This intense Turkish Berlinale Golden Bear winner, with one of the most sickening lead characters in world cinema, is about the blatant abuse of self-imposed power, as a greedy man builds dams to stop water from irrigating the lands of his neighbours.
Wong’s rather conventional debut feature is a ‘Mean Streets’-esque gangster thriller that provides cursory pleasures with the odd heady rush of romance, and backed by a trio of committed performances from Andy Lau, Maggie Cheung and Jacky Cheung.
Two lonely, emotionally wounded men find connection in each other as Wenders’ road movie takes us on a poetic journey of self-reflection as they drive from one town to another, repairing faulty cinema projectors.
Bresson’s acrid final feature may be seen as a ‘counter-feit/fict-ion’, exploring the transactionality of exploitation through an anti-narrative, as a fake bill sparks an irreversible chain of events.
Doesn’t add any real value to Jia’s impressive body of work, this tonally jarring montage of new material and unused scenes from past projects sees Zhao Tao playing a silent woman navigating a quarter century of longing, regrets and opportunities in a modernising China.
A man with telepathic ability is recruited to infiltrate a clandestine group led by a nefarious ringleader with a similar ability in Cronenberg’s breakthrough sci-fi thriller that reveals his marked distaste for corporations and authorities that exploit humans and their bodies.
Linklater’s breakthrough indie has the kind of anarchic energy that still feels relevant today, capturing America at the crossroads of stagnation and progress, as his camera roams from one character to another like a stream of consciousness.
A Korean man is hanged but doesn’t die in Oshima’s complex if puzzling political farce, built out of layers of thematic juxtapositions and performative gestures, as the ghastly spectre of Japanese imperialism and social injustices rear their ugly heads.
Varda’s Golden Lion winner is a bleak exploration of a young female drifter’s (Sandrine Bonnaire in an extraordinary performance) unapologetic defiance of the personal and social obligations that seek to tie down her free self.
Bruce Lee’s only directed feature is an amusing actioner with cartoony characters, an ultra-thin plot and pacing issues, culminating in one of the most iconic showdowns in martial arts cinema.
Eternality Tan 