Sex, lies and sundowners: Robin Campillo on turning his army brat childhood into a film

The cult director grew up on the luscious island of Madagascar just as it was casting off French rule. It was a deliriously happy time for him – but now he realises what was really going on

Driving Mum review – happy-sad Icelandic road movie hits the spot

This quirky story of a lonely farmer and his deceased mother celebrates the Nordic country’s breathtaking landscape

Berlin film festival 2024 roundup – tasty treats and the odd potboiler

A careworn Cillian Murphy excelled, Atlantics director Mati Diop returned, astronaut Adam Sandler had us drifting off, and kitchen dramas continued to sizzle

Dying review – the biggest conductor meltdown since Cate Blanchett’s Tár

Lars Eidinger plays the man embarking on a major orchestral project, but whose professional status is threatened by family turmoil behind the scenes

Eureka review – Lisandro Alonso’s meditation on Indigenous life is striking but slow

The latest from the Argentine auteur, with a star turn from Viggo Mortensen, is formally​ d​aring​ but often deathly dull

Hors du Temps (Suspended Time) review – lockdown memoir revives childhood bliss

Olivier Assayas’ thinly disguised autobiographical study of a film-maker’s Edenic experience during Covid isolation is a civilised pleasure

My Favourite Cake review – charming portrayal of a 70-year-old Iranian’s appetite for romance

Heroine Mahin (Lily Farhadpour) is fiercely determined to revitalise her mundane existence and taste a better life

Repentance review – dreamlike satire from Soviet Georgia brings life to Stalinist ghosts

1980s black comedy unravels the brutal legacy of a despot who is as ludicrous as his crimes are appalling

Samsara review – unlike anything else you will experience in the cinema

Part film, part guided meditation, Lois Patiño’s tale of a Lao woman’s death and rebirth is partly designed to watch with your eyes closed

The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser review – Herzog’s early masterpiece is bold and brilliant

Rereleased for its 50th anniversary, this gripping retelling of a true story about a disturbed youth who finds favour in high society, features a masterstroke of casting

Werner Herzog: Radical Dreamer review – master director’s passionate idealism

Account of the German film-maker’s singular career takes in numerous starry admirers but also is a portrait of an existential disruptor

‘I will never forget this’: Samsara, the film you watch with your eyes shut

Drawing from the Tibetan Book of the Dead, Lois Patiño’s film features a 15-minute light-and-sound interlude in which viewers can join the star on his journey to the afterlife

The Goldfinger review – labyrinthine Hong Kong financial crime thriller

The co-writer of the film that inspired Scorsese’s The Departed returns with a brash, big-budget movie based on a real-life criminal conspiracy

Cats in the Museum review – Russian animation worthy of the litter tray

This badly dubbed and randomly plotted tale of feline heroes protecting artworks in the Hermitage is a proper dog’s dinner

Tchaikovsky’s Wife review – feverish biopic plays as a symphony of cruelty

Russian director Kirill Serebrennikov’s hallucinogenic portrait is a punishing, but admirably ambitious revisionist period piece