DONALD CLARKEreviews this week's DVD releases

DEFIANCE ***

Directed by Ed Zwick. Starring Daniel Craig, Liev Schreiber, Jamie Bell, Alexa Davalos 15 cert

In 1941, Tuvia Bielski (Craig), a hard-drinking woodsman, leads several hundred fellow Jews into the Belarusian forest and teaches them to forage and fight. It’s a fascinating true story and, though the film allows many, many compromises (everyone’s so clean), it makes for exciting viewing.

NORTH FACE/NORDWAND ***

Directed by Philipp Stölzl. Starring Benno Fürmann, Florian Lukas, Johanna Wokalek 12 cert

In 1936, while the Olympics are kicking into action in Berlin, a group of climbers gather to accept Hitler’s challenge to scale the dangerous north face of the Eiger. Focusing on two German mountaineers, this exciting, if slightly mechanical, drama features superb location work and gripping action sequences.

LEMON TREE/ETZ LIMON ***

Directed by Eran Riklis. Starring Hiam Abbass, Ali Suliman PG cert

If you can duck your head beneath the jagged metaphor that hurtles through this Israeli production, then you should find plenty to think about. Abbass plays a Palestinian widow whose life is upended when the Israeli defence minister moves in next door and threatens to cut down her lemon grove.

MIRRORS *

Directed by Alexandre Aja. Starring Kiefer Sutherland 18 cert

Incoherent adaptation of an already confusing Korean film, featuring Sutherland as a disgraced cop haunted by the reflections that lurk behind the mirrors of a vacant department store. Sadly, the main conceit wears thin quickly and no amount of pointless shouting can make up for the fact that the writers can’t make sense of their own story.