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★★★★☆

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★★★★☆ Rarely has a nation been depicted with as much horror as the civil war torn Ukraine of director Sergei Loznista’s Donbass. The film is built around thirteen loosely connected vignettes that explore the mid-2010s conflict between Ukraine and the Russian backed Donetsk People’s Republic. The result is a chaotic and...

★★★★☆ Bill Nighy is left piecing together the mysteries of his son’s disappearance in British Scrabble comedy Sometimes Always Never. Board games are rarely a source of huge excitement but first time director Carl Hunter finds humour and emotional pain in this offbeat and surprising comic drama. Nighy’s characteristic deadpan delivery...

★★☆☆☆ Italian director Paolo Sorrentino charts the dealings and plotting of Italian businessman and Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in his latest film Loro. The film begins not with the notorious politician but with the young and self-assured Sergio Morra (Riccardo Scamarcio), who traffics escorts and bribes politicians in the small...

★★★☆☆ The career of one of British music’s great eccentrics is affectionately told in Steve Sullivan’s documentary Being Frank: The Chris Sievey Story. The film chronicles the life of Chris Sievey, a musician who took many guises between the early 1970s and his death in 2010. Sievey’s work was full on...

Rarely has a foreign language film created as much debate and controversy as director Lukas Dhont’s Girl. The film follows Lara (Victor Polster) a 15-year-old transgender girl who dreams of being a professional ballerina. She attends a prestigious Dutch dance school where her classmates are hostile towards her and who are at...

Secrets and lies are brought to the surface in director Asghar Farhadi’s film of a family wedding struck by tragedy. Taking place in a small Spanish town, rather than the director’s native Iran, Everybody Knows begins with Laura (Penélope Cruz) returning home following years spent in Argentina. Her teenage daughter Irene...