Skip to main content

Venice Film Festival · 2020

Venice Film Festival 2020

Competition

Programme

18 films · 11 reviews

Jump to a film

And Tomorrow The Entire World

A woman begins to go to extremes to fight the extreme right.

(Country: Germany; Year: 2020; Director: Julia von Heinz; Writer: John Quester, Julia von Heinz; Stars: Mala Emde, Noah Saavedra, Tonio Schneider, Andreas Lust, Matthias Emberger, Lee Huang, Frieda Knabe, Raffael Armbruster, Mala Emde, Noah Saavedra, Tonio Schneider, Andreas Lust, Matthias Emberger, Lee Huang, Frieda Knabe)

Dear Comrades! (Dorogie Tovarischi)

Review preview for Dear Comrades!

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

Jennie Kermode · 5 out of 5
A devout communist witnesses a government shooting during a strike - which changes her life forever.

(Country: Russia; Year: 2020; Director: Andrey Konchalovskiy; Writer: Elena Kiseleva, Andrey Konchalovskiy; Stars: Yuliya Vysotskaya, Vladislav Komarov, Alexander Maskelyne, Yuliya Vysotskaya, Vladislav Komarov, Alexander Maskelyne)

Full review

The Disciple

Review preview for The Disciple

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.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 5 out of 5
Chaitanya Tamhane's masterfully composed second feature examines a lifetime journey devoted to the art of Indian classical music.

(Country: India; Year: 2020; Director: Chaitanya Tamhane; Writer: Chaitanya Tamhane; Stars: Aditya Modak, Arun Dravid, Sumitra Bhave, Deepika Bhide Bhagwat, Kiran Yadnyopavit, Makarand Mukund, Prasad Vanarse)

Full review

In Between Dying (Sepelenmis Ölümler Arasinda)

Review preview for In Between Dying

"Patience is the greatest gift on the path to perfection," we're told and, truth be known, you're going to need plenty of it when it comes to the plot.

Amber Wilkinson · 3 out of 5
A man goes on a journey of discovery sparked by a series of accidents.

(Country: Azerbaijan, US, Mexico; Year: 2020; Director: Hilal Baydarov; Writer: Hilal Baydarov, Rashad Safar; Stars: Orkhan Iskandarli, Rana Asgarova, Huseyn Nasirov, Samir Abbasov, Kamran Huseynov, Maryam Naghiyeva, Kubra Shukurova, Narmin Hasanova, Oktay Namazov, Murvat Abdulazizov, Gulara Huseynova, Gulnaz Ismayilova, Parviz Isagov, Orkhan Iskandarli, Rana Asgarova)

Full review

Laila In Haifa

Review preview for Laila In Haifa

The themes attach themselves like lead to each exchange, giving everything a theatrical quality and rendering character development so bland that no amount of roving camera can offset the airless result.

Amber Wilkinson · 2 out of 5
The interwoven stories of five women are told over the course of a fateful night in a Haifa club.

(Country: Israel; Year: 2020; Director: Amos Gitai; Writer: Marie-Jose Sanselme; Stars: Bahira Ablassi, Tom Baum, Tsahi Halevi, Fayez Abu Haya, Khawla Ibraheem, Anuar Jour, Amir Khoury, Clara Khoury, Makram Khoury, Hana Laslo, Asher Lax, Josephine George Nasser, Naama Preis, Muzi Rap, Andrzej Seweryn)

Full review

Lovers (Amants)

Review preview for Lovers

Garcia... takes the socio-economic circumstances as the core and builds her elegant thriller around it.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 4.5 out of 5
An inseparable couple are forced apart following a crime... and meet again by chance three years later.

(Country: France; Year: 2020; Director: Nicole Garcia; Writer: Jacques Fieschi, Nicole Garcia; Stars: Pierre Niney, Stacy Martin, Benoît Magimel, Roxane Duran, Mohamed Makhtoumi, Severino Negri, Mohamed Badissy, Magne-Håvard Brekke, Liberato Candiello, Jordano Ceresa, Jake Francois)

Full review

The Macaluso Sisters (Le sorelle Macaluso)

The childhood, adulthood and old age of five sisters born and raised in an apartment on the top floor of a small block in the suburbs of Palermo, where they live alone, without their parents.

