youth in Bulgaria through to his increasingly rootless and melancholic adulthood in Canada.

Based on the novel by Ernest Hemingway. Santiago goes out on his usual fishing trip and makes a huge catch, the biggest of his life. Then a shark attacks and tries to steal his catch.

Alex, a young actress, is sexually assaulted at a New Year’s Eve party at a friend’s house. That night, she never manages to see the face of her aggressor, a fact that will end up eating away at her. Throughout the following year, she will have to face feelings of guilt, disgust and shame. While Alex tries to channel all her pain through theatre, where she takes on the role of the famously vengeful Medea, her brother, Adrian, must face the guilt he feels at not having been able to protect his sister and his impulse to let himself be carried away by his own decisions. What were once the typical conflicts you might expect between any siblings, give way to much more extreme and complex emotions.

21 August 1974. In Marseille, two Belgian tourists, Nicole and Malia, are savagely attacked and raped by three men. Their attackers claim that the women consented and are allowed to remain free. Though their friends and family advise them to forget the ordeal, Nicole and Malia instead decide to fight. Helped by their lawyer, Gisèle Halimi, they request that the attackers be judged at the assize court. On 8 May 1978, after a long battle, they finally obtain justice. A trial which made history as until then rape had been considered simply as a misdemeanor, whereas now it became a crime.

Paul, a former miner, writes a hard-hitting screenplay about his own experiences of the 1984 miners' strike. However, the Hollywood production company that gets hold of his script turns it into a ludicrously sensationalist and anachronistic action film, starring Al Pacino as Arthur Scargill, and Meryl Streep as his wife.

In search of freedom and the American Dream, 16-year-old German exchange student Franny sets out to the USA in 2001. But instead of New York or California, she ends up in the emptiness of a small town in New Mexico. In the wake of 9/11, Franny drifts through her exchange life in a city left behind and forgotten by America. In the endless desert, Franny, the 'alien', meets military host families, bored teens, strange characters of all kinds, and a soulmate – the melancholic Elliott, who despite his young age already represents the opposite of this dream and seems to have failed in life before he even crosses the threshold of adulthood. There is little time left for the two of them until June – until Franny will leave again. What can they do to stop the time from running out?

In the 1920s, the Provence is a magnet for immigrants seeking work in the quarries or in the agriculture. Many mingle with locals and settle down for good — like Toni, an Italian who has moved in with Marie, a Frenchwoman. Even a well-ordered existence is not immune from boredom, friendship, romance, or enmity, and Toni becomes entangled in a web of increasingly passionate relationships. For there is his best pal Fernand, but also Albert, his overbearing foreman; there is Sebastian, a steady Spanish peasant, but also Gabi, his young rogue relative; there is Marie, but there is also Josefa.

Narrated by Morgan Freeman, this groundbreaking new documentary uncovers the UN sanctioned war on drugs, charting its origins and its devastating impact on countries like the USA, Colombia and Russia. Featuring prominent statesmen including Presidents Clinton and Carter, the film follows The Global Commission on Drug Policy on a mission to break the political taboo and expose the biggest failure of global policy in the last 50 years

Fired from her job, dumped by her partner, and in poor health, 46-year-old adventurer Coline Morel, a Far North specialist, sees her life falling apart. But "The Incredible Snow Woman" will attempt one last comeback.

This film traces the prison life of a group of women who-rather than being prepared to reenter society-are brought to the limits of depravity. Martine, wrongly imprisoned will bear the scars of a prison system wrongly based on punishment rather than rehabilitation.

When Isobel Hetherington and her three young daughters take up their seaside residence in the hot summer of 1887, life seems idyllic. But the arrival of Phillip Wilson Steer for his annual painting visit launches a chain of events that will change their lives forever.

Based on a true story. The name of the real ship, that sunk Feb 5 1941 - during WWII - was S/S Politician. Having left Liverpool two days earlier, heading for Jamaica, it sank outside Eriskay, The Outer Hebrides, Scotland, in bad weather, containing 250,000 bottles of whisky. The locals gathered as many bottles as they could, before the proper authorities arrived, and even today, bottles are found in the sand or in the sea every other year.

On his way home, Don Simone meets his friend Ciccillo, who asks him for a favor: to entertain the husband of a woman, his lover, until they find the keys to her house. Simone accepts the task and his friend points out a man sitting in a pizzeria as the lover's husband. After a series of mishaps, however, poor Simone discovers that the man had nothing to do with it and that the person Ciccillo wanted to entertain was actually him.

The true story of explorer, journalist and writer Isabelle Eberhardt, originally from Switzerland. She moved to Annaba in Algeria in 1897 with her mother, who preferred to live in the Algerian neighborhoods rather than the European neighborhoods that she hated, and converted to Islam. Her lifestyle shocked the French colonialists: she dressed like a man, frequented cafes and smoke shops. Fascinated by the desert, she traveled the Sahara under the identity of Si Mahmoud, she published articles and books on the world she discovered in southern Algeria, strongly criticizing the colonial authorities. Arriving in El Oued, the soldiers prevent him from continuing his journey. She disobeys and overhears officers shooting Arab prisoners. Arrested, she was accused of espionage and was expelled from Algeria. She married Slimane, a Muslim non-commissioned officer in 1901. Having become French through this marriage, she could now reside in Algeria.

We get to know a few inhabitants of central European rivers.

