Asghar Faradi’s latest film hits theaters this week, and the Iranian master is signing perhaps his most modern work yet. The main character here is Raheem, a man in his forties who is in prison because of a debt he has not paid. However, on one of his vacations, he unexpectedly falls into his hands with a large amount of gold coins, which, of course, can help him fulfill his obligations, but he decides to hand them over. This act of his will make him a “hero” in the eyes of public opinion, but at the same time will set off a series of events that will again put him in a very difficult position in relation to the creditor. In his favorite play about the concepts of morality and justice, Faradi creates another myth, even based on a real story that happened in Iran. At the heart of his comments here, in addition to social conventions and stereotypes, is the modern social media arena, where people’s reputations skyrocket and collapse with equal ease. As usual, there are no “good guys” and “bad guys” in the Iranian filmmaker’s narrative, the film is impeccably scripted, although it loses a little in the narrative rhythm, especially in the last part of it.

From the always interesting Finnish cinema, especially when it comes to the thriller genre, Hanna Berholm’s more than promising debut comes out this week. An aspiring feature director is signing a coming-of-age thriller here, starring a teenaged Tinia desperate to please her demanding mother. One day, a strange egg comes to her, from which an even stranger hybrid creature hatches. Trying to keep her existence a secret while at the same time coping with her daily life, Tinia gradually embarks on a dangerous path. The strange atmosphere from the very beginning reminds of something from Giorgos Lanthimos, as well as from other thrillers of a similar texture (for example, Let the Evil In), without copying them, however. The allegory that this dark story carries with it is mostly about the lack of love and the monsters it can eventually spawn. At the same time, this is a kind of double study of motherhood with its joys, pain and responsibility, and black humor also does its job where necessary.

Return seven years later to George Miller, who sends us into the world of fairy tales with imaginative storytelling inspired by One Thousand and One Nights. The protagonist here is Dr. Alicia Binnie (Tilda Swinton), a lone British academic specializing in history and myth, who is in Istanbul for a conference. There, out of the blue, she meets… a genie (Idris Elba) who offers her three classic wishes in exchange for her freedom. The suspicious scientist, however, is not convinced, and then he begins to talk about the millennial adventure that led him to her hotel room.

Miller is fascinated by oriental tales and finds a way to bring them to life for the modern audience with a rather impressive but not huge production that takes us back in time to a time when myth and reality intertwine, fueling man’s unbridled fantasy. The narrator is the genie of Idris Elba, who, in fact, turns out to be much more … sensitive and romantic than we are used to in such stories.

Based on the bestselling book of the same name by Delia Owens, Olivia Newman’s film tells the story of Kaya, a girl who is slowly abandoned by her family in the 1960s and ends up growing up alone in a cabin in the middle of the swamps. North Carolina, in the company of only birds and wildlife. When she becomes a woman, the young men of the neighborhood begin to be fascinated by her gentle beauty, one of them, however, will be found dead and the suspicions of the authorities will fall on the “swamp girl”.

Newman manages to convey the atmosphere of the book to some extent, especially its first beautiful part, but she does it in a rather stylized and academic way. When connected novels come into play, things start to look dangerously like Twilight…

One of Louis Malle’s most famous and beloved films is released this week. Alain, an alcoholic writer, after recovering in a rehab clinic in Versailles, decides to visit his friends in Paris. However, already separated from his beloved wife, he is obsessed with suicidal thoughts, looking for a reason to continue living. Mel skillfully plunges into the darkness of human existence, while transferring to the screen many of the features inherent in the best creations of the nouveau riche.