Viceroy’s House in Delhi has been the home of the British rulers of India for over 300 years. With British rule coming to an end in 1947, Lord Mountbatten (Bonneville), great-grandson of Queen Victoria, assumes the post of the last Viceroy of India, charged with handing the country back to its people.
It is a job easier said than done, however, as he meets with conflict on a larger, political and international scale – even within his own household, where Mountbatten, his wife, his daughter, and 500 Hindu, Sikh and Muslim servants live under the same roof.

A joint English-Indian production, this historical drama is directed by Gurindah Chadha (Bend It Like Beckham, Bride & Prejudice), a Kenyan-born Indian who is no stranger to orchestrating on-screen clashes of cultures. From her family’s own traumatic experience of Indian independence, Chadha paints a visually stunning portrait of the time, juxtaposing the chaos of the greater India with the apparent calm of the Viceroy’s House, while still allowing non-historic characters to shine.

If you have even the slightest sense of history, the film will expand your understanding of the events surrounding India’s independence.

Based on the story of the fascinating rise and fall of the first popular Afro-Cuban artist of the French stage, Monsieur Chocolat is an unmissable film for connoisseurs of quality.

In the late 1800s, a former slave named Chocolat (Omar Sy from The Intouchables) finds himself making a living playing a tooth-baring cannibal in a provincial French circus – a novel spectacle for country people who have never seen a black man before.

While there, he impresses established performer George (James Thierrée, grandson of Charlie Chaplin), who decides to take him under his wing. Together, they develop a routine which catapults them to stardom, glamour and riches as one of the main attractions of the Nouveau Cirque in lavishly Belle Époque Paris. But the satisfaction of success can only last so long as Chocolat’s desire for equality begins to take hold.

As entertaining as it is timely, Monsieur Chocolat blends sharp and impressive physical comedy with moving compassion, gloriously restoring the great legacy of this trailblazing artist.