Heal the Living (2016)
★★★★☆
As a heart intended for transplant passes from teenage accident victim to middle-aged-mother recipient, humanity, compassion and medical professionalism triumph in Katell Quillévéré’s moving Heal the Living.
Belgium
Elle (2016)
★★★★☆
Isabelle Huppert is elegantly transgressive in Paul Verhoeven’s disturbing Elle.
The Unknown Girl (2016)
★★★★☆
The Dardennes brothers’ The Unknown Girl is a bleak examination of guilt and personal responsibility.
Festival Review: The Brand New Testament (2015)
★★★☆☆
God is alive and living in Brussels, Jaco Van Dormael’s The Brand New Testament takes on the Jealous One with quirk and fancy. And an enormous gorilla.
The Treatment / De Behandeling (2014)
★★★☆☆
A fast-paced and tense police thriller, Hans Herbots’ The Treatment plumbs the murky depths of child abuse and male impotence.
Cub / Welp (2014)
★★☆☆☆
In Jonas Govaerts’ Cub, solid filmmaking and worthy performances fold under the excessive weight of tropes and contrivances in this full-on descent into torture porn.
Two Days, One Night / Deux Jours, Une Nuit (2014)
★★★★☆
Dramatic social realism from Belgium’s Dardennes brothers – Marion Cotillard stars as a factory worker who has just two days to persuade her colleagues to forgo their bonuses so that she can keep her job.
The Broken Circle Breakdown (2012)
★★★★★
Love and the circle of life are put to the test in Felix Van Groeningen’s heartbreaking The Broken Circle Breakdown. But will the circle be unbroken?
Bullhead / Rundskop (2011)
★★★★★
With a tour-de-force and muscle-bound performance from Matthias Schoenaerts, Michaël R. Roskam’s debut feature Bullhead puts masculinity on trial in Belgium.
The Kid With A Bike / Le Gamin Au Vélo (2011)
★★★★☆
Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne return to heartbreaking form with The Kid With A Bike with a little boy lost looking for love with all the kinetic anxiety he can muster.
The Referees / Les Arbitres (2009)
★★☆☆☆
A fly-on-the-wall documentary spotlighting the beautiful game’s men in black, The Referees looks at soccer from a different angle. More obtuse than acute.