Capitaine Alatriste (2006)
For director Agustin Diaz Yanes to make his big-budget epic in Spain (where it was known simply as Alatriste), he needed an internationally known star. Viggo Mortensen spoke Spanish and had proved in The Lord of the Rings that he could play an action hero with gravitas. He does well as Diego Alatriste, a 17th-century swordsman-for-hire in a Spain beset by political intrigue and corruption in the court of Philip IV. Cue the derring-do and romantic strife. Options include the original Spanish soundtrack, a French dub and English subtitles.
Fish Tank (2009)
Like her short drama Wasp, included on the 2008 DVD Cinema 16: World Short Films, British director Andrea Arnold's latest film is set in a housing project constructed of equal parts concrete and despair. Katie Jarvis earned rave reviews for her role as 15-year-old Mia, a rebel who gazes out of her single-parent family's high-rise window like a fish peering from its bowl. Denied love and comfort, she detects a lifeline in the kindness of her mother's latest boyfriend (Michael Fassbender). The question is whether she can put her faith in him.