Quirky filmmaker Abi Kaurismaki charms us with this deadpan tale of a community coming together to help a lost boy. It may lack edge, but you’ll come away feeling quietly optimistic about human nature.

A Spanish revisionist take on the iconic American Western which tells a fictional story of an infamous non-fictional North American outlaw and is set in a South American country which was colonised by the Spanish….. ouch my head hurts. Nice mountains though.

The unsolved mystery regarding the identity of Jack the Ripper has plagued mankind for decades. You know who might have stood a shot at solving it? Sherlock Holmes. Cue ‘Murder By Decree’, which tosses the famous detective into the fray and gives us an elementary solution to the unsolvable murders…

Cristián Jiménez’s romantic drama is carried by an interesting premise, but its restrained tone and shades of artificial whimsy make it difficult to emotionally invest in the story. Focussing on a man who finds himself driven to obsessively narratavise his own life, this distance is perhaps appropriate but, ultimately, it means that Bonsái leaves you a little cold.

Dexter Fletcher’s sensational directorial debut is a gangster film with almost no gangstering in it. Featuring a meticulously well-crafted cast, an engaging story, a script which is by turns heartbreaking and hilarious and a totally believable central performance, this film couldn’t be less like Guy Ritchie’s nonsensical oeuvre if it managed to sustain a relationship with Madonna. Superb.

A bold directorial debut from Michael Haneke’s long-time casting director Markus Schleinzer, Michael is a remarkably assured piece of work. Dealing with a subject matter certain to create discomfort, the film uses a carefully restrained approach to provide a distressing yet entirely naturalistic portrait of a soft-spoken office worker who keeps a ten-year-old boy locked in his basement.

All the hallmarks of a good thriller are here, but ID: A lacks the originality (and a good title) to stick in the memory. The leading lady’s a joy to watch though, and not just because she’s cute… which she most definitely is.

Cliched performances, shallow characters and a patchy narrative. Still, it involves medieval torture and the Spanish Inquisition, so there’s at least something to see here.

It’s not easy being a displaced child, less still being the parent of one. Don’t believe me? Then watching this film should be all the proof you need.

One of the most expensive films about an Arabian subject matter ever funded by an Arab, there’s no doubt that Black Gold is a labour of love from producer Tarak Ben Ammar. Adapted from Hans Reusch’s 1957 novel South of the Heart and uniting a strong international cast, the film strives for epic, but instead comes off as kitsch – a fine mixture of ingredients, disappointingly over baked in the fiery desert sun.