Subscribe to watch - 14-day free trial, then £6.99 a month
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_480x270/public/hero-images/134c782fcfe94c717e35e896fc59da9e.jpg?itok=RAzZwGrX)
Woman of the Dunes
Hiroshi Teshigahara's mystifying, serene and provocative fable about an entomologist who becomes trapped in a young widow’s desert shack.
Director: Hiroshi Teshigahara
Overview
An entomologist misses the last bus home and spends the night sharing a young widow’s desert shack, only to find the next morning that he’s unable to leave. He soon becomes psychologically and erotically entangled in her strange existence, which includes a daily ritual of shovelling away endlessly drifting sand.
Winner of a Special Jury Prize at Cannes in 1964 and nominated for two Academy Awards for Best Foreign Film and Best Director, the film combines an extremely erotic drama with a terrifically gripping thriller. Adapted from Kobe Abe’s novel by acclaimed director Hiroshi Teshigahara, the film also features startling high-contrast black and white photography from Hiroshi Segawa and a superb minimalist score by Toru Takemitsu.
Related
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/WATERSHIP-DOWN_STILL_TIFF_38.jpg?itok=nfqrp507)
Watership Down Watership Down
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1978 92 mins Director: Martin Rosen
An apocalyptic vision pushes a group of rabbits to abandon their warren in search of a new home, in this landmark British animation.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/promo227306255_2.jpg?itok=8QrP4Cak)
Requiem for a Village Requiem for a Village
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1975 68 mins Director: David Gladwell
The idyllic, pastoral past of a Suffolk village is reborn through memory in this extraordinary, little-known film from director David Gladwell.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/promo219335006_2.jpg?itok=A4bGYPC_)
Un Chien Andalou Un Chien Andalou
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1928 16 mins Silent Director: Luis Buñuel
A scabrous study of desire, the subconscious and anti-clericalism - Buñuel and Dalí’s provocative first film is a classic of Surrealist cinema.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/461436e0966c0936833c4f0753ac28d5.jpg?itok=e5z1u8yz)
Eden and After Eden and After
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1969 98 mins Director: Alain Robbe-Grillet
Alain Robbe-Grillet’s sensual fantasy follows a group of students who enter a bizarre sado-masochistic realm after taking a mysterious drug.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/12.jpg?itok=XheLep_3)
Gallivant Gallivant
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1997 100 mins Director: Andrew Kötting
Andrew Kötting takes a terrific, twisting coastal tour of the UK with his family.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/d9d1c9ea70bbc1f93c7e4a730d192160.jpg?itok=vlabzeud)
Fata Morgana Fata Morgana
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1971 76 mins Director: Werner Herzog
Herzog’s intense, dreamlike mediation on desert life as if seen by an alien.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/promo234824897_2.jpg?itok=-wwyGFjr)
The Hunt The Hunt
Drama 2012 111 mins Director: Thomas Vinterberg
Mads Mikkelsen stars in a distressing examination of a false indictment, and the collective hysteria that ensues, in this electrifying drama from Festen director Thomas Vinterberg.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/5fde56674b884bc6e73f70cb7515b4b4.jpg?itok=k8UopwOY)
Amour Fou Amour Fou
Period drama 2014 92 mins Director: Jessica Hausner
Jessica Hausner’s long-awaited follow-up to Lourdes is a devilish anti-Rom-Com in which a German poet seeks mates for a suicide pact.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/5c6f1193b476d98cbfb159f952a7596f_0.jpg?itok=R3B9pyFm)
Amores perros Amores perros
Drama 2000 148 mins Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu
Alejandro González Iñárritu's (Birdman, The Revenant) gripping debut feature is a savagely brilliant triptych around the theme of animalistic desires.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/8db808fa2d2bcb6046e81516f0c47abc_0.jpg?itok=uOKUhO9g)
The Host The Host
Science Fiction 2006 115 mins Director: Bong Joon-ho
Bong Joon-ho's barnstorming yet highly original monster movie follows an eccentric family's attempts to rescue the daughter snatched by a huge amphibious creature.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/2c056e886ece00890fe86288142740bf_0.jpg?itok=b6uB2038)
Mother Mother
Thriller 2009 129 mins Director: Bong Joon-ho
Cult Korean director Bong Joon-ho’s (The Host, Snowpiercer) fourth feature is a startlingly original and thrilling account of the limits of maternal devotion.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/promo234533613_2.jpg?itok=38awH_wc)
Les Invisibles Les Invisibles
Documentary 2012 112 mins Director: Sébastien Lifshitz
French gay men and women in their 60s and 70s talk about their lives in Sébastien Lifshitz’s documentary.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/Universal-Theory-04.jpg?itok=wAMy4Lec)
The Universal Theory The Universal Theory
Thriller 2023 118 mins Director: Timm Kröger
The spirits of Lynch, Lang and Hitchcock haunt this cold war mystery-thriller with an awesome Alpine backdrop.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/love-witch_03.jpg?itok=XKN2Ip_a)
The Love Witch The Love Witch
Comedy 2016 121 mins Director: Anna Biller
A modern-day witch uses spells and magic to get men to fall in love with her, in Anna Biller's outrageous tribute to 1960s Technicolor melodramas.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/556396edda2bf012d490d3f4fca22672.jpg?itok=I8kRpiLk)
I Am Love I Am Love
Drama 2009 114 mins Director: Luca Guadagnino
Tilda Swinton and Luca Guadagnino’s sumptuous, operatic vision of an aristocratic family disrupted by unstoppable forces of passion.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/hannahtakesthestairs-4.jpg?itok=DGaLi1kk)
Hannah Takes the Stairs Hannah Takes the Stairs
Comedy 2006 84 mins Director: Joe Swanberg
Greta Gerwig plays the carefree intern who finds herself at the centre of a love triangle with two co-workers, in this charming 'mumblecore' rom-com.
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/Girls-Will-Be-Girls-01_0.jpg?itok=-YRySROf)
Girls Will Be Girls Girls Will Be Girls
Romance 2024 119 mins Director: Shuchi Talati
Teenage romance simmers in a strict Himalayan boarding school in this sublime coming-of-age tale. Winner of a 2024 Sundance audience award
![](/sites/default/files/styles/landscape_32x18/public/hero-images/Blackbird-Blackberry-07.jpg?itok=b_r72-od)
Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry
Drama 2023 110 mins Director: Elene Naveriani
A fiercely independent woman’s tranquillity is disturbed by an unexpected affair, in this wry, tender and understated drama from Georgia.