KHUMBA: A ZEBRA'S TALE (U, 85 mins)
THE eponymous zebra sets out to prove that he isn't cursed in Anthony Silverston's 3D computer-animated adventure. Khumba (voiced by Jake T Austin) was only born with half his stripes and in a world where everything is literally black and white, standing out from the herd isn't ideal. His fellow zebras, including father Seko (Laurence Fishburne), are deeply superstitious and blame him for the sudden drought that is affecting their homeland. Determined to prove the other animals wrong, Khumba embarks on an epic quest across the Great Kagoo desert to locate a legendary watering hole where the first zebras got their stripes. En route, the zebra joins forces with a wildebeest called Mama V (Loretta Devine) and an insecure ostrich called Bradley (Richard E Grant), and attempts to evade the claws of a sadistic leopard called Phango (Liam Neeson).
THE LAST DAYS ON MARS (15, 98 mins)
Directed by Irish film-maker Ruairi Robinson, The Last Days On Mars is a sci-fi thriller about a team of astronauts and scientists, who face a life and death battle on the red planet. Nineteen hours before the eight-strong crew of Tantalus Base completes a six-month mission, Marko Petrovic (Goran Kostic) analyses a soil sample with a biological agent that suggests there is life on Mars after all. He heads out to gather more evidence in the company of crewmate Richard Harrington (Tom Cullen). Tragedy strikes and Marko plummets into a pit. Captain Charles Brunel (Elias Koteas) and colleagues Vincent Campbell (Liev Schreiber) and Lauren Dalby (Yusra Warsama) make plans to retrieve Marko's body from its subterranean tomb but as they venture into the heart of the planet, the explorers stumble upon a thriving ecosystem that doesn't react kindly to intruders. Based on the short story The Animators by Sydney J Bounds.
PIONEER (15, 111 mins)
ERIK Skjoldbjaerg writes and directs this gripping Norwegian thriller set in the early 1980s, when vast oil and gas deposits were discovered in the North Sea. In order to harvest these lucrative resources, divers must descend to the ocean bed, 500 metres below the surface, and lay a pipeline to convey the oil and gas back to the mainland. Norwegian diver Petter (Aksel Hennie) and his brother Knut (Andre Eriksen) are two of the divers capable of operating at the required depth and they join the race against American divers to win the contract to bring the natural resources ashore. Ambitious US diver Mike (Wes Bentley) leads the rival team, pushing Petter's courage and resolve to the limit. During one dive, Petter is involved in a tragic accident but when he attempts to unravel the mystery of the fateful event, Petter discovers the men in power will go to any lengths to keep the truth hidden and the profits rolling in.