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Karlovy Vary International Film Festival · 2023

Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2023

Horizons

Programme

59 films · 39 reviews

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About Dry Grasses (Kuru Otlar Üstüne)

Review preview for About Dry Grasses

It’s the multiple layers of mystery – which have less to do with actual events than with what different characters are thinking – which make the film compelling.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
A young teacher hopes to be appointed to Istanbul after mandatory duty at a small village. After long time waiting he loses all hope of escaping from this gloomy life. His colleague helps him to regain his perspective.

(Country: Turkey, France, Germany, Sweden; Year: 2023; Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan; Writer: Ebru Ceylan, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Akin Aksu; Stars: Merve Dizdar, Deniz Celiloglu, Musab Ekici)

Full review

The Adults

The plan to make a trip back home as short as possible begins to unravel when Eric has to balance his addiction to poker with the challenging relationships with his two sisters Rachel and Maggie.

(Country: US; Year: 2023; Director: Dustin Guy Defa; Stars: Michael Cera, Hannah Gross, Sophia Lillis)

Anatomy Of A Fall (Anatomie D'une Chute)

Review preview for Anatomy Of A Fall

Hüller has always been an unfussy actress, who allows a character's flaws to shine out in interesting ways.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
A woman is accused of her husband's murder.

(Country: France; Year: 2023; Director: Justine Triet; Writer: Arthur Harari, Justine Triet; Stars: Sandra Hüller, Samuel Theis, Swann Arlaud, Jehnny Beth, Milo Machado Graner, Antoine Reinartz)

Full review

Animalia

Review preview for Animalia

Pregnancy is often depicted as a state of enhanced vulnerability, and one which points the way to increased dependency. Here, Alaoui turns that around.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
A young, pregnant woman finds emancipation as aliens land in Morocco.

(Country: US; Year: 2023; Director: Sofia Alaoui; Writer: Sofia Alaoui; Stars: Oumaïma Barid, Mehdi Dehbi, Fouad Oughaou)

Full review See: Interview with Sofia Alaoui about Animalia

The Animal Kingdom (Le Règne Animal)

Review preview for The Animal Kingdom

The aerial shots of the forest and the believable transformations with feathers, wings, beaks and claws as well as fish scales, make for riveting viewing.

Richard Mowe · 4 out of 5
Sci-fi adventure set in a world where humans are mutating into "creatures".

(Country: France; Year: 2023; Director: Thomas Cailley; Writer: Thomas Cailley; Stars: Adèle Exarchopoulos, Romain Duris, Paul Kircher)

Full review

Autobiography

A young man working as a housekeeper sparks a chain of violence after defending his boss's mayoral election campaign.

(Country: Indonesia, Poland, Germany, Singapore, France, Philippines; Year: 2022; Director: Makbul Mubarak; Writer: Makbul Mubarak; Stars: Kevin Ardilova, Yusuf Mahardika, Arswendy Bening Swara, Lukman Sardi, Rukman Rosadi, Haru Sandra, Gunawan Maryanto, Yudi Ahmad Tajudin)

Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry

Review preview for Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry

The unadorned observation of the physical aspects of the relationship in which middle-aged bodies are shown without artifice is one of the most hypnotic aspect of Naveriani’s vision.

Richard Mowe · 4 out of 5
The story of a 40something in a dead-end town who discovers love for the first time.

(Country: Georgia; Year: 2023; Director: Elene Naveriani; Writer: Elene Naveriani, Nikoloz Mdivani based on the novel by Tamta Melashvili; Stars: Eka Chavleishvili, Temiko Chinchinadze, Anka Khurtsidze)

Full review See: Interview with Elene Naveriani about Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry

La Chimera

Review preview for La Chimera

Rohrwacher’s visually eclectic style is well suited to exploring the contrasts between present and past, natural and artificial, poverty and wealth.

Jennie Kermode · 2.5 out of 5
The story of a group of archaeologists and the black market in historical artefacts.

