USA  2025  101 mins  15

The inimitable Wes Anderson’s latest fantasy movie stars Benicio del Toro as Zsa-Zsa Korda, European industrialist, citizen of nowhere and shady dealer in everything. ‘Mister 5%’ has enemies aplenty, and attempts on his life are so numerous that after surviving his sixth plane crash he calls his much-neglected nun of a daughter, Liesl, and makes her his sole heir. Together they embark on Korda’s wildest scheme ever, a land and sea infrastructure venture stretching across the fictional North African country of Phoenicia. How can this possibly end well…  ? A welter of quirky characters are played with gusto by stars such as Michael Cera and Willem Dafoe.

Bel/Fra  2025  105 mins  15

Can Ariane trust her alcoholic mother and abusive partner with her new baby? Just one of the questions tackled by the Belgian Dardenne brothers as they extend their line of naturalistic dramas with simultaneous stories about five teenage pregnancies. Winning Best Screenplay at Cannes 2025, their script, based on conversations with real young girls and set in a maternal support home in Liège (the city is the setting of many of the Dardenne brothers’ films), elicits brilliant performances from amateur actors who opt for resilience and hope as they struggle with adoption, poverty, violence and addiction, in their bid for the light at the end of the tunnel. (S)

Norway  2024  110 mins  15

Johanne, a Norwegian teenager, develops a crush on her charismatic teacher, Johanna, but is afraid to talk about it to anybody, least of all her single mum Kristin. To come to terms with her passion she keeps an intimate journal, which she decides to show to her writer grandmother Karin, who in turn encourages Kristin to read it. Directed by Dag Johan Haugerud and winner of Berlin’s Golden Bear award 2025, Dreams is a mischievous film in which Johanne’s revelations (possibly real or are bits made up?) prompt consternation in the two older women, causing one to question her tepid online-dating life and the other to look at her creative timidity. (S)

France  2024  112 mins  15

Ghjuvanna Benedetti is transfixing as teenage Lesia, who is taken from her sheltered Corsican existence in the summer of 1995 and dropped at a villa where her estranged mob-boss father, Pierre-Paul, is hiding. An assassination attempt sets off a deadly chain of vendettas forcing the two of them on the run. While her father dreams of another life where wife and daughter were central, Lesia, in understanding her father’s adherence to brutal underworld codes, is drawn into an equal devotion for revenge. Taking director Julien Colonna 3  1/2 years to make, and featuring amateur actors, this gripping thriller gives a unique perspective on the coming-of-age theme. (S) (A Guardian Top 50 of 2025 film)

2026 FESTIVAL RUNS FROM FRIDAY 6th MARCH UNTIL SATURDAY 21st

Each year the Borderlines Film Festival, the largest rural film festival in the UK, centred on Hereford's Courtyard Arts Centre but also spread across numerous venues in Herefordshire, Shropshire and Powys, brings us a vast selection of new and old films. Presteigne Film Society participated as a venue for many years and as we continue this association Presteigne Screen will feature three movies under the Borderlines umbrella. More information available at the comprehensive website at www.borderlinesfilmfestival.co.uk.

TICKETS FOR THESE FILMS WiLL GO ON SALE ON 5 FEBRUARY TO COINCIDE WITH THE FESTIVAL BOX OFFICE OPENING

USA/UK/S Kor  2025  118 mins  15

Yorgos Lanthimos mixes satire, sci-fi and twisted comedy as Emma Stone, playing Michelle Fuller, CEO of pharmaceutical giant Auxolith, is kidnapped by conspiracy theorist and beekeeper Teddy Gatz (Jesse Plemons) and his autistic cousin Don. Teddy, whose mum has been rendered comatose in an Auxolith clinical trial, believes that Michelle is the leader of a malign alien species. Head shaved, Michelle is detained in Teddy’s basement for interrogation. Outstanding acting by Stone and Plemons creates a tense, unpredictable kidnap scenario in which control and identity, villain and hero are constantly interchangeable. (A Guardian Top 50 of 2025 film)

France  2024  93 mins  15

Delivery cyclist, Souleymane, an immigrant from Guinea, pedals the streets of Paris at full pelt delivering meals for a pittance, crashing in hostels and clinging to hope that he will somehow pass an imminent asylum interview and bring some certainty to his punishing life. Abou Sangaré turns in a brilliant performance as the driven cyclist who must pay for tutoring so that he can pitch his asylum spiel in exactly the right way. But is he ready? Boris Lojkine’s film gained traction at last year’s Cannes Film festival in the Un Certain Regard section where it won the Jury and Best Actor prizes.(S) (A Guardian Top 50 of 2025 film)

UK/Aus  2025  75 mins  PG

I Swear dramatises the true story of John Davidson, a troubled Scottish teenager in the 1980s, whose ambitions to be a goalkeeper are disrupted by odd tics and strange behaviour until he’s finally diagnosed at 15 with Tourette’s Syndrome. We see how he navigates life with this much misunderstood condition, which often involves involuntary shouting of obscenities, lashings out and consequent trouble. Meanwhile, it is through the kindness of others that Davidson discovers his great purpose in life. Inspiring, funny and devastating in equal measure with a stunning performance by Robert Aramayo. (A Guardian Top 50 of 2025 film)

Iran/Fra/USA  2025  103 mins  12A

This at times blackly comic and much acclaimed Iranian thriller starts with a man taking his car into a garage after a minor accident. He meets mechanic Vahid who, hearing the distinctive squeak from the man’s prosthetic leg, decides that this is Eghbal, a sadist who tortured him in prison, and so kidnaps him – but then doubts set in. Winner of the Palme d’Or 2025 with this film, director Jafar Panahi (The White Balloon, Offside and Taxi), using his own experience of persecution and incarceration (this is his first film since being released from jail in 2023), has executed a visceral, claustrophobic vision of the autocratic theocracy that’s hounded him and others. (S) (A Guardian Top 50 of 2025 film)

Spa/Fra  2024  114 mins  12

A summer storm threatens as filmmaker Ale (played by Itsaso Arana), lying in bed with actor Alex (Vito Sanz), her partner of 14 years, asks the question: ‘What if we held a party to celebrate our break-up?’ This is the surprising premise of Jonás Trueba’s eighth feature, whose Spanish title Volveréis translates as ‘You’ll get back together’, which is what their families and close friends say every time ‘the perfect couple’ share their news, as they do… frequently. Will they, or won’t they? Inspired by films such as 8  1/2 Weeks and Groundhog Day, Trueba draws out humour from the absurd belief that if you repeat something often enough it will become true. (S)