As one of the subcontinent's holiest cities, Varanasi has featured in a number of films in recent times, including Vijah Singh's Jaya Ganga (1996), Mohit Takalkar's The Bright Day (2012), Neeraj Ghaywan's Masaan and Rajan Kumar Patel's Feast of Varanasi (both 2016). But its special atmosphere has been captured most affectingly by 26 year-old debutant Shubhashish Bhutiani in Hotel Salvation, which joins Tim Burton's Big Fish (2003), Ismaël Ferroukhi's Le Grand Voyage (2004) and Alexander Payne's Nebraska (2013) in following a son's determined efforts to please his ageing father before the opportunity passes forever. Presenting a very different India to the one seen in John Madden's The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011), this should appeal to anyone who was moved by Ritesh Batra's The Lunchbox (2013) and Aditya Vikram Sengupta's Labour of Love (2014).

Having dreamt of his mother calling him home through his deserted childhood village, 76 year-old Dayanand Kumar (Lalit Behl) informs son Rajiv (Adil Hussain) and his wife Lata (Geetanjali Kulkarni) and daughter Sunita (Palomi Ghosh) that he feels close to death. Consequently, he has made arrangements to travel to Varanasi to await the end. Under pressure at work, Rajiv is sceptical about his father's conviction. But he attends the cow donation ritual that Daya believes will bless his pilgrimage and mutters something about Sunita's forthcoming arranged marriage before rushing to the office, where he toils as an accountant for demanding boss Ratan Singh, who refuses to see why Rajiv needs to go all the way to Varanasi with his father when the Ganges must surely be sacred wherever it flows.

As Sunita films a farewell supper with Daya's sister and brother-in-law, Rajiv sulks about having to take time off (even though he has promised he will take papers with him to stay on top of his workload). He asks his aunt to talk some sense into her sibling, but she is too upset by their final parting to challenge him. Lata has no such qualms, however, and asks Rajiv how long he is going to be away, given that his grandfather died 10 days after making his own pilgrimage. While they bicker, Daya gives Sunita her grandmother's necklace and urges her to wear it on her wedding day.

Stung by Lata's suggestion he is skiving off on an extended vacation, Rajiv urges the taxi driver to put his food down. But Daya is in no hurry to meet his maker and insists on stopping en route to feed some ducks. Indeed, he seems in rude health and good spirits, as he rides a rickshaw to Mukti Bhawan, the rundown Varanasi guest house run by Mishraji (Anil K. Rastogi). He explains that people come seeking salvation, but urges Daya not to give any money to the local priests, as they can do nothing to help him whether he has lived a blameless life or not. Walking the pair to their room, Mishraji lists the house rules about cleaning rooms, eschewing meat and alcohol and checking out after 15 days. When Rajiv queries the time limit, Mishraji insists that he needs the rooms and can't have people dawdling over their deaths.

Daya settles in quickly and attends a prayer meeting, where he meets Vimla (Navnindra Behl), She offers to cook for them and reveals that she has been at Hotel Salvation since she was widowed 18 years ago. When they ask how she has managed to stay so long, she smiles that Mishraji lets her sign in under a new name every fortnight. Vimla invites Daya to the TV room to watch the soap opera, Flying Saucer, which is a firm favourite with the elderly residents. He soon becomes hooked and leaves Rajiv to get on with his work. However, Daya wakes him in the night to fetch water and Rajiv annoys Mishraji when he bumps into him in the corridor by asking if the hotel is haunted.

The next day, Daya bathes in the Ganges and interrupts a phone call with the boss to send Rajiv for some milk. He then criticises Rajiv's cooking when he is speaking to a client and shushes him when he tries to make him take his medication. Instead, Daya chats to his new friends about the appalling standard of obituary writing in the local paper and Rajiv starts wishing his father wasn't so hearty after he sees a couple of guests being borne away for their funerals. He asks Mishraji how he always seems to know when people will pass away, but he refuses to divulge his secret and reminds Rajiv not to mistake his generosity in letting other stay for charlatanry.

While rowing on the river, Daya and Vimla discuss how little time their children make for them. Yet, while Rajiv washes his clothes in the Ganges, he suggests that his father gave him a tough time as a child and failed to encourage his ambitions to become a poet. But Daya refuses to let his son blame others for his own shortcomings and Rajiv sighs when his father simply walks away from the conversation. That night, however, Daya develops a fever and he calls Lata and Sunita to come as quickly as possible. Leaving Vimla to keep an eye on Daya, Rajiv goes to the funeral parlour and is shocked by the piles of pyre wood in the courtyard and the gravity of the situation hits him when he peers over a wall and sees bonfires burning on the riverbank and mourners gathered to pay their last respects.

Despite giving the appearance of being on his deathbed, Daya still manages to accuse the musicians performing a consoling ditty of singing out of tune. Yet, as Rajiv keeps a lonely vigil, Daya apologises for having been a poor father and they embrace. When he wakes with a start the next morning, Rajiv reaches out a finger to touch Daya's cheek. But he responds with a sneeze, declares himself fit as a fiddle and asks what's been happening in Flying Saucer.

