DJ Ahmet (PG)
Directed by Georgi M Unkovski
★★★★★

THERE are not many films I would recommend to my Turkish peasant friends in Ardahan, a small village in north Cyprus, but DJ Ahmet tops the list.

In Ardahan, as in this film, most people are illiterate and school takes second place to caring for animals. There too, there is a ferocious social hierarchy of richer and poorer, and an absolute gender segregation that creates a claustrophobic trap for teenage girls. And there too the village culture — where every mental health problem is traced to a “curse” — exists at a slight remove, with its own minaret, further up the hills from the modernity below.

All these anthropological points are made with such ease and authenticity in DJ Ahmet that I saw what I thought I’d never see on screen: a revelation of the inner lives and tensions within just such an islamic peasant village, that is nevertheless a common denominator throughout the Turkish speaking world.

Writer/director Unkovski has huge compassion for the characters and contradictions of such a community and plays his drama with a light touch, and with equal measures of comedy and cruelty in every scene.

Brothers Ahmet (a stoic, goodhearted Arif Jakob) and Naim (a soulful Agush Agushev) have lost their mother, and the trauma has rendered Naim mute. Their father despairs. When Ahmet falls in love with Aya (Dora Akan Zlatanova), a subversive tease visiting from Germany to submit to an arranged marriage, all the social fault lines in the village come apart.

If you need a great film — charming, funny, tragic and human — to take your mind away from current wars, this is it.
AR
In cinemas March 27

Redoubt (12A)
Directed by John Skoog
★★★★☆

 

DENIS LEVANT gives the most compelling and physical performance without barely uttering a word in this weirdly absorbing and mesmerising Swedish drama, and debut feature, by artist and documentarian John Skoog. 

Based on a true story, this is set at the height of the Cold War and follows farmhand Karl-Goran Persson (Levant) who, having become obsessed with a pamphlet instructing how to survive a nuclear attack, starts fortifying his house. He scavenges anything he can find, including old railway tracks, to turn his home into a “redoubt” for himself and his neighbours. 

Shot in black and white, which makes it more striking, the film is a quiet exploration of fear, obsession and rural community life. While the local children accept the eccentric Persson without judgement, older thugs ridicule and bully him.  

With the ever-increasing threat of World War III looming, and bombarded as we are with guides on how to stay alive, Redoubt is scarily poignant. 
MD
In cinemas March 27

They Will Kill You (15)
Directed by Kirill Sokolov
★★★☆☆

 

ZAZIE BEETZ is a non-stop one-woman killing machine in this bloodbath, high-octane action comedy horror unfolding over one night. 

Beetz plays ex-convict Asia Reeves who is hired as a housekeeper at The Virgil, a luxurious New York City high rise. Its wealthy white residents are members of a Satanic cult, run by Patricia Arquette, who prey on people from ethnic backgrounds. Asia is their latest victim/sacrifice. 

With over-the-top killings, and elaborate fight scenes reminiscent of Quentin Tarantino, this is a hugely entertaining wild ride as Asia battles her way up the building, The Raid style, in order to escape to safety from her relentless persecutors, and murdering rich people along the way. 

Driven by a powerhouse performance by Beetz, Russian writer-director Kirill Sokolov’s English language debut film is a slick and stylish bloodfest with a devilish twist.  
MD
In cinemas March 27

The Magic Faraway Tree (U)
Directed by Ben Gregor
★★★☆☆

 

THE magic and enchantment of Enid Blyton’s much loved book series is beautifully captured in this visually arresting modern live action adaptation of her work.  

Directed by Ben Gregor (Fatherhood) and written by Simon Farnaby (Paddington 2) it centres on a family of five who are forced to move from the city to a barn in the countryside devoid of wifi and electricity to the horror of the three screen-addicted kids. The parents, played by Claire Foy and Andrew Garfield, are hoping their children will reconnect with nature and their imaginations. When the youngsters discover a magical tree with eccentric residents it upends their world.   

This is a film about parents reconnecting with their children and the latter rekindling their family bond through adventures to fantastical lands.  

It is a sweet, magical family film and fans of the books won’t be disappointed. 
MD
In cinemas March 27