There have been whispers about this near-three-hour, Lorca-inspired queer epic ever since its Cannes debut. Now we know all the rumours are true: it’s a masterpiece. Working across three timelines – 1932, 1937 and 2017 – creative duo Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo (known in Spain as “Los Javis”) construct a singularly lush period drama. Every shot is a painting and every camera movement a dance. There’s an unforgettable singing cameo from actress Penélope Cruz and a promising acting debut from singer Guitarricadelafuente. Yet the film’s most engaging mystery is the unfolding connection between past and present. 

Ellen E Jones, Nerve film critic

Amid fierce competition, Joshua Idehen’s Sunday lunchtime set at We Out Here this summer was easily my festival highlight. The British-Nigerian spoken-word poet and musician lit up the main stage: his energy and absolute commitment to radical positivity in the face of hard times had everyone bouncing around, shaking off hangovers in no time. Idehen had a viral hit with his track Mum Does the Washing, a hilarious critique of society using laundry to highlight the flaws of various ideologies, and now he’s touring the UK with his joyous debut album I Know You’re Hurting, Everyone Is Hurting, Everyone Is Trying, You Have Got To Try. Good times guaranteed.

Imogen Carter, Nerve co-founder

Downing Street doesn’t know what’s hit it. It’s been two years since writer Joe Barton’s riotously entertaining espionage thriller exploded on to our screens in a hail of champagne, bullets and one-liners. The second season arrives at last. Helen (Keira Knightley) is now the prime minister’s wife – and still secretly betraying her country for covert spy organisation the Black Doves. Her former sidekick Sam (Ben Whishaw) is taking on dodgy hitman jobs for booze money. Their handler Mrs Reed (Sarah Lancashire) is fighting for her life against ruthless foes. Ambika Mod, Babou Ceesay, Sam Riley and Neve Campbell join the party. Soon they’re all on a deadly collision course. Full of explosive action and dark wit, it’s murderously good fun.

Michael Hogan, writer

Palestinian actor and comedian Alaa Shehada’s debut solo show The Horse of Jenin was a funny and moving tale about growing up in the occupied West Bank, which ran at the Bush theatre following a hit stint at the Edinburgh fringe last year. His second, The Bridge, which is now following its predecessor from Edinburgh to Shepherd's Bush, is in a similar vein, telling the story of a tortuous journey Shehada undertook to deliver a jerry-can of his family’s olive oil from his hometown of Jenin to his aunt in Jordan. Along the way, he encounters chaotic drivers, enormous queues, unbearable heat, idiosyncratic travellers, dodgy officials and aggressive security. It is an eye-opening and infuriating portrait of just how difficult life is under Israeli occupation, where even the simplest tasks can take forever, but it is also suffused with humour and hope. The final section, in which Shehada imagines a future Palestine with its own enormous international airport, is particularly poignant.

Fergus Morgan, writer

The first British Art Show – a touring showcase of contemporary British art – opened in Sheffield in 1979, featuring 112 artists including Lucian Freud, David Hockney, Bridget Riley and Anthony Caro. It occurs every five years, but rarely reaches the heights of that first iteration. However, British Art Show 10: A Chorus of Strangers is right up there. Curated by Ekow Eshun, it spans painting, sculpture, photography, film and installation, with 37 artists including recent Turner prize-winners Nnena Kalu, Jasleen Kaur and Jesse Darling. Together they explore themes of identity, belonging, memory, community and our relationship with the natural world. Highlights include Alex Margo Arden’s Accounts – a bunch of decommissioned museum mannequins firmly tied together with rope to give a new perspective on history. Shiraz Bayjoo’s installation responds to Swansea’s history as a global centre of copper production while Matthew Krishanu’s autobiographical paintings are hauntingly beautiful. Alvaro Barrington combines the dying high street with social media memes. Brilliant. 

Susan Ferguson, Nerve events

Where is the line between reporting on a story and creating it? That's the ethical question at the centre of Primetime, Lance Oppenheim's darkly humorous yet discomfiting behind-the-scenes dramatisation of the controversial 00s series To Catch a Predator.

Robert Pattinson is in brutal form as Chris Hansen, bringing an unnerving messiah complex to the journalist-host of the NBC show designed to honey-trap potential paedophiles in a hidden house of cameras – he preps every set-up like he's about to tread the boards. In pursuit of primetime recognition, Hansen, his ruthless producer Andie (Merritt Wever) and Dan (Skyler Gisondo), the young actor hired as a decoy to lure male predators from the internet, walk a difficult tightrope that is both thrilling and despairing to watch in equal measure.

Hanna Flint, writer

If Antarctica’s ice sheets melted entirely, global sea levels would rise by around 60 metres, wiping out the world’s major cities, warns artist Liberty Quinn, whose exhibition Data Melt explores this terrifying prospect. Harnessing satellite photography stitched together from multiple captures, Quinn translates images of disintegrating glaciers into binary code: 1s form the dark blue sea, while 0s map the ice itself, printed on delicate, temporary vellum paper. The result is both beautiful and unsettling. Quinn exposes the fractured data behind the satellite images through which we view these distant landscapes, and the uneasy gap between witnessing environmental destruction and experiencing its reality. The exhibition also speaks to Space’s thoughtful curation and commitment to bringing ambitious contemporary art to its local community. And don’t miss Beauty Fall, Sabrina Tirvengadum’s equally compelling exploration of how inherited and algorithmic beauty standards shape identity and self-image. 

Brenna Spain, Nerve writer

THEATRE
Stratford East’s 2027 season
(London E15)

Public booking opens tomorrow at midday (4 November) for the 2027 season. Highlights include a new production of Michael Frayn’s classic backstage comedy Noises Off starring Paterson Joseph and Tameka Empson, the world premiere of Sonali Bhattacharyya’s The Fingerprint Bureau and a revival of Winsome Pinnock’s Talking in Tongues with Tamara Lawrence and Kayla Meikle.

FILM
Ldndocs
(Various locations including Bertha DocHouse and Curzon Bloomsbury, London, 20-22 November)

Now in its second year, this documentary festival will screen 14 new (often award-winning) works. Opening with Once Upon a Time in Harlem, which centres on a 1972 dinner party at Duke Ellington’s townhouse, it includes Pegah Ahangarani’s Rehearsals for a Revolution, looking at four decades of Iranian history, and Barbara Kopple’s Union Town.

THEATRE
Royal Exchange theatre’s 2027-28 season
(Manchester)

The 2027-28 season at the Royal Exchange in Manchester includes the world premiere of a new play by Simon Stephens, The First Blue Thing, a reimagining of the Greek myth of Phaedra set in Stockport. Then, in 2028, the theatre will stage the world premiere of an adaptation of David Peace’s novel Munichs, about the 1958 air crash that killed 23 out of 44 passengers, including eight Manchester United players, three of the club’s staff and eight journalists.