Rajiv feeds Daya mandarin segments as they watch the soap, only for Lata and Sunita to arrive mid-episode. Daya is pleased to see his granddaughter and introduces her to Vimla, while Lata urges her husband to abandon this farce and come home. Over supper, Daya lets slip that he has taught Sunita to ride his scooter and Rajiv feels affronted that his wishes have been ignored. But Daya is in a rascally mood and he takes Sunita and Vimla to a café to sample Varanasi's famous marijuana lassi. That evening, the whole family take a boat to a prayer ceremony on a ghat crowded with pilgrims and tourists. They float candles on the water and eat ice cream and Lata shoots Rajiv questioning looks about Daya's newfound energy.

Back at Mukti Bhawan, Mishraji allows Daya to book in for another spell under an assumed name and Rajiv feels obliged to stay with him, despite Lata's evident annoyance. Mother and daughter depart the next day and, while Rajiv gives Daya a scalp massage, he is dismayed to learn that Sunita dislikes her groom and would cancel the wedding if she were not so scared of her father. His mood is scarcely improved by the loss of a client and he is anything but reassured when Daya insists another will soon come along. They sit on the steps by the Ganges and Rajiv asks Daya why he feels so sure he is going to die. He can't explain, but admits to being tired of the daily routine and they both laugh when he claims that he would like to be reincarnated as a kangaroo because their pouches would be useful for keeping his belongings handy.

The next day, Rajiv uses the cooking tips picked up from Lata to make Daya and Vimla a tasty dish. During the meal, however, he gets an urgent phone call from home and dashes off to find an Internet café. A tense and frustratingly intermittent Skype conversation follows, in which Sunita reveals that she has ditched her fiancée and found a job. She promises to pay Rajiv back for the cost of printing the invitations, but he is too stunned to speak and stalks off after accusing his daughter of showing them up in front of their neighbours.

Such is his despair that he locks Daya out of their room and he spends the night sleeping peacefully beside Vimla. When morning comes, Rajiv endures a rollicking from his boss and he is struggling to keep his composure when Mishraji reminds him that he would never forgive himself if he left and something happened to his father. Upstairs, Vimla says much the same thing to Daya, as she tries to coax him into having a meaningful discussion with his son. But she dies in the night and Rajiv rushes to the waterfront in time to see his father help carry her bier. That afternoon, he writes about encountering her spirit after consuming two glasses of lassi and she reveals that she feels free and only hopes that someone will plant a tamarind tree in her memory.

After a lonely night in Vimla's room, with only the mice for company, Daya decides that it's time for Rajiv to go home. He thanks him for everything he has done for him and alludes to the fact that he is either adopted or a stepson. Rajiv implores Daya to return to the city with him, but he insists he is like an elephant and needs to die alone. Realising there is no point in arguing, Rajiv packs and they take their leave with a mournful hug. Rajiv frets all the way home in the taxi and is given a frosty reception by Sunita, who can't believe he has abandoned his father under the pretext of being concerned for her future.

Unable to concentrate at work, Rajiv comes home to find Lata in bed and Sunita about to go out on her scooter. He helps her kickstart it and returns indoors, aware of his redundancy. A sleepless night follows before he makes a return trip to Varanasi. Daya has died and he fills in the date on the signature his father had scrawled on the wall of his room. He lies on the bed and covers himself with Daya's blanket, as Sunita wanders into the room. She finds her grandfather's notebook and reads his last poem about following one's heart. They laugh as she finds a note in which Daya declares himself an author and poet whose books can be found mouldering in dusty bookshops.

Lata enters and consoles her sobbing husband. But he regains his composure to help carry Daya's body down the steep steps to the water's edge. At one point, Sunita persuades her father to lay down his burden and clap his hands to the drums beating their path to the pyre. But he feels he must fulfil his last filial duty and resumes his place at the right front corner of the bier as the scene fades to black.

Having made a favourable impression with the shorts, The Star (2012) and Kush (2013), Bhutiani was inspired to make his first feature during a backpacking trip around India when he discovered the `bhawan' guest houses that offer sanctuary to those awaiting the spiritual emancipation of `mukti'. Production designer Avyakta Kapur has done a magnificent job of conveying the sense of shabby melancholy that pervades Hotel Salvation, while cinematographers Michael McSweeney and David Huwiler subtly offset the architectural contrasts of Varanasi (aka Benares) with the grimmer realities of the funeral business. Yet, while Bhutiani deftly laces the dolorous storyline with amusing incidents, Tajdar Junaid's guitar-led score sometimes seems a tad too jaunty.

The performances are note perfect, however, with Lalit Behl striking up a flirtatious rapport with his off-screen wife, Navnindra, while also encouraging Ghosh to use her talents and live her own life rather than conform to the expectations of her parents. Kulkarni makes the most of a rather shrewish role, as the wife who is forever nagging and disapproving in trying to ensure things turn out for the best. But the standout is the debuting Adil Hussain, whose toothbrush moustache quivers above forever-pursed lips, as his good intentions are repeatedly knocked back by family members, his boss and even Rastogi, who runs the hotel with a curious blend of commercial nous and humanist compassion.

Touching upon such recurring Parallel Cinema themes as the clash between tradition and progress, the social impact of religious belief and ritual and the status of women, Bhutiani tempers his political critique with a respect and affection that makes this so illuminating and delightful.

