Difret (2014)
★★★★☆
Dragging Ethiopia into the modern age, Zeresenay Mehari’s Difret is a compelling account of two women fighting the strong arm of patriarchy.
★★★★☆
Dragging Ethiopia into the modern age, Zeresenay Mehari’s Difret is a compelling account of two women fighting the strong arm of patriarchy.
★★★☆☆
Directed, written by and starring Desiree Akhavan, Appropriate Behavior is a very personal New York story of the conflicting demands of love, self and family.
★★★☆☆
In Still Alice Julianne Moore gives a moving performance as a woman struggling to retain her sense of self as she develops early onset Alzheimer’s.
A showcase of the best of contemporary Italian cinema, Cinema Made In Italy offers a grand tour of the bel paese.
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★★★★☆
Gianni di Gregorio’sGood for Nothing is a quirky tale about friendship and standing up for yourself when it is the only thing left to do.
★★★☆☆
In Claudio Noce’s film, hidden secrets and underlying tensions explode against The Ice Forest‘s mountain landscape.
★★★☆☆
Directed by video artists Masbedo, The Lack is a haunting study of absence through the eyes of six desperate women immersed in a silent natural environment.
★★★★☆
Pierfrancesco Diliberto’s The Mafia Kills Only in Summer is an unlikely comedy centred on the bloodshed perpetrated by Sicily’s ruthless Cosa Nostra.
★★★★☆
Fierce and unflinchingly brutal, Kornél Mundruczó’s White God is an unsettling Hungarian allegory brimming with passion, imagination and socio-political resonance.
★★★☆☆
Sensitive low-budget British indie Hinterland follows two childhood friends getting to know each other again on a weekend road trip to Cornwall.
★★★★☆
Evoking Lynch, Polanski and Buñuel, The Duke of Burgundy is a boldly unique film from an exciting British filmmaker; it’s quite mad, quite funny, and quite brilliant.
★★★★☆
With a delicate, mesmerising performance from Rinko Kikuchi, Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter is a darkly comic tale of misadventure – tragic, odd and uplifting.
★★☆☆☆
Uncompromising in its running time, Sergei Loznitsa’s sedate shooting style renders this potentially remarkable account of civil unrest quite the opposite.
Pitting first-time directors against studio blockbusters, the 65th Berlin Film Festival reserves its glitz for the red carpet as Jafar Panahi’s Taxi takes the Golden Bear.
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