Japanese maverick Takashi Miike joins the 100 Club with Blade of the Immortal. It's impossible to determine who ranks as the most prolific film-maker in history, as pioneers like Louis Feuillade (686), Georges Méliès (531) and DW Griffith (520) racked up impressive credit totals at a time when moving pictures ran for only one or two reels. During the Golden Age of Hollywood, Michael Curtiz (177) and John Ford (144) demonstrated that class and quantity could go hand in hand, although B-hiver William Beaudine could claim to have directed around 350 pictures of varying lengths. In recent times, few could match Spanish auteur Jesús Franco (203), while animators and avant-gardists like Stan Brakhage (377) and George Kuchar (238) have also amassed sizeable tallies of short films. But the 57 year-old Miike is showing little sign of slowing down and has already matched compatriot Kenju Mizoguhi by releasing JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond Is Unbreakable - Chapter 1.

Returning to the samurai genre for the first time since 13 Assassins (2010) and Hara-kiri: Death of a Samurai (2011), Miike takes his inspiration from a long-running manga series by Hiroaki Samura, which centres on a world-weary swordsman who has been condemned to eternal life after claiming his 100th victim. Doubtless Miike is not the superstitious kind, but even he has yet to make a movie about an undead director.

A monochrome prologue set during the Shogunate introduces us to Manji (Takuya Kimura), a hatamoto samurai who caused sister Machi (Hana Sugisaki) to lose her wits by killing her husband during an assault on a corrupt official and his henchmen. He now takes care of her, even though he has a price on his head that bounty hunter Hishiyasu Shido (Ken Kaneko) is determined to collect. As Manji watches Machi play with a toy windmill, the sagacious and mysterious Buddhist nun Yaobikuni (Yoko Yamamoto) declares herself to be 800 years old in warning Manji about the peril he is about to face.

Crossing the bridge into a village, Manji sees that Machi has been abducted by the shaven-headed Shido and his massed cohorts. He offers to release her if Manji lays down his swords and surrenders. But Shido kills Machi with a single blow of his sword and orders his underlings to finish off Manji. However, even though he loses the sight of an eye and has his one of his hands sliced off, Manji proves more than a match for both the swordsmen and some archers firing at him from a nearby tree. He also vanquishes Shido in a brutal duel before collapsing on the blood-soaked ground. The hooded Yaobikuni picks her way through the corpses and kneels beside Manji. She runs the blade of a dagger over his chest and Manji urges the old woman to put him out of his misery. But, instead, she pours some bloodworms from a holy lama into the wound and they miraculously reattach Manji's severed hand.

As the action resumes in full colour five decades later during the Edo period, we see 16 year-old Rin Asano (Hana Sugisaki) learning the Mutenichi-ryn style of swordplay from her father, Tadayoshi, who runs the most respected dojo in the district. Rin's mother despairs that her daughter isn't more ladylike, but she is determined to master the art of the blade. That night, however, the dojo is attacked by Anotsu Kagehisa (Sôta Fukushi), an exponent of the Itto-ryu style of swordsmanship, who is determined to wipe out rival dojos in a bid impose his own authority.

Having witnessed her father's murder and her mother's rape, Rin vows to avenge the former and rescue the latter. As she prays at Tadayoshi's grave, Yaobikuni approaches and urges her to seek an immortal bodyguard to protect her on her quest. Rin finds Manji at his shack on the outskirts of the town and he is struck by her similarity to his sister. He asks why she seeks him and questions why she feels she is in the right and Anotsu and the Itto-ryu are in the wrong. She fights to keep her temper, as she describes what happened to her parents and prepares to offer her body if Manji helps her. But he is sufficiently impressed by her determination to honour her family and agrees to wander into the town with her to see if he can find anyone to practice on.

As they walk, Rin is greeted by Kuroi Sabato (Kazuki Kitamura), a member of the Itto-ryu who keeps sending her love poetry. He has two cowled heads on his shoulders and one speaks to Rin in her mother's voice. Disgusted by the way Sabato taunts Rin, Manji orders him to back off. But they square up for a fight and Manji appears to be killed. However, as Sabato moves menacingly towards Rin, Manji revives and slaughters him to Rin's astonishment. He explains about the bloodworms and sits in front of her so that she can have a shoulder to cry on.