The emphasis also falls on a father and son in Jérôme Salle's The Odyssey, a sincere, if essentially superficial account of the strained relationship between explorer, inventor, oceanographer and media personality Jacques-Yves Cousteau and his second son, Philippe. Similar in look and tone to Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg's Thor Heyerdahl biopic, Kon-Tiki (2012), this goes some way to presenting the man behind the Oscar-winning documentaries, The Silent World (1956) and World Without Sun (1964). But, in adapting Jean-Michel Cousteau's memoir, Salle and co-scenarist Laurent Turner have produced a patchwork scenario that attempts to cram in so many events with that there is little room for backstory context or character development.

Opening with the 1979 plane crash that claimed the life of Philippe Cousteau (Pierre Niney), the action flashes back to 1949, as French naval lieutenant Jacques-Yves Cousteau (Lambert Wilson) drives wife Simone (Audrey Tautou), father Daniel (Roger Van Hool) and sons Jean-Michel (Rafaël de Ferran) and Philippe (Ulysse Stein) to the idyllic house by the sea at Sanary near Bandol that he bought with the profits from inventing an aqua-lung. Cousteau takes a boat out into the Côte d'Azur with pals Philippe Tailliez (Laurent Lucas) and Frédéric Dumas (Olivier Galfione) and delight their friends with a screening of the film they shot in the depths of the sea.

Following a garden party, Cousteau takes Simone and the boys diving with breathing apparatus. Jean-Michel is hesitant, but the 10 year-old Philippe proves fearless, as his father shows him the marine life on the sea bed. That night, Cousteau finds Philippe rummaging through his belongings in the shed and gives him his pilot goggles, as he explains how he had to stop flying after he injured his shoulder in a car crash. However, as he tells an audience after a screening with the stammering Tailliez, the sensation of being weightless in the silent depths is the closest humans can come to unpowered flight.

While reading Jules Vernes 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by torchlight to his sons, Cousteau feels inspired to explore the unknown undersea world and cuts a deal with philanthropist Loel Guinness to lease a boat named The Calypso for a peppercorn rent. Simone sells her jewellery to get the vessel restored, with amateur diver Albert `Bebert' Falco (Albert `Bebert' Falco) joining the team after Tailliez suggests Cousteau is mad for giving up a steady wage in uniform to become an adventurer.

However, Cousteau has a plan to fund his expeditions and pays a call on Étienne Deshaies (Thibault de Montalembert) at the Institute of Petroleum. Initially, he seems disinterested in the natural history aspect of Cousteau's scheme. But he needs someone to collect rock samples in a Middle Eastern region marked for offshore drilling and offers free fuel in return for Cousteau's co-operation. Hailing from a family of admirals, Simone is thrilled by this turn of events. But Philippe is furious at being sent to boarding school and ceases to hero-worship his father.

A montage shows Philippe collecting postcards and clippings to stick to the door of his locker, as Cousteau wins the Palme d'Or at Cannes with The Silent World and Falco becomes the first man to live in a house on the ocean floor. Simone shares in these triumphs, as Cousteau lives out his dream. But, while he tries to act cool on rejoining the family in the Red Sea off Sudan in July 1963, Philippe (Niney) can't resist the invitation to go diving and is bowled over by the scientific activity taking place around the submerged base, Precontinent II. Jean-Michel (Benjamin Lavernhe) has decided to take up underwater architecture. But Cousteau is more interested in Philippe's idea for a shot pulling back from a porthole to show the oceanauts in a speck of light in the watery darkness and Simone senses her older boy's resignation to the fact that his sibling will always be their father's favourite.

The image finds its way into The Silent Word, which earns Cousteau more awards and boosts his celebrity to the point that he starts having affairs. Simone finds a love letter in his jacket and takes up permanent residence on The Calypso. But, even though engineer André Laban (Marius Du Plooy) is working on cutting-edge equipment to help the French conquer the seas, money is tight and Cousteau has to meet the wage bill out of his own savings. One night in 1966, however, he notices the televisions twinkling through the windows of the apartments overlooking the Marseille boatyard and he flies to New York to join David Wolper (Adam Neill) in convincing a bunch of executives of the potential of The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau.

While celebrating in a nightclub, Philippe spots Jan (Chloé Hirschman) on the dance floor and instantly falls in love. However, Cousteau has placed him in charge of the TV project and he explains to his HQ workforce that he will be running a tight ship from now on, even though he plans to keep expanding into new areas of inquiry and exploitation. In the Strait of Hormuz in 1967, Philippe gets into a fight with Falco after endangering a party of four divers while filming a shiver of sharks and Simone begins to wonder if he is either getting distracted by Jan or becoming too big for his boots.

Cousteau flies in (now wearing his trademark red bobble hat) to introduce the crew's new marine biologist, Eugenie Clark (Chloé Williams). But her presence upsets Simone, while Philippe is embarrassed when his father prevents him from taking over the control of a private plane, even though he has qualified for his pilot's licence. Needing someone to plan the expeditions while he forges deals on land and does the chat show circuit, Cousteau brings Jean-Michel back into the fold as his logistics chief. But Philippe's growing disillusion is exacerbated by a growing concern for conservation that is sparked by watching the cook tossing non-biodegradable rubbish over the side of the Calypso.

