A travelling circus arrives at a small Czech village, accompanied by a cat wearing sunglasses. When the glasses are removed, the cat can change people into different psychedelic colours reflecting their best or worst selves.

That's probably all anyone needs to know to understand the appeal of The Cat Returns/The Cassandra Cat (except perhaps a picture of the cat, named Mokol), which won two major awards at Cannes upon its release in 1963.

This film’s charms are many, from its unprecedented use of colour, to its folksy small-town humour, and experimental take on the fable. A provocative and beautifully executed fantasy with great camerawork, this film was banned after the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia as it was seen as an unacceptable take on the shortcomings of communist society.