SPY×FAMILY CODE: WHITE 12A

★★★★★ OUT 26 APRIL CINEMAS

A monster hit of Japanese media transitions to the big screen with this lively, endearing caper – a standalone treat for both fans of, and newcomers to, the manga or TV show. The Forger family take a weekend vacation, only to become embroiled in a warmongering scheme – dad’s a spy, mum’s an assassin, the young daughter’s a telepath, and only she knows the others’ secret identities. The slice-of-life comedy delights, while lushly animated setpieces that experiment with the show’s house style more than justify the cinematic upgrade.

NEZOUH TBC

★★★★★ OUT 3 MAY CINEMAS

As bombs fall on war-torn Damascus, a close-knit family debate whether they should stay or go. For dad Mutaz (Samer al Masri), leaving is out of the question; for his wife, Hala (Kinda Alloush), and daughter Zeina (Hala Zein), it’s a matter of survival. Syrian writer/director Soudade Kaadan’s tale of female emancipation employs a surprising lightness of touch, despite the harrowing subject matter. Finding contrasting notes of joy and fantasy amid the rubble, this feminist parable delicately blends modern fairy-tale elements with heart-rending drama.

ELAHA TBC

★★★★★ OUT 26 APRIL CINEMAS

Writer-director Milena Aboyan’s character study confronts the effects of patriarchal cultural values via the story of a young German woman struggling to square her personal ambitions with the restrictive traditions of her Kurdish community. As anxious nearlywed Elaha (Bayan Layla) desperately seeks to disguise the loss of her virginity, the script occasionally threatens to stray into cliché. But Layla, seldom offscreen, doesn’t strike a single false note – and her performance is aided by Aboyan’s unfussy direction, boxy 1.33:1 framing adding to the claustrophobic mood.

CHASING CHASING AMY TBC

★★★★★ OUT 17 MAY CINEMAS

Some films get under your skin and for trans male filmmaker Sav Rodgers that film is, somewhat surprisingly, Kevin Smith’s 1997 romcom Chasing Amy, where Ben Affleck’s Holden enters into a relationship with queer woman Alyssa (Joey Lauren Adams) and then slut-shames her. Here, Rodgers interviews the team behind Smith’s third feature and examines his complex relationship with it. The result has some sweet moments and interesting insights into LGBTQ+ art, but unless you already share Rodgers’ passion for his subject, this is more curious than fascinating.

LA CHIMERA 15

Tomb raiders…

★★★★★ OUT 10 MAY CINEMAS

Set in 1980s Tuscany, this tale of a charming man plundering artefacts from long-lost tombs is far from an Italian Indiana Jones. Rather, realism of the social and magical kinds weave together in a hybrid film that evokes Greek myth and the ghosts of Italy’s past, comedy and tragedy, love and loss.

At its bruised but beating heart is Arthur (Josh O’Connor, TV’s The Crown, God’s Own Country), a rumpled Englishman in a sullied suit who’s just out of jail and grieving for his dead lover. Perhaps in touch with the spirit world, Arthur uses a rod to divine hidden burial sites, and together with a boisterous band of singing, bickering tombaroli that might have wandered in from a Fellini movie, he relieves the graves of their Etruscan antiquities. But then Arthur begins to connect with Italia (Carol Duarte, The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmao), just as his dowsing rod steers him towards the find of his life. Which of these great discoveries will take precedence?

Confirming Alice Rohrwacher (The Wonders, Happy as Lazzaro) as one of Europe’s preeminent auteurs, La Chimera deftly juggles moods but primarily settles on a tone of lovesick melancholy and hushed wonder. Vagabonds stealing from graves was big business in 80s Umbria, where Rohrwacher grew up, and she’s here pillaged her own memories to present a film of sacred beauty.

THE VERDICT An Italian-speaking Josh O’Connor is a real treasure in a film that will survive the years.