Meanwhile, Kagimura Habaki (Min Tanaka), a member of the Council of Elders, approaches Anotsu and asks if he will head a fencing academy to provide the Shogunate with master swordsmen. He agrees only if he is allowed to teach Itto-ryu and the emissary departs to inform the council. As he leaves, the spiky-haired Taito Magatsu (Shinnosuke Mitsushima) informs Anotsu of Sabato's death and they wonder who could have killed him. Magatsu goes to the knife grinder's shop to collect the weapon he stole from Rin's father and she overhears their conversation while leaving a collection of swords and knives to be sharpened. She tells Manji that Magatsu is billeted by the temple and he confronts him by dead of night. Boasting of his superior skills and knowledge of the terrain, Magatsu wounds Manji and lures him into some quicksand. But he still feels the sting of cold metal and Manji casually asks his adversary for his name as he departs.

Manji returns Tadayoshi's sword to Rin, who is fascinated by her resemblance to Machi and starts calling Manji `Big Brother'. They go to an inn for tea and Manji is approached by monk Eiku Shizuma (Ebizô Ichikawa), another immortal swordsman, who is keen to prevent Anotsu from becoming the fencing overlord. However, Manji has no intention of joining forces with anyone and they fight. The innkeeper and his wife are horrified by the damage the pair do to their premises, but they are even more aghast when Shimuza recovers from his seemingly fatal wounds. He declares it a shame that Manji is opposed to an alliance and reveals that he has coated his sword with a potion from Tibet that weakens the bloodworms. Manji begins to feel pain and Rin is concerned for him. However, he summons the energy to fight Shimuza, who has become so saddened by seeing five wives die over the last 200 years that he is prepared to succumb to end his wearying ordeal.

Meanwhile, the Council of Elders agree to Anotsu's terms and he informs henchman Sosuke Abayama that he is going to Mount Takao to see the ailing Ibane Kensui (Tsutomu Yamazaki) of the Shinkeito-ryu to ensure that his dojo bends the knee to the Itto-ryu. But, having learned of the deaths of Shimuza and two other sidekicks, Anotsu goes to the red light district to find a geisha named Makie Otono-Tachibana (Erika Toda). She finds Manji getting drunk on sake in the hope that the bloodworms will recover and heal his wounds and he is enticed by her shamisen playing. Sending Rin home, he follows Makie into a quiet alleyway, where her white cloak falls to the ground and she reveals herself to be a warrior.

Their fight is prolonged and vicious, with Makie plunging a sword through Manji's chest through a wooden wall. But, as she moves in for the kill, Rin stands in her way brandishing her father's sword. Makie asks why she feels she has the right to cause such bloodshed and Rin says that she has a duty to avenge her parents, even though she knows that killing is wrong. She now owes her fealty to Manji because he is helping her and she will defend him to the death if needs be. Having suffered similar losses in her own childhood, Makie takes pity on the girl and allows her to take Manji home and treat his wounds.

Having warned Rin that he will abandon her if she interferes in a duel again, Manji goes to pay his respects at Machi's grave and tells Rin to practice on her own. She wanders into the woods and stumbles across Anotsu working with a sword and a black axe that had belonged to his grandfather. Sensing her chance, Rin hurls two fistsful of daggers at Anotsu, who bats them away with his blade. She tries to lift the axe, but finds it too heavy and he explains that her grandfather had ejected his from their fencing school for using the axe and this had cost him a licence with the Mutenichi-ryu and he died in poverty. As he turns to walk away, Rin asks Anotsu why he doesn't kill her and he replies that her unconventional fighting style makes her as much of a heretic as he is.

While Rin returns to the shack and refuses to tell Manji where she has been, Anotsu receives an invitation from Habaki, who is also the leader of the Shogun's Bangashira samurai and a member of the Mugai-ryu clan. However, he has agreed to go to Ibane's dojo and send Abayama in his place. Meanwhile, Manji and Rin run into another Mugair-ryu member when he kills one of the Itto-ryu in the street. It appears that mercenary Shira (Hayato Ichihara) has been impersonating Manji and he now demands to know what he is playing at. He introduces them to acolytes Giichi and the blonde Hyakurin (Chiaki Kuriyama), who offers Manji some sake, while he reads a note from the spy they have in the Itto-ryu that Anotsu intends travelling to Mount Takao disguised as a woman to avoid trouble on the road.

