Rafiki review – groundbreaking lesbian romance aims to change Kenyan hearts and minds
Banned in its home country, Wauri Kahiu’s tale of two teenagers’ secret relationship is a fine – if conventional – depiction of the first flush of love
Birds of Passage review – Ciro Guerra takes the mob epic to tribal Colombia
The director’s follow-up to Embrace of the Serpent is a sprawling tale of drugs, dowries and indigenous traditions
Everybody Knows review – Cruz and Bardem pull no punches in heavyweight kidnap drama
Iranian director Farhadi opens Cannes with a film that explores the unhealed wound at the heart of a Spanish family with pitiless efficiency and sheer muscular flair
Meet the new double act of French cinema
Léonor Serraille and Laetitia Dosch are the director and star of Jeune Femme, a Cannes prize-winning comedy about a young woman trying to stay afloat in Paris. Here, the pair discuss eccentrics, Greta Gerwig and being able to bounce back
‘A full English every morning’: how UK food and weather inspires Japanese anime directors
Mary and the Witch’s Flower director Hiromasa Yonebayashi on why Japanese directors go wild for Britain’s cuisine, climate, chintz – and unionised miners
Putting Cannes to shame: the female-led Georgian film festival
Georgia 100: A Film Feast arrives in London this week – with half of the films showing directed by women, challenging gender roles in the country’s patriarchal society
Why Polish gangster films ‘on steroids’ are making it big at the British box office
With titles such as Pitbull and Mafia Women, violent Polish-language thrillers are proving a cult success – some even denting the UK top 10. But can they win over mainstream audiences?
Berlusconi biopic Loro is ‘a tender look at the weaknesses of an old man’
Director Paolo Sorrentino defends sexually explosive portrait of former prime minister, which has been called ‘a porn film without a moral issue’
The Wound review – raw pain and challenge of male circumcision drama
John Trengove’s boldly transgressive film tells the story of a city kid’s traditional initiation ritual and the secret gay sexuality of his mentors in a mountain retreat
Beyond the Clouds review – edgy tale of Mumbai’s underclass
Iranian film-maker Majid Majidi adds thrills to his Indian-set slum drama
Beyond the Clouds review – brash Bollywood in the Mumbai underworld
A motorbike drug-runner and his sister face a storm of trouble in this uneven drama by the feted Iranian director Majid Majidi
Gone too Tsar: the erotic period drama that has enraged Russia
A state-funded film about tsar Nicholas II’s affair with a ballerina, Matilda was expected to be a celebration of Russian culture – but it has outraged the Orthodox church
Director Sergei Loznitsa on Russia: ‘It’s hard to change the mentality of a nation’
The acclaimed Ukrainian director discusses his latest drama A Gentle Creature, the Ukraine-Russia conflict, and the ‘hell’ of Russian history
October review – low-key hotel drama earns its emotion honestly
Director Shoojit Sircar follows 2015’s Piku with a one-sided romance pitched between The Big Sick and full-on weepie
Even When I Fall review – ex-circus slaves turn the tables on traffickers
Nepalese children abused in India return to their parents and set up a circus of their own in this valuable documentary