Karlovy Vary International Film Festival — A–Z of films

Pollard and Forsyth, who have previously worked with Cave on Bad Seeds videos, turn inner states into inhabitable rooms. What is real and what is unreal is not for the audience to guess.

Burke is interested in people not politics, keeping the focus on the sudden outbreaks of inhumanity and humanity in the madness, expertly crafting his thriller from the swirling fog of war.

It has the zing of a sugar-rush from hell.

Lambert laces this potentially volatile concoction with plenty of humour.

A painstakingly deliberate neo-noir, heavy on atmosphere and taking its time to build.

Intimate and insightful even in its weaker moments, Linklater finds strength and value in normality.

Although displaying much of the barbed wit of his first film, this is a more measured and moving work.

Worth seeing for its gripping central performances and Cuenca's impressive camerawork - signposting better films from him to come - even though the story lacks killer instinct.

An authentic, no-holds barred roller coaster ride, which gives fresh hope for a new wave of British cinema.

This film's message of smaller personal concerns being swamped by greater political ones is still touching.

Rok Biček's film shows that the drive to go against the grain can have as much to do with running with the pack as with embracing individuality.

What makes Ullón's film stand out is the poignancy of its personal journey.

Ovashvili tells the story with spare dialogue and absorbing attention to detail.

How the characters deal with grief is beautifully captured in the nuanced performances of McAvoy and Chastain.

The atmosphere of the drab Czechoslovakia at the time has been captured with uncompromising realism.

There is plenty to admire here, including some clever juxtaposition of audio and image.

Awe inspiring.

His attempt at satire digs too deep into the muddy waters of exaggeration

Despite its length, the film rarely drags, and its dramatic passages give one a chance to rest between episodes of stomach-churning violence.

Paolo Virzì's study of capitalism in crisis gives the audience all it covets.

A still, painterly vision in silvery monochrome - capturing the quiet contemplation of the two women and simultaneously encouraging the same on the part of the viewer.

A simple but compelling dynamic... the execution is superb.

Stunningly shot by cinematographer Timo Salminen, who illuminated landscapes as if they were Eckersberg paintings, the film is framed in 4:3 aspect ratio, creating the sense that there's always something just out of sight.

A meditative miniature of hypnotic grace.

The rules of the funny games of fiction and documentary do not apply here - as long as the addictions are taken care of, anything goes.

As Kumiko’s journey takes her deeper into Minnesota, the breathtaking ‘Americana’ landscapes and intriguingly surreal score work together to suggest a heightened state, or a fable.

The performances are powerful, unforgettable, like ice in the wind

If the characters are focused on how and if, for us the question why lingers in the air.

Although the pacing is sometimes poor, the sentiment - while occasionally straying towards the sentimental - is heartfelt and sweet spirited.

Dumont - for all the outlandishness of the film in other aspects - prioritises a messy realism over straightforward likeability in relation to his protagonists.

It's like a suicide. And there's nothing to look at

Courageous and uncompromising

Svankmajer makes the whole world a madhouse and all humanity its patients.

Purely observational though it is, this is a film that becomes devastating in its intensity.

It's always difficult to tell a story about nothing happening, and director Tim Sutton is not entirely successful in doing so here.

The energy and sheer visual bravura carry it along.

Ben-Shlush is riveting in the central role.

Cinematographer Bergsteinn Björgúlfsson captures Iceland at its wildest and yet this is also a tale of intimacy without romanticism.

Rabaté is strong on seeking out the irony in middle class mores.

It has been described in places as "very funny" but it's closer to laughable.

The biggest kick up the cinematic arse you're likely to get this year.

It is funny and serious by turns... full of striking and humorous images.

Only the gun speaks

It's an ending that has haunted me for 30 years...

The mix of action and satire also turns it into an absorbing hell of a ride.

Mackenzie shows everyone, inmates and guards alike, to be trapped in a corrupted, corrupting system that resists all change.

Almost perfectly constructed... a stunning piece of filmmaking.

Not still, but gently moving.

The way Sissako exposes the double standard makes the Jihadists' behavior no less threatening, on the contrary.

A complex portrait of grief, Tom At The Farm is Dolan's strongest work to date, not least because of the performance he gives in the lead.

Slaboshpytskiy goes to show, first through Anna and then the actions of Sergey that some transactions can hold a lot more - and worse - than we have bargained for.

Hooper infects characters and viewers alike with the thrill of a madness from which there can be no real escape.

If this is a character study, there is little character in it.

Patricia Highsmith on a low flame

In this fish-out-of-water comedy, mundanity is key.

Ferociously funny.

An unrelenting, yet utterly mesmerising cinematic vision.

Wisdom is quiet and the future a mystery