November

A pseudo-documentary on the rise and fall of a radical Madrid street-theatre troupe, November (winner of a 2003 San Sebastian Youth Award) is an original, strikingly confident and utterly unclassifiable delight. Imagine a Spanish, politically charged Being John Malkovich and you're edging in the right direction. It stamps writer/director Achero Mañas, whose debut El Bola was named Best Film at Spain's Oscar-equivalent in 2000, as one of the few Iberian directors capable of emerging from Almodóvar's shadow. With an ingenious drum-tight script, deceptively freewheeling tone and ferociously committed performances, especially from Jaenada as November's mercurial, messianic leader, it's hard to fathom whether Mañas is celebrating the gang's counter-cultural idealism, taking the mick, or doing both at the same time. The results are hilarious, thought provoking and, at the abrupt climax, surprisingly moving.