December’s here, the perfect time to add to our film collections, do some stocking filling or get travel inspiration on favourite streaming platforms. So I thought about DVDs that always inspire me with their sense of place – and might do so for you. Let’s dim the lights in India and work our way back to Europe!

In Mumbai, an office worker’s wrongly delivered lunch drives heart-warming comedy drama set in India’s largest metropolis. The Lunchbox (stop sniggering in the back row please) is as mouth-watering as Ila’s food…

Further east, Japanese boy meets girl with a 180-degree twist in a bizarre, upside-down Anime world where the sky’s literally the limit. The beautifully drawn Patema Inverted delights and challenges throughout. So does The Rabbit Proof Fence’s true story of hope, survival and Australia’s ‘Stolen Generations’ of aboriginal children.

Thrills aplenty

Across the Pacific, 1993’s Falling Down is an unconventional thriller. It powerfully blends shattering violence with the absurdly funny as Bill Foster (Michael Douglas) makes his ‘more than angry’ journey across scorching Los Angeles – ordering fast food won’t be the same again!

Counterpoint Hollywood drama with gritty reality as two British women paddle 2500 chilly kilometres in Alaska. And if Kayaking the Aleutians isn’t scary enough, try the 3,200-foot rope-free climb of Yosemite’s El Capitan with Alex Honnold in Free Solo. Don’t look down!

For great Cuban music and atmosphere, Ry Cooder’s Buena Vista Social Club is another favourite. And in a biopic once described as breathtakingly beautiful enough to be a travel ad for South America, The Motorcycle Diaries will surely reward – and inspire South American adventures.

Cool, crazy and back to the 1960s

In Europe, Norway’s Cool & Crazy engagingly profiles Berlevåg’s male choir, while Hans Petter Moland’s ‘sly, entertaining revenge thriller’ In Order of Disappearance is set in the country’s haunting snowscapes.

From 1960s France, Belle et Sébastien always takes me back to childhood’s black and white TV. And I defy you not to laugh through Mr. Bean’s Holiday journey to the Côte d’Azur. Further south, 1970’s cult Figures in a Landscape sets a mysterious helicopter against two fugitives in a landscape of arid plains and snowy mountains (actually, Southern Spain).

And finally, because I love anything Swiss, Erich Langjahr’s Hirtenreise ins dritte Jahrtausend (Shepherd’s Journey into the Third Millennium) is a gentle gem of a documentary. Hard to find and costing a fortune if you do, it’s worth the effort!

Season’s greetings and happy viewing everyone!