As I have done in previous years I offer you once again my list of the best films of the year. Also this year, this list needs several caveats. It is limited to the films I’ve managed to see and among those to the ones that have moved me and that I continue to care about. If you miss your favorite it may say more about me than about the quality of the film you favor. It may mean that I simply have not had opportunity to see that film. I may also have seen films that strictly belong to the year before, but did not come within reach for me before this year.

For some of these films you’ll find a written recommendation in the postings of the past year. For the others I’ve added a few lines to introduce the film.

My list:

1. Drive My Car by Ryusuke Hamaguchi (Japan)

See the article Gothenburg Filmfestival 2022

2. Memoria by Apichatpong Weerasethekul (Thailand)

See the article A Journey into Mind and Memory

3. The Worst Person in the World by Joachim Trier (Norway)

Norwegian filmmaker Joachim Trier continues to deliver high-quality films with this portrait of a young woman and how life comes at her in modern day’s city life.

4. What Do We See When We Look at the Sky? by Aleksandre Koberidze (Georgia)

See the article Gothenburg Filmfestival 2022

5. Im Westen Nichts Neues by Edward Berger (Germany)

This ultimate anti-war film takes the perspective of the losers and is an uncomfortable, but needed experience when you want to grasp the realities of war.

6. Reflection by Valentyn Vasyanovich (Ukraine)

See the article Watching Ukrainian Film as an Act of Solidarity

7. Bergman Island by Mia Hansen-Love (France)

I love Hansen-Love’s films, her earnestness and grace in taking on her characters’ emotional exploration. To do that in the shadow of Ingmar Bergman’s life and work, without making that link simple and outright, enriched for me my own dialogue with her characters’ feelings and explorings.

8. Unclenching the Fists by Kira Kovalenko (Russia)

The second film of this young Russian director, winner of the Un Certain Regard prize at Cannes 2021, is set in North Ossetia in the Caucasus region. This story of trauma and suffocating family life may have a broader significance than the story of just one woman!

9. Clara Sola by Nathalie Alvarez Mesén (Costa Rica, Sweden)

See the article Opening Life Together

10. Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio by Guillermo del Toro (Mexico)

This animation master-piece about a wooden puppet brought to life, who breaks nearly all the rules, resisting blind obedience in a Fascist world, is such a powerful father-and-son story about acceptance and love in the face of misery.

Do you miss in this list your own best film of 2022? Please, let me know!

Rinus, January 2023

*image posted under fair use of copyright material in recommendation of the film

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