Simi Horwitz

Intriguing but frustrating documentary about residents in an Istanbul retirement home grappling with memory and mortality.

Austrian-born documentarian Ruth Beckermann does not subscribe to George Santayana’s oft-quoted adage, “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” World events have proven that premise wrong, she asserts. And the idea that films can (or should) be educational vehicles for...

Flawed but original film centering on a kindergarten teacher and her off-the-rails relationship with a five-year-old poet-prodigy.

An impressively acted but uncompelling film about a family court judge in the U.K. who grapples with her faltering marriage and the impact of her legal decisions on a young boy—and ultimately herself.