★★☆☆☆
Set in London at the height of the blitz in September 1940, 9-year-old George is evacuated to Somerset but undertakes a quest to be reunited with his mother Rita in writer/director Steve McQueen’s wartime drama Blitz.
★★★☆☆
Aïcha, directed by Mehdi Barsaoui, is a gripping, thrilling study of the evolution of a young woman as she tries to find a new life and new identity after being assumed dead, amid endemic corruption in Tunisia.
★★★☆☆
Maldoror directed by Fabrice du Welz is a dark, tense and moral thriller in its examination of the nature of evil based on a horrific real-life Belgian case.
★★★☆☆
Who Do I Belong To, an unsettlingly topical first feature by Meryam Joobeur, looks at identity in a post-ISIS world and sets out to challenge perceptions and prejudices.
★★★★☆
When the Light Breaks is a beautiful, poetic study of young people’s grief by Rúnar Rúnarsson.
★★★☆☆
My Eternal Summer Sylvia Le Fanu is the heartfelt, bittersweet story of a teenager and her family’s emotions during a last summer together.
★★☆☆☆
Portraits of Dangerous Women describes itself as a British comedy drama.
★★★☆☆
Mehdoob (Night Courier) directed by Ali Kalthami is a sophisticated thriller about a hapless delivery driver caught in societal change in Saudi Arabia.
★★★★★
About Dry Grasses by Nuri Bilge Ceylan is another masterpiece from the Turkish auteur.
★★★★☆
Vintage classic The Small Back Room, Powell and Pressburger’s must-see 1948 noir masterpiece, has been restored and released in new 4K.
★★★☆☆
Two Tickets To Greece, directed by Marc Fitoussi with French stars, is an odd-couple comedy that looks beautiful and is rather predictable.
★★☆☆☆
An estranged father and daughter gradually reconnect during a cross-country journey following her overdose in director Emma Westenberg’s feature debut Bleeding Love.
★★★☆☆
The Trouble with Jessica directed by Matt Winn is a north London-set black comedy.
★★★★☆
Oscars 2024 Awards
★★★☆☆
Driving Mum by Icelandic director Hilmar Oddsson is darkly strange, absurd and poignant.
★★★★☆
Bafta Awards 2024
