Polina review – dance drama fails to get moving
The story of a young Russian who abandons the Bolshoi to chase her dreams across Europe is frustratingly inert
The 50 best films of 2018 in the US: No 3 – Loveless
Andrey Zvyagintsev’s stark drama about the dire fallout to a toxic marriage was a loud dissenting cry from within Russia
The 50 best films of 2018 in the UK: No 4 – Loveless
Andrei Zvyagintsev’s stark drama about a couple’s toxic relationship – and its catastrophic fallout – was a passionate dissenting cry from within Russia
An Elephant Sitting Still review – melancholic and mesmerising
The first and last film from the late Chinese director and author Hu Bo has a desolate beauty
Khrustalyov, My Car! review – delirious and visually amazing Russian gem
A rerelease of Aleksei German’s 1998 satire is a journey into a hallucinatory world shot with documentary realism
An Elephant Sitting Still review – on the edge of despair in the new China
In his arresting final film, Hu Bo follows a string of characters struggling against injustice – and dreaming of escape
Return of the Hero review – Jane Austen meets screwball farce
This lively French romcom brings a modern sensibility to its tale of duels and deception in Napoleonic Burgundy
Mug review – overly obvious Polish drama
Cute devices and simplistic morals hamper this film, despite a promising beginning
Basements, Bruges and the easter bunny: the nine circles of film hell
From Georges Méliès to Lars von Trier’s The House That Jack Built, movie hells remain seriously in hock to the Judeo-Christian playbook
Meteors review – portents of tragedy in Turkey
The trauma of a state crackdown on one village finds celestial expression in this poetic film by Turkish director Gürcan Keltek
Carnival Night / Hakob Hovnatanyan review – a pair of pre-Christmas Soviet treats
A nimble 1950s Russian musical comedy is coupled with a restored 1967 short by the Armenian director of The Colour of Pomegranates
The Wild Pear Tree review – leaves flutter with significance
Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s latest epic tells the story of a graduate returning to his rural home
Plagi Breslau review – blood-spattered serial-killer thriller
Polish purveyor of graphic screen gore Patryk Vega unleashes another tide of visceral mayhem
Fantastic Beasts roars on as Robin Hood steals a weak second
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald holds strong for a second week, fighting off newcomers Robin Hood and Nativity Rocks!
Bernardo Bertolucci: the brilliant last emperor of highbrow cinema
Bertolucci, who has died aged 77, made his name as a film-maker of radical genius, but his reputation has been forever clouded by Last Tango’s sexual consent controversy