THREE AND A HALF STARS On a farm in Iceland, an aspiring artist, her ex-husband, their three children and dog are navigating the space between marriage and separation. DRAMA ICELAND Icelandic #THELOVETHATREMAINS Starring Saga Gardarsdóttir, Sverrir Gudnason Separation is rarely tidy. In Hlynur Pálmason’s THE LOVE THAT REMAINS, it is barely even linear. The Icelandic director follows a family in the aftermath of divorce with aspiring artist Anna already, if wearily, at terms w

THREE AND A HALF STARS The plans of a mining company threatens the future of reindeer herders in northern Norway. So too does unspoken sexual abuse. DRAMA NORWAY Sami #ARRU Starring Sara Marielle Gaup Beaska, Mikkel Gaup For a film about finding a voice, ÁRRU is remarkable for how much it says in silence. Set among the Sámi reindeer-herding communities of northern Scandinavia, Elle Sofe Sara's deeply unusual drama follows Maia’s family as it battles a mining company intent on

TWO AND A HALF STARS A visionary TV executive is hired by the Kremlin to manage the public affairs of a rising political star: Vladimir Putin. DRAMA US English #THEWIZARDOFTHEKREMLIN Starring Paul Dano, Jude Law French director Olivier Assayas has polarised audiences and critics alike with films like the terrific PERSONAL SHOPPER and the completely resistible CLOUDS OF SILS MARIA. He’s at it again with this ambitious political docuthriller, THE WIZARD OF THE KREMLIN. Based on

FOUR STARS Many, many years have passed since the fall of Troy. While Odysseus struggles to return home, Penelope fends off those who would take her husband's kingdom. PERIOD DRAMA US English #THEODYSSEY Starring Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway Christopher Nolan's THE ODYSSEY is the sort of film Hollywood rarely attempts anymore - a genuine epic that earns the description rather than simply throwing more CGI at the screen. In fact, he’s at pains to point out how little CGI was actu

FOUR STARS Four musicians are brought together to play a commissioned piece on Stradivarius instruments. Ego, talent and poor humour collide. DRAMA FRANCE French #THEMUSICIANS Starring Valérie Donzelli, Frédéric Pierrot THE MUSICIANS is a French ensemble with the light touch of a chamber piece and the timing of an old-fashioned backstage farce. Warm, witty and sharply observed, the film takes an appealing premise of talented artists trapped together under pressure and turns i

TWO STARS A well funded agency has been covering up proof that aliens have landed. The government is implicit. The people are about to learn the truth. SF THRILLER US English #DISCLOSUREDAY Starring Emily Blunt, Josh O'Connor Steven Spielberg has spent half a century teaching us to believe the impossible. Flying bicycles, glowing motherships, dinosaurs resurrected from amber. The trick was never the spectacle. It was the wonder. You bought the absurd because Spielberg made yo

THREE AND A HALF STARS Composer Antonio Vivaldi has returned to compose and perform but mostly teach. A talented novice catches his ear. PERIOD DRAMA ITALY Italian #PRIMAVERA Starring Michele Riondino, Tecla Insolia Fun fact: the bulk of composer Antonio Vivaldi’s work, he of the eternal Four Seasons, was only rediscovered in the 1920’s. Long out of fashion, it wasn’t until the 1950s that this Renaissance master regained long lost popularity. By then, he’d been dead some 200

THREE STARS Niki has a hearing condition which makes the everyday difficult, but tuning pianos (and cracking safes) is a cinch! THRILLER US English #TUNER Starring Leo Woodall, Dustin Hoffman TUNER quickly establishes its slightly offbeat premise with such assurance that there’s never much temptation to resist it. Leo Woodall plays Niki White, a gifted young piano tuner apprenticed to veteran craftsman Harry Horowitz (Dustin Hoffman), whose advancing age and fading hearing h

THREE STARS Miguel is held for ransom where his storytelling catches the ears (and eyes) of his Moorish captor. PERIOD DRAMA SPAIN Spanish #ELCAUTIVO Starring Julio Peña, Alessandro Borghi Alejandro Amenábar's historical drama THE CAPTIVE (EL Cautivo) is all sweeping vistas, immaculate costumes and faces so luminous they look as though they’ve wandered in from a particularly romanticised Renaissance fresco. The casting director clearly knew the assignment; everyone has that

FOUR AND A HALF STARS Generations of family history and emotion play out on a remote German farm. It's a history no one can escape. PERIOD DRAMA GERMANY German #THESOUNDOFFALLING Starring Hanna Heckt, Susanne Wuest Mascha Schilinski’s THE SOUND OF FALLING is a staggering piece of filmmaking - dense, demanding and emotionally bruising in ways that stay with you long after the credits roll. It is not a film interested in accessibility and will make you work for its pleasures.