BFI LFF 2024: Mother Vera (2024)
★★★☆☆
Mother Vera is an award-winning documentary by Cécile Embleton and Alys Tomlinson that enthrallingly reveals the life of a nun in Belarusia both pre- and post-convent.
Alexa Dalby
The Crime is Mine (2023) (Mon Crime)
★★★★☆
The Crime is Mine directed by François Ozon is a fast-moving comedy wolf in sheep’s clothing about gay rights and women’s equality, starring Isabelle Huppert.
BFI LFF 2024: All We Imagine As Light (2024)
★★★★☆
All We Imagine As Light is a beautiful film about the contrasting lives of three women in India, the second film directed by award-winning Payal Kapadia.
BFI LFF 2024: Blitz (2024)
★★☆☆☆
Set in London at the height of the blitz in September 1940, 9-year-old George is evacuated to Somerset but undertakes a quest to be reunited with his mother Rita in writer/director Steve McQueen’s wartime drama Blitz.
BFI London Film Festival 2024: Aïcha (2023)
★★★☆☆
Aïcha, directed by Mehdi Barsaoui, is a gripping, thrilling study of the evolution of a young woman as she tries to find a new life and new identity after being assumed dead, amid endemic corruption in Tunisia.
BFI LFF 2024: Maldoror (2024)
★★★☆☆
Maldoror directed by Fabrice du Welz is a dark, tense and moral thriller in its examination of the nature of evil based on a horrific real-life Belgian case.
BFI LFF 2024: When the Light Breaks (2024)
★★★★☆
When the Light Breaks is a beautiful, poetic study of young people’s grief by Rúnar Rúnarsson.
BFI London Film Festival 2024: My Eternal Summer (2023) (Min Evige Sommer)
★★★☆☆
My Eternal Summer Sylvia Le Fanu is the heartfelt, bittersweet story of a teenager and her family’s emotions during a last summer together.
PORTRAITS of Dangerous Women (2024)
★★☆☆☆
Portraits of Dangerous Women describes itself as a British comedy drama. Oh dear.
SAN SEBASTIÁN 2024: My Eternal Summer (2024) (Min Evige Sommer)
★★★☆☆
My Eternal Summer Sylvia Le Fanu is the heartfelt, bittersweet story of a teenager and her family’s emotions during a last summer together.
The Goldman Case (2023)
★★★★☆
The Goldman Case directed by Cédric Kahn grippingly reconstructs the 1976 trial of voluble and charismatic leftist Pierre Goldman and tackles antisemitism and history.
The Queen of my Dreams (2023)
★★★☆☆
The Queen of my Dreams, Fawzia Mirza’s first feature, links two time lines and two continents with a mother and daughter’s shared love for Bollywood.
Venice 2024: Maldoror (2024)
★★★☆☆
Maldoror directed by Fabrice du Welz is a dark thriller based on a horrific real-life case.
TORONTO 2024: The Party’s Over (2024) (Se acabó la fiesta)
★★★☆☆
Toronto: The Party’s Over directed by Elena Manrique is a black comedy that shows the underbelly of immigration.