(Country: Italy; Year: 2020; Director: Emma Dante; Writer: Emma Dante, Giorgio Vasta, Elena Stancanelli; Stars: Alissa Maria Orlando, Susanna Piraino, Anita Pomario, Eleonora De Luca, Donatella Finocchiaro, Viola Pusateri, Serena Barone, Simona Malato, Laura Giordani, Maria Rosaria Alati, Rosalba Bologna, Ileana Rigano, Alissa Maria Orlando, Susanna Piraino, Anita Pomario)

Miss Marx

Biopic about Karl Marx’s youngest daughter Eleanor.

(Country: Italy, Belgium; Year: 2020; Director: Susanna Nicchiarelli; Writer: Susanna Nicchiarelli; Stars: Romola Garai, Patrick Kennedy, John Gordon Sinclair, Felicity Montagu, Karina Fernandez, Emma Cunniffe, Philip Gröning, George Arrendell, Célestin Ryelandt, Oliver Chris, Alexandra Lewis, Georgina Sadler, Miel Van Hasselt, Freddy Drabble, Katie McGovern)

Never Gonna Snow Again (Śniegu Juz Nigdy Nie Bedzie)

Review preview for Never Gonna Snow Again

While each of these little worlds holds intrigue - as do the dreamlike cutaways to forests of the mind that Zhenia induces through hypnotism in his clients, lit and shot with care by Englert - the film never quite settles into a groove.

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
A masseur from the East enters the lives of the rich residents of a bland, walled off community.

(Country: Poland, Germany; Year: 2020; Director: Malgorzata Szumowska, Michal Englert; Writer: Michal Englert, Malgorzata Szumowska; Stars: Alec Utgoff, Weronika Rosati, Agata Kulesza, Maja Ostaszewska, Katarzyna Figura, Andrzej Chyra, Lukasz Simlat, Krzysztof Czeczot, Jaroslaw Milner, Alec Utgoff, Weronika Rosati, Agata Kulesza, Maja Ostaszewska, Katarzyna Figura, Andrzej Chyra)

Full review

New Order (Nuevo Orden)

A lavish upper-class wedding goes awry in an unexpected uprising of class warfare that gives way to a violent coup d’etat.

(Country: Mexico; Year: 2020; Director: Michel Franco; Writer: Michel Franco; Stars: Diego Boneta, Dario Yazbek Bernal, Naian González Norvind, Gustavo Sánchez Parra, Lisa Owen, Javier Sepulveda, Mónica Del Carmen, Sebastian Silveti, Patricia Bernal, Roberto Medina, Eligio Meléndez, Analy Castro, Enrique Singer, Fernando Cuautle, Diego Boneta)

Nomadland

Review preview for Nomadland

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.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 2.5 out of 5
A woman in her sixties who, after losing everything following the Great Recession, embarks on a journey through the American West, lives as a van-dwelling modern-day nomad.

(Country: US; Year: 2020; Director: Chloé Zhao; Writer: Chloé Zhao, based on the book by Jessica Bruder; Stars: Frances McDormand, David Strathairn, Linda May, Charlene Swankie, Bob Wells, Patricia Grier, Cat Clifford, Tay Strathairn, Peter Spears)

Full review See: Interview with Chloé Zhao about Cat Clifford and the music of Ludovico Einaudi

Notturno (Nocturne)

Review preview for Notturno

Rosi’s camera lets the light and the landscapes, the shattered houses and the fractured humanity speak for themselves.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 5 out of 5
Documentary about the everyday life in the Middle East that lies behind the continuing tragedy of civil wars, ferocious dictatorships, foreign invasions and interference, up to the murderous apocalypse of ISIS.

(Country: Italy, France, Germany; Year: 2020; Director: Gianfranco Rosi; Writer: Gianfranco Rosi)

Full review See: Gianfranco Rosi on editing Notturno (Nocturne) with Jacopo Quadri and Fabrizio Federico

Padrenostro

A young boy's life is turned upside down when he witnesses and attack on his dad by a terror group.

