Five movies not to be missed at DIFF

Our picks of the movies you should be watching at the Dubai International Film Festival.

Pandora's Box

While this silent German melodrama was largely ignored when it first premièred in 1929, it was rediscovered in the 1950s and hailed as a masterpiece along with other German classics such as Metropolis. Now, half a century on, after painstaking restoration using 21st-century tools, we're able to enjoy it again and with the UAE Philharmonic Orchestra providing a live soundtrack. 20.00 JBR Walk

Do Not Forget Me Istanbul

Turkey gets the increasingly popular "one city, many directors" treatment with this selection of seven 15-minute stories set amid the diverse and beautiful mayhem that is Istanbul. Among the directors are Hany Abu-Assad, who was nominated for an Academy Award for 2006's Paradise Now, and Omar Shargawi, who directed 2008's Go With Peace, Jamil. 22.45 Mall of the Emirates Screen 12

The Woodsman and the Rain

This charming film-within-a-film comedy brings together the unusual mix of lonely lumberjack and the film crew for a low-budget zombie movie. When Katsu is interrupted by the film production in the Nakatsugawa forest, he becomes gradually involved within the project, even so far as being cast as a zombie himself, and finds himself forming a fatherly bond with the novice director.

22.00 Mall of the Emirates Screen 8

J Edgar

Leonardo DiCaprio gives a powerhouse lead performance as the controversial figure who founded the FBI, yet managed to remain a secretive figure himself. Clint Eastwood's biopic looks at this repressed man who professed to be a campaigner of high morality, but was rarely afraid to break the law through brutal means when he deemed fit.

17.30 First Group Theatre

Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale

Learn about a relatively unknown period of his history with this epic set in early 20th-century Taiwan. Forging a unity with each other, the aboriginal tribes of this mountainous island sought to overthrow Japanese rule in the 1930s and put up a heroic resistance as the colonisers tried to crush the rebellion. Word of warning - bring a cushion, as it's rather long.

16.15 Mall of the Emirates Screen 2