Shira and Manji go on patrol and spot a woman with what looks like an axe in her backpack. But, when Shira investigates, she turns out to be a dupe with a wooden axe sent to distract them. However, Shira is eager to claim the price on Manji's head and pounces on him and appears to overpower him in the ensuing struggle. Enjoying his moment of triumph, Shira goes to rape the decoy and Rin challenges him with her sword. He slaps her down and mocks her for trying to tell him what to do. But, just as he is about to kill her, a metal chain wraps around his wrist and rips his hand off and he looks up to find a revived Manji standing over him. Shira pulls his blade, but runs away to fight another day.

While Manji tells Giichi and Hyakurin about Shira and accuses them of only being interested in the bounties on the heads of the Itty-ryu, Rin decides she has put Manji through enough pain and needs to finish the mission alone. She leaves him a long letter and he is touched by her affection. But he remains bound by his promise and he goes after her. At the same time as this, Anotsu reaches Shinkeito-ryu compound and greets Ibane. However, he has changed his mind about joining forces and Anotsu realises he has been duped into a trap. As he leaves the gate, he is confronted by massed ranks and butchers his way through them cursing Habaki for being part of the conspiracy. As his minions are poisoned and slain at Habaki's table and the now white-haired Shira vows vengeance on Manji, Rin blocks Anotsu's path as he tries to head home. He tells her he is in no mood for a showdown. But, before they now it, they are surrounded by government horsemen and foot soldiers.

Meanwhile, Manji is ambushed by four bandits in the forest. They use a chain to subdue him and he has to summon all his powers to defeat them. As he lies on his back in the undergrowth pleading with the worms to heal a gash in his forearm, he hears Yaobikuni cackling and looks to see her crouched beside him. She tells him that he could surrender his life and join Machi if he wished and teases him that he feels a duty towards Manji. He calls her an old crone and sees his arm recover just in time to defend himself against the last of the bandits.

Standing before Habaki's small army blocking his path, Anotsu refuses to let Itto-ryu die. But Rin thinks it's unfair that Anotsu should be confronted by so many enemies and once and raises her sword to oppose them. When one of the warriors runs at her, he is stopped in his tracks by a flying chain and Rin looks up to see Manji. When he spots Anotsu, he asks who he is supposed to be killing and she insists it is anyone who is trying to kill her. So, battle commences and Anotsu throws in his lot with Manji. As Habaki eats rice balls in exasperation that no one can finish the swordsmen off, Makie flies into action (because she owes a debt from her childhood to Anotsu) and he is delighted to see her.

Manji is less pleased to see Shira gallop on to the scene and is even more furious when he snatches Rin and rides away. Lashing out at the soldiers in his way, Manji finds Rin tied up in a clearing. Shira demands that Manji drops all of his weapons and reveals that he has had a claw fitted in place of his severed hand. He jams the prongs into Rin and examines the blood. As he looks up, Manji throws a knife and Shira laughs when it missed him. But it has cut through the rope and allowed Rin to escape. Manji leaps on Shira and they tumble down a slope until Shira is left clinging to a rope over a waterfall. He goads Manji that he will return from any fall and finish him off. But he explodes in a splurt of blood as his body hits the rocks.

Meanwhile, Anotsu and Makie survey a scene of carnage. However, she catches a whiff of gunpowder and takes several musket balls in the chest in defending Anotsu. Nevertheless, she leaps on to the ledge where the riflemen are standing and kills them all before plunging to her death. Wiping his hands after his snack, Habaki tuts at Anotsu for ever thinking that the Shogun would allow him to head a fencing academy. He pulls his sword and a titanic battle ensues that ends with Habaki crawling through the dust towards his sword, even though he has been sliced in two.

With corpses strewn around them, Manji and Anotsu face each other with an air of unfinished business. As Rin backs away, Anotsu finds it ironic that Manji has saved his life. But he insists that he will not rest until Rin is safe and they launch at each other for a last tussle. His body aching with all of the unhealed wounds, Manji manages to overcome Anotsu and hands his blade to Rin so that she can avenge herself on her father. But she is unable to strike the blow and Anotsu gets to his feet and staggers away promising to wreak further havoc upon Japan. Enraged, Rin charges at him and he is about to turn and hack her with his axe when Manji dashes to defend her. Stunned by such selflessness, Anotsu pauses and this gives Rin the opportunity to plunge her sword into his abdomen. He falls down dead, as Manji lurches forwards. Howling with grief, Rin berates him for lying to her about staying by her side. However, when she calls him `Brother', he opens an eye and corrects her that Machi used to call him `Big Brother'.

