Dublin Film Festival: Seven films you need to see

THE SALESMAN
Friday 17th, 6.15pm, Cineworld
Asghar Farhadi has, in rapid time, become one of the world's most admired teller of tales. The Iranian follows up A Separation and The Past with a knotty film that gestures towards Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. Shahab Hosseini and Taraneh Alidoosti are excellent as a couple coping badly with unhappy relocation.

SANCTUARY
Saturday 18th, 8.30pm, Light House
Len Collin's groundbreaking film concerns two people with intellectual disabilities who – in defiance of the law – set out to spend a happy afternoon together in a hotel room. The film itself offers evidence that stubbornness can overcome great odds. Fine performances helped Sanctuary to best first Irish feature at last year's Galway Film Fleadh.

CATFIGHT
Sunday 19th, 8.40pm, Cineworld
Anne Heche is a struggling artist. Sandra Oh is a posh wine-obsessed snoot. After falling out at a party, the women move from barbed argument to a full-on furious punch up. Onur Tukel's film has already kicked up much debate since its premiere at last year's Toronto Film Festival. Odd. Provocative.

IN LOCO PARENTIS
Monday 20th, 8.30pm, Light House
Neasa Ní Chianáin's much-praised documentary, warmly reviewed at the recent Sundance Film Festival, makes an in-depth study of Headfort, the progressive Irish boarding school in Kells, Co Meath. You will remember Ní Chianáin as the brave director of the controversial Fairytale of Kathmandu. "The filmmaking is delicately executed in every department," Variety raved.

I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO
Tuesday 21st, 8.45pm, Light House
Raoul Peck's powerful documentary uses the words of James Baldwin – one of the great African-American writers – to investigate the lives of such figures as Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King. Among the best reviewed US film of 2016, I Am Not Your Negro is nominated for best documentary feature at the upcoming Oscars.

A QUIET PASSION
Wednesday 22nd, 6pm, Light House
You probably think you know what a Terrence Davies biopic of Emily Dickinson would look like. And the film does eventually resolve itself into the expected sombre tones, but, before we get there, Davies has much fun putting quips in his characters' sharp mouths. Cynthia Nixon is super in the lead.

BERLIN SYNDROME
Thursday 23rd, 8.40pm, Cineworld
We have been waiting a while for the new film from the talented Cate Shortland. Teresa Palmer stars as a young journalist who is held captive after a one-night stand in a film that has been praised for its menace and sense of place. Shaun Grant, writer of the brilliantly horrible The Snowtown Murders, provides the script.

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