Donbass (2018)
★★★★★
In Donbass Sergei Loznitsa’s anger at the war in eastern Ukraine pours out like red-hot lava in 13 episodes of a vicious cycle of dark comedy, absurdity, brutality and horror.
Netherlands
Girl (2018)
★★★★☆
Trans-themed Girl is an exceptional, moving debut by director Lukas Dhont
BFI LFF Review: Holiday (2018)
★★★★☆
Holiday is a beautifully brutal first feature from Isabella Eklöf about a petty drug lord’s girlfriend who is in for a holiday she’ll never forget in a vicious, powerful and fresh look at the gangster genre.
Zama (2017)
★★★★☆
In Lucrecia Martel’s hallucinatory, dreamlike, absurdist Zama, Spanish colonialists take on South America and lose.
The Wound (2017)
★★★★☆
The Wound (Inxeba) by John Trengove stars Nakhane Touré in a tense drama of gay male sexuality brought into focus by the traditional Xhosa circumcision rite of passage.
A Gentle Creature (2017)
★★★★☆
Savage satire by Sergei Loznitsa in A Gentle Creature eviscerates contemporary Russia.
Brimstone (2016)
★★★★☆
Brimstone is an almost unbearably violent take on the Western with a strong female character at its centre.
A Good Day To Die – Hoka Hey (2016)
★★★☆☆
In the fascinating documentary A Good Day To Die, Hoka Hey, Harold Monfils examines what drives award-winning photojournalist Jason Howe to risk his life in war zones.
Festival Review: Inside The Chinese Closet (2015)
★★★☆☆
With fake marriage markets and illegal babies, Sophia Luvara’s intimate documentary Inside The Chinese Closet reveals gay men and women shouldering their parents’ burden.
Come As You Are / Hasta La Vista (2011)
★★★★☆
Polemicising the sexless adolescence of disabled youth, Geoffrey Enthoven’s Come As You Are seeks salvation on the Spanish costa.