Clocking in at 140 minutes, this is a sprawling chambara that never stints on intrigue and incident, as Miike once again examine the bushido bonds that still impact upon modern Japanese society. But, while screenwriter Tetsuya Oishi throws in the odd flashback and expository speech, this is pretty much a sanguinary procession, as J-Pop star Takuya Kimura and Hana Sugisaki encounter the various members of the Itto-ryu, who obligingly take it in turns to confront Kimura with suitably fetishised weaponry, only for him to duly dispatch them.

In fairness Oishi - who was previously best known for Shûsuke Kaneko's Death Note (2006) - does a decent job in distilling the essence from a manga series that has amassed 30 volumes over two decades. The supernatural element adds an extra frisson, as does the burgeoning relationship between the plucky gamine and the taciturn hero. But, while Keiji Tsujii and Masayoshi Degushi stage the swordfights with plenty of panache, cinematographer Nobuyasu Kita and editor Kenji Yamashita cover them in such a choppy (ahem) manner that it's often impossible to see what's going on. Nevertheless, Masatoshi Katsumata's sound design is excellent and is mostly allowed to prevail over Koji Endo's rather discreet score.

Given that Kimuri is immortal, it's a safe bet that he's going to emerge from each skirmish bloodied, but unbowed. Consequently, while the clashing clans backstory strives to give the narrative some much-needed gravitas, the action is often as cartoonish as it was in the fabled Zatoichi and the Lone Wolf and Baby Cart series. This is fine, as far as it goes, and Miike fans would not want it any other way. But 13 Assassins showed what the director can do with this revered genre and, while it makes for endlessly engaging entertainment, this is never as ambitious or accomplished.

Although Michael Powell had made an impact with The Edge of the World (1937), he spent much of the 1930s as a studio journeyman, who directed low-budget items for double bills. Everything changed, however, when he was teamed with Hungarian screenwriter Emeric Pressburger on The Spy in Black (1939) and their Archers partnership blossomed throughout the following decade with the likes of 49th Parallel (1941), One of Our Aircraft Is Missing (1942), The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943), A Canterbury Tale (1944), I Know Where I'm Going (1945), Black Narcissus (1947) and The Red Shoes (1948). For many, however, their standout film will always be A Matter of Life and Death, which returns to cinemas this week as a kind of British equivalent to that other postwar treatise on the value of life, Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life (both 1946).

In a Technicolor world at war on 2 May 1945, Squadron Leader Peter Carter (David Niven) attempts to radio to base to report the fact that the crew aboard his burning Lancaster bomber have either been killed or ordered to bail out during a raid on Germany. What he hasn't tell his pals is that his own parachute has been shredded and he is eager to leave a farewell message for his mother before he takes his chance by leaping into the unknown. His call is picked up by June (Kim Hunter), an American WAC who is greatly distressed by Peter's consideration and pluck.

Meanwhile, in the monochrome netherworld, Flying Officer Bob Trubshaw (Robert Coote) awaits his crewmates. He was the wireless operator on Peter's plane and is concerned that he doesn't recognise anyone among the American airmen from a luckless Flying Fortress. He asks an angel (Kathleen Byron) if everything is okay, as he was expecting to bump into Peter. However, she assures him that mistakes are very rare and suggests that he remains patient.

Back on Earth, Peter wakes on a beach on the south coast and is certain he must be in the afterlife until a De Havilland Mosquito flies overhead and he realises he must have survived his fall. As a fog rolls across the Channel, Conductor 71 (Marius Goring), an aristocrat who was executed during the French Revolution, fails to see Peter, who has spotted June cycling home to Leighwood at the end of her shift. They recognise each other from their dramatic conversation and they agree to go for a picnic in the woods.

However, Conductor 71 has been ordered by the Chief Recorder (Joan Maude) to fetch Peter because he should not have survived the plummet from his doomed plane. Finding Peter, Conductor 71 informs him that he has to follow because his time has elapsed. But Peter argues that things have changed since the appointed hour of his death and insists that the fact he has fallen in love gives him a strong reason to appeal the celestial verdict.