Things come to a head in Cape Town in March 1968, when Philippe objects to the capture of two seals so that Falco can make a film about their wacky interaction with the crew. Cousteau can't see the problem, even when the creatures begin fighting in their confined cage and Simone refuses to intervene when Philippe accuses his father of selling out and Disneyfying animals without the first thought for their well-being. He returns to Jan, who is modelling in New York. They marry in Paris, with Jean-Michel being the only family member present. Simone confides in Falco that she is jealous of her husbands mistresses, but she refuses to leave Calypso and accepts the pain as a worthwhile price for her freedom.

A montage shows Cousteau hurtling between his commitments, while explaining to accountant Henri Plé (Martin Loizillon) how much he needs someone to keep the organisation on an even keel. But his life remains a whirl and he fails to attend his father's funeral. While Philippe and Jan film whales as part of an eco project off Baja California, Mexico in November 1971, Plé breaks the news that Cousteau is $20 million in debt. When Deshaies severs his ties, he is forced to lay off loyal workers like Laban. However, Simone convinces him not to sell The Calypso and, when a wonky shelf breaks in his cabin, he picks up a copy of Verne and hatches a plan to explore Antarctica. The US network only advances him $1 million and he recklessly decides his wooden-hulled tub would be just as good as an ice breaker.

Cousteau meets Philippe in a New York café and tries to persuade him to join the expedition. But, while he still admires his father, Philippe has long stopped trusting him and he condemns his selfishness before admitting that he would rather have had another father. Shrugging, Cousteau leaves with his latest conquest. Yet, as the crew loads up Calypso in the port of Ushuaia on Tierra del Fuego in December 1972, Philippe arrives on the quay and is welcomed with open arms.

The expedition gets off to an inauspicious start when they discover that whalers have decimated the school and killed those detailed to protect them. They bury the dead and head into choppy waters. But they make it to land in one piece and begin capturing unique footage of sea leopards, penguins and sea lions. They celebrate Christmas at the foot of the world and a montage of breathtaking snowscapes and underwater sequences convinces Cousteau that he needs to stop thinking about conquering the oceans and start protecting them.

Wolper is aghast because he knows TV stations rely on the petro-advertising dollar. But Cousteau is as good as his word and he tours the chat shows, while Philippe finds a sea plane to speed their mission. They dub it Calypso II and soon Jean-Michel and Plé are receiving large donations to fund the initiative. However, as their movement begins to swell, the action leaps forward to 28 June 1989, as Philippe asks his daughter over the phone if she would like a baby brother before he takes off on his doomed flight in Portugal. As we see Cousteau's old flying goggle rising to the surface, he calls Falco to make sure Simone doesn't hear the news on the radio before her son's body is found. He asks her to teach him about classical music, but she senses something is wrong and is angry with Falco for not playing straight with her.

Cousteau is ready to quit. But Jean-Michel reminds him that he implored them as children to live to the full and he smiles at the son he had so often neglected in gratitude for reminding him. A closing shot of Cousteau photographing his grandchildren underwater fades to a caption revealing that his work as an environmentalist led to a moratorium on the exploitation of Antarctica until 2048. However, as the ice cap melts and the capitalist superpowers realise what resources are available, humanity needs to be more vigilant than ever in protecting is fragile planet.

While it means well and there is no doubting the conviction of Cousteau's eco-conversion, this closing message feels a little tacked on to provide a hook for modern audiences. Moreover, it conveniently forgets the role that Cousteau played early in his career in abetting the French petroleum industry. But there is also no question that the films and TV shows he produced inspired generations of future marine scientists and conservationists. Thus, one can understand Salle's desire to skate over some of the less attractive aspects of Cousteau's character and the sacrifices that others had to make in order to allow him to realise his dreams.

Yet, despite Salle's credit sequence claim to have conducted exhaustive research and extensive interviews with those who knew Cousteau, this never feels like an in-depth profile and rarely comes close to explaining why he is revered as the Gallic equivalent of David Attenborough. It may resist being entirely hagiographical, but it's rarely dramatically compelling, as Salle and Turner skip between key incidents that are often prompted by coincidences or contrivances that would be ridiculed in a fictional film. For the most part, therefore, the cast is buffeted along and only rarely gets to explore the psychological state of their characters. Aided by some adept make-up effects, Lambert Wilson looks the part and exudes a certain single-minded dignity. But Audrey Tautou is wasted as Simone Melchior (whose ageing is signified by a succession of grey wigs), while Pierre Niney is asked to do little more than grow a period and periodically look either frustrated and forgiving.

Unusually, Alexandre Desplat's score leaves little to the audience's emotional imagination, as it alternately douses scenes in wonderment and mawkishness. Credit must go to production designer Laurence Ott, however, although his splendidly authentic sets are upstaged by the magnificent terrestrial and underwater photography of Mathias Bouchard and Peter Zuccarini. But, even here, Salle decides to tinker and use CGI to augment certain scenes (although admittedly understandably in the case of the shark attack) when, if Jacques Cousteau taught us anything, it's that our world is at its most majestic when it's at its most natural.

