Bilal Qureshi

There was a time when you didn't know what the No. 1 song in America was until Casey Kasem said so. The listener had an emotional relationship with the American Top 40 host for four decades.

For the past decade Pakistan has faced war, political instability and the rise of religious extremism. But those crises have fueled a new generation of Pakistani writers and artists.

The Iranian director who made the Oscar-winning A Separation has scored more awards-season attention; his new film The Past, another wonderfully layered study of domestic dynamics, is up for a Golden Globe.

The Great Beauty is the latest portrait of the city onscreen, in all its wonder, decadence, sinfulness and ugliness. The film, directed by Paolo Sorrentino, is also Italy's official entry for this year's Academy Awards.

Steve McQueen's 12 Years A Slave was one of several films premiering at this year's Toronto International Film Festival. Black British filmmaking is on the rise.

More than 100,000 people of Japanese descent were put in camps during World War II. Decades later and inspired by the civil rights movement, Japanese-Americans launched a campaign for redress that culminated in an official apology. The community marks the 25th anniversary of that victory this week.

Midnight's Children, from Oscar-nominated filmmaker Deepa Mehta, is a sweeping big-screen adaptation of Salman Rushdie's great novel of modern Indian history. NPR's Bilal Qureshi talks to the two storytellers about their collaboration on the project.

Both as the lead character in the film The Reluctant Fundamentalist and in his life outside the cinema, British actor Riz Ahmed navigates many identities.

Already an awards-season staple, German historical dramas are moving beyond the horrors of the Third Reich and delving into the nuanced past of the former East Germany. Films like Christian Petzold's Barbara, a quiet story about a troubled young doctor, tell a different kind of history.

Chefs Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi say their latest cookbook is a chance to re-imagine the recipes of their childhoods, reminiscing about Jerusalem's open-air food markets and street food.