BFI LFF 2019: By the Grace of God (Grâce à Dieu) (2018)
★★★★☆
Based on real-life events, in By the Grace of God François Ozon empathetically opens up a French scandal of child abuse in the Catholic Church going back over 20 years.
Europe
BFI LFF 2019: Monos (2019)
★★★★★
Monos by Alejandro Landes (Porfirio), set among volatile, trainee teenage guerillas in Latin America, is quite simply one of this year’s best and most disturbing films.
BFI LFF 2019: Previews 3-7 October
★★★★☆
BFI LFF 2019: Previews 3-7 October. Beanpole, Lucky Grandma, Nimic, White Girl, Zombi Child and Bad Education.
BFI LFF 2019: Previews (2-5 October)
★★★★☆
BFI London Film Festival previews 2-5 October: Recorder, Axone, Öndög, Clemency, The Warden, A Pleasure, Comrades! and The Antenna.
BFI LFF 2019: I Die of Sadness Crying for You (2019)
★★★★☆
I Die of Sadness Crying For You is for all those interested in how music, and the sound of a voice, can take us on journeys no other art form can.
The Last Tree (2019)
★★★★☆
Shola Amoo’s The Last Tree powerfully focuses on the crisis in black masculinity through the story of a Nigerian-heritage boy growing up in Britain.
Phoenix (Føniks) (2018)
★★★☆☆
Phoenix, director Camilla Strøm Henriksen’s debut, is an understated, sad film cutting across genres, a realistic story of children and catastrophically selfish parents with supernatural elements.
For Sama (2019)
★★★★★
For Sama, a documentary about the last days of Aleppo filmed and directed by Waad Al-Khateab, Edward Watts, is the most moving film you’ll see this year.
Mrs Lowry & Son (2019)
★★★★☆
Mrs Lowry & Son showcases Timothy Spall and Vanessa Regrave in a claustrophobic two-hander of the abusive relationship that drove one of Britain’s great painters.
Pain and Glory (2019)
★★★★☆
In personal and revealing Pain and Glory (Dolor y Gloria) award-winning director Pedro Almodóvar looks back on his life, loves and passion for films.
Transit (2018)
★★★★★
Transit is a disorienting Casablanca for our times by the renowned German director of Barbara and Phoenix, Christian Petzold.
Photograph (2019)
★★★☆☆
Photograph is another sweet and wistful love story from the director of The Lunchbox, Ritesh Batra.
Opus Zero (2017)
★★☆☆☆
Willem Dafoe is central to Opus Zero, Daniel Graham’s nebulous, Mexico-set feature debut.
Varda by Agnès (2019)
★★★★★
In Varda by Agnès, her last film, iconic film director and feminist Agnès Varda looks back on her ground-breaking, long career at the age of 90. of 90.