Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival — A–Z of films

Well designed for children aged around five to 12, with a good balance of sentiment, adventure and humour.

The good work in Ammonite is so good that one longs for it to pick up the pace, to function more successfully overall.

The dialogue may be spare but Sol never lets the mood slip for the moment, ratcheting the tension even as he opens up philosophical avenues about eugenics and euthanasia for consideration.

The D'Innocenzos let the mood do the heavy lifting, stewing us along with the families.

The director fully conveys how just being a lone woman in an all-male environment can be stressful in and of itself.

The lengths of time the shots last and the camera angles that hide more context than they reveal are what formally is most striking about Beginning. But it is the story that sticks with you.

There can be little question that it is a masterpiece.

Where other films might emphasise skill and natural ability, it's patience and persistence that are shown to pay off here.

Strip away the national trappings and this is an old, old story, but director Dzintars Dreibergs, despite working with a tiny budget, tells it well.

With so many issues at play it would be impossible to go into depth on them all, but Vosumets provides a solid introduction, giving viewers the insight they need to go off and find out more.

Horrifying and the pure stuff of nightmares for any parent.

Though the director and stars bring a frisson to the relationship between Palko and his boss - the most fictive element of the plot - the script falls short in terms of fleshing out what lies beneath.

This is emotion in the raw, not just from those faced with the possibility of seeing someone else take on responsibility for their kids, but also from the advocates representing them who are being put through the emotional wringer as well.

A tribute to the fallen, and so fine an example of cinematic craft that it ensures they will not quickly be forgotten again.

Adam Rehmeier's latest film arrives with the anarchic energy of a cherry bomb tossed into the bathroom toilet of Middle America.

We are given time, which is wonderful, to count and study the painted ceiling fans and observe the hand-movements of the attentive music listeners.

A remarkably accomplished piece of storytelling.

Morina generates a similar atmosphere to that of the films of Ruben Östlund, prying at the cracks in the male psyche.

Mortensen seems to draw particular focus to the aggression, fear and pejoratives associated with neurological disorders - a side only ever faintly explored in cinema.

Zeller elegantly and scarily fuses dream logic with markers of past trauma.

We might be laughing at this small town mentality but we'll soon also be feeling a growing fear about what might happen to Sveta and Bamba as things begin to spiral.

It doesn’t follow the familiar rules of the revenge movie and doesn’t provide the same type of satisfaction. McIntyre is more interested in finding real solutions.

Ideas of war in the abstract and the tension between the necessity of an action and the action itself will go on to be explored throughout a film that mostly concerns itself with the horrors of war that happen away from the frontline.

Ríos is superb in the lead, revealing a natural sensuality that we rarely get to see in older actresses yet never allowing us to doubt the strength that lies behind it.

Being hit squarely in the face with the sheer volume of these, often barely watched, entreaties is doubtless part of the point.

If Waiting For Godot's Vladimir and Estragon had a couple of American cousins, they might look a little like Mary and John.

The situation suffers from its confined setting and, for much of the time, a lack of dramatic tension.

Dvorák is well cast in the central role, couching Havel's charm and general enthusiasm with an air of uncertainty, especially when he faces tough choices and the loss of his freedom.

The Hidden Life Of Trees sets out to engineer a paradigm shift in the minds of viewers.

Although the thrust of the film focuses on the couple's foibles and relationship, there is also some sly skewering of wider Israeli society.

Raw, immediate and unrelenting, Hunted is a film designed to speak directly to the wild part within each one of us.

The story may be slight, and a subplot involving sailors and Snow White's dad ending all at sea on the silly side but the selfie-satire is sharp and the visuals are never dull.

The fight against climate change and the ossified political system are connected with her personal struggle with Asperger's syndrome and the search for one's place and acceptance in the world.

It's a far from perfect film, but it's a lot better than the critical consensus suggests, and at the heart of it is a fascinating character study.

First-time feature director Juan Pablo Félix takes the same energetic, forthright approach to his filmmaking that his protagonist does to his beloved malambo dance.

With impressive, performances all round, this is a film that grips throughout despite its slow pace.

It disappoints a bit on the monster front and it’s extremely uneven, with a dose of political satire that’s too broad for most adults and will bore most kids, but when it hits the mark, younger viewers will love it.

Given that one of the central tenets of Ben Hania's latest film is a debate about form... it's a joy that this extends to almost every frame of the film, many of which are so carefully composed they could hang in a gallery themselves.

For a short time, this cinematic jewel lets us travel back to when the migration of birds was a mystery to man.

The film's distanced, sometimes esoteric approach does nothing to diminish the sense of threat.

Thoughtful and intriguing, while suitable for all ages.

What worked so well in The Rider, namely that people were playing versions of themselves, falls flat because of the casting of McDormand in the lead.

Merricoffer's performance will keep you rivetted.

Zbanic's measured approach ensures that we can't look away from the unfolding horror - something that she makes clear many at the time, both peacekeepers and non-Muslim residents, found all too easy to do.

The Racer strikes a good balance between teasing out issues around doping and delivering on character-driven drama.

While the humour works well in early scenes, the episodic nature of the film prevents the love triangle between Zisla, Ansis and Naiga gathering the head of steam, it might.

Favier dials down the histrionics to concentrate on the manipulative way the coach plays around with the girl’s fragile emotions, reducing her to a despairing wreck.

By the time Lúcia takes the stand, it's not just Miguel who is in the dock but the entire Portuguese judicial system.

With eloquent, understated performances from both leads and a willingness to take its time, Supernova explores not merely the issues they face but the life they share.

High intensity workouts are matched by a high intensity acting performance by Magalena Kolesnik, who powers her way through this character study.

If you're a fan of Three Stooges-style silent slapstick but wish it came with a lot more gore, then, Sweetie, you won't believe what a treat you are in for

The film is a great example of how powerful and universal small but well-crafted stories can be.

This is a sensuous plunge into a world that's built on simple pleasures.

Yerzhanov explores the pernicious tenacity of the status quo, with Azhar already groomed to be happy with her lot and others all too willing to fall in line

The dystopian stories in Spanish director Chino Moya's feature debut nest within one another like a series of Russian dolls - dolls that have been carved by someone with a soft-spot for JG Ballard.

When Petzold shows the broken mending again, the magic of cinema becomes the subject

The writer/director deploys a deft amount of black humour but there's always a disturbing edge to the mood.

Bahrami's approach is deceptively simple, drawing us in with its easy rhythms and repetitions as the more complex picture of emotions, workplace exploitation and community tensions begins to be revealed.

Wendy makes an important point about children’s connection to nature.

Dag makes interesting use of animation to take us into Fehmi's head space when he's high, showing that the 'escape' he is looking for is in fact as much of a nightmare as any sort of release.

Overall, the story is a familiar one, with a predictably, one could even say, cliched tragic sweep - a well-trodden pioneer trail that while watchable for the fine performances, still feels overly stuck in a rut.

There's such a warmth to the comedy here that the inevitable tragic sweep of the film feels all the more steeped in sadness.