Elaha (2024)
★★★★☆
Elaha, directed by Milena Aboyan, is a powerful contemporary story about the conflict between tradition and modernity in the life of a young girl from an immigrant family in Germany.
★★★★☆
Elaha, directed by Milena Aboyan, is a powerful contemporary story about the conflict between tradition and modernity in the life of a young girl from an immigrant family in Germany.
★★★☆☆
Jeanne du Barry, which opened the Cannes Film Festival 2023, is co-written, directed and starred in by Maïwenn, also starring Johnny Depp, in a glossy historical French biopic.
★★★☆☆
An estranged father and daughter gradually reconnect during a cross-country journey following her overdose in director Emma Westenberg’s feature debut Bleeding Love.
★★★☆☆
If Only I Could Hibernate written, directed and produced by Zoljargal Purevdash is an involving, behind-the-scenes look at pressing issues in Mongolia, with an ecological message, seen through the life of an endearing teenager.
★★★☆☆
Baltimore (misleading title) is a biopic of the life of revolutionary class warrior Rose Dugdale in Ireland, written and directed by husband and wife team Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor.
★★★☆☆
The relationship between Priscilla and Elvis Presley is told from Priscilla’s perspective in writer-director Sofia Coppola’s dreamily subdued Priscilla.
★★★☆☆
What a feeling by Kat Rohrer is a romcom of two middle-aged women, a late ‘coming of age’.
★★★☆☆
Lusciously beautiful: the doomed romance in Ramata-Toulaye Sy’s poetic debut feature Banel & Adama takes place amid the severe effects of climate change in remote northeastern Senegal.
★★★★★
Four Daughters is a powerful and emotionally compelling mixture of documentary and drama directed by Kaouther Ben Hania that examines the roots of fundamentalism and how women pass on self-imposed repression through the generations.
★★★★☆
Reas is an extraordinary documentary and musical by Lola Arias set in a women’s prison in Argentina, unlike anything you have seen before.
★★★☆☆
Who Do I Belong To, an unsettlingly topical first feature by Meryam Joobeur, looks at identity in a post-ISIS world and sets out to challenge perceptions and prejudices.
★★★☆☆
The Letter Writer by Layla Kaylif is about the painful coming of age, emotionally and politically, for a boy and a country.
★★★☆☆
Your Fat Friend, a documentary directed by Jeanie Finlay, is the touching story of obesity rights campaigner Aubrey Gordon.
★★★☆☆
Natatorium is a female-centred, atmospheric thriller debut in a World Premiere at the IFFR for Iceland’s Helena Stefánsdóttir.