(Country: Italy, France, Switzerland; Year: 2023; Director: Alice Rohrwacher; Writer: Carmela Covino, Marco Pettenello, Alice Rohrwacher; Stars: Isabella Rossellini, Josh O'Connor, Alba Rohrwacher, Lecu Chikovani, Carol Duate)

Full review See: Alice Rohrwacher on fairy tales and La Chimera

Club Zero

Review preview for Club Zero

The narrative proceeds at a controlled pace set to a jangling score of percussion and chants, which is enough to set viewers on edge without the disturbing scenes of food being tentatively eaten and then disgorged.

Richard Mowe · 3 out of 5
A teacher takes a job at an elite school and forms a strong bond with five students - a relationship which eventually takes a dangerous turn.

(Country: Austria, UK, Germany, France, Denmark; Year: 2023; Director: Jessica Hausner; Writer: Jessica Hausner, Géraldine Bajard; Stars: Mia Wasikowska, Sidse Babett Knudsen, Sam Hoare, Camilla Ritherford, Amanda Lawrence, Elsa Zylberstein)

Full review See: Jessica Hausner in conversation on costume designer Tanja Hausner, cinematographer Martin Gschlacht, Sidse Babette Knudsen, and Peter & the Wolf in Club Zero , Jessica Hausner in conversation on Club Zero, Elsa Zylberstein and Mathieu Demy as parents, and the Pied Piper of Hamelin

Dead Girls Dancing

On a road trip across Italy, four recent high school graduates stumble upon an abandoned village. Away from the expectations of parents and teachers, they experiment with the limits of their newfound freedom.

(Country: Germany, France; Year: 2023; Director: Anna Roller; Writer: Anna Roller; Stars: Luna Jordan, Noemi Liv Nicolaisen, Katharina Stark, Sara Giannelli)

The Delinquents (Los Delincuentes)

Review preview for The Delinquents

Moreno isn’t shy about his use of symbolism...What this effects to disguise, however, is the degree to which [the men's] own thinking has been shaped by symbols and by the belief system which surrounds them.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
Two bank staff rob their own establishment.

(Country: Argentina, Brazil, Luxembourg, Chile; Year: 2023; Director: Rodrigo Moreno; Writer: Rodrigo Moreno; Stars: Margarita Molfino, Esteban Bigliardi, Cecilia Rainero)

Full review See: Interview with Rodrigo Moreno about The Delinquents

The Echo (El Eco)

In a remote and solitary valley, punished by winter and drought, the children learn to gaze upon death, illness and love.

(Country: Mexico, Germany; Year: 2023; Director: Tatiana Huezo)

The Edge Of The Blade (Une affaire d'honneur)

Review preview for The Edge Of The Blade

Perez manages the set-piece confrontations with precision and a nail-biting suspense.

Richard Mowe · 4 out of 5
Paris, 1887. Duels have been officially outlawed but are still regular practice. This historical drama is set against that backdrop.

(Country: France; Year: 2023; Director: Vincent Perez; Writer: Karine Silla Perez, Vincent Perez; Stars: Roschdy Zem, Doria Tillier, Vincent Perez, Guillaume Gallienne, Damien Bonnard)

Full review See: Indochine star Vincent Perez on being back behind and in front of the camera with duelling drama

Endless Borders (Marzhaye bi payan)

A teacher originally from Tehran and living in exile near the border with Afghanistan, tries to protect a young man in love and a girl trapped in an arranged marriage – all while also trying to reconnect with his estranged wife.

(Country: Germany, Czech Republic, Iran; Year: 2023; Director: Abbas Amini; Writer: Abbas Amini, Hossein Farokhzadeh; Stars: Pouria Rahimi Sam, Mino Sharifi, Hamed Alipour, Behafarid Ghaffarian, Naser Sajjadi Hosseini, Ghalem Sakhi Nazari, Latife Zousefi, Houtak Balouch)

Fallen Leaves (Kuolleet Lehdet)

Review preview for Fallen Leaves

An amuse-bouche of a film, Aki Kaurismäki’s latest comedy romance may leave you wanting more but it’s also a fully rounded, good looking experience packed with all the flavours we’ve come to expect from the master of deadpan down the years.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
The course of potential love does not run smooth for a shelf-stacker and a metal worker.

