Featuring our pick of the films for October……

Mao's Last Dancer (PG) 117 mins

Director: Bruce Beresford

Cast: Chi Cao, Kyle MacLachlan, Bruce Greenwood, Amanda Schull

Synopsis: From director Bruce Beresford (Driving Miss Daisy, Breaker Morant) and based on the extraordinary true story and best-selling autobiography of Li Cunxin, who, amidst the chaos of Mao's Cultural Revolution, was chosen at age ten to leave his poverty-stricken Chinese village and train to be a dancer in Beijing.

Enduring strict discipline and suffering the heartache of family separation, Li ultimately seizes the gift of his incredible opportunity with determination to succeed. He must make a choice between duty and freedom, between East and West. On an amazing journey of personal triumph, Li becomes regarded as one of the greatest classical dancers of his time.

Che: Part One (M) 131 mins

Director: Steven Soderbergh

Cast: Benicio Del Toro, Demián Bichir, Santiago Cabrera

Synopsis: A labour of love for Academy Award-winning director, Steven Soderbergh (Traffic, Ocean's Thirteen) Che features a career defining performance from Benicio Del Toro in the title role which won the Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival 2008.

The first film in Steven Soderbergh's two-part Che Guevara epic tracks the charismatic revolutionary as he joins Fidel Castro's band of Cuban exiles and journeys to the island on a leaky boat in 1956. From these humble beginnings, the small team of rebels mobilise popular support and recruit an army which will ultimately topple the U.S.-friendly regime of dictator Fulgencio Batista, while Che himself undergoes a transformation from a simple doctor to one of the most iconic political figures of the modern age.

Awards: Cannes Film Festival: Best Actor - Benicio Del Toro

Subtitles: Spanish/English

Che: Part Two (M) 133 mins

Director: Steven Soderbergh

Cast: Benicio Del Toro, Carlos Bardem, Demián Bichir

Synopsis: Following the success of the Cuban Revolution, Che Guevara is at the peak of his fame and power when he vanishes without a trace.  Resurfacing some time later in the jungles of Bolivia, Guevara sets about recruiting a new band of insurgents to help him spread the revolutionary message across the rest of Latin America. But as the Bolivian government and the CIA close in on him, this will prove to be his most dangerous campaign yet

The second part of Academy Award-winning director Steven Soderbergh's epic two part war movie charting the life of Che Guevara, Che Part Two sees Benicio Del Toro once again taking up the role of the iconic revolutionary.

Awards: Cannes Film Festival: Best Actor - Benicio Del Toro

Subtitles:  Spanish/English

Van Diemen's Land (MA15+) 104 mins

Director: Jonathan Auf Der Heide

Cast: Oscar Redding, Arthur Angel

Synopsis: The true story of Australia's most notorious convict, Alexander Pearce and his infamous escape into the beautiful yet brutal Tasmanian wilderness.

In 1822, eight convicts escaped the brutal penal settlement Maquarie Harbour in a fateful bid for freedom. Led by ex-ailor and experienced navigator Robert Greenhill, the men made a battle against some of the worlds harshest terrain in the unexplored wilderness of Van Diemen's Land (now known as Tasmania). As supplies run out and the tensions in the group esculate, the group soon contemplates the unthinkable.

Based on the infamous confessions of Alexander Pearce, Van Diemen's Land is a dark gothic tale that reflects Australia's true colonial heritage.

Looking for Eric (MA15+) 116 mins

Director: Ken Loach

Cast: Steve Evets, Eric Cantona, Stephanie Bishop, Gerard Kearns and John Henshaw

Synopsis: Eric the postman is slipping through his own fingers...

His wife has gone, his stepsons are out of control and the house was chaotic even before a cement mixer appeared in the front garden. Life is crazy enough, but it is Eric's own secret that is driving him to the brink. How can he face up to Lily, the woman of his dreams that he once loved and walked out on many years ago? Despite the comical efforts and misplaced goodwill of his mates, Eric continues to sink.

In desperate times it takes a spliff and a special friend to help a lost postman find his way, so Eric turns to his hero: footballing genius, philosopher and poster boy, Eric Cantona.

Blessed (MA15+) 113 mins

Director: Ana Kokkinos

Cast: Miranda Otto, Frances O'Connor, Deborra-Lee Furness

Synopsis: During the course of one day and night, seven children wander the streets in an urban odyssey. But not all of them will find their way home. Dawn breaks, and it's the same day but now we experience the viewpoint of the five mothers. Over the course of their respective journeys we understand that they are as lost and defenceless as the children they care for.

Blessed is a film about mothers and children, about love and beauty, about being lost and finding your way home.

Reviews: 'A masterpiece...5 STARS' Tom Ryan, Sun-Herald

'Incredibly MOVING and UPLIFTING...4.5 STARS' David Stratton, At the Movies

Beautiful Kate (MA15+) 101 mins

Director: Rachel Ward

Cast: Ben Mendelsohn, Bryan Brown, Rachel Griffiths, Maeve Dermody

Synopsis: Beautiful Kate is the story of a family whose all too human mistakes lead to tragedy, recrimination, guilt and, finally, salvation. Told in parallel strands of past and present, the film recounts the sexual awakening of three siblings growing up in isolation, interwoven with the emotional journey of reconciliation between an estranged father and son.