It's not often that a film-within-a-film goes on to have a life of its own. But Oliver Laxe's Mimosas was always intended to be more than a bit player in Ben Rivers's The Sky Trembles and the Earth Is Afraid and the Two Eyes Are Not Brothers (2015) and it emerges as a curious blend of ethnographical travelogue and Maghrebi Western that will remind some of Lisandro Alonso's Jauja (2014). But it also bears echoes of Laxe's self-reflexive, pseudo-documentary debut, You Are All Captains (2010), in which the French-born Spaniard played a film-maker who is ousted in a coup while conducting a cinema workshop for young children in Tangier.

Ageing sheikh Hamid Fardjad wishes to die in the medieval city of Sijilmasa. Much to the surprise of his party, he decides to take a route through the Atlas Mountains and shady escorts Saïd Aagli and Ahmed Hammoud see this as a chance to steal the gold they are convinced is hidden somewhere in the caravan. Meanwhile, at a taxi garage in the city, mechanic Shakib Ben Omar is telling his co-workers a parable about how the Devil came to understand how to exploit human nature when his boss interrupts to give him an important mission. Lowering a new engine into a rusting cab, Shakib drives into the desert with the words `Don't Forget God ' on his windscreen.

Taking its inspiration from the salat prayer positions, a caption labels the first chapter, `Ruku Bowing Position', as the vehicle joins a fleet of sleeker cabs in the desert. But the action cuts away to the sheikh's caravan of heavily laden horses struggling along treacherous rocky paths. When they stops for a water break, some of the party threaten to leave the sheikh to his fate, which is music to the ears of Aagli and Hammoud, who plan to rob him at the first opportunity. As evening comes, they stop beside a lake and Farjad goes wandering off alone. He fails to return to the campfire and his body is found in the snow the next morning. While it is being carried back to camp, Shakib appears on the horizon and introduces himself to guide, Abdelatif Hwidar.

As chapter two, `Qiyam Standing Position', begins, the majority of the escort party inform widow Margarita Albores that they have no intention of pressing on to Sijilmasa. However, Ilham Oujri, pleads with them to ensure Farjad is buried with his ancestors and Shakib, Aagli and Hammoud promise to see him safely to journey's end. But, when they stop for the night, Hammoud lets loose the mule carrying the corpse and drives it into the wilderness. The next morning, he feigns surprise and blames Shakib (whom he has given the nickname `Pot Face') for not tying the animals securely.

They make a show of searching for the beast. However, it's found by an old man, Ahmed El Othemani, who covers the body with snow to preserve it. He is travelling with his mute daughter, Ikram Anzouli, and calls out to the strangers when he sees them trudging through the snow. Shakib is overjoyed and agrees to the pair joining their group. But Hammoud and Aagli are less than enamoured, especially when they discover that they still have a long way to go to reach Sijilmasa and that they will have to cross another range of mountains to get there.

Lowering the bier over the steeper ledges, the travellers negotiate the winding paths down sheer rock faces and Aagli is so relieved to reach the gorge that he wades through the water to cool his feet. The mules also enjoy the stream until they come to a fast-running stretch and refuse to cross. Shakib sends Aagli and El Othemani to find alternative routes. But the latter is ambushed (after encountering a stranger in the foothills) and, in the panic following the echo of gunshots, the bier comes loose and careens down-river. Hammoud also takes cover in the water, as Aagli rejoins the party and helps Shakib protect Anzouli.

Relieved to have survived the ambush and recovered the sheikh's body, Shakib promises he will guide them through the mountains. Hammoud and Aagli exchange dubious glances, while Anzouli lets out of wail of despair at losing her father. But they carry without the mules, with the men taking it in turns to carry the bier across the forbidding terrain. Hammoud sings a prayer at the campfire that night and, the next morning, spots two birds sitting on a promontory. He decides that they will bury Fardjad if the birds fly away. But one remains and Hammoud is so frustrated that he struts off, in spite of Aagli pleading with him to see things through to the end.

Shakib sits with Hammoud and tries to convince him not to quit. As they watch Aagli and Anzouli walk on with the bier, they are horrified to see them attacked by horsemen who appear from nowhere. They shoot Aagli dead and kidnap Anzouli and Shakib is furious with Hammoud for exposing them to such danger. He pushes him into the dust and accuses him of not being a man and warns him not to follow, as he runs off in the hope of rescuing the girl from her captors.

Having buried his friend, Hammoud makes his way across the plain at the start of the final chapter, `Sájda Prostrating Position'. He reaches a small settlement and walks in front of a car and cuts his head. As he recovers, a cowled Shakib rides up on a white horse and he urges his erstwhile companion to stop daydreaming and climb on the back of his mount so that they can recover Anzouli and end this mess. Dazed, Hammoud clambers aboard and they gallop into the pulverous sunlight, as Shakib vows to succeed by surpassing Hammoud's best efforts.

Grey clouds cover the sun, as a trio of taxis glides across the desert and Shakib and Hammoud arrive at the ruins of Sijilmasa. They see Anzouli being taunted by the tribesmen sheltering there, as they hang her from the trunk of a dead tree. Exhorting Hammoud to summon all the love he has, Shakib draws a sword and charges into the square. However, we cut away to the taxis bouncing along the rough road and see close-ups of the passengers. As darkness falls and chanting is heard on the soundtrack, two of the cabs seem to disappear and the last passes the camera with its headlights blazing.

