Romanian director Radu Mihaileanu (Train of Life, Live and Become) has a real talent for telling warm human stories about the downtrodden and dispossessed. The Concert follows failed Russian conductor Andreï (Aleksei Guskov), who is demoted to janitor under the Communists for his support of Jewish musicians. Years later, he intercepts an invitation for the Bolshoi Orchestra to play in Paris – and decides to accept, using the opportunity to reassemble his old orchestra, Buena Vista Social Club style, and finish the concert that was interrupted by the Communist authorities all those years before.

With his best friend Sacha Grossman, they organise the concert with the sacked Jewish musicians posing as the official Bolshoi Orchestra. Andreï will conduct Tchaikovsky’s technically challenging Violin Concerto in D Major himself – and he insists on having young classical superstar Anne-Marie Jacquet (Mélanie Laurent, last seen at DCA in Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds) as his soloist. It is clear from the beginning that something links Andreï to Anne-Marie, and that there is some unspoken history between him and her over-protective agent, Guylene (Miou-Miou).

Right up to the climactic finale, The Concert is pure weepy pleasure, and a great example of how a piece of music can be used cinematically to carry and mould an audience’s emotions. Bring your tissues.