Lamb review – Noomi Rapace outstanding in wild horror-comedy of Icelandic loneliness
This outrageous story of a bereaved couple’s surrogate child ropes in a wild bestiary of creatures great and digital
The 50 best films of 2021 in the US, No 9: Azor
An unnervingly subtle and dreamlike conspiracy thriller set in the strange world of the super-wealthy at the time of the dirty war in Argentina
Hope review – sensitive study of the grief that lies behind a cancer diagnosis
Stellan Skarsgård plays a man whose attention has been more focused on his career than his family wrestles with accepting his wife’s terminal illness
Not Knowing review – homophobic bullies wreck Turkish water polo kid’s life
Rumours about a young athlete’s sexuality have devastating consequences in an public-service lesson that lacks dramatic acuity
There Is No Evil review – devastating everyday tales of life under Iran’s brutal regime
Mohammad Rasoulof’s Golden Bear winner examines the brutal impact of the death penalty and suppressed freedom on ordinary Iranians
Screen sensation: the single-shot thriller bringing time-travel into the Zoom era
It was shot in a week and premiered to 12 people, but micro-budget sci-fi movie Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes has since become the breakout success of the year
The Hand of God review – Paolo Sorrentino tells his own Maradona story
The Italian film-maker may owe his life to the footballer, as this vivid, autobiographical Neapolitan drama reveals
Celts review – bitchy zingers sting at a birthday party in Belgrade
Director Milica Tomović’s debut is a sharp, well-scripted party piece set in early 1990s Serbia
Drive My Car review – supremely confident Haruki Murakami adaptation
A widowed actor bonds with his chauffeur in Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s beguiling film exploring the creative process, jealousy and guilt
You Will Die at Twenty review – radiant Sudanese coming-of-age tale
A young man whose early death was foretold begins to question a life of caution
Natural Light review – bleak but beautifully shot war drama
Dénes Nagy’s sombre second world war film doesn’t give much away, but its coldness speaks volumes about the nature of conflict
Céline Sciamma: ‘My films are always about a few days out of the world’
From Girlhood to Portrait of a Lady on Fire, the film-maker’s intimate human dramas have brought her acclaim. She talks about her latest, Petite Maman
Streaming: Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and other great martial arts films
This year’s Marvel blockbuster is an ideal leaping off point to martial arts classics such as One-Armed Swordsman and House of Flying Daggers
‘The script is a vehicle’: Japanese director Ryūsuke Hamaguchi on Drive My Car
Hamaguchi’s award-winning and absorbing new movie Drive My Car deals with issues of grief and infidelity – and reflects his artistic journey towards inner truths
‘We think we’re good – but we’re weak’: the making of Natural Light, the year’s most harrowing film
To cast his gruelling war drama, Dénes Nagy combed Hungary’s farms for people ‘with exhaustion in their face’ – then shot it in the Latvian winter. The result? Awards, praise … and fierce criticism