Fallen Leaves review – Aki Kaurismäki’s almost feelgood romance is a droll delight

Two lonely souls connect in a rain-lashed Helsinki in this unexpectedly uplifting drama from the Finnish master of melancholy

Lost reels: 15 directors pick great films you won’t find on UK streaming

Many films – even classics such as Eraserhead and Chungking Express – remain surprisingly unavailable online to UK audiences. We asked film-makers from Martin McDonagh to Charlotte Wells to pick their favourites

The Shadow of the Day review – old-fashioned romantic drama with war lurking on the horizon

As Italy succumbs to the fascists, a war veteran and small-town restaurateur falls for a beautiful stranger in Giuseppe Piccioni’s robustly made and excellently acted prewar melodrama

‘They had no idea if their beloved ones were kidnapped, dead or missing’: Ari Folman on filming the Israeli hostages’ families

The Oscar-nominated director of Waltz with Bashir talks about the hypocrisy of the UK’s response to war, his project to help the relatives of those taken hostage by Hamas and why he’s still hopeful of a solution

20,000 Species of Bees review – lovely, heartfelt Spanish trans drama

An eight-year-old struggles with her gender identity one long, hot summer in Basque director Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren’s beguiling debut feature

12th Fail review – Indian exam yarn offers hope on overcoming corruption and poverty

This semi-true story of a young farmer who uses his grandmother’s life savings to sit police officer exams in Delhi fosters the idea that success is possible through effort alone

‘There’s an urge to kill that I can’t explain’: director Gessica Généus on the dangers of film-making in Haiti

The Haitian actor and film-maker kept her cameras rolling through the deadly upheavals of 2019. Now she’s starting on a new film, and little has improved – but that’s why she is determined to carry on

Our River … Our Sky review – compelling portrait of lives in an Iraqi war zone

Maysoon Pachachi’s fiction debut, set in Baghdad in 2006, focuses on individuals behind the headlines, with the river Tigris a recurring symbol

Celluloid counter-revolution: a salute to the underground film lovers of Iran

Unsuitable films were burned after the Islamic regime took over Iran. But one man stashed away reels and reels of banned and western movies – to thrill a new generation in secret film clubs

Where the Wind Blows review – Hong Kong gangland meets Singin’ in the Rain

Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Aaron Kwok play rival cops in this confusing but visually arresting 60s-set thriller

RMN review – racial tensions mount in a small Transylvanian town

Based on real-life events, Cristian Mungiu’s slow-burn drama about a community consumed by xenophobia is unflinching in its examination of Romanian society

RMN review – sickness beneath the skin as racism breaks out in Romanian village

Latest from Cristian Mungiu is a low-key drama about a multi-ethnic community in Transylvania who turn on a group of Sri Lankan immigrants

The Tower review – apocalyptic lockdown horror goes into the dark, deadly void

This tale of a tower block enveloped in nothingness, and the terrible things its residents do to survive, starts grim and just gets grimmer … and grimmer

Love Life review – wrenching Japanese melodrama

A tragedy upends a couple’s dynamic in this elegant, sensitive drama by the director of Cannes prize-winning Harmonium

Evil Does Not Exist review – Ryu Hamaguchi’s enigmatic eco-parable eschews easy explanation

Compositional quirks and unhurried direction turn this tale of a Tokyo company buying up land near a pristine lake into a complex and mysterious drama