While Conductor 71 returns to the Other World to report Peter's recalcitrance, June suggests that he visits her doctor friend, Frank Reeves (Roger Livesey), to see about the headache that he can't seem to shake. Recognising Peter as an aspiring poet. Frank offers him bed and board while he makes a few tests. However, he has barely settled in when Conductor 71 returns to tell Peter that he has been granted an appeal in the heavenly High Court and that the prosecuting counsel will be Abraham Farlan (Raymond Massey), who was the first patriot killed during the American War of Independence in 1776. Before he departs, the Frenchmen warns Peter that he only has three days to prepare his case, although he can select his own counsel from among the ranks of the deceased.

Anxious about his fate, Peter confides in Frank, who reaches the conclusion that his guest has started to hallucinate as a result of a head injury. Firing up his motorbike, Frank heads to the nearby hospital to ask Dr McEwen (Edwin Max) to perform an immediate operation to rectify his chronic adhesive arachnoiditis. While Frank returns to collect Peter, he finds himself on a large stairway in the clouds with Conductor 71, who is eager for him to decide upon his counsel. He suggests some names from among the great and the good, but Peter is worried that the staircase has started moving upwards and he scuttles down the steps in the hope of stalling for time. As he panics, Frank and June await the ambulance due to take Peter to the hospital and, when he discovers that the telephone wire has come down in a story, Frank speeds off on his bike to get help. However, in swerving to avoid the onrushing vehicle, he suffers a fatal crash.

As he rides in the ambulance, Peter hears of Frank's demise and asks if he can represent him in court. All activity in the operating theatre stops, as Frank accepts his commission from Conductor 71 and takes Trubshaw with him to consult with his client. Peter explains that he can't die because his circumstances have changed and he kisses the static June and gathers her single tear on a rose to present as evidence of their new-found love.

Entering the courtroom, Peter sees the judge (Abraham Sofar) call for order from the large crowd that has gathered to witness the proceedings. It soon becomes clear that Farlan has not forgotten or forgiven his treatment at the hands of the British and he dismisses the notion that a honest American woman would ever lose her heart to a Limey. He plays the court a recording of a cricket commentary (provided by Howard Marshall) to mock the greatness of Britain. But Frank fights back by asking the court to ponder whether a nation responsible for the cacophonous pop record he plays can be an arbiter of taste and worth.

He also takes exception to the make-up of the jury, which includes several individuals hailing from countries that Britain is in the process of fighting in the war. The judge agrees to the jury being replaced and also sanctions a visit to Earth to assess the depth of June's feelings for Peter. Conductor 71 intervenes to put June asleep so that she can testify. She readily avers to loving Peter and has no hesitation in stepping on to the staircase when Frank tells her that the only way she can save her beloved is to sacrifice herself. Peter tries to stop her, but is restrained and June begins to ascend into the heavens.

However, her gesture forces Farlan to concede that her love is genuine and he agrees that Peter should be granted an extension. Frank declares that the laws that govern the universe are powerful things, but nothing is quite so strong as the love humans enjoy on Earth. As Peter is given a new lease of life that Frank considers exceedingly generous, the surgeon (also Abraham Sofar) completes the operation and Farlan begrudgingly accepts the new span. Recognising each other as worthy adversaries, the pair joke about Anglo-American relations and join forces to quash the protests of the Chief Recorder, who persists in declaring that mistakes are never made. As Peter comes round, June is waiting for him and they clasp each other with relief that everything is going to turn out for the best.

Despite the echoes of William Dieterle's The Devil and Daniel Webster and Alexander Hall's Here Comes Mr Jordan (both 1941), this was a highly original attempt to lift the postwar gloom with a little ethereal escapism. Beneath the feel-good optimism commissioned by Jack Beddington of the Ministry of Information, however, was a complex metaphysical dissertation that sets out its stall in John Longden's beguiling opening narration, as the camera steers a course through the universe (`Big, isn't it?'). Few will be particularly perplexed, however, that the drama that unfolds after David Niven miraculously survives a steepling fall seems to contradict the initial screed informing them that the action takes place in the real, full-colour world and one contained solely in Niven's black-and-white imagination.

One of the under-examined aspects of the film is the possible guilt that Niven feels after bombing in cities across Germany. Although the war was still regarded as the RAF's finest hour (the Winston Churchill phrase that is heard during the opening flit through the stars), many would come to question the legitimacy of Bomber Command targeting the civilian population and it's tempting to speculate that Niven's trepidation at the outset of the case is down to his concern that his role in the blitzing of places like Dresden - the narration makes mention of his returning from `a thousand-bomber raid [that] has left a German city in flames' - might make him feel unworthy of celestial mercy. But, given the current state of the so-called Special Relationship after Donald Trump retweeted posts by Britain First, it's more likely that the critical response to this reissue will focus on the tensions between Niven and Roger Livesey and Raymond Massey (who was actually a Canadian).

