Love According to Dalva (2022)
★★★☆☆
Love According to Dalva, directed by Emmanuelle Nicot, features some extraordinarily intense performances in a paedophilia drama where the victim refuses to accept she is a child who has been abused.
France
Cairo Conspiracy (2022) previously Boy from Heaven (Walad min al-Janna)
★★★☆☆
Adam arrives in Cairo to study at the renowned Al-Azhar University and unexpectedly finds himself drawn into the centre of a dangerous world of religious and political power in writer/director Tarik Saleh’s compelling thriller.
Pacifiction: Tourment sur les îles (2022)
★★★★☆
Pacifiction, a hypnotically paced, dark political thriller set in French Tahiti directed by Catalan Albert Serra, enjoys the Polynesian island’s beauty, but also its inherent vulnerability to threats.
Close (2022)
★★★★☆
Close by Lukas Dhont (Girl) is a heartbreaking film of two boys’ friendship.
Berlinale 2023 Review: El Castillo (2023) (The Castle)
★★★☆☆
Berlinale presents San Sebastián award winner El Castillo (The Castle) a strangely moving mixture of documentary and fiction by Martin Benchimol.
Saint Omer (2022)
★★★★☆
Saint Omer by Alice Diop is a harrowing and haunting political drama about the complexities of being a Black woman and the pressures of motherhood, inspired by real events.
Holy Spider (Ankabut-e moqaddas) (2022)
★★★★☆
Holy Spider, angrily written and directed by Ali Abbasi (Border), is a grisly, reality-based story of violence against women in a patriarchal, theocratic society.
Neptune Frost (2021)
★★★☆☆
Neptune Frost, a visionary collaboration between poet/artist Saul Williams and actress and playwright Anisia Uzeyman, is a unique Afro-futurist political musical filmed in Rwanda.
Triangle of Sadness (2021)
★★★★☆
Triangle of Sadness, Ruben Ôstland’s second Palme d’or winner, is an uncompromising black contemporary satire.
BFI LFF 2022: Triangle of Sadness
★★★★☆
Triangle of Sadness, Ruben Ôstland’s second Palme d’or winner screening at the BFI LFF 2022 on 11 and 12 October 2022 , is an uncompromising blackly contemporary satire.
BFI LFF 2022: Pacifiction
★★★★☆
BFI LFF 2022: Pacifiction, a hypnotically paced, dark political thriller set in French Tahiti, directed by Catalan Albert Serra, enjoys the Polynesian island’s beauty, but also its inherent vulnerability to outside geo-political threats.
BFI LFF 2022: Holy Spider
★★★★☆
Holy Spider, angrily written and directed by Ali Abbasi (Border), and screening at the BFI London Film Festival, is a grisly, reality-based story of violence against women in a patriarchal, theocratic society.
Everything Went Fine (2021) (Tout s’est bien passé)
★★★★☆
Everything Went Fine by François Ozon is a tender, surprisingly darkly humorous look at euthanasia and family relationships.
Cannes Film Festival 2022 Day 1: Opening Film Coupez! (Final Cut) 2022
★★★★☆
Cannes Film Festival Day 1: Opening Film Coupez! (Final Cut) 2022 – the Opening Film Out of Competition is Final Cut directed by Michel Hazanavicius (The Artist).