Karlovy Vary International Film Festival — A–Z of films

"I'm so scared we're going to die down here."

Essential viewing for anyone with an interest in the craft of filmmaking.

There's strong stuff here, but for the very reasons the film describes, it's often difficult to connect with.

Khlebnikov and Meschchaninova capture the essence of long-term relationships at the point when the firework bursts of highs and lows have been replaced by the dripping tap of minor annoyances that are becoming harder to ignore.

Denis Villeneuve's latest film may be about aliens visiting Earth but it's the people who hold his interest.

The puzzles here are of the sort intended to be enjoyed for their twists and turns rather than their resolution.

Ashes And Diamonds graphically illustrates how constant oppression can change the character of an entire nation.

This is not a serious film, rather a parody. Every attribute of style over content is here

Coppola’s desire for a new “soft” approach seems to have emasculated the original material while failing to engross our senses with her storytelling techniques.

Each of the characters here, presumably because they are rooted in truth, is given room to breathe and shows an ability to be changed by circumstance.

Juraj Lehotský's Blind Loves not only succeeds in describing the world as blind people really experience it but, in so doing, presents the sighted viewer with a fascinating insight into a different way of living.

Deals with a human story rather than making political points.

As a metaphor for the way the world views changing relationships and mores the film is affecting.

Carpignano is interested in the margins - and the fringes of those margins.

A gently-paced comedy of errors and manners.

The sense of poise created, as people move through spaces or talk back and forth, objects often leaving the frame in one direction as another enters from the opposite side, achieves a soothing rhythm.

We get to watch Lynch work on a sculpture, sit and smoke, or interact with his toddler daughter Lula in the present. Family photos and home movies light up the past.

Walker's performance as a woman mentally imprisoned by the strength of her own feelings is painful to watch, in a good way.

Di Giacomo treats us to some beautifully framed shots which provide a sense of the awe such environments must evoke in believers, but then gets in close, almost tabloid style, to capture the pleas of impassioned supplicants.

You'll laugh, and wince, and laugh again.

A film like this is a costume designer's dream.

The Safdies invest their own knowledge of their home turf to give it all a frenetic and authentic sense of urgency.

Reveals just enough in the sparse dialogue and long silences to keep us intrigued.

Debut feature director Francis Lee grew up on a Yorkshire farm and it shows in every inch of this film.

Haneke is a master of his material, revealing just enough to keep the viewer on tenterhooks but not enough to give an easy explanations.

Anna Dorval as the transplant's recipient, Dominique Blanc's surgeon, and Emmanuelle Seigner's turn as the mother of the donor are all note-perfect.

The energy is electric

Hant and Borodachyov's neatest trick is the way that the two men's awfulness to one another - a sort of no-holds-barred bitter-off - paradoxically stokes our sympathies.

Akin asks us to shift our perceptions of terrorist attacks in deliberately provocative ways, constantly flipping what we think we know and what we expect to see right up until the film's haunting final image.

Eternal greatness encounters sacrifice and the film dares to musically tackle questions of complicity in evil. Péguy's socialism, patriotism, and Catholicism mix well with the eager young actors. This is unlike any film you have ever seen.

This film is not an encyclopedia entry but a living, breathing adventure ride into French cinema through the eyes and ears of the filmmaker.

Keep The Change tells an intricate love story, featuring people we rarely get to see on the big screen

If there is rather more surface than substance and the ending is signposted, it is a surface full of intricacy and a signpost of admirable elegance.

Denis and Binoche take a perceptive and light approach to what could have been hackneyed material.

Zegers and Castro are no strangers to strange chemistry, most notably in Post Mortem, and they bring a dark psychological edge to their interactions.

The way director Emmanuel Gras eases under the skin of his main subject makes for fascinating viewing.

Rather than pick apart rituals... Weinstein simply lets us see them in action as part of the natural fabric of his life

This is less a portrait of a country than a journey through the emotional landscape of its people

There are a lot of characters, but they gradually flow together to build a fractured patchwork of what it means to be a veteran of messy conflict on any side.

Something like a cross between Carry On Solanas! and The Beguiled

Van Eck holds his own well in the central role whilst Taylan delivers a complex performance.

Sarnet doesn't lack imagination and the unsettling mood that pervades the action is maintained throughout.

The director has a flare for encapsulating a world of emotion in a single moment.

An excellent demonstration (in places) of Daan Bakker's agility and ability as a writer and director.

Comedy doesn't come in many darker shades than that employed by Serbian director Bojan Vuletic in Requiem For Mrs J, this is truly the vantablack of humour.

A vital part of your film education.

Although an undoubted classic of the period - and featuring one of cinema's best child performances in Torrent - the allusive and elusive style of the film is difficult to engage with.

It has the ungainly but attractive ambience of an old fairy tale being passed down through the generations, becoming more and more embellished on each retelling.

Laverty's script is so bare of sentiment, it hurts.

Terminator 2 is a wonderful sequel, dramatically satisfying and a fine entertainment.

A charming and entertaining take on the film within the film scenario, with solid performances from all of its cast.

By sporadically renouncing traditional reverse shots, Ribeiro gives us an impression of what it is like to be denied a certain gaze - but the director uses this effect with caution.

The film is well-served by its genre action sequences but it's the traces of grief that linger longest, like footsteps in the snow.

It quite subtly toys with the iconography of the genre - poking at the outlying parts of it, the parts dealing with "foreigness" and "home" rather than the more dependable elements of right and wrong.

This psychological willingness to go along with an idea, however ludicrous, in order to avoid confrontation is likely to strike a chord with many in other countries currently grappling with how to deal with the rise of extremism.