This film was an official selection of the Toronto International Film Festival. In the south of India in 1937, an Englishman could have his way with the land, the workers and sometimes with the woman of his choosing. Such power could shatter lives, even when exercised by the mildest of men. Acclaimed director and cinematographer Santosh Sivan explores this shock of collision between the forces of will and desire in colonial India.

Henry Moores (Linus Roache) has big plans to establish a spice plantation in Kerala. But his plans require a new road to be cleared through the vast hills, and the money and manpower to do it. To secure the trust of the local villagers, he depends on his right-hand man, T.K. (Rahul Bose). To satisfy his baser needs, he depends on his lover – and house servant – Sajani. Played with fire and intelligence by Nandita Das, Sajani is an irresistible, quicksilver beauty. Their sojourn to collect honey in the forest turns into a charged erotic encounter, but they are witnessed by two local boys – and Sajani has a husband back in her village. How long will it be before her betrayal becomes known?

A sweeping film full of striking vistas, Before the Rains has the look of a fine period epic, but as it binds its characters tighter and tighter within their dilemmas, it reveals the gears of a good film noir. Having made his reputation in Priest, Roache once again excels as a respectable man capable of catastrophic acts. Bose, however, as the local subaltern, is the heart of the film: here is the Indian man navigating all the harsh choices that came with colonization. (Courtesy of the Toronto International Film Festival)

Starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Radha Mitchell, Chow Yun Fat and Michelle Yeoh - A young British journalist with the assistance of a courageous Australian nurse, saves a group of orphaned children during the Japanese occupation of China in 1937.