Liffe 2015: the best films of the 26th Ljubljana International Film Festival

Liffe 2015 revealed its cards. After reviewing the film selection at this year's Ljubljana International Film Festival, the editorial team selected our favorites.

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1. Zenith

A film about dangers, but even more so about the invincible power of forbidden love. Three love stories take place in three different decades in neighboring Croatian villages burdened by a long history of inter-ethnic hatred. In the first story, the Serbian Jelena and her Croatian boyfriend Ivan plan to run away together to Zagreb, because in 1991 the friction between the inhabitants of their villages is getting worse every day. In the second story, in 2001, Nataša returns to her home village from Serbia, where she falls in love with local Antej, but the bitter memory of the recent war prevents the two from getting really close. In the third story, we meet Luka, who, more than a decade after the war, still cannot find the courage to visit his former Serbian girlfriend.

2. Dheepan

Dheepan, the film that won director Jacques Audiard the Palme d'Or at this year's Cannes Film Festival, tells the story of Deephan, who fights on the side of the freedom fighters, the Tamil Tigers, during the Sri Lankan civil war. His side is on the verge of defeat, so in the hope of a better life, he decides to run away to Europe together with a woman and a girl he didn't know before. When they arrive in Paris, the imaginary family moves from one temporary home to another until Dheepan takes a job as a janitor in a seedy suburban block. By working, he gradually builds a new life for his "wife" and "daughter", but the violence he witnesses begins to reopen the wounds of war.

3. Law of the market

Starring the excellent Vincent Lindon, the poignant social drama sheds light on life in a time when people are equated with consumer goods in the labor market. Fifty-one-year-old Thierry, after twenty months of unsuccessfully looking for a job and many absurd meetings with his clerk at the employment office, finally finds a job as a security guard in a supermarket. But he soon finds himself faced with a severe moral dilemma: is he really willing to overlook all the humiliations and submit to the blackmail of his superiors in order to keep his job?

4. Restless coast

Tilda Swinton, Ralph Fiennes, Dakota Johnson and Matthias Schoenaerts in the roles of lovers and old friends who open a Pandora's box of memories from the past by the Mediterranean Sea.

5. Queen of the Desert

The story of the historian, writer, translator and adventurer Gertrude Bell (Nicole Kidman), who after the First World War helped draw the borders between the Orient and the British Empire, with the help of Herzog's love for panoramic shots and the glorification of nature, sounds like a feminist colored version of the cult Lawrence of Arabia. Gertrude Bell, an educated young woman who cannot find a suitor in England, goes to Tehran. After the tragic outcome of her love affair with diplomat Henry Cadogan, she decides to travel the territory of the Ottoman Empire as an adventurer...

6. Youth

After Infinite Beauty, Paolo Sorrentino offers a visually stunning reflection of man's longing for youth with the help of an excellent cast. Mladost tells the story of Fred and Mick, who are approaching eighty years of life and are enjoying their vacation in a cozy hotel at the foot of the Alps. Fred, a retired composer and conductor, is tried by the British Queen through her emissary to persuade him to conduct his most famous musical work for the last time at the ceremony, but Fred stubbornly refuses to return to the stage. Meanwhile, Mick, the film director, is busy working full-time, trying to finish the script for his latest film as soon as possible. The two friends realize that their days are numbered and decide to face the future together. However, it seems that no one but them is overly concerned with the passage of time.

7. Macbeth

A modern adaptation of the classic Shakespearean tragedy, in which Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard are empathetic in the role of Macbeth and his wife.