The Settlers (2023) (Los Colonos)
★★★☆☆
The Settlers is an angry, violent Western-type version of the brutal colonial birth of Chile by first-time filmmaker Felipe Gálvez.
London
The Holdovers (2023)
★★★★☆
December 1970, a grumpy teacher forced to stay on campus over the holidays gradually bonds with a volatile teenager in Alexander Payne’s latest comedy drama The Holdovers.
The Lost Boys (2023) (Le Paradis)
★★★☆☆
Two teenage boys in a juvenile detention centre develop a passionate bond which is tested when one of them approaches his release in director and co-writer Zeno Graton’s The Lost Boys.
BFI LFF 2023: In Camera (2023)
★★★★☆
In Camera, written and directed by Naqqash Khalid, is a debut satirical drama full of pain about the racism experienced by second-generation Asians in Britain.
BFI LFF 2023: Award Winners
★★★★☆
BFI LFF 2023: Award Winners
BFI LFF 2023: Chasing Chasing Amy (2023)
★★★★☆
In Chasing Chasing Amy director Sav Rodgers explains in a moving documentary of self-discovery what Kevin Smith’s iconic 1997 romcom Chasing Amy has meant to LGBTQ+ people over the years.
BFI LFF 2023: Wilding (2023)
★★★☆☆
Wilding, based on Isabella Tree’s book, directed by David Allen, is a lyrical hymn to the self-healing of the English countryside.
BFI LFF 2023: The Holdovers (2023)
★★★★☆
December 1970, a grumpy teacher forced to stay on campus over the holidays gradually bonds with a volatile teenager in Alexander Payne’s latest comedy drama The Holdovers.
BFI LFF 2023: Only the River Flows (2023)
★★★★☆
Only the River Flows is a scintillating Chinese neo-noir, the third film directed by Wei Shujun.
BFI London Film Festival 2023: 4–15 October
★★★★☆
BFI London Film Festival 2023 – programme
The Blue Caftan (2022)
★★★★☆
The Blue Caftan by Maryam Touzani is a beautiful film celebrating understated love and tenderness in everyday life.
Cairo Conspiracy (2022) previously Boy from Heaven (Walad min al-Janna)
★★★☆☆
Adam arrives in Cairo to study at the renowned Al-Azhar University and unexpectedly finds himself drawn into the centre of a dangerous world of religious and political power in writer/director Tarik Saleh’s compelling thriller.
Pacifiction: Tourment sur les îles (2022)
★★★★☆
Pacifiction, a hypnotically paced, dark political thriller set in French Tahiti directed by Catalan Albert Serra, enjoys the Polynesian island’s beauty, but also its inherent vulnerability to threats.
Godland (2022) (Volaða land)(Vanskabte Land)
★★★★☆
Godland, directed by Hlynur Pálmason, is an incredibly visually beautiful and involving unfolding story of the consequences of a Danish Lutheran priest’s loss of faith in 19th-century Iceland.