The Safdies’ feature debut might not be a substantial piece of work but it is an uncut gem—rough and raw, yet possessing the heart of a passionate storyteller with a 16mm camera.
Nomadland before Nomadland, Rosi’s raw, no holds barred documentary on folks living in isolation on buses and vans in the Californian desert finds grace and empathy in their existence.
There’s something very deeply moving and universal about Jia’s seemingly mundane documentary about the stories of workers (and their children) who used to ply their trade in a Chengdu factory that had made way for new commercial development as China rapidly modernised in the 2000s.
Majid Majidi’s Berlinale Best Actor winner is a largely assured drama centering on the rural-urban divide in Iran through the eyes of a poor family.
Still the most accomplished superhero movie of the 21st century – a thrilling, endlessly fascinating treatise on good versus evil, and everything in between.
An uncommunicative Japanese family whose patriarch has lost his job is placed under the microscope in this Cannes award-winning melodrama by Kiyoshi Kurosawa.
Sion Sono’s deranged teenage romance about the perversities of sex and religion is wildly hilarious, controversial and satirical, and might be the briskest 4 hours you can spend in a movie.
A predictable historical war film about survival and the human spirit that mostly benefits from steady direction by Edward Zwick.
This strong early effort by Chilean director Pablo Larrain is one of his edgiest character studies on nihilism and pop culture obsession in the context of political oppression.
Meirelles’ visual style may be overwhelming, but this is still a rather well-made piece about the human condition.
