Berlin International Film Festival — A–Z of films

This is a grand vision, grandly executed, and like the solutions it depicts it exists today.

To call the film haunting is an understatement.

One doesn't need to be religious to find something ineffable not just in the music itself but in the way it is expressed.

There's a simple and engaging directness to this documentary.

Whatever you expected to happen is not about to do so.

The territory that it takes the film to makes the last third is rushed in comparison to what has gone before, where the simplicity of the storyline provided the perfect backdrop for complex emotions.

Rathjen captures the monotony of this existence and the casual violence of it with mounting tension as Chakra himself becomes brutalised - we view key violent acts, not by watching them, but by observing the effect they have

Ozon does not smooth over the rough edges and the icy roads stay icy.

Lisa Zi Xiang's astutely written début uses the familiar formula of a multi-generation family saga as a launchpad for thematic and structural experiment.

Beautifully acted all round, Driveways is a small film with a big heart.

Ochipinti's film benefits from a strong documentary underpinning - with the lead actress saying that 70 per cent of what occurs is based on her own story at the film's Berlin screening - showing how strong cultural expectations like this can be.

The bleak chill of the Quebecois winter seeps into the very bones of Denis Côté's latest film, giving a sense of aching longing to the action.

Instead of context and plot, Cantet has aimed at a character-based narrative, which falls flat due to lack of characters.

Every cinematic trick in the book to make Hero's violence as sexy as a car commercial

House Of Hummingbird centres on a quiet yet never passive performance from Park, who draws us into Eun-hee's world as we watch her absorbing and processing the events going on around her.

The challenging moral and psychological undercurrent that keeps it interesting as the primary narrative begins to flounder.

The real star here is Marine Altan's cinematography, investing locations both lavish and drab with the kind of spiritual wonder seen only through the eyes of those who have always been outsiders.

This is a world of ballgowns, sequins and lace...but none of that diminishes the ability of its heroes to think clearly or take charge of their own fates.

This is not conventional narrative, start to end, born in, schooled at, died documentary.

Credit to the actor-turned-director for thinking big with his first directorial project but in pursuit of the bigger picture, quite a lot of the smaller intricacies are lost.

This is astonishing stuff.

Unlike a more conventional refugee documentary - shot by an outsider parachuting in - this is an intimate and ongoing study in which the family have complete agency, lending the film an additional ring of truth.

Landes' film has the queasy, uneasy feel of a nightmare - and that's before magic mushrooms are involved.

With Petterson’s novel heavily focused on Trond’s inner life, it’s no easy task to bring it to the screen.

The thing that makes Piranhas watchable is the performance of its star, Francesco Di Napoli.

Whilst the film will surely help to promote her as an artist, one cannot help but feel that, from an artistic perspective, she took on this challenge too soon.

The actors do their best but Lou is far more interested in how rain looks blazing in the light of car headlights or how a fight scene might benefit from some nice pirouettes than he is in developing character.

Longinotto has always had a knack for getting interviewees to open up in such a way that even they can seem surprised at what they end up saying.

There are some powerful moments in Skin, but however lasting some of its impacts the film isn't as deep as it hopes.

The costumes in The Souvenir speak volumes about female and male desire and the search for identity that garments can encompass.

If looks could kill, the audience would be dead.

The film is held together less by the tale than by tensions.

This isn't an easy watch but it's a compelling one.

Bustamante employs physical earthquakes as well, with a similar subtlety that he goes on to use the myth of La Llorona in his follow up film

A study in grief, using magic realism, seems metaphorically top heavy.

A charming and playful consideration of her career.

Compelling viewing.

Nagahisa...understands and embraces the complexity of early adolescence, when kids are finding their own way,