An electrifying bolt of new cinema, director Steve McQueen’s Hunger has become one of the most critically lauded first features in recent memory since it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival to thunderous acclaim. The story of the Irish hunger striker Bobby Sands, Hunger uses spellbinding widescreen visuals and an elliptical narrative pattern to captivate its viewers and transplant us back to early-1980s Belfast, a troubled time and place if there ever was one. It will have its only local theatrical screenings in the Dryden on July 17.

Also showing exclusively in the Dryden this summer, Valentino: The Last Emperor (July 3–5) takes us into the daily life of haute couture icon Valentino, a man whose fabulous gowns have graced the bodies of the world’s most glamorous women for nearly five decades. From Kazakhstan comes Tulpan (July 11), a charmingly eccentric comedy about work, love, and desert animals. The Girlfriend Experience (August 8 & 9) is director Stephen Soderbergh’s newest look at relationships. On August 21 & 23, we’ll offer two screenings of Three Monkeys, a suspenseful thriller and dysfunctional family study from Turkey’s pre-eminent filmmaker, Nuri Bilge Ceylan.