World cinema

Tried and Tested

Cinema 

Set in a small Syrian apartment as war rages outside, Insyriated strives to make a big impact but falls a little short of the mark

Must See

The best films out in September include Bill Nighy's brilliant muder-mystery and Jennifer Lawrence's surreal horror

Tried and Tested

Cinema 

'Tom of Finland' drew joyous, taboo-busting gay cartoons, and this biopic tells his story

Tried and Tested

Cinema 

Land of Mine has a terrible punning title, but a brilliant heart-stopping premise

Must See

The best films out in August include the new Kathryn Bigelow movie starring John Boyega, and a story of war to rival Dunkirk

Tried and Tested

Cinema 

Scribe certainly looks the part, and there are moments of ingenuity and tension, but it's a little too tidy for its own good

Tried and Tested

Cinema 

The Midwife is a pleasant French-language with a vivid performance from Catherine Deneuve

Tried and Tested

Cinema 

Berlin Syndrome showcases director Cate Shortland's knack for detail, but it's not a patch on her previous film

Tried and Tested

Cinema 

My Life as a Courgette is endlessly charming and beautifully constructed

Tried and Tested

Cinema 

After the Storm is a tender slice-of-life story with no shortage of nuance

Tried and Tested

Cinema 

April's Daughter starts sedately enough, but it's when things get tastefully melodramatic that Michel Franco's film really gets interesting

Preview

Cinema 

A Gentle Creature is anything but. It's a bitter, difficult creature that demands much from its audience

Tried and Tested

Cinema 

With Based on a True Story, Roman Polanski covers familiar ground with uninspired results

Tried and Tested

Cinema 

I Am Not Madame Bovary is Chinese Brecht seen through the wrong end of a telescope

Preview

Cinema 

The Other Side of Hope, the new film by Aki Kaurismäki, explores themes of home and displacement

Tried and Tested

Best of 

Okja isn't for kids – but maybe they should see it to understand about where their food comes from

Interview

Heal the Living is one of the best films of the year so far. We interview its brilliant young director

We love

Cinema 

The talented Katell Quillévéré (Love Like Poison) directs this gorgeous tale of life rejuvenated

Must See

From Anne Hathaway's drunken Godzilla to surreal Finnish comedy, the best films out in May are a varied bunch

Tried and Tested

Cinema 

Things go from small to scary in this ingenious single-space drama from Mohamed Diab, set amid unrest in Egypt in 2013

Features

Sex, hammers, and octopi – the most exciting films by the best Korean directors

Tried and Tested

Cinema 

With The Handmaiden, director Park Chan-wook (Oldboy, Stoker, Thirst) has concocted a heady cinematic cocktail based on Sarah Waters' novel Fingersmith

Tried and Tested

Cinema 

French film Raw is a darkly funny horror that might just put you off your steak tartare

Tried and Tested

Cinema 

One of the best films of the 2000s was 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days. Director Cristian Mungiu returns with Graduation, a film that's just as bleak and brilliant

Tried and Tested

Cinema 

Taraneh Alidoosti and Shahab Hosseini star in The Salesman, directed by Asghar Farhadi – Oscar-winner at the 2017 Academy Awards

Tried and Tested

Cinema 

Kim Jee-woon adds to the long list of great South Korean films with an espionage drama set in the 1920s

Features

Here's our pick of the last few months' best documentaries – 2016's late surprises and 2017's early successes, from Life, Animated to The Eagle Huntress

Tried and Tested

Cinema 

In the playful and shocking new film by Paul Verhoeven, Elle, Isabelle Huppert plays the titular heroine with disconcerting self-possession

Tried and Tested

Cinema 

At Cannes 2016, The Student – Russian filmmaker Kirill Serebrennikov's new film – was the François Chalais Prize winner

Tried and Tested

Cinema 

Directed with tenderness by Maren Ade, Toni Erdmann is an off-beat comedy with its eye on embarrassing parents

Tried and Tested

Cinema 

The Eagle Huntress documentary is a visually breathtaking and sociologically important bit of filmmaking

Tried and Tested

Cinema 

The Ardennes is a taught, understated thriller with a satisfyingly climatic pay-off