Allan Hunter is based in Edinburgh and has reviewed films for Screen since 1990.
Best film
1. All We Imagine As Light
Dir. Payal Kapadia
Kapadia’s beguiling city symphony drifts though Mumbai like an angel from Wings Of Desire. Drenched in monsoon rains, her film captures the everyday bustle and challenge of the city alongside personal tales of loneliness and longing that unfold among the anonymity of multitudes. A trio of generation-spanning women seek ways to be true to themselves and pursue independent lives in this deeply romantic celebration of friendship, sisterhood and the way that confronting the past can open the path to the future.
2. Vermiglio
Dir. Maura Delpero
Delpero’s latest feature is an achingly beautiful family drama that makes the most of its setting — a remote Alpine village in the final months of the Second World War. The snowy landscapes and lofty mountains feel like a natural barrier to the outside world until the arrival of an army deserter from Sicily, who is given sanctuary by the local schoolmaster. The ensuing tale of secret lives and hidden desires is expertly composed.
3. The Room Next Door
Dir. Pedro Almodovar
Almodovar’s first English-language feature is not without its flaws but it is a gorgeous, meticulously crafted meditation on how we face the dying of the light. Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore are perfectly matched as, respectively, the terminally ill war reporter and the old friend she invites to stay close when death comes to call. The sense of restraint makes it all the more affecting. You had me at pink snow, Pedro.
4. Flow
Dir. Gints Zilbalodis
Zilbadolis’s follow-up to his animated feature Away from 2019 is a captivating animated adventure with an irresistible saucer-eyed black cat as the survivor of a devastating flood. The technical virtuosity and inventive storytelling are impressive, but it is the exacting attention to detail and emotional connection to the cat’s plight that makes Flow such an absolute delight of a film.
5. Hard Truths
Dir. Mike Leigh
Marianne Jean-Baptiste’s excoriating performance is the centrepiece of a typically compassionate Leigh portrait of a Black British family tiptoeing around the fury and pain of her character Pansy. An excellent ensemble cast (kudos to Michele Austin as Pansy’s loving sister) illuminate messy everyday lives that veer between comedy and tragedy.
6. Maria
Dir. Pablo Larrain
7. Anora
Dir. Sean Baker
8. Memoir Of A Snail
Dir. Adam Elliot
9. Santosh
Dir. Sandhya Suri
10. Small Things Like These
Dir. Tim Mielants
Best documentary
1. No Other Land
Dirs. Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor
Filmed before the 2023 Hamas attacks, No Other Land documents the relentless demolition of the Palestinian villages in Masafer Yatta. The impossible dream of staying on their own land unfolds in suffering, impunity and the grinding down of hope.
2. Strike: An Uncivil War
Dir. Daniel Gordon
Valuable insight into the 1984 British miner’s strike and the trauma of the brutal showdown at Orgreave in Yorkshire. Former miners and police provide vivid testimony that enhances the archive footage.
3. Sugarcane
Dirs. Emily Kassie, Julian Brave NoiseCat
An eye-opening account of the extensive physical and sexual abuse suffered by generations of Indigenous children at schools funded by the Canadian government. The past is an open wound, as we learn of cover-ups, corruption and the absence of accountability.
Performance of the year
Marianne Jean-Baptiste in Hard Truths
Dir. Mike Leigh
Reunited with Leigh for the first time since 1996’s Secrets & Lies, Jean-Baptiste brilliantly encapsulates the scalding, belligerent anger of Pansy. Everyone is a disappointment to Pansy in Hard Truths, or a potential sparring partner. The bulldog set of her jaw and readiness for a fight allow Jean-Baptiste to capture Pansy’s spectacular misanthropy. What gives the performance humanity is the way she allows us to see that Pansy, with her trembling lip and stricken looks, is also deeply damaged and suffering. A forthright, complex and haunting performance.
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