Closed Curtain review – dreamlike and deadpan
A screenwriter finds a remote place to work and protect his dog, when his space is invaded, in Jafar Panahi’s Pirandellian sideswipe at Iran’s government
Wolf Totem review – lupine thrills and pack mentality
Bestseller adaptation that is part wildlife doc, part dissection of the Cultural Revolution; at times fantastically exiting, at others bogged down in muddy metaphor
Until the End of the World review – visionary techno-futurist nightmare
Starring William Hurt, the five-hour director’s cut of Wim Wenders’s 1991 global road-trip movie seems even more miraculous than the leaner original
Theeb review – timeless art-house drama
There is a stark authenticity to this beautifully shot story of a Bedouin boy’s fight for survival during the first world war
Marshland review – True Detective in post-Franco Spain
It’s surely coincidence but this Spanish crime drama shares many elements with the HBO drama, including some breathtaking camerawork
Hard to Be a God review – mud, blood and holy hell
A slo-mo kaleidoscope of medieval squalor, fear and pandemonium, Alexei German’s three-hour epic isn’t easy to watch, but it is awe-inspiring in its own monumentally mad way
Five great female-friendly comic-book adaptations
The Diary of a Teenage Girl is the latest comic book movie to feature a heroine, but women are still woefully underrepresented in the genre overall
Man With a Movie Camera review – pure cinema, still unparalleled
Dziga Vertov’s unclassifiable 1929 masterpiece celebrates the infinite possibilities of film
Cub review – visually stylish Belgian chiller
An eccentric build-up and some ingenious booby-trappery can’t quite compensate for the plotting holes in this cub scout slasher movie
Venice announces premieres of major Oscar contenders – and Laurie Anderson film about her terrier, Lolabelle
Festival to premiere new films from last year’s rivals Eddie Redmayne and Michael Keaton as well as Kristen Stewart and Tilda Swinton
David Gulpilil – magnetic Indigenous actor connecting two Australias
Melbourne International film festival celebrates an enduring career with Walkabout, Charlie’s Country, Ten Canoes and an important new film
Melbourne film festival: you’ll laugh, you’ll cry with top 10 things to see and do
Luke Buckmaster scans a lineup designed to stir the emotions, including a tearjerker gamer movie, a reincarnation comedy starring Colin Farrell and a concentration-challenging nine-hour movie marathon
Eden review – the perfect mix of music and melancholia
Mia Hansen-Løve’s tremendously stylish film about a Paris DJ coolly shuns a traditional narrative to move in time with its own ambient beat
La Dolce Vita set for modern-day remake
Family of iconic Italian director Federico Fellini license rights for a film which is expected to pay homage to the 1960 classic – and isn’t The Great Beauty
P’tit Quinquin review – acid black comedy in small-town France
French director Bruno Dumont’s forensic-thriller farce features one of the funniest and weirdest scenes of the year