We bring you our guide to living well in the world’s capitals, from exhibitions to cinema, food, drink, fashion, music and beyond. Just call it culture and take it, it’s yours.

LONDON, SATURDAY 30th AUGUST – MONDAY 1st SEPTEMBER 2014

Green and red
Jesse Eisenberg and Dakota Fanning star in our first filimic offering this week, Kelly Reichardt’s tightly wound environmental thriller Night Moves.

Centring on the frustrations and subsequent militant-like actions of a group of green activists demented by the explosion of a hydroelectric dam, and industrial damage in general, the film stages an intelligent debate on activism, radicalism and ethics, but most importantly, it makes the activists themselves seem very human and less like mindless chaos-causing terrorists.

Don’t dare leave rubbish on your seat after the film, OK?

Night Moves, 1 hour 52 minutes.

The Merchant of Death’s home movies
Next up is the unbelievable story of a certain Mr. Viktor Bout. A man who appears like any other, judging by his pretty mediocre home videos, the memoirs of a philosophical businessman who simply enjoyed travel, his work, his family, and filming it all with his video camera. Outside of Bout’s inoffensive personal flicks, however, Bout spent a 20 year career as an internationally known arms smuggler nicknamed “the Merchant of Death”.

The startling docu-film film is a brilliantly comical and harrowing depiction of Bout’s rise and fall, up close and personal.

The Notorious Mr Bout, 1hr 30min

Infinity on 35mm film, via iPhone
Quite the archaeologist of recent history, Cyprien Gaillard’s work connects the ruins of Modernist urbanism with the monuments of ancient civilisations via an endless stream of mesmerising 35mm film projection, transferred from his own iPhone videos. See one of his incredible projections, Artefacts 2011, installed as part of the ICA’s exhibition Journal, an ongoing configuration of many individual projects intended as a way of considering the artist’s role in bringing focus to the changing world around us.

Cyprien Gaillard - Artefact, 2011 from Michael Hall on Vimeo.

Journal, Institute of Contemporary Arts, The Mall, London, SW1Y 5AH
Until 14th September

Shape shifting
Afterwards, why not head down to the V&A for their Disobedient Objects exhibit, featuring pieces loaned directly from activist groups across the world to reveal how protest inspires design ingenuity. From Suffragette teapots to protest robots there’s plenty to keep you entertained for the whole afternoon.

Disobedient Objects, V&A, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 2RL
Until 1st February 2015

Mexico, via Tower Hamlets
There’s been a glut of shoebox openings around East London this summer but DF, standing for Districto Federal, what the Mexican locals call Mexico City for short, is hardly what you’d call a cosy pop-up.

Located in the iconic Truman Brewery building on Brick Lane this cavernous space has been offered up for patrons to sample the best Mexican comfort food this side of Manhattan. The DIY tacos are a treat as are the tortas, toasted brioche buns filled with pulled pork and house sauce. Sloppy! If you want booze the frozen margaritas are the way to go –  they’re STRONG. Oh yeah.

DF/Mexico, Old Truman Brewery, 91 Brick Lane, London E1 6QL