This is Kore-eda operating at his peak as he delivers one of 2023’s finest films with this intricately-structured and revelatory drama about the blind spots in our understanding of human behaviour and empathy.
A mother hopes to make amends with her daughter by cooking a special chicken dish in this striking French animation full of colours and vitality, set against the backdrop of a strike that has caused their town to come to a standstill.
Puberty and school bullying conflate in this somewhat peculiar feature debut with elements of horror as a schoolgirl discovers her body changing in distressing ways.
An extraordinary Oscar-worthy documentary about North Koreans who have defected, with startlingly real footage of escape and told in such a highly-suspenseful and intense manner that may even put the finest thrillers to shame.
Chen’s third feature, shot in picturesque Greece with Cynthia Erivo, mostly works as a finely-drawn take on an unlikely friendship between a woman who fled her war-torn country and a somewhat passionless tour guide.
A young woman’s unwavering stand against the shameful Iranian legal system is captured with both intimacy and exasperation in this insightful documentary about the case of Reyhaneh Jabbari, who was hanged for acting in self-defence against a rapist in 2014.
Petzold’s Berlinale Grand Jury Prize winner, about a group of friends and strangers at a holiday house as a forest fire blazes many miles away, is a strong, terrifically scripted and effortless portrayal of human relationships under scrutiny and pretence.
At nearly 160 mins, Zhang’s latest does overstay its welcome, but as a murky murder mystery with twists and turns, it is finely executed and entertaining.
Shinkai’s new anime is largely compelling, though sometimes bogged down by its melodramatic excess and narrative contrivances.
It’s difficult to have an opinion on Schanelec’s new film, which is decidedly inscrutable though it retains the German slow cinema auteur’s unique sensibilities as it explores themes of fate, guilt and grief in an elusive way.
Eternality Tan 