Sundance Film Festival — A–Z of films

Oscar shortlisted for Best International Feature and Best Documentary, this is an intense film with little respite even when no bullets are being fired.

Lina’s filmmaking has a raw emotional quality.

Although this is a melancholic film there is hopefulness in friendship and tradition.

Like the Cheshire cat, the last thing to fade will be your grin.

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

Englert’s script is an actor’s dream. Connelly, who has matured magnificently in recent years and now ranks among the best in her generation, gives it all she’s got.

Beyond being nailbiting - a feeling driven by Hyun Seok Kim’s ‘heartbeat’ score that quickens our own - Gavin’s film is also an eye-opener.

Young Lister is a marvel, showing a remarkably sophisticated understanding of what her role requires as Lila, having suffered significant brain damage, gradually begins to require verbal and motor skills.

Robert Connolly successfully delivers a story which has enough nuance to keep adults from getting bored whilst remaining accessible to younger viewers.

The central portion of the film is delciously discomfiting.

McGann poises her film between Stephen and Alessia’s story, rounding out the background with those who know them both and, in a nice bit of balance, both of their fathers.

Rather than focusing on [the deep sea's] obvious wonders – those who fit the conventional beauty standards of humans – Rytz finds beauty in the strangeness of deep water creatures, inviting us to appreciate them on their own terms.

This meticulously constructed film will leave you reflecting on the scale of that loss.

For all its faults, the film is pretty, and that will probably be enough for some viewers.

It's not exactly thought-provoking, but there is a teasing intelligence on display.

Anthony Chen's slow-burn character study is essentially a showcase for its star Cynthia Erivo

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

There are so many shots through things, boundaries, borders, thresholds, that we are primed for other barriers crossed. Those transgressions are not light ones, but in them is an abject honesty.

Striking in its intimacy.

An emotionally engaging portrait of the struggles of life on a Native American reservation in Oklahoma

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”.

In many ways Fremont is advocating the importance of accepting that a life can be both average and fulfilling.

Although the issues of trauma and recovery being dealt with here are not exactly easy watching, Onashile shoots the film with a fluidity and grace.

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

There’s lot of video footage of her playing as a child, obviously very happy and doing the same kinds of things as any other kid her age.

It is not so much individual people who cause the problems but rather the constricting cultural circumstances that dictate everyone must play their allocated role.

Unashamedly quirky but burtsting with the love of film, this is the sort of one-off doc that’s as much about the engaging playfulness of its construction as it is the content.

It’s thrilling to watch a filmmaker like Smith throw a wrench in the gears and deliver an unapologetic ode to outcasts that’s every bit as punk rock as its subjects.

For all the debt owed to Sister Rosetta Tharpe the essence here is not translation uncovered but transgression buried. That makes the decision not to further explore these hidden histories all the more surprising.

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

Confident enough in its characters to tell its story without sensationalism or stylistic overcompensation.

Crucially, there is enough here that doesn’t depend on in-jokes to give it some broader entertainment value.

As richly drawn as it is delicately handled.

One of the most subtle films of the ongoing year.

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.

Describing itself as ‘a true story – sort of’, The Persian Version blends comedy and family drama to great effect, showing us a good deal more than its heroine and narrator intends us to see.

Making a film like this in the US today is risky, and cinemas showing it will face risks, too. Nevertheless, they persist.

The film, set in the near future, is curiously old fashioned.

Manzoor operates a controlled chaos that blends the colour and splendour of Bollywood with sly British satire reminiscent of early Edgar Wright.

There’s a reason why formulas work and this one is marked: Caution, may make you cry.

Rye Lane has a sustained energy that makes it a joyous experience to watch.

Simultaneously bold, sweet and sometimes off-putting.

What really drives the film is the quietly powerful central performance.

This is a place of cleansing, not just of the body but so much more as this non-intrusive but immersive film gradually reveals.

The film wonderfully captures the dynamics of workplace small talk.

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.

There’s an enviable mix of the playful and the poignant.

The reason the film works so well is in its well-established teenage relationships - with the Philippous showing the attraction of being in with the cool kids and that the dangers this presents are particularly acute for those, like Mia, who are already emotionally vulnerable or, like Riley, desperate to be included in an older peer group.

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.