(Country: Italy; Year: 2020; Director: Claudio Noce; Writer: Enrico Audenino, Claudio Noce; Stars: Pierfrancesco Favino, Barbara Ronchi, Francesco Colella, Marco Pancrazi, Antonio Gerardi, Mattia Garaci, Francesco Gheghi, Eleonora De Luca, Anna Maria De Luca, Mario Pupella, Simone Chiacchiararelli, Lea Favino, Pierfrancesco Favino, Barbara Ronchi, Francesco Colella)

Pieces Of A Woman

Review preview for Pieces Of A Woman

Part of the problem is that the characters are either opaque or unpleasant – and all lack rounded definition.

Amber Wilkinson · 2 out of 5
Martha and Sean Carson are a Boston couple on the verge of parenthood whose lives change irrevocably during a home birth at the hands of a flustered midwife.

(Country: Canada, Hungary, US; Year: 2020; Director: Kornél Mundruczó; Writer: Kata Wéber; Stars: Shia LaBeouf, Vanessa Kirby, Sarah Snook, Molly Parker, Ellen Burstyn, Iliza Shlesinger, Benny Safdie, Jimmie Fails, Vanessa Smythe, Tyrone Benskin, Domenic Di Rosa, Sean Tucker, Dusan Dukic, Noel Burton, Letitia Brookes)

Full review

Quo Vadis, Aida

Review preview for Quo Vadis, Aida

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.

Amber Wilkinson · 4.5 out of 5
A UN translator in Srebrenica when the Serbian army takes over the town faces a difficult choice.

(Country: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Austria, Romania, Netherlands, Germany, Poland, France, Norway, Turkey; Year: 2020; Director: Jasmila Zbanic; Writer: Jasmila Zbanic; Stars: Jasna Djuricic, Johan Heldenbergh, Raymond Thiry, Boris Isakovic, Emir Hadzihafizbegovic, Joes Brauers, Reinout Bussemaker, Izudin Bajrovic, Teun Luijkx, Alban Ukaj, Ermin Bravo, Ermin Sijamija, Sol Vinken, Juda Goslinga, Sanne den Hartogh)

Full review

Sun Children (Korschid)

Story of three kids, who work to support their families, and their quest to find treasure in a tunnel... but first they have to enrol in a school near its entrance.

(Country: Iran; Year: 2020; Director: Majid Majidi; Writer: Nima Javidi, Majid Majidi; Stars: Ali Nassirian, Javad Ezati, Tannaz Tabatabaei, Safar Mohammadi, Ali Ghabeshi, Roohollah Zamani, Shamila Shirzad, Abolfazl Shirzad, Mohammad Mahdi Mousavifar, Mani Ghafouri, Ali Nassirian, Javad Ezati, Tannaz Tabatabaei, Safar Mohammadi, Ali Ghabeshi)

Wife Of A Spy

A couple struggle to overcome distrust and stay faithful in each other as war comes into their lives.

(Country: Japan; Year: 2020; Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa; Writer: Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Tadashi Nohara; Stars: Yû Aoi, Masahiro Higashide, Issey Takahashi, Hyunri, Yuri Tsunematsu, Ryôta Bandô, Chuck Johnson, Takashi Sasano, Minosuke, Yû Aoi, Masahiro Higashide, Issey Takahashi, Hyunri, Yuri Tsunematsu, Ryôta Bandô)

The World To Come

Review preview for The World To Come

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.

Amber Wilkinson · 3 out of 5
In upstate New York in the 1850s, Abigail begins a new year on the rural farm where she lives with her husband Dyer. But a friendship with the wife of a new neighbour leads to trouble.

(Country: US; Year: 2020; Director: Mona Fastvold; Writer: Ron Hansen, Jim Shepard; Stars: Vanessa Kirby, Katherine Waterston, Casey Affleck, Christopher Abbott, Andreea Vasile, Ioachim Ciobanu, Karina Ziana Gherasim, James Longshore, Sandra Personnic-House)

Full review