BFI LFF 2024: Hard Truths (2024)
★★★★☆
Marianne Jean-Baptiste is tremendous as a woman constantly beset by anger, fear and depression in Mike Leigh’s searing character study Hard Truths.
UK
BFI LFF 2024: Mother Vera (2024)
★★★☆☆
Mother Vera is an award-winning documentary by Cécile Embleton and Alys Tomlinson that enthrallingly reveals the life of a nun in Belarusia both pre- and post-convent.
BFI LFF 2024: Harvest (2024)
★★★☆☆
Life in a remote rural community is disrupted by three intruders and then by a new landlord threatening upheaval in director’s Athina Rachel Tsangari’s drama Harvest.
BFI LFF 2024: Blitz (2024)
★★☆☆☆
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.
BFI LFF 2024: Conclave (2024)
★★★★☆
After the death of the Pope, Cardinal Lawrence is tasked with leading the conclave to recruit a successor with rumour and conflict threatening to overtake the Vatican’s battle for power in Edward Berger’s thriller Conclave.
PORTRAITS of Dangerous Women (2024)
★★☆☆☆
Portraits of Dangerous Women describes itself as a British comedy drama.
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.
Kneecap (2024)
★★★★☆
Kneecap, written and directed by Rich Peppiat, is the comic, fictionalised story of the rise to fame of the Irish-language rap trio Kneecap – played by themselves.
Sheffield Documentary Festival: The Boy and the Suit of Lights (2024) (El niño y el traje de luces)
★★★★☆
The Boy and the Suit of Lights is a raw documentary by Inma De Reyes that uncovers an insider’s view of some of the tensions between traditional and modern Spain.
Wilding (2023)
★★★★☆
Wilding, based on Isabella Tree’s 2018 book, directed by David Allen, is a lyrical hymn to the self-healing of the English countryside.
The Small Back Room (1948)
★★★★☆
Vintage classic The Small Back Room, Powell and Pressburger’s must-see 1948 noir masterpiece, has been restored and released in new 4K.
A House in Jerusalem (2023)
★★★☆☆
Palestinian filmmakers Muyad and Rami Alayan prick and prod Israel’s conscience about dispossession in A House in Jerusalem.
Nezouh (2022)
★★★★☆
Nezouh by Soudade Kaadan is a teenage coming-of-age story of finding hope in devastated war-torn Syria.
Jeanne du Barry (2023)
★★★☆☆
Jeanne du Barry, which opened the Cannes Film Festival 2023, is co-written, directed and starred in by Maïwenn, also starring Johnny Depp, in a glossy historical French biopic.