Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival — A–Z of films

A smart little thriller which asks some uncomfortable questions.

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

Simón takes a loose approach to the narrative, letting the small dramas of family play out alongside larger ones, giving as much value to the transient pleasures of fresh peach juice and cooked snails as the tensions between siblings.

Sen could easily just have made an observational documentary about the brothers' day-to-day work or simply focused on the kites themselves but he stretches its wings much further than that.

The intimacies are staggering.

The film is full of beautifully observed and detailed conversations as well as silences that speak volumes.

It’s slow-moving art house fare, and those who prefer more to be revealed by what is said than left unsaid would do well to avoid, but its impact is mesmerising.

It is Aurora herself who, unsurprisingly, provides the most poignant observations as she looks back at her life.

As a kind of call to arms against nostalgia on the one hand but forgetfulness on the other, Uruguayan-born Michael Wahrmann charts ambitious terrain.

Banshees is lifted by good performances, particularly from Keoghan and Condon, whose major scene together has a delicacy of emotion that is sharply at odds with the brute force McDonagh more generally employs.

Much of the film’s raw effectiveness is due to the young cast’s wisdom and effortless on-screen chemistry.

The depth of character in the film lends it gravity.

Loose camerawork from Frank van den Eeden enhances the intimate, raw spirit.

It’s cleverly written, beautifully performed and quite unforgettable, and yet I hesitate to recommend that anybody watch it.

Although Gurrea’s film is booby trapped for explosions, he repeatedly chooses the more interesting slow-burn path.

Vicky Krieps...is in excellent form and up to the task of presenting to us the icon in all her idiosyncrasies.

Additional plot developments reveal a complex web of psychology between the two men.

Park does it the hard way, building up a complex psychological and intellectual relationship in which sexual desire feels like an emergent characteristic rather than a starting point.

Dreaming Walls is less a documentary than an attempt at a sense memory.

Oddson maintains a melancholy mood and finds ways to shift his narrative from everyday absurdity to full-on surreality and back again.

If you are already tuned into the issues, you will likely nod along in agreement with almost every sentence uttered in the polished Winslet tones.

In their quietly devastating manner, Groeningen and Vandermeersch examine the fluid nature of our confusion and confidence over our place in the world.

With Roger Deakins handling the cinematography and making the most of the magical light found on parts of England’s south coast, the film never ceases to be visually absorbing.

The beast of burden’s travails seem to be a thinly veiled criticism of Polish society which erupts in one sequence into mindless violence.

The trademark Spielberg visual flair is there from the outset and keeps this film interesting at times when the narrative is moving slowly, or when it lapses into melodrama.

The performances are all first class, with any one of the three leads capable of carrying a film on her own.

This is less about the puzzle of who the murderer is... than about the way he slots into society and, after his arrest, is viewed by the public.

There’s a rare intimacy about it.

A compelling yet gentle ride.

The fast storytelling tempo transforms Kalev into a basketball game without a time-out.

A film as interested in the dynamics of romance as it is in romance itself.

By the time that West is ready to show his hand directly, most viewers will be so wrapped up in Linoleum that that details will scarcely matter.

Luckich's love of silent comedy is everywhere.

Nothing in Palermo’s film is sugar-coated, although a sweetness runs through it.

This may become a cult movie.

Anyone who has cared for a loved one whose mind is disintegrating will recognise some of these feelings.

In this kaleidoscope life, montage becomes an essential tool, illustrating not only the artist’s own work but his many influences, along with the immediate context in which he was living.

If there’s a single word to describe the latest film from Signe Baumane, it’s vibrancy.

Both actors are masters of his kind of material and give the film a good deal more depth and nuance than is present in the script alone.

Finds a strong propulsive narrative with an emotional core.

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.

Seydoux is superb as she runs the emotional gamut with subtlety and empathy, demonstrating an extraordinary survival spirit in complicated circumstances.

Dazzles from the opening song and dance number to the final credits.

Tucker's performance ripples like a mirage, all charm on the surface but with an air of something much less cuddly

Laucius has a warm approach to comedy, allowing the humour to develop from the enjoyably messy ins and outs of the situations the characters find themselves in.

Shooting much of this at night on a low budget, Trukanas pulls off some impressive work.

Rosset has a welcoming style, the higgledy-piggledy houses of the town, each with their busily writing humans welcome repeat viewings to you can consider the details of them all.

The shift in silences between two people in various scenes and the stark contrast in emotion is thrilling.

Urbaite shows stylistic ambition.

The director offers perhaps the best visual representation of the word ‘kitsch’ cinema has recently seen

There’s a lot going on in Júlia Murat’s accomplished drama.

It lacks the energy and precision vital to any journalistic investigation, and especially to one taking place under this kind of pressure.

This is a film of boundaries and barriers and attempts to overcome them.

Miller is a talented young actor and does his best with the material, while Isaacs, though he gets very little screentime, is impressive as always.

It’s Lerman’s shooting style which makes the biggest impression.

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

Unfortunately, narratively and thematically Traces soon delves into the overly familiar territory of European art house cinema - bourgeoise existential crisis.

Much more of a natural crowd-pleaser than her previous works, this might be Morley’s most successful film to date.

Grisi has a background in photography and though the images are moving here, there's often a stillness to them and they are no less perfectly composed.

A story which is, ultimately, about learning to think differently, to change the way that we direct our attention and resources in order to open up the possibility of renewal.

Blasko tells the story with a plainness which adds to its power, sometimes using news-style framing as if to remind us of the political moment which we’re living through.

Despite its urban realism, there’s also a strong sense of style.

The tension is built upon a looping repetition, from the graceful repeated camera moves from Masud Amini Tirani and Bahrami's plotting to Foad Gharemani’s baleful score.

A film that often lacks subtlety in its execution despite the performances and impressive make-up craft.

Its the emotional sparring between the women - as fierce as anything on the battle ground - that really holds the attention

Polley has crammed in a lot of good ideas, but they cannot all usefully share the same space.

Both girls deliver exceptional performances in the powerful opening section, and if the film struggles to make the same impact afterwards, that serves to bring Hasna’s loss into sharp relief.