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  • Beatrice Loayza

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‘Persian Lessons’ Review: An Improbable Holocaust Drama

A Jewish Frenchman posing as a Persian eludes death by teaching a fictional form of the Persian language to a Nazi commandant in this improbable...

‘Falcon Lake’ Review: Pack Water, Sunscreen and Palo Santo

Death and desire are bunk mates in this coming-of-age drama set around a lake cabin in Quebec.

‘Unclenching the Fists’ Review: A Moody Russian Drama

Kira Kovalenko’s moody drama centers on a young woman trapped under her father’s thumb in the North Caucasus region of Russia.

‘Giving Birth to a Butterfly’ Review: Melancholy and Menace

Steeped in a distinctly American nostalgia, this beautifully peculiar debut feature has a Lynchian quality.

‘L’immensità’ Review: Roman Holiday

Loosely based on the transgender director Emanuele Crialese’s transition, this Italian period drama is a sun-dappled nostalgia trip bristling with Oedipal tension.

‘Down With Love’ 20 Years Later: Celebrating the Phoniness of Rom-Coms

The 2003 box office flop has been embraced by a younger generation that understands the role-playing nature of courtship.

‘Queens of the Qing Dynasty’ Review: Secret Soul Mates

When a young woman hospitalized after a suicide attempt forms a bond with an international student, they create a different kind of relationship.

‘The End of Sex’ Review: When Domesticity Kills the Mood

This comedy follows the misadventures of a bored 40-something married couple who are attempting to spice up their sex life.

‘Dry Ground Burning’ Review: Feminist Gangsters, Brazilian Style

Featuring a cast of local actors playing semi-fictionalized versions of themselves, this movie flies in the face of the country’s political establishment.

‘Sick of Myself’ Review: When Main Character Syndrome Runs Amok

From Norway, this smug satire tracks the rise and fall of an attention-seeking young woman who intentionally disfigures herself by taking a sketchy Russian drug.