(Country: Finland; Year: 2023; Director: Aki Kaurismäki; Writer: Aki Kaurismäki; Stars: Alma Pöysti, Jussi Vatanen)

Full review

Fantastic Machine (And The King Said, What A Fantastic Machine)

Review preview for Fantastic Machine

It is highly satisfying that this feature film about the history and cultural impact of photography - and, by extension, film and television - should be such a lovely example of the Reithian principles to “inform, educate and entertain”.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
From the first camera to 45 billion cameras worldwide today, the visual sociologist filmmakers widen their lens to expose both humanity’s unique obsession with the camera’s image and the social consequences that lay ahead.

(Country: Sweden, Denmark; Year: 2023; Director: Axel Danielson, Maximilien Van Aertryck)

Full review

Fireworks (Stranizza d'amuri)

Sicily in the 1980s. Seventeen-year-old Gianni faces harassment because of his sexual orientation. His life changes the moment he meets Nino

(Country: US; Year: 2022; Director: Giuseppe Fiorello,; Writer: Giuseppe Fiorello, Andrea Cedrola, Carlo Salsa, Josella Porto; Stars: Gabriele Pizzurro, Samuele Segreto)

Goodbye Julia

Review preview for Goodbye Julia

Kordofani uses the greater intimacy offered by the camera to bring us close to the characters and reveal the complex layers of relationship developing between them.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
Wracked by guilt after covering up a murder, Mona — a northern Sudanese retired singer in a tense marriage — tries to make amends by taking in the deceased’s southern Sudanese widow, Julia, and her son, Daniel, into her home.

(Country: Sudan, Egypt, Germany, France, KSA, Sweden; Year: 2023; Director: Mohamed Kordofani; Writer: Mohamed Kordofani; Stars: Eiman Yousif, Siran Riak, Nazar Goma, Ger Duany, Issraa Elkogali Häggström)

Full review

If Only I Could Hibernate

A poor but proud Mongolian teen aspires to win an Academic Olympiad; first, he and his siblings must survive the bitter winter in Ulaanbaatar’s Ger district.

(Country: Mongolia; Year: 2023; Director: Zoljargal Purevdash)

Inside The Yellow Cocoon Shell

Review preview for Inside The Yellow Cocoon Shell

There’s a freshness to this world, as if one had just stepped out of one’s own door and arrived in an unexpected place.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
A man has to return his sister-in-law's body to her hometown after an accident while, along with his nephew, he searches for his long-lost brother.

(Country: Vietnam; Year: 2023; Director: Thien An Pham; Writer: Thien An Pham; Stars: Nguyen Thi Truc Quynh, Le Phong Vu, Nguyen Thinh, Vu Ngoc Manh)

Full review

Iron Butterflies

Review preview for Iron Butterflies

Liubyi’s film succeeds in bringing home not just the enormity of the crash itself but of the scale of what was lost aboard.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
In summer 2014, sunflower fields and coal mines in eastern Ukraine turned into a 12 square kilometer crime scene. A multi-layered investigation into the downing of flight MH17, in which a butterfly-shaped shrapnel was found in the pilot's body, implicated the state responsible for a war crime that remains unpunished.

(Country: Ukraine, Germany; Year: 2023; Director: Roman Liubyi)

Full review See: Roman Liubyi on mixing dance and performance into documentary Iron Butterflies

Kidnapped (Rapito)

Review preview for Kidnapped

This cinematic exploration, a manifestation of Christian bigotry, speculates with cinematic icons and religious imagery, laying bare the power-hungry clergy.

Levan Tskhovrebadze · 4.5 out of 5
In 1858, a six-year-old Jewish boy is forcibly seized from his family by the Catholic church.

(Country: Italy, France, Germany; Year: 2023; Director: Marco Bellocchio; Writer: Marco Bellocchio, Susanna Nicchiarelli, Edoardo Albinati; Stars: Enea Sala, Leonardo Maltese, Paolo Pierobon, Fausto Russo Alesi, Barbara Ronchi, Filippo Timi)

Full review

Limbo

A detective reopens the case of an Aboriginal woman murdered 20 years ago. The people in the victim’s small outback town and her family are silent because the cop is white and the truth is complex.

