The greatest political speech in film history is delivered by cinema’s most famous silent clown in 1940’s The Great Dictator. In this comic masterpiece, Charlie Chaplin writes, directs and stars as both a Jewish barber and the Fascist tyrant Adenoid Hynkel – any resemblance to a living person, in particular the leader of the Third Reich, was entirely intentional.

It is a timeless comedy of resistance and compassion in the face of evil, which uses physical comedy to puncture political megalomania. In short, a film worth breaking a vow of silence for.