Bacteria, viruses, but also fungi, algae, pollen, and even insects: micro-organisms thrive and circulate constantly in our sky. How can so many living beings find their way into the air and circulate? How do they survive? And what influence do they have on our lives and the living world? Biodiversity, health, climate: it is only recently that scientists have begun to understand how this discreet aerial "plankton" affects our lives and our ecosystem. But despite their many virtues, some of these micro-organisms are now threatened by human activities. With the help of experts and 3D models, this scientific investigation plunges us into the heart of a still mysterious world, and reveals the diversity and fragility of the air we breathe.

A dramatization of several episodes in the life of Christ.

A vicious gang war for drug dominance draws in a disturbed Special Forces veteran John Bradley. Trying to adjust to normal life and haunted by inner demons of a violent past, the underworld's retribution on his last connection to humanity, a daughter and grandchild leads to a descent of fury and violence that not even the brutality of gangland is prepared for.

This documentary follows an expedition taken by the United Nations to observe the increasingly rapid glacial melt forming at the base of the Himalayas.

A young hippie kills a man, and seeks refuge at the lakeside house of three beautiful sisters, who seem to be hiding a dark secret.

One Life captures unprecedented and beautiful sequences of animal behaviour guaranteed to bring you closer to nature than ever before, as well as a second disc packed full of never before seen extras including an exclusive making of featurette narrated by Daniel Craig.

Annie Kirk's life is in chaos. She is broke, unemployed, can't pay her poll tax and has two boyfriends she wants to be shot of. She is determined to break out, but how can she get the cash? Annie dreams up an ingenious plan - having a baby. The plan has alarming consequences.

An unassuming young lawyer leads a fight against the Nazis near the end of the Second World War.

Buster is a small time crook who pulls a big time job. When he finds that the police will not let the case drop, he goes into hiding and can't contact his wife and child. He arranges to meet them in Mexico where he thinks they can begin again, but finds that he must choose between his family and freedom.

A French widower and WWI veteran returns home after the war to raise his newborn daughter.

Focus on the wedding of the century in 2025 between the legendary Scuderia Ferrari and the British driver Lewis Hamilton, seven times Formula 1 world champion.

Sea, Salt and Rum follows shipwrecked pirate, Laurent Archambeau as he slowly, but surely, loses his mind after being shipwrecked in a cave.

After participating in a séance, young Laura begins to behave strangely. Alarmed, her parents ask Father Olmedo, one of the few exorcists authorized by the Vatican to intervene in cases of demonic possession, for help.

A Nick Carter serial

Mr. Freedom, a bellowing good-ol'-boy superhero decked out in copious football padding, jets to France to cut off a Commie invasion from Switzerland. A destructive, arrogant patriot in tight pants, Freedom joins forces with Marie Madeleine to combat lefty freethinkers, as well as the insidious evildoers Moujik Man and inflatable Red China Man, culminating in a star-spangled showdown.

In Madrid at the time of the Inquisition, the monk Ambrosio is renowned for his faith and his strength of will, a saint in the eyes of the populace. But when he discovers the beautiful Matilda hidden in his own monastery, all his repressed passions begin to show themselves, and he is soon using the girl, and her powers, in his lust for more innocent prey.

A re-imagining of the Arthurian legend centered around Arthur's illegitimate son Owain who must learn to take up his father's mantle as king.

When Chester accidentally memorises and destroys the only copy of a secret Russian formula for a new and improved rocket fuel, he and Harry are thrust into international intrigue, trying to stay alive while keeping the formula out of enemy hands.

Britannia Hospital, an esteemed English institution, is marking its gala anniversary with a visit by the Queen Mother herself. But when investigative reporter Mick Travis arrives to cover the celebration, he finds the hospital under siege by striking workers, ruthless unions, violent demonstrators, racist aristocrats, an African cannibal dictator, and sinister human experiments.

Giorgia and her sister inherit a villa and decide to turn it into a pension. When the sister orders the advertising, the brochure, together with the name, Pension Paradise, leads people to believe it is a whore house.

The Night of San Lorenzo, the night of the shooting stars, is the night when dreams come true in Italian folklore. In 1944, a group of Italians flee their town after hearing rumours that the Nazis plan to blow it up and that the Americans are about to arrive to liberate them.

Zigeuner is on the hunt for the woman of his dreams, a woman who should also play the main role in the film. Meanwhile, ruthless producer Oskar Reiter wants to buy the film rights at all costs - and he is struggling for the love of the beautiful Valerie.

GREAT NORTH: A RUN. A RIVER. A REGION is a documentary film about the Great North Run, a half marathon from Newcastle to South Shields.

Francesco and Marta run a husband-and-wife design company in Rome. When Francesco's aunt dies in Istanbul he travels there to sort out the hamam Turkish steam bath that she left him. He finds a love and warmth in his relatives' Istanbul home that is missing from his life in Italy.

Narrates the preparation for a wedding of a Spanish couple in which everything goes wrong.

A newlywed couple travels to a small town to visit the bride's cousins—her last two surviving relatives—at the castle where they live, only to discover that the cousins have just died and the castle is now inhabited by vampires.

Here we find a group of misfits who've given up on humanity and have decided to dwell below the pavement. The group has its own hierarchy, of course, and soon the conditions that drove them underground begin to manifest themselves without the influences of the Outside World.

Amalia learns that her mother’s cancer is getting worse. Tonight, her mother will pass away. Amalia lives far from her because of her studies. Will she manage to reach her in time to share her final hours?