(Country: Australia; Year: 2023; Director: Ivan Sen; Writer: Ivan Sen; Stars: Simon Baker, Rob Collins, Natasha Wanganeen, Nicholas Hope, Mark Coe)

Luxembourg, Luxembourg

Review preview for Luxembourg, Luxembourg

Luckich's love of silent comedy is everywhere.

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
Twin brothers find their lives disrupted after a phone call about their long-estranged dad.

(Country: Ukraine; Year: 2022; Director: Antonio Lukich; Writer: Antonio Lukich; Stars: Anna Alsheva, Lyudmyla Sachenko, Ramil Nasirov, Amil Nasirov)

Full review

Mami Wata

Review preview for Mami Wata

Using very simple props, Obasi constructs a whole world in this small coastal location.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
When the harmony in a village is threatened by outside elements, two sisters must fight to save their people and restore the glory of a mermaid goddess to the land.

(Country: Nigeria; Year: 2023; Director: CJ "Fiery" Obasi; Writer: CJ "Fiery" Obasi; Stars: Evelyne Ily, Uzoamaka Aniunoh, Kelechi Udegbe, Emeka Amakeze, Rita Edochie, Tough Bone)

Full review

The March on Rome

One of the first propaganda films ever made, A noi! was shot in 1922 and covered the March on Rome, an important event in the rise of Italian fascism. A hundred years later, Mark Cousins revisits the film.

(Country: Italy; Year: 2022; Director: Mark Cousins)

Midwives

Sofia and Louise are newly qualified midwives. They quickly encounter the challenges of everyday hospital life.

(Country: France; Year: 2023; Director: Léa Fehner; Stars: Khadija Kouyaté, Héloïse Janjaud, Myriem Akheddiou, Quentin Vernede, Tarik Kariouh)

Monster (Kaibutsu)

Review preview for Monster

A beautifully constructed piece of work in which every detail serves the whole, putting the tools of the epic at the disposal of a story which is intimate and delicately realised.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
A mother is shocked when she learns what a teacher has said to her son, but the truth is more complicated.

(Country: Japan; Year: 2023; Director: Hirokazu Kore-eda; Writer: Yûji Sakamoto; Stars: Sakura Ando, Eita Nagayama, Soya Kurokawa, Hinata Hiragi)

Full review

The Mother Of All Lies

Review preview for The Mother Of All Lies

Everything about El Moudir’s film is unusual, from the structure to the mood.

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
The filmmaker doesn’t have any pictures of herself as a child. This is the starting point of a documentary investigation that unfolds the secrets of a Casablanca family.

(Country: Morocco, France, Qatar; Year: 2023; Director: Asmae El Moudir)

Full review

Mountain Woman

Story of a girl living in a village hit by famine.

(Country: Japan, US; Year: 2022; Director: Takeshi Fukunaga; Writer: Takeshi Fukunaga, Ikue Osada; Stars: Anna Yamada, Masatoshi Nagase, Mirai Moriyama, Ryutaro Ninomiya, Toko Miura)

My Worst Enemy (Mon pire ennemi)

Mehran Tamadon has lived in France for many years. As an experiment, he asks exiled Iranians to interrogate him as if they were an agent of the Islamic Republic. A renowned actor with first-hand knowledge of such mistreatment takes up the challenge. Documentary.

(Country: France, Switzerland; Year: 2023; Director: Mehran Tamadon; Stars: Zar Amir Ebrahimi)

The Nature Of Love (Simple Comme Sylvain)

Sophia, a 40-year-old philosophy professor. Sylvain is a craftsman, renovating Sophia and her partner Xavier's new country house. When Sophia and Sylvain meet, Sophia’s world is turned upside down.

(Country: Canada, France; Year: 2023; Director: Monia Chokri; Writer: Monia Chokri; Stars: Magalie Lépine-Blondeau , Pierre-Yves Cardinal, François Létourneau , Monia Chokri)

No Bears

Review preview for No Bears

At one point it seems “Panahi” could easily step from one country to the other, but as his film shows, leaving is not always an easy option.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
The director appears as himself, relocated to a rural border town to remotely oversee the making of a new film in Turkey, the story of which comes to sharply parallel disturbing events that begin to occur around him.

