Woman at War (2018)

Icelandic comedy-drama starring Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir as Halla, a choir conductor who leads a double life, sabotaging electricity power lines to make a point about the climate crisis.

The same actor also plays her own twin sister.

There’s humour and strong characterisation, but the film is slightly spoiled by the tricksy gimmick of showing us a band playing the incidental music. Repeatedly, when music begins, it fits the scene perfectly and helps build atmosphere – only for the camera to pan back or around to reveal the trio of musicians playing it. This device is clever, but after the first instance becomes quite irritating and erodes the narrative. In some scenes, Halla is meant to be alone as the plot is about her isolation, so placing her in a room full of musicians completely undermines that effect.

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (2008)

Written and directed by Mark Herman, this is an adaptation of a novel by John Boyne set in Poland during World War II. 

The eight-year-old son of a Nazi officer disobeys his parents and befriends a child held prisoner in a death camp. The story hinges on the boy not understanding what the place is (he thinks it’s a “farm”), and it’s painful to see the consequences of his naivety play out to their inevitable conclusion. 

Vera Famiga isn’t at her best playing the child’s mother, and David Thewlis doesn’t really excel as his Nazi father. It’s a somewhat simplistic account of events that seems geared towards younger viewers. And it was criticised for framing the tragedy around the officer’s family rather than the wider tragedy of the true victims of Nazi persecution.