The 12th Human Rights Watch International Film Festival will run March 12-21 across six cinemas in London.

Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud will attend screenings of their film Persepolis as a benefit gala on March 12 and at the festival opening on March 13.

The festival will screen 25 films from 19 countries including Lioness, A Promise To The Dead, Strange Culture, White Light/Black Rain, Milosevic on Trial, and Under The Bombs.

Playwright Ariel Dorfman will be the subject of a tribute that will include A Promise To The Dead (about his return to Chile), as well as 1995's Prisoners In Time and 1997's My House In On Fire.

Closing films on March 20 will include War/Dance and Buddha Collapsed Out Of Shame.

Details are available at www.hrw.org/iff