Farnoosh Samadi’s blistering thriller Between Dreams and Hope captures the compromises of a young trans man navigating the difficulties of modern-day Iran.
Between Dreams and Hope. Between Risk and Compromise.

Exploring the Outer Edge of Film
Editor-at-large Jared loves movies and lives with Kiki in Berlin.
Farnoosh Samadi’s blistering thriller Between Dreams and Hope captures the compromises of a young trans man navigating the difficulties of modern-day Iran.
David Pablos’ riveting Mexican film En El Camino, winner of the Queer Lion, presents a fresh take on the queer road trip movie.
Evi Kalogiropoulou’s deeply disappointing Gorgonà leans so heavily into fascist aesthetics it starts to resemble the very thing it criticises.
A father makes a devastating mistake in Tereza Nvotová’s Otec, bleak and hellish depiction of every parent’s worst nightmare.
A transgender Macedonian woman radically transforms the lives of a group of tomboys in Kukla’s assured and heartfelt Fantasy — live from Locarno!
Not everything in Mosquitoes lands, but its big, and bold swings show off the ambition of Nicole and Valentina Bertani’s off-kilter coming-of-age vision.
Ion De Sosa’s dreamy follow-up to horror hit Mamántula is a disappointment, despite all those lovely 16mm images.
Éric K. Boulianne’s debut comedy drama Follies explores the joys — and pitfalls — of opening up a marriage, to often hilarious results.
Miguel Ángel Jiménez’s Piazza Grande film The Birthday Party lets Willem Dafoe chew the scenery, but its not one of his essential performances.
Over the course of three hours, Alex Ross Perry knowingly charts the rise and fall of the video store, from cultural icon to modern irrelevance.