Mungiu’s somewhat belated take on xenophobia isn’t an all-powerful tale, but it smartly situates prevalent issues as a trickle-down effect of EU migrant policies in collision with chronic small-town racism.
Hosoda’s work here is generally delightful, but it is perhaps too slick and flashy to overcome its sometimes laboured storytelling about family and lineage.
Tonally uneven and tries too hard to be captivating, Panah Panahi’s tragicomic debut feature is a mixed bag of a road movie, despite the picturesque cinematography and some genuine moments of human empathy.
Godard collaborates with Jean-Pierre Leaud in this rarely-seen TV movie whose reach would have surely escaped its audience as the iconoclastic auteur philosophises the end of cinema, complications of production and the malleability of video aesthetics in his inimitable esoteric style.
As admirable as Ridley Scott’s ticking time-bomb decision to recast and reshoot the film is, this is an unexceptional work that struggles to elevate itself despite strong performances by Christopher Plummer and Michelle Williams.
Exquisitely hand-painted frame by frame, this French-language arthouse animation is bleak yet hopeful, about two young siblings who are forced to leave their home in order to flee from war and persecution in Eastern Europe.
Purportedly the first-ever documentary made (or more accurately, staged) in the history of the medium, Flaherty’s eye-opening and intimate look at an Inuit family living in a harsh and cold environment poses age-old questions of authenticity and truth.
Becker’s swansong is one of the most underrated based-on-a-true-story prison escape movies in world cinema—its simple, efficient storytelling style hides a highly-detailed narrative that propels the story forwards through plot and action.
One of Bergman’s quietest films, but therein lies a powerful and existential meditation on religion, vengeance and guilt.
This Chadian film, about the taboos of teenage pregnancy and abortion in a restrictive patriarchal society, is an important story to be told, even though it feels too straightforwardly familiar a tale to resonate deeply.
