Lawrence Elman

Newly discovered interviews with friends of Truman Capote made by Paris Review co-founder George Plimpton invigorate this fascinating documentary on the author (and socialite) behind Breakfast at Tiffany’s and In Cold Blood, while situating Capote in the 20th-century American literary canon.

The story of a famously lavish five-day party held by the Shah of Iran in 1971 to celebrate 2,500 years of Persian monarchy. The event was held at a specially constructed oasis surrounded by a city of tents and attended by 60 world leaders, who enjoyed a five-course banquet and a pageant featuring thousands of soldiers dressed in historical costume. However, the decadence on display had far-reaching consequences, breeding resentment of the Shah's regime among the Iranian people.

Law of the Dragon takes a fresh look at a vast and culturally rich China, examining how justice is served in rural areas so remote and isolated that the villagers have almost no contact with, and are deeply mistrustful of, the central government. Principally following the austere Judge Chen as he travels around the rural and sparsely populated Xuan-en province, resolving the grievances of the residents and dispensing nuggets of Confucian-Communist wisdom.

Recounting the absurd and paradoxical history of Colombia's thirty-year struggle with international drug trafficking, at once a farce and a tragedy, as seen through the eyes of the extravagant pet of the most powerful drug baron in history: a hippopotamus named Pablo.

Qatar is said to be the world's richest country, while competitive debating is said to be a training ground for future world leaders. So when the Qatari Emiress charged two recent Oxford graduates with creating the country's first national debate team and taking them to the world championships, the stakes were high. This documentary follows the journey of five ambitious teenagers as they are initiated into the cut-throat subculture of competitive high school debate. Training in London, Doha and New York, they learn more about the world as they hone their debating skills. (Storyville)

Documentary examining the thoughts and observations of writer, raconteur and national treasure, Sir John Mortimer.

West Lake Restaurant in South China's Changsha can safely call itself the biggest Chinese restaurant in the world, with its staff of 1,000 working 5,000 tables and serving no fewer than 150 ducks per day and 200 snakes per week. The words of the restaurant's staff and guests are used in the film to paint a picture of modern China: the proprietress, one of the city's 20 self-made millionaires, speaks candidly about her failed marriage; a bridegroom-to-be who is celebrating at the restaurant explains the modern Chinese customs associated with the wedding party; and a waitress visits her poor parents in the countryside. Through these scenes, we gain insight into the unique combination of the ancient religious values and the new capitalist values with which China is stepping into the 21st century.

University lecturer Neil Tannahill is drawn into a sinister conspiracy involving secretly-stored Soviet nuclear waste at a remote British nuclear facility after receiving an enigmatic note from legendary atomic scientist and one-time former head of "Doomwatch" (the infamous Scientific watchdog group of the seventies), Dr Spencer Quist.

In the twelfth film in the series, in 1917, Indiana Jones transfers from the Belgian army to the French intelligence service, where his first assignment is as a reconnaissance photographer for the 124th Squadron, a group of volunteer American pilots in the French army. When his plane is shot down, Indy encounters the infamous "Red Baron," Manfred von Richthofen. After a daring escape, Indy is parachuted back into Germany on a mission to convince aircraft designer Anthony Fokker to defect to France, and he discovers a new German superweapon - a new airplane intended to bring the war overseas.