Most will be puzzled by the denouement of this rigorously gnomic picture, which makes few concessions to even the most alert or willing viewers as it appears to slip between time frames that only Shakib the holy fool can traverse. Making effective use of the harsh, but stunning scenery, Laxe takes his cues from Werner Herzog and Glauber Rocha in using the landscape to highlight the insignificance of humanity, while the shot of Sijilmasa rising above the wilderness like Monument Valley feels like a nod towards the rugged Westerns of John Ford. But little else will be readily apparent to non-experts in Sufi Islam in what appears to be a treatise on faith, the clash between tradition and progress, and the risks and rewards of taking the road less travelled.

Having spent a decade in Morocco, Laxe is clearly familiar with the terrain and its associations. Thus, Mauro Herce's 16mm photography ably conveys the essence of the place, while Emilio Garcia Rivas's sound design reinforces its intimidatory nature of its bleak beauty. Laxe also coaxes intriguing performances out of the friends making up the cast, with the jittery, diety-trusting Shakib Ben Omar contrasting with the conflicted chicanery of Saïd Aagli and Ahmed Hammoud. But, even though it numbers French actress Julie Gayet among its producers, this is hardly a performance piece and many of those who see it through will regard it as something of a gruelling endurance tests whose recompenses are few and fleeting.

Since graduating from presenting on television in France and her native Belgium, Virginie Efira has become a prolific and proficient actress. UK audiences will know her best from Paul Verhoeven's Elle (2016), in which she played Laurent Lafittes devoutly Catholic wife. However, Efira has also proved an engaging light lead in David Moreau's It Boy (2013), Emmanuel Mouret's Caprice, Jean-Pierre Améris's Family for Rent (both 2015) and Laurent Tirard's Up for Love (2016). But she garnered her best notices and received César and Lumière nominations for her performance in Julie Triet's genre-treaking romcom, In Bed With Victoria.

Lawyer Virginie Efira relies on babysitters to keep an eye on her young daughters, Liv Harari and Jeanne Arra-Beilinger, while she is working and trying to have a social life. She attends a wedding and bumps into former client Vincent Lacoste, who asks if she needs an intern, as he is trying to put his drug-dealing days behind him. At the function, Efira is appalled when old friend Melvil Poupaud is accused of stabbing redheaded girlfriend Alice Daquet, shortly after they perform a musical number with a chimpanzee for the guests. Feeling too close to Poupaud to defend him, Efira recommends a colleague. But Poupaud insists and Efira agrees to take the case after hiring Lacoste to be her new chief cook and bottle washer.

When Poupaud tries to crack wise with judge Julie Moulier, she urges Efira to walk away, as the trial might damage her reputation. However, ex-husband Laurent Poitrenaux is already doing his bit on this account in his hugely popular blog and, when Lacoste discovers that he is giving a live reading, she listens in dismay as Poitrenaux accuses her of abetting a dealer, money laundering and sleeping with a magistrate. She pleads with him to think of their daughters, but he claims he has rediscovered his confidence after she emasculated him and feels entitled to any wealth and fame that might come his way.

Things go little better with Efita's latest blind date, Philip Vormald, who comes to the flat and steals her underwear while she is fetching drinks. He had hoped she would hop into bed with him and leaves feeling hugely sorry for himself. An encounter with bride Sabrina Seyvecou also goes badly the next day, as she regards Poupaud is a monster for ruining her wedding and she begs Efira not to defend him. Even Daquet's Dalmatian dog conspires against her, as the judge allows the fact it barks at Poupaud's scent to be entered as witness testimony.

During a session with psychiatrist Pierre Maillet, Efira admits to having been a wild child who slept with judges for a dare. But she resents Poitrenaux using her secrets to enrich himself and gets into such a tizzy during a date with the libidinous Marc Ruchmann that she storms out of her bedroom and asks Lacoste for pills and a massage to calm her down. He puts her to bed and thinks about kissing her while she sleeps, but pulls back in time.

The next morning, Efira gets a letter summoning her to appear before the Bar Council for having illicit contact with a witness. Friend Laure Calamy defends her in front of judge Anthony Paliotti by claiming that Seyvecou ambushed her. But Efira is suspended for six months and passes out while Paliotti is giving her a lecture on keeping her private and professional lives separate. She wakes in hospital to find Lacoste at her bedside, but she has to let him go as she has no income during her suspension. Struggling to make sense of Daquet decision to drop the case and take Poupaud back, Efira consults neighbour Sophie Fillières, clairvoyant Else Wollaston and acupuncturist Vincent Dietschy in the hope of finding out why she keeps trusting the wrong people and why bad things keep happening to her.

A montage shows Efira enduring six months of being a mother and relying on pills and booze to get her through. She also has to put up with Poitrenaux landing a book deal for his exposé of their life. But Lacoste agrees to move back into the flat and they become lovers and partners (because he has been taking a correspondence course in law) in time to defend Poupaud in a harassment case being brought by ex-girlfriend, Claire Burger, which prompts Daquet into re-making her charge of attempted murder.

