A young Swedish woman travels to Los Angeles in hopes of becoming a porn star in this sexually explicit if eye-opening dramatisation of professionalism, as coded by pleasure, pain, power and submission.
It’s not easy to do a documentary about the life and work of arguably the world’s most extraordinary film composer, but Cinema Paradiso director Giuseppe Tornatore just about makes it work as it captures the sheer breadth and range of the maestro’s legacy.
This finely-tuned Berlinale Golden Bear winner recalls the spirit of Rohrwacher’s The Wonders, showcasing a close-knitted inter-generational Spanish family of peach farmers who face the threat of eviction from their land.
A below-par effort by one of Israel’s established directors whose somewhat controversial film about a family trapped by a military lockdown of an Arab town in Israel has a great premise but suffers from an uninteresting execution.
A charming standout feature debut from Israeli filmmaker Eran Kolirin, whose work here explores culture and communication and the importance of co-existence and understanding in a divided world.
Movies about children with hidden powers are not a new thing, but in this Norwegian psychological drama with a terrific sound design, writer-director Vogt has created an unsettling portrait of childhood as the thin line between good and evil is explored.
Uneven storytelling slightly mars this swordplay action-drama classic with one of the most spectacular action climaxes in Japanese cinema.
A couple’s marriage slowly disintegrates as war draws closer in this measuredly-paced drama set in the context of the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over separatist-controlled Eastern Ukraine.
The formal rigour of its aesthetics and its slow cinema approach are at times haunting, capturing the traces of presence, disappearance and trauma in Mexico’s crime-infested rural areas, though it ultimately feels like an elusive experience without any inkling of a plot to hold on to.
It’s probably one of the most visually stunning films from the ‘90s with incredible production design and cinematography, but it can be difficult to care for its fractured story or the array of eccentric characters.
Eternality Tan 