Tarik Saleh deftly explores the tangled state of modern-day Egypt through his firebrand thriller set in Cairo’s Al-Azhar University, the country’s most respected religious teaching institution.
Films — by Genre
- Animals
- Animation
- Artists
- Award-winners
- Based on Books
- Comedy
- Coming of Age
- Crime
- Documentary
- Environment
- Family Lives
- Fantasy
- Films about Films
- Historical
- Horror
- Human Rights
- Indigenous
- LGBTQIA+
- Love Stories
- Masters
- Migration
- Music
- Māori/Pacific
- Photography
- Politics
- Religion
- Sci-Fi
- Science & Technology
- Sports and Gaming
- Stylistic
- Theatre
- Thriller
- Travel
- WTF?
- War Zones
- Writers
Thriller
Decision to Leave
Heojil kyolshim
Park Chan-wook makes a welcome return to NZIFF with this masterful and seductive romantic thriller about an insomniac detective investigating a mysterious widow oddly unconcerned with her husband’s death.
Emily the Criminal
An art-school-dropout drowning in student debt, Aubrey Plaza discovers she has a talent for credit card fraud in this gripping Sundance breakout from first-time writer/director John Patton Ford.
Muru
We are delighted to open this year’s edition with the World Premiere of Tearepa Kahi’s film Muru.
Navalny
This staggering, fly-on-the-wall portrait of the charismatic anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny, filmed in secret following an assassination attempt on his life, is one of the year’s most electrifying films.
Playground
Un monde
A 7-year-old child becomes caught in a conflict of loyalty after her beloved brother falls victim to brutal schoolyard bullying.
Resurrection
Andrew Semans’ deliciously unhinged thriller stars Rebecca Hall as a single mom with a dark secret that threatens to overwhelm her cosy corporate lifestyle.
Speak No Evil
Gæsterne
A weekend getaway becomes a holiday from hell for a Danish family in this mercilessly unnerving horror flick from Danish director Christian Tafdrup.
The Stranger
Joel Edgerton and Sean Harris deliver brooding performances as predator becomes prey in up-and-coming director Thomas M. Wright’s dark and intense Australian true crime drama.
Watcher
Director Chloe Okuno and lead actress Maika Monroe bring a fresh femme perspective to this heart-stopping 70s-style psychological thriller dripping with Hitchcockian voyeurism and rampant paranoia.