Meanwhile, a man who was jailed after Efira slept with the judge in his case trashes her office and she has to have a bodyguard. In court, Burger produces a variety of threatening messages to help Daquet prove that Poupaud is unstable and potentially violent, but Efira reveals that she has a habit of accusing old flames of hassling her. Yet Efira finds herself on the defensive while suing to stop the publication of Poitrenaux's book and Calamy lays into him by denouncing him as a hack who lacks the literary imagination to create his own characters and avers that he is simply seeking to get his own back on Efira by mixing fact and fiction to ruin her status.

When Daquet takes the stand, she brings her Dalmatian to show how he becomes agitated when Poupaud approaches her. But Efira disproves the testimony of animal expert Vincente Bueno by making the dog bark when she stands beside Daquet and establishes the notion that Jacques is a possessive pet. Meanwhile, feeling she has enough on her plate, Efira asks Lacoste if he would mind keeping their relationship professional until she has regained control of her life and he agrees, while suggesting that the reason Poitrenaux writes about her is that he is still obsessed rather than outraged.

He remains smug in court and shrugs off the judge's assertion that he is using intimate knowledge to humiliate Efira. But she is beginning to make a splash in the papers and follows the Jacques incident by putting Daisy the chimp on the stand to show how she can take photographs with her handler's phone. Efira then produces one of these snapshots to disprove Daquet's claim that Poupaud had torn off her underwear during an assault prior to her stabbing. Yet, just before her closing statement, Lacoste takes exception to her describing him as a safe zone and he decides to leave. Eavesdropping ghoulishly after bringing back the girls, Poitrenaux takes notes, while Poupard arrives to ask how he should behave in court the next day. Trying to prevent Lacoste from walking out on her, Efira asks bodyguard Etienne Beurier to sit with her while she regains her composure.

However, while working late, Efira swallows too many sleeping pills and Lacoste has to make her throw up when she meet him for court. He gives her something to sniff to pep her up and she sleeps on the train, while he reminds Poupaud that he has reduced her to this mess through his selfish antics. Thanks to the media coverage, the public gallery is packed and Efira has an awkward moment with Daquet at the washroom mirror before giving her summation. She struggles through her speech and keeps distracting herself with thoughts of Lacoste. But she wins the case and asks Poupaud to keep out of her life for a while, as she finds him exhausting.

Rather than attend her own libel hearing - which saw the judge order Poitrenaux to change the names of all his characters, while allowing him to publish and sell the film rights - Efira takes the train home to find Lacoste. He might be 15 years younger, but she has finally realised she is happy around him and she has to do some fast talking to prevent him from walking away. But she convinces him that she has stopped being a drama queen and will slow her life down in order to make time for him. She even offers to give him law lessons and pay him for being her lover. But he had already decided to stay and they kiss.

Brimming over with incidents and complications, this is not the most relaxing romcom of recent times. But it is one of the more intriguing, as it attempts to put a revisionist spin on the old battle of the sexes format. Moreover, in her second feature after the improvised political satire, Age of Panic (2013), Justine Triet has created something of complicated and contradictory anti-heroine, who reaches her happy ending as much by luck as by judgement and not everyone in the audience will be entirely convinced that she has earned her fade-out embrace.

Efira certainly deserves to get the better of the odious Poitrenaux, who shamelessly betrays her trust and exploits the fact that he seems to know her better than anyone else. She also earns her time away from the preening Poupaud, whose tangled love life would make a much better subject for Poitrenaux. But, while she insists that Lacoste is Mr Right, he hardly comes across as love's young dream and it shouldn't be forgotten that he also started out seeking something from her. One suspects there won't be a sequel, however, so we shall have to take their future happiness as read.

Solely in acting terms, Lacoste is somewhat upstaged by Poupaud and Poitrenaux and, given the emphasis the Efira puts on chemistry, there isn't a palpable spark between the lovers. But Triet sells the idea that they will be good for each other with the same assurance she brings to the frantic script and her brisk direction. She is well served by cinematographer Simon Beaufils and production designer Olivier Meidinger and superbly abetted by Efira, who plays her part with a straightness that makes her chaotic mid-life existence seem all the more comic, while her refusal to court easy empathy prevents the denouement from melting into sentimentality.

However, each scene Efira shares with Liv Harari and Jeanne Arra-Beilinger is effortlessly stolen by her impish co-stars, whose are forever getting into unchecked mischief with remote control helicopters, iPads and important documents, while Efira is trying to hold conversations in English to prevent them from getting the gist. Moreover, in one adorable scene, Harari stands beside her mother's bed as she sleeps and reassures her that she loves her. It's a tiny gesture, but it affirms why we should be rooting for Efira every step of the way.

As the United States becomes ever more divided with each tweet and utterance by President Donald Trump, screenwriters Nick Damici and Graham Reznick imagine a country on the verge of a second civil war in Cary Murnion and Jonathan Milott's dystopic actioner, Bushwick. Named after the Brooklyn neighbourhood in which the action takes place, this cannily provocative picture was supposedly inspired by former governor Rick Perry's 2009 declaration that that Texas would secede from the Union following the election of Barack Obama. But Damici and Reznick are more intent on creating a live-action video game than addressing the state of the nation, while Murnion and Milott are too hung up on kidding viewers into thinking they have staged the action as a single long take to bother with such niceties as plot logic, character development and dramatic nuance.