(Year: 2022; Director: Jafar Panahi; Writer: Jafar Panahi; Stars: Jafar Panahi, Mina Kavani, Bülent Keser, Vahid Mobasheri, Sinan Yusufoglu, Naser Hashemi, Bakhtiyar Panjeei, Reza Heydari, Mina Khosrovani)

Full review

The Old Oak

Review preview for The Old Oak

Will anyone see this who wouldn't anyway?

Andrew Robertson · 3 out of 5
A musing on the future of The Old Oak, the last remaining pub in a village in Northeast England, where people are leaving the land as the mines are closed. Houses are cheap and available, thus making it an ideal location for Syrian refugees.

(Country: France; Year: 2023; Director: Ken Loach; Writer: Paul Laverty; Stars: Debbie Honeywood, Andy Dawson, Reuben Bainbridge, Col Tait, Rob Kirtley)

Full review

Omen (Augure)

Review preview for Omen

The powerful forces of family and fable, old and new, intertwine and vie for supremacy in Belgian-Congolese director Baloji’s visually striking debut.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
When a man who was cast out as a child after being considered a sorceror returns home, he faces prejudice.

(Country: DRC; Year: 2023; Director: Baloji; Writer: Baloji, Thomas van Zuylen; Stars: Marc Zinga, Lucie Debay, Eliane Umuhire, Yves-Marina Gnahoua, Marcel Otete Kabeya)

Full review

On The Adamant (Sur l'Adamant)

Documentary about patients and caregivers at a floating psychiatric centre on the Seine.

(Country: France, Japan; Year: 2023; Director: Nicolas Philibert)

Opponent (Motståndaren)

Review preview for Opponent

It’s a tremendously challenging role, in which Maadi excels.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
Iman, an Iranian, lives with his family in Sweden in an ever-changing succession of refugee hostels. To increase his chances of obtaining residence permits for them all, he resumes his career as a wrestler – and is confronted with the reason he had to flee.

(Country: Sweden; Year: 2023; Director: Milad Alami; Writer: Milad Alami; Stars: Payman Maadi, Marall Nasiri, Björn Elgerd, Ardalan Esmaili, Arvin Kananian)

Full review See: Interview with Milad Alami about Opponent

Orlando, My Political Biography (Orlando, ma biographie politique)

Review preview for Orlando, My Political Biography

Capturing the experience of living in a world where one’s gender doesn’t fit better than almost any other film to date, Preciado’s work is all about claiming space and present day narrative.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
Docufiction interpretation of Virginia Woolf's novel.

(Country: France; Year: 2023; Director: Paul B Preciado; Writer: Paul B Preciado; Stars: Paul B Preciado)

Full review

Passages

Review preview for Passages

One of the most subtle films of the ongoing year.

Levan Tskhovrebadze · 3.5 out of 5
A married man cheats on his husband with a woman... then tells him about it.

(Country: US; Year: 2023; Director: Ira Sachs; Writer: Mauricio Zacharias; Stars: Franz Rogowski, Ben Whishaw, Adèle Exarchopoulos)

Full review

Past Lives

Review preview for Past Lives

To say too much about what happens in each episode would be to spoil the joy of encountering Song’s finely worked screenplay, which lets its characters' emotions glitter in the light.

Amber Wilkinson · 5 out of 5
Nora and Hae Sung, two childhood friends, are separated from each other when Nora’s family emigrates from South Korea. Two decades later, they are reunited in New York where Nora now lives with her American husband.

(Country: US; Year: 2022; Director: Celine Song; Writer: Celine Song; Stars: Greta Lee, Teo Yoo, John Magaro)

Full review

Perfect Days

Review preview for Perfect Days

The 4:3 format, preferred by Yasujirō Ozu, is the perfect frame for paying attention to the small mysteries that are often overlooked.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 4.5 out of 5
The story of an urban renewal project which involves the creation of 17 public toilets in key locations in the Japanese capital.

