Hmmm. Here’s a strongly plot and issue driven movie that I know has proved very popular. The story is complex and the film does this justice, the dishonesty and ambiguity and shame of Amir’s father has an effect down through the generations that is, we see, finally overcome with the grown up Amir’s revelation to his overbearing father-in-law at the dinner table back in the US near the end of the film. The location scenes are impressive as is some of the acting though I found the children’s lines stilted and not quite fitting their chronological age (it reminded me of that car ads where children are given conversation you would expect their fathers to have). However, the children were played in a very sympathetic way. Its insight into the Taliban convinced me that, probably like all extreme groups, it relied, on the ground, on the participation of bullies and people of sadistic disposition, rather than idealists burning for their cause. There’s a little more at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0419887/

Not quite as harrowing as a Michael Haneke film but an uncomprmising view of two women, well of one woman mainly, and the night of an abortion for one of them. If we thought the East Germany of The Lives of Others was grim, pre-revolution Romania was worse, certainly poorer with, apparently, endemic grumpiness and nosiness. Men come off pretty badly, so do the middle class family we witness having a birthday meal with a clamped down camera at table level, reminding me of Haneke. The main woman Otilia (Anamaria Marinca) lives a kind of sensitivity and integrity that no-one else in the film seems to, even her friend who has the abortion. Toilets and bathrooms are particularly grim in this film. Apparently the screenplay is based on a true story that the director had heard and was deeply affected by. The film ends rather suddenly.