Mutt
Dir. Vuk Lungulov-Klotz
Just based off its title, Mutt is already a film that tackles a state of in-between, and perhaps what makes…
Terrestrial Verses
Dir. Ali Asgari & Alireza Khatami
Since we live in a society, interacting with authority is inescapable. Terrestrial Verses depict fairly mundane day-to-day interactions– getting a…
Pictures of Ghosts
Dir. Kleber Mendonça Filho
Like people, places have things that change and things that remain the same. Most of us keep our thoughts about…
Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person
Dir. Ariane Louis-Seize
When vampires choose not to kill a human, it’s usually played up with so much drama, angst, and maybe a…
Swan Song
Dir. Chelsea McMullan
If you’re hard working and well-situated enough, you get to chase and achieve and live out your dreams for your…
About Dry Grasses
Dir. Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Given the controversial subject matter, there’s something remarkably placid about the way About Dry Grasses proceeds. Amidst the snowy white…
Last Film Show
Dir. Pan Nalin
Like many coming-of-age films about films, it’s easy to assume that Last Film Show would be a derivative of all-time…
Cow
Dir. Andrea Arnold
The film unfolds in the rhythm of a cow’s life: birth, mating, feeding, milking, checkups. Soon, these events become regular…
Murina
Dir. Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović
A young woman’s coming-of-age threatens to topple the uneasy hierarchy of her family in this striking debut from Croatian director…
Luzzu
Dir. Alex Camilleri
In Luzzu, tradition and modernity — plus principles and necessity — come crashing up against each other like waves in…
Yuni
Dir. Kamila Andini
Education is a human right, but for many girls around the world, this isn’t necessarily guaranteed– especially if they want…
Small Things Like These
Dir. Tim Mielants
Small Things Like These is the kind of film that doesn’t have a grand resolution, a dramatic climax, or a…
Great Freedom
Dir. Sebastian Meise
Great Freedom is not an easy watch. Apart from the quiet stretches of time and the claustrophobic confines of its…
Monster
Dir. Tomás Ó Súilleabháin
Irish period drama Monster is downright depressing. Of course, for some viewers, that’s just part and parcel of any period…
The Eight Mountains
Dir. Charlotte Vandermeersch & Felix Van Groeningen
Spanning over decades and continents, The Eight Mountains depicts the kind of childhood friendship that remains central to one’s whole…
Hive
Dir. Blerta Basholli
It’s been years since Fahrije and the women of her village lost their husbands to the war. It’s one thing…
Buoyancy
Dir. Rodd Rathjen
Due to the possibility of death, Buoyancy cannot be made as a documentary. This film, after all, sheds light on…
The Mole Agent
Dir. Maite Alberdi
Going deep undercover, integrating one’s self into a group without any suspicion, and passing out information to another party… That’s…
Listen
Dir. Ana Rocha de Sousa & Female director
Sincere and direct, Ana Rocha de Sousa’s debut feature is a tragic portrayal of an immigrant family in the United…
Birds of Passage
Dir. Ciro Guerra & Cristina Gallego
Organized crime and drug dealing has been a topic of many a film, sometimes even glamorizing the whole endeavor, but…
Letter from Masanjia
Dir. Leon Lee
When thinking about buying something, it’s easy to only think about price and quality, but with many investigations around the…
Cyrano, My Love
Dir. Alexis Michalik
While Shakespeare has written most of the romantic plays that dominate theater today, there was one play from across the…
Black Rain
Dir. Shōhei Imamura
Not to be confused with the American cop thriller with the same name, Shōhei Imamura’s Black Rain is about the…
CODA
Dir. Sian Heder
CODA has all the trappings of a predictable, feel-good family drama. You’ll recognize immediately the talented teen, the family pulling…
The Missing Picture
Dir. Rithy Panh
The medium of cinema has been used as a tool for revolution, but so too was it complicit in genocide.…