ECX / ICON / JUHU
For fans of swordplay and elaborate samurai bloodbaths, BLADE OF THE IMMORTAL could be just the thing for you. It is prolific Japanese director Takashi Miike's 100th film. There is also THE HUNDRED FOOT JOURNEY with veterans Helen Mirren and Om Puri, about cultural clashes, co-existence and understanding and food porn.
Next, you could watch DREAMS REWIRED which explores man's ever-present obsession with technology by turning out footage from the last hundred years. Then there is QUEST, a sensitive documentary on an African American family shot over a span of eight years. There is also the Dostoyevsky-inspired A GENTLE CREATURE, Sergei Loznitsa's powerful film about a woman who has to make an arduous journey to a Siberian prison to find out about her husband.
Finally, watch NOTHINGWOOD, a documentary on the life and work of prolific Afghan filmmaker Salim Shaheen.
REGAL / PHOENIX
Start the day with SICILIAN GHOST STORY. Based on a true story of Mafia kidnapping, this film – by the directors of the 2013 Salvo – presents a story of young love and visually evokes children's fairy tales. It should be a dark and haunting treat.
Next, go for PENDULAR, a close and leisurely look at two artists at work and play and the spaces they inhabit, or watch 24 FRAMES, Iranian master Abbas Kiarostami's profoundly experimental final film.
You could then go for DEVIL'S FREEDOM, a documentary by Mexican director Everardo González on violence and its many forms in his home country. The talking heads in the film wear masks which make them all look alike and both victims and perpetrators tell their chilling stories. Or, go for A SUITABLE GIRL, a sharp and insightful documentary on the pressures that the institution of marriage puts on women in India.
MANIFESTO could be your last film of the day. Originally an art installation, this visually striking film is an exercise in intellectualism and has the shape-shifting Cate Blanchett playing 13 different characters each of whom delivers a famous manifesto. Or, watch ZAMA, adapted from a work by Antonio Di Benedetto about an 18th-century Spanish colony. Argentinian director Lucrecia Martel returns to form with this film after almost a decade.