Good intentions have a way of leading to not-so-great places in “Paradise at Mother’s Feet,” a sweet but ultimately arduous road movie about a mother and son from Kyrgyzstan who set out to reach Mecca in the mother’s final days. When scripture insists that salvation lies in making the pilgrimage on foot, the steps Ruslan […]

In 2024, there is no shortage of possible imagined dystopian futures. Not just because there’s an ever-growing canon of films that dream up humanity’s worst-case scenarios but because news about climate disasters, headlines about dwindling natural resources and well-founded fears about the encroaching power of AI dominate our day-to-day lives. That’s perhaps what makes Leticia […]

The scream that pierces through the opening of “Semmelweis” sets the tone for the 19th century-set drama from Lajos Koltai, about the groundbreaking Hungarian obstetrician Ignaz Semmelweis, immediately showing its concern for a very pregnant young woman desperately roaming the streets for a proper place to give birth. Loath to check in to local clinics […]

Engaging, yet tantalizingly withholding, the contemporary drama “Drowning Dry” offers a nonlinear portrait of two sisters, their marriages and children while depicting a family tragedy during a summer holiday. As it unfolds in a kaleidoscopic manner, the narrative snaps into sharpest focus just as the film ends. It’s the sophomore feature of Lithuanian multi-hyphenate Laurynas […]