Arriving at the L Train station at Bushwick to introduce boyfriend Arturo Castro to her grandmother, civil engineering student Brittany Snow is spooked by how quiet the place seems. She is even more terrified when a man on fire runs through the concourse and Castro is killed by an explosion when he ventures above ground. Looking for help, Snow makes her way along the street and is about to be zip-tied by a black-uniformed soldier when he is gunned down by a passing car. She finds sanctuary in a grotty basement, but is followed by a couple of muggers, who demand her purse, only to be pulped by Dave Bautista, a janitor who informs Snow that many of northern America's biggest cities are under attack. But, while he rules out terrorists, he is evasive about the identity of the foe.

He is heading to Hoboken in New Jersey to find his wife and son, but agrees to escort Snow the few blocks to her grandmother's house. Hiding behind a dumpster, they scurry along the pavement with the sound of gunfire rattling around them. They take shelter in Snow's old school and realise that it has been occupied by the invaders. Passing a dead body in the corridor, they creep into the library, where Bautista shoots a shadowy figure before being wounded in the leg by flying glass after an explosion. He leads Snow to the roof and barricades the door before asking her to cauterise the gash in his calf with a knife heated by a flare torch. Squeamishly, she does the job, as Bautista reveals that he learned such tricks as a Marine. Gazing across the rooftops, they see helicopters in the sky and thick plumes of black smoke, but this is no time for staying put.

Making their way along a surprisingly empty street, they duck into Manny Alfaro's convenience store. Looters encourage them to grab what they can, but Bautista is more interested in the radio. Turning the dial away from a phone-in, he hears an official announcement about the government working to extract citizens from the besieged cities and he is not impressed. Snow is distraught to find Alfaro dying from a stab wound, but Bautista insists they keep moving. However, they run into the store thieves attempting to steal a car and Snow gets the tip of her ring finger shot off when she impulsively aims a gun at one of the thugs. Bautista kills him, but the others drive away and he has to hastily dress Snow's bleeding hand.

On arriving at the house, they discover grandma dead on the bedroom floor from a heart attack. Bautista reveals he was a medic in the military, as he stitches Snow's stump and admits that he got so tired of seeing people dying that he became a janitor. She asks if he believes in God, but he avoids answering, as she frets about not being able to wear a ring if she gets married. However, troops banging at the door force them to flee and, against Bautista's better judgement, they go to the apartment of Snow's spiky stoner sister, Angelic Zambrana.

While Snow freshens up, Zambrana tokes on a bong, bemoans the fact that her caged bird has escaped and accuses Bautista of wanting to sleep with Snow. But their chat is interrupted when Kentucky trooper Alex Breaux smashes through a window and Bautista has to use a body slam to disarm him. He explains that Texas has seceded from the Union and that the New American Coalition plans to form a new government for people to live in the true patriotic way. Revealing that Bushwick has been targeted because of its ethno-diversity, he protests that he has merely been following orders and warns Bautista that the neighbourhood has become a shoot-to-kill area, He also discloses that a demilitarised zone has been set up in Cleveland Park and Bautista pistol whips him unconscious so that they can make their getaway.

After being protected by a quartet of Hasidic freedom fighters armed with Molotov cocktails, the three fugitives hide in a nearby building, where they are held at gunpoint by Jeremie Harris until his African-American mama, Myra Lucretia Taylor, tells him to stop showing off. But she is also as tough as nails and she takes Zambrana hostage while Snow and Bautista pass a message to Fr Bill Bleichinberg at the Church of God that the weapons belonging to Harris's street gang are at the disposal of his congregation to fight a rearguard from the laundromat.

A full-scale battle is now raging outside and Bautista and Snow mingle with a vigilante unit to reach the church. However, Snow only finds the priest in time to see him commit suicide and her attempts to lead the parishioners to safety is stymied when Coalition soldiers storm the building. Snow and Bautista survive and, following a brief cutaway to some aerial views of the smouldering neighbourhood, they arrive at the launderette, where Bautista pours out his heart about losing his family on 9/11 and channelling his furious hated into fighting in Iraq. But he became haunted by death and tried to become invisible until this conflict broke out. They smile at each other, as they realise it has taken this long to get to know something about the other. But Bautista is shot by a frightened woman in the restroom when he goes for a leak and Snow perishes after she is reunited with Zambrana to fight her way to the choppers in the park.

The closing segment is the most video gamesque in a film that makes no bones about its intention to provide a vicarious experience for viewers more intrigued by survival than secession. Lyle Vincent's camera rig hovers a footstep behind the protagonists, as they scurry through streets and creep through dimly lit buildings. Despite struggling to generate a sense of place, the visuals are proficient enough. But they are wholly generic, as are the essentially anonymous characters, whose sole raison d'être is to keep the story moving before perishing.

Wrestler-turned-actor Bautista makes the most of his climactic speech, while Snow's transformation into a mettlesome combatant becomes increasingly plausible. Moreover, Reznik's sound design admirably compensates for the budgetary inability to stage a grand-scale battle, while indie hip-hop artist Aesop Rock's pounding score also makes a solid contribution. But the lumpen script's failure to examine America's north-south tensions in any depth is a fatal flaw, especially as the UK release just happens to coincide with the fallout from the Charlottesville furore over the future of the Confederate legacy. Thus, this represents a wasted opportunity that should only detain those who prefer their movies to look like a Call of Duty spin-off.