Black Dog (2024) (Gou Zhen)
★★★★☆
Black Dog is ‘Sixth Generation’ director Hu Guan’s hit film, a huge allegory about rapid change in modern China.
★★★
Mandoob (Night Courier) (2023)
★★★☆☆
Mehdoob (Night Courier) directed by Ali Kalthami is a sophisticated thriller about a hapless delivery driver caught in societal change in Saudi Arabia.
Toronto Film Festival 2024 (49th): 6–15 September 2024
★★★★☆
TIFF 6-15 September 2024
Kneecap (2024)
★★★★☆
Kneecap, written and directed by Rich Peppiat, is the comic, fictionalised story of the rise to fame of the Irish-language rap trio Kneecap – played by themselves.
LOCARNO FILM FESTIVAL 2024: Mexico 86 (2024)
★★★★☆
Mexico 86 by César Diaz is the tension-fraught story of a mother’s love versus her idealism, against the background of the World Cup.
BFI LFF 2021: Brother’s Keeper (2021) (Okul tirasi)
★★★☆☆
Brother’s Keeper: Ferit Karaha’s tragic tale of boarding school brutality to Kurdish boys in snowy eastern Turkey.
Orlando, My Political Biography (2023) (Orlando, Ma Biographie Politique)
★★★☆☆
Orlando, My Political Biography by trans activist Paul B Preciado is a moving documentary inspired by Virginia Woolf’s novel.
The Nature of Love (2023) (Simple Comme Sylvain)
★★★★☆
The Nature of Love directed by Monia Chokri is a modern Canadian romcom, seen from a woman’s point of view, with a contemporary twist.
Sheffield Documentary Festival: The Boy and the Suit of Lights (2024) (El niño y el traje de luces)
★★★★☆
The Boy and the Suit of Lights is a raw documentary by Inma De Reyes that uncovers an insider’s view of some of the tensions between traditional and modern Spain.
Wilding (2023)
★★★★☆
Wilding, based on Isabella Tree’s 2018 book, directed by David Allen, is a lyrical hymn to the self-healing of the English countryside.
Heart of an Oak (2022) (Le Chêne)
★★★☆☆
The Heart of an Oak, directed by Laurent Charbonnier and Michel Seydoux, edited by Sylvie Lager, is a year of magnificent photography in the life of the creatures – animals, birds and insects – that live in or around a huge 200-year-old oak tree in a forest in France.
A House in Jerusalem (2023)
★★★☆☆
Palestinian filmmakers Muyad and Rami Alayan prick and prod Israel’s conscience about dispossession in A House in Jerusalem.
Cannes Film Festival 2024: Day 7: Monday, 20 May: The Other Way Around (2024) (Volveréis)
★★★★☆
The Other Way Around directed by Jonás Trueba is a glossy romcom in reverse with a deeper philosophy.
Cannes Film Festival 2024: Day 5: Saturday, 18 May: Universal Language (2024) (Une Langue Universelle)
★★★☆☆
Universal Language directed by Matthew Rankin is a surreal satire on provincial Canada.