In his tense, Cannes’ Best Director winning third feature, arthouse favourite Amat Escalante tackles the rising underworld of Mexico’s drug cartels. With a stunning visual style and an air of quasi-documentary naturalism, Heli is confrontational, heart-pounding cinema at its very best.

Carlos Reygadas’s cinema is one of meticulous observation and grandiose revelations. Casting himself and his real-life wife, the Mexican auteur boldly explores—with spellbinding visuals—the dark corners of relationships, dissecting patriarchy along the way. A domestic drama of majestic proportions.

Remarkably bold filmmaking from Argentina’s Lisandro Alonso, the enigmatic Jauja is a postcolonial political allegory rendered in witty shots dazzlingly colored and composed. A film hypnotic and transfixing, minimalist and expressionistic. Starring Viggo Mortensen.