The promising film debut of the year comes from Britain and Charlotte Wells, who is immersed in the world of memories. The protagonists here are Callum (Paul Mescal) and Sophie (Frankie Corio), a young divorced father with an 11-year-old daughter who spend a few carefree days on vacation in a resort in Turkey in the late 1990s. Years later, the now-grown Sophie remains in the memories of this momentous journey, trying to find out more about her mysterious father. Welles manages to almost flawlessly create one of the most difficult things in cinema: the right atmosphere, which does not always match what we “read” in the script, especially in the first part of the film. Basically everything seems idyllic there as father and daughter spend their days by the pool playing games, making videos and making new friends. However, a vague threat whose name is almost never mentioned hangs like a black cloud over the sunny landscape. When the distance of time erases memory, emotions take over. The film captivates the viewer with the tenderness and original emotion that it evokes, as well as the very good performance of its main characters.

One of the best documentaries we’ve seen this year takes us on a journey through the frozen plateaus of Tibet as a small group of dedicated naturalists search for traces of the (almost) mythical snow leopard. Dealing with extreme weather conditions of 20 and 30 degrees below zero, wildlife photographer Vincent Mignet and writer Sylvain Tesson (seen on camera) will practice the virtue of patience. The Carters will reward them with exciting encounters, and we will be rewarded with a series of impressive images of both the animals and the landscapes in which they struggle to survive on a daily basis. All this with impeccable cinematography and wise switching between silence and evocative musical themes created by the greats Nick Cave and Warren Ellis.

Sweden’s official bid for the 2023 Oscars is a film about… an Egyptian. Tariq Saleh (“Secrets of Cairo”) is considered undesirable in his father’s country, but that doesn’t stop him from putting his story in the historic mosque – Al-Azhar University in Cairo. There, in the most famous theological school in the entire Arab world, Adam enters, the son of a poor fishing family. At the same time, the great imam, the leader of the university, dies, and a battle for his succession begins, a war in which Adam soon becomes a pawn of the powers that be. Saleh’s film is reminiscent of a spy thriller, but at the same time it tries to comment on the difficult conditions and relations between religious and secular power in a world where the former remains influential in the minds of people, and the latter directly depends on their moods. The film received an award for screenplay at the recent Cannes Film Festival.

Favorite character(s) from the Shrek universe is back for a new adventure, perhaps less… risky than the previous ones. And this is because the Cat has already “burned” eight of his nine lives, as a result of which he retired to the rear humiliated. But when he learns about the mythical Wishing Star, he embarks on an epic quest in the Black Forest to reclaim his lost lives. He is joined by his spineless friend Fluffy Kitty Kitty and the chatty dog ​​Pero. A well-done if somewhat old-fashioned animation from Dreamworks with Antonio Banderas and Salma Haig dubbed the version (amazing). The film was also released in a Greek language dub.

The military comedy subgenre is getting another episode. On Christmas Eve, a taxi arrives at the border camp in Evros to deliver an unaccompanied child. Apparently, his mother sent him in the form of a parcel to his father (Jan Stratis), who is serving his term in the unit. Naturally, things go awry at the camp as the guards try to keep the child’s arrival a secret. Things will, of course, get even worse when the latter accidentally crosses the border and ends up in … a Turkish hammam.