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Sundance Film Festival · 2023

Sundance Film Festival 2023

World Cinema Dramatic Competition

Programme

12 films · 7 reviews

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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

World premiere

Bad Behaviour (Bad Behavior)

Review preview for Bad Behaviour

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.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
Lucy, a former child actor, seeks enlightenment at a retreat led by spiritual leader Elon while she navigates her close yet turbulent relationship with her stunt-performer daughter, Dylan.

(Country: France, Morocco, Qatar; Year: 2023; Director: Alice Englert; Writer: Alice Englert; Stars: Jennifer Connelly, Ben Whishaw, Alice Englert, Ana Scotney, Dasha Nekrasova, Marlon Williams)

Full review See: Interview with Alice Englert about Bad Behaviour

World premiere

Girl

Review preview for Girl

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.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
Eleven-year-old Ama and her mother, Grace, take solace in the gentle but isolated world they obsessively create. Ama’s growing up threatens the boundaries of their tenderness and forces Grace to reckon with a past she struggles to forget.

(Country: UK; Year: 2023; Director: Adura Onashile; Writer: Adura Onashile; Stars: Déborah Lukumuena, Danny Sapani, Le'Shantey Bonsu, Liana Turner)

Full review See: Adura Onashile on colour and light in Girl , Adura Onashile on closeness and casting in her debut Girl

World premiere

Heroic

Luis, an 18-year-old boy with Indigenous roots, enters the Heroic Military College in hopes of ensuring a better future. There, he encounters a rigid and institutionally violent system designed to turn him into a perfect soldier.

(Country: Mexico, Sweden; Year: 2023; Director: David Zonana; Writer: David Zonana; Stars: Santiago Sandoval Carbajal, Fernando Cuautle, Mónica del Carmen, Esteban Caicedo, Carlos Gerardo García, Isabel Yudice)

World premiere

Mamacruz

With the help of her newly emigrated daughter, a religious grandmother learns how to use the internet. However, an accidental encounter with pornography poses a dilemma for her.

(Country: Spain; Year: 2023; Director: Patricia Ortega; Writer: José Ortuño; Stars: Kiti Mánver)

World premiere

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

World premiere

La Pecera

As her cancer spreads, Noelia's ultimate decision is to return to her native Vieques, Puerto Rico, and claim her freedom to decide her own fate. She reunites with her friends and family, who are still dealing with the contamination of the US Navy after sixty years of military practices.

(Country: Puerto Rico; Year: 2023; Director: Glorimar Marrero Sánchez; Writer: Glorimar Marrero Sánchez; Stars: Isel Rodríguez, Modesto Lacén, Magali Carrasquillo, Maximiliano Rivas, Anamín Santiago, Idenisse Salamán)

World premiere

Scrapper

Review preview for Scrapper

Simultaneously bold, sweet and sometimes off-putting.

Jeremy Mathews · 3 out of 5
Georgie is a dreamy 12-year-old girl who lives happily alone in her London flat, filling it with magic. Out of nowhere, her estranged father turns up and forces her to confront reality.

(Country: UK; Year: 2023; Director: Charlotte Regan; Writer: Charlotte Regan; Stars: Harris Dickinson, Lola Campbell, Alin Uzun, Ambreen Razia, Olivia Brady, Aylin Tezel)

Full review

World premiere

Shayda

Review preview for Shayda

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

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
Shayda, an Iranian mother, finds refuge in an Australian women’s shelter with her six-year-old daughter. Over Persian New Year, they take solace in Nowruz rituals and new beginnings, but when her estranged husband re-enters their lives, Shayda’s path to freedom is jeopardised.

(Country: Australia; Year: 2023; Director: Noora Niasar; Writer: Noora Niasar; Stars: Zar Amir Ebrahimi, Osamah Sami, Leah Purcell, Jillian Nguyen, Mojean Aria, Selina Zahednia)

Full review

World premiere. Day One

Slow

Dancer Elena and sign language interpreter Dovydas meet and form a beautiful bond. As they dive into a new relationship, they must navigate how to build their own kind of intimacy.

(Country: Lithuania, Spain, Sweden; Year: 2023; Director: Marija Kavtaradze; Stars: Greta Grinevičiūtė, Kęstutis Cicėnas)

World premiere

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

World premiere

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)

World premiere