Despite risking overkill by having Livesey live in a house with its own camera obscura that permits him distorted views of Leighwood and its environs, Powell and Pressburger resist kitsch and sentiment in their depiction of the Other World. They leave scope for plenty of gallows humour, however, and many will have been as surprised by their presumed antipathy towards Americans as they had been by their perceived admiration for Germanic honour in The Life a Death of Colonel Blimp, which Churchill detested so much that he tried to ban it.

There's a nice irony in the fact that a delay in the delivery of the colour stock meant that production began on VJ Day, as there is in that the magnificent sets (including the 106-step staircase, which was nicknamed `Ethel') and the evocative costumes were respectively designed by German exiles, Alfred Junge and Hein Heckroth. The glorious photography was by the peerless Jack Cardiff, while Reginald Mills made the deft transitions between the drab majesty of Heaven and the Technicolor grimness of a war-torn world (which were a deliberate inversion of the schema employed by Victor Fleming in The Wizard of Oz, 1939). Alan Gray contributed the imposing score, while Alfred Hitchcock also did his bit by introducing Powell to Kim Hunter (initially in an excised scene from A Canterbury Tale) after she had worked with Hitch on a number of screen tests in Hollywood. Her scenes with Niven (who had been away from the screen for a prolonged period while serving King and Country) are undeniably touching. But Marius Goring is scene-stealingly superb as the jobsworthy French aristocrat, while the fireworks between Livesey and Massey would have brought a blush to the cheeks of the members of the feuding Attlee and Truman administrations, as they tried to make sense of the Cold War that had set in almost as soon as the Axis had been vanquished. The contemporary press were less than amused when the picture was chosen for the first Royal Command Film Performance, as it was widely seen as a deliberate provocation that might persuade the United States to abandon the United Nations as they had done the League of Nations. But, Stairway to Heaven, as it was known Stateside, caused no such ructions at the time, although there is no guarantee how the current incumbent of the White House might react to seeing it.

Starting out as Luc Besson's writing partner on L'Avant dernier (1983), The Last Battle (1983) and Subway (1985), Pierre Jolivet has had modest hits with the likes of Force majeure (1989), Only Girls (2003), Could This Be Love? (2007) and The Night Watchman (2015). Paying tribute to French fire fighters, his latest offering rather confirms the impression that he is a solidly serviceable storyteller, who lacks a certain spark. Yet, while Les Hommes du Feu isn't on a par with Humphrey Jennings's Fires Were Started (1943), Ron Howard's Backdraft (1991) or Jay Russell's Ladder 49 (2004), it should make for interesting comparisons with Joseph Kosinski's recently released Only the Brave. And, besides, no film with Roschdy Zem and Émilie Dequenne is entirely without interest.

As the action opens, Roschdy Zem, the captain of a fire station in provincial Carcassonne, sends the bullish Michael Abiteboul to track down some con men, who are dressed as fire fighters to collect for a fake charity. They find the pair in a backstreet and confiscate their buckets before stripping them to their underwear in front of some shocked onlookers. Meanwhile, Émilie Dequenne checks in as the new officer recruit and joins Zem in his office. She explains that she has been forced to relocate because husband Yvonnick Muller changed jobs and is concerned by rumours that the station is about to close. Zem assures her that the station is always busy and is confident that she has made the right choice.

Having been hazed by having a bucket of water poured over her head, Dequenne settles in quickly and trains with the guys in the exercise area behind the back of the stations. She is particularly impressed with part-time volunteers Grégoire Isvarine, Guillaume Labbé and Guillaume Douat, who have the makings of fine firemen. But Abiteboul is sceptical about having a female superior and sounds out others who might share his chauvinist misgivings.

While on night duty, Dequenne calls home to chat with her young son, Arthur Gloanec. However, she is called out to a traffic accident involving two cars. There is one confirmed fatality and Dequenne supervises the operation to free a trapped female passenger. The rain hammers down and Dequenne conducts a quick check to ensure that everyone involved in the crash has been accounted for before accompanying the injured woman in the ambulance. She dies en route and Dequenne is understandably upset. But, it quickly becomes clear that, in the heat of the moment, her failure to instigate a thorough search of the accident scene meant that her crew missed a passenