An office worker with a boring, unrewarding job spends all day immersed in sexual fantasies. The first British cartoon to be awarded an X Certificate!

Said and Khaled have been friends since they were kids, and their normal lives also involve working with each other. So far, nothing remarkable. Except that they are both Palestinian, and they have both committed to being suicide bombers. They have only 24 hours before their mission, and after spending one last night with their families (without being able to say farewell), they go to the border, bombs in hand (or, in this case, strapped on bodies)...

Hany Abu-Assad has made a film that is very relevant to our times. Everyone has an emotional response to suicide bombings in the Middle East (or indeed anywhere), but Abu-Assad tries to give us an insight into those who are prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice, whatever the motivation. At the same time, the actions are never condoned - the director himself says "No one side can claim a moral stance because taking any life is not a moral action. The entire situation is outside what we can call morality."

This is an engaging thriller. At the time of printing, it had won both the Golden Globe and the National Board of Review award for Best Foreign Language Film.

Controversial and not generally well received on its release in 1942, and considered in bad taste, this comedy about a group of Jewish actors outwitting the Nazis in occupied Poland was better accepted by a new generation of (television) audiences in the 1960s. Intended as a satirical propaganda film rubbishing the Germans, it displayed clever repartee and delivered genuine laughs. Reasons for its initial unpopularity were the idea of laughing at the Nazis during the very real holocaust then overtaking Europe, and the death just before its release of popular star Carole Lombard (then wife of heartthrob Clark Gable) in an air crash while on a war bonds drive. Putting these issues aside, the film can be enjoyed for what it was meant to be, an affirmation of the irrepressible spirit of life expressed through humour. (Remade by Mel Brooks in 1983.)