Hugh Linehan picks out some highlights from this year's programme. From France, there's Francois Ozon's 5X2 and Damien Odoul's Le Deluge, while, from a previous generation, two Grand Old Men of French cinema are represented: the magnificently grumpy Jean Luc Godard, whose new film, Notre Musique, is (not surprisingly) an indictment of modern times; and Claude Chabrol, with The Bridesmaid.
Another European auteur, Emir Kusturica, is back with his latest exercise in Balkan surrealism, Life Is a Miracle. Bill Condon's Kinsey features Liam Neeson in what many believe is his finest performance to date, and Javier Bardem gives a Golden Globe-nominated performance in the Best Foreign Language Golden Globe Winner, The Sea Inside.
9 Songs isn't the only controversial title in the programme; there's Götz Spielmann's Antares, which provoked walkouts at the American Academy Awards screening; and CS Leigh's Process, featuring Beatrice Dalle in the company of two lovers. Political controversy has also been stirred by Oliver Hirschbiegel's Downfall (Der Untergang), depicting the last 10 days of the Third Reich. Other strong entries from Germany are Volker Sclondorff's The Ninth Day, a drama loosely based on Jean Bernard's Nazi-era prison diary, The Edukators, where three activists cobble together a kidnapping plot after they encounter a businessman in his home, and Love In Thoughts, a sexually vibrant ramble through the decadence of pre-war Weimar excess.
The protagonists of Only Human struggle with the differences between Palestinian and Israeli identities in a warm and funny film. A harsher, realist view of that conflict is presented in Private, where a Palestinian family is trapped in their home as it is occupied by Israeli soldiers. David Serrano's follow-up to The Other Side of the Bed, Dias de futbol, features six friends, talentless and unfit, who form a seven-a-side football team. Contrasting panoramic mountain vistas with gritty Casablanca streets and the sounds of Moroccan pop, director Mohamed Asli takes an imaginative look at the dream for a better life and the sacrifices necessary to achieve it in In Casablanca Angels Don't Fly. From South Africa, based on a true story, Stander examines the life of Andre Stander, a white police captain in Johannesburg, And in Bullet Boy, Ashley Walters, aka So Solid Crew's Asher D, is just out of a young offenders institute, heading home to Hackney and determined to go straight.
