The World Cinema Dramatic program of Sundance usually leaves a bit to be desired because it appears like completed worldwide cinema waits for Berlin, Rotterdam, or Cannes within the first half of the yr. This isn’t to say that there’s by no means something of worth on this program, however the fact is that Sundance stays a North American competition by way of and thru, it doesn’t matter what metropolis it calls residence sooner or later.
Simply the most effective of the trio I noticed from this program in 2025 is Alireza Khatami’s formidable “The Issues You Kill,” a deserved winner of this program’s Directing Award this yr. The director of “Terrestrial Verses” has made a movie that I heard was Lynchian, an adjective that threw me off for the primary half of a movie that appears to owe an important deal extra to Asghar Farhadi (with whom Khatami studied) than the just lately deceased grasp. With out spoiling, there’s a twist involving id that feels prefer it owes a debt to “Misplaced Freeway” as Khatami explores the influence of violence in a fashion that’s riveting and efficient. That is highly effective stuff.
The Canadian Khatami tells a narrative set in Turkey however one which rings true with cultural points related to his residence nation of Iran. Ali (Ekin Koç) is a instructor in an unnamed Turkish metropolis, the place he’s married to a veterinarian (Hazar Ergüçlü) and dwelling a comparatively non-descript life, whilst Khatami peppers his script with indicators of impending doom. There are dangerous pipes, threats of Ali’s class being canceled subsequent yr, and even a properly on a bit of farmland that’s not deep sufficient. One thing goes to go unsuitable.
And one thing does when Ali’s mom dies and the son begins to develop suspicious of his philandering father Hamit (Ercan Kesal). Did dad’s negligence hasten mother’s demise? Worse? When a gardener provides an opportunity for Ali to take an act of vengeance, he does so, and properly one thing in each his life and the movie about it breaks, resulting in these Lynch comparisons.
“The Issues You Kill” is a riveting mix of Lynchian oddity and Turkish realism. It has echoes of Farhadi and the masterful Nuri Bilge Ceylan in theme and setting, however unfolds in an unpredictable, riveting method. It turns into a movie not nearly violence however about how we inform tales of acts of violence, and the way we cover our darkest emotions and selves from the world round us, even the particular person within the mirror.
My different two World Dramatic Competitors choices have been mediocre at finest, so I’ll be transient on each.
First, there’s Vladimir de Fontenay’s survival drama “Sukkwan Island,” a film a couple of 13-year-old named Roy (Woody Norman) dwelling off the land together with his father (Swann Arlaud of “Anatomy of a Fall”) … sorta. A remaining twist takes a movie I already discovered boring and makes it insulting, revealing that each one you have been presupposed to care about for the earlier two hours was actually a cinematic recreation. I haven’t hated an ending a lot in years. It’s low cost in each manner.
The movie earlier than it isn’t nice both. These two hours encompass Roy and his father at a distant location deep within the Norwegian fjords, battling circumstances, damage, and sickness. It alternates between hard-fought classes concerning the cruelty of the pure world and a son attending to know a father from whom he has been distant his entire life. Among the surroundings is attractive, however you may really feel the strings being pulled in each scene of this movie, till the ultimate one breaks, and the entire island sinks into the ocean.
Lastly, there’s the irritating “LUZ,” which drew ticket patrons with the promise of the always-good Isabelle Huppert, however among the finest dwelling actresses is wasted right here on a movie of stilted parent-child dynamics that finally has virtually nothing to say. A movie that begins with neon-soaked imagery that recollects Refn and Noe shortly loses its pulse, jumbling its themes and smashing its characters collectively in a fashion that feels too usually like a primary draft of a screenplay in determined want of a focusing rewrite.
“LUZ” is actually two tales linked by a digital actuality world. In a single, a father seeks a connection together with his estranged daughter, who occurs to be a cam lady. In one other, a daughter tries to get nearer to her ailing stepmother, performed by Huppert. It turns into unimaginable to care about both, and director Flora Lau struggles significantly to attach them exterior of the digital world that provides folks on this movie focus.
Among the surroundings in Chongqing and Paris is attractive, however that’s about all that “LUZ” has to supply, a movie that’s finally as shallow because the digital worlds that its characters occupy.