(Country: Japan, Germany; Year: 2023; Director: Wim Wenders; Writer: Takuma Takasaki, Wim Wenders; Stars: Kôji Yakusho, Tokio Emoto, Arisa Nakano, Aoi Yamada, Yumi Asô)

Full review See: Wim Wenders in conversation on his Oscar-nominated Perfect Days, Yasujirō Ozu, Anselm Kiefer and Ingeborg Bachmann , Wim Wenders in conversation on Perfect Days, Anselm Kiefer, Paul Celan and fairy tales

Perpetrator

Review preview for Perpetrator

Perpetrator heralds the joyous rising up of a regiment of monstrous women.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
On her 18th birthday, tough-girl Jonny eats a cake baked by her aunt according to a magical family recipe and undergoes a radical metamorphosis.

(Country: US; Year: 2023; Director: Jennifer Reeder; Writer: Jennifer Reeder; Stars: iah McKirnan, Alicia Silverstone, Christopher Lowell, Melanie Liburd, Ireon Roach)

Full review See: Interview with Jennifer Reeder about Perpetrator

Pure Unknown (Sconosciuti Puri)

Review preview for Pure Unknown

The film brings home the enormity of the challenge that Cattaneo is up against, not just in terms of money for identification but regarding a general lack of political interest and will in seeing systems better connected.

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
One forensic pathologist's fight for the rights to identity of the nameless victims she works with.

(Country: Italy; Year: 2023; Director: Valentina Cicogna, Mattia Colombo)

Full review

The Quiet Migration

Carl is expected someday to take over his parents’ agribusiness in a rural backwater of Denmark. But, as an adopted child, he also longs to learn more about his South Korean heritage.

(Country: Denmark; Year: 2023; Director: Malene Choi; Stars: Cornelius Won Riedel-Clausen, Bjarne Henriksen, Bodil Jørgensen, Clara Thi Thanh Heilmann Jensen, Dawid Ściupidro)

Samsara

Review preview for Samsara

While attempting to describe the crux of Samsara is, essentially, as impossible as catching lightning in a jar, join me on a journey of imagination and we’ll give it a go.

Amber Wilkinson · 4.5 out of 5
Samsara is the Buddhist cycle of death and reincarnation. From the temples of Laos, alongside with teenage monks, we will accompany a soul in its transit from one body to another through the bardo.

(Country: Spain; Year: 2023; Director: Lois Patiño; Writer: Lois Patiño; Stars: Amid Keomany, Toumor Xiong, Simone Milavanh, Mariam Vuaa Mtego, Juwairiya Idrisa Uwesu)

Full review

Sorcery

Review preview for Sorcery

Part fantasy, part western, the film is exquisitely shot, the humid atmosphere of the island creating a degree of visual uncertainty to confound viewers further.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
On the remote island of Chiloé in the late 19th century, an indigenous girl named Rosa lives and works with her father on a farm. When the foreman brutally turns on Rosa’s father, she sets out for justice, seeking help from the king of a powerful organisation of sorcerers.

(Country: Chile, Mexico, Germany; Year: 2023; Director: Christopher Murray; Writer: Christopher Murray; Stars: Valentina Véliz, Daniel Antivilo, Sebastian Hulk, Daniel Muñoz)

Full review See: Interview with Christopher Murray about Sorcery

The Survival Of Kindness (Das Überleben der Freundlichkeit)

BlackWoman is abandoned in a cage in the middle of the desert and left to die. But she is not ready to give up all hope. She escapes, and walks through pestilence and persecution, from desert to mountain to city, to find those who left her to die.

(Country: Australia; Year: 2022; Director: Rolf de Heer; Stars: Mwajemi Hussein, Deepthi Sharma, Darsan Sharma)

Suzume

Review preview for Suzume

For lovers of anime, there are Easter eggs aplenty, including more than a few nods to the famed Ghibli studios.

Jane Fae · 4 out of 5
Animated adventure sees a teenager fight to close a series of "Doors of Disaster".

(Country: Japan; Year: 2022; Director: Makoto Shinkai; Writer: Makoto Shinkai; Stars: Voiced by, Nanoka Hara, voiced by Eri Fukatsu, Hokuto Matsumura, Ann Yamane)

Full review

The Sweet East

A picaresque journey through contemporary America, undertaken by a young woman granted access to the strange sects and cults that proliferate in this country by a series of gatekeepers eager to win her over.

(Country: US; Year: 2023; Director: Sean Price Williams)

The Taste Of Things (La Passion De Dodin Bouffant, The Pot-au-Feu)

Review preview for The Taste Of Things

While the end result is important, Hùng’s film is all about savouring the moment, something that becomes more urgent as it progresses - although talk of speed has little place in a film that unfolds with the pace and beauty of a flower.

Amber Wilkinson · 5 out of 5
The story of Eugenie, an esteemed cook, and Dodin, the fine gourmet she has been working for over the last 20 years.

(Country: France; Year: 2023; Director: Trân Anh Hùng; Writer: Trần Anh Hùng; Stars: Juliette Binoche, Benoît Magimel, Pierre Gagnaire)

Full review See: Director of The Taste of Things on Binoche, Magimel and the row around the Oscars , Juliette Binoche on being reunited with Benoît Magimel onscreen

A Thousand And One

Review preview for A Thousand And One

Rockwell’s realist style and sense of history helps keep the story engaging, but the real reward for the viewing comes in the emotional final act.

Jeremy Mathews · 4 out of 5
Convinced it's one last, necessary crime on the path to redemption, unapologetic and free-spirited Inez kidnaps six-year-old Terry from the foster care system. Holding on to their secret and each other, mother and son set out to reclaim their sense of home, identity, and stability in New York City.

(Country: US; Year: 2023; Director: AV Rockwell; Writer: AV Rockwell; Stars: Teyana Taylor, Will Catlett, Josiah Cross, Aven Courtney, Aaron Kingsley Adetola) , Trailer

Full review

To The North (Spre Nord)

Review preview for To The North

Intensity burns through almost every interaction

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
A religious Filipino sailor working on a transatlantic ship, discovers a hidden Romanian stowaway. Convinced by a Bible this emigrant has, the sailor starts playing a dangerous game, involving his crew, his faith in God and an innocent man’s life.

(Year: 2022; Director: Mihai Mincan; Stars: Alexandre Nguyen, Soliman Cruz, Nikolai Becker, Emmanuel Sto. Domingo, Bartholome Guingona, Olivier Ho Hio Heen)

Full review See: Minhai Mincan on fear and moving from documentary to fiction in To The North , Mihai Mincan on scoring, sound design and shooting on a ship in To The North

Tótem

Review preview for Tótem

The idea of different things being in and out of focus for the various generations runs through a film that has sweetly comic moments and poignancy in equal measure.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
In a large house, friends and family meet for a dual ritual: it is the birthday of young father and painter Tona, but also a farewell ceremony.

(Country: Mexico, Denmark, France; Year: 2023; Director: Lila Avilés; Writer: Lila Avilés; Stars: Naíma Sentíes, Monserrat Marañon, Marisol Gasé, Saori Gurza, Teresita Sánchez)

Full review See: Lila Avilés on the many worlds of Tótem

When It Melts

Many years after a sweltering summer that spun out of control, Eva returns to the village she grew up in with an ice block in the back of her car. In the dead of winter, she confronts her past and faces up to her tormentors.

(Country: Belgium; Year: 2023; Director: Veerle Baetens; Writer: Maarten Loix; Stars: Charlotte De Bruyne, Rosa Marchant)

When The Waves Are Gone (Kapag Wala Nang Mga Alon)

Review preview for When The Waves Are Gone

The real horror of Diaz’s film lies in its recognition of how meaningless all these conflicts are.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
Lt. Hermes Papauran, one of the best investigators of the Philippines, is in a deep moral crossroad, being a witness to his institution's being a party to a murderous anti-drug campaign, which is spearheaded by no less than the president of the country, Rodrigo Duterte.

(Country: Philippines, Denmark, Portugal, France; Year: 2022; Director: Lav Diaz; Writer: Lav Diaz; Stars: John Lloyd Cruz, Ronnie Lazaro, Shamaine Buencamino, Don Melvin Boongaling)

Full review

White Plastic Sky (Műanyag égbolt)

Animation. In a not too distant future without animals and plants where the price of human survival is high, a young man breaks every rule to save his wife.

(Country: Hungary, Slovakia; Year: 2023; Director: Tibor Bánóczki, Sarolta Szabó; Stars: Tamás Keresztes, Zsófia Szamosi, Géza Hegedűs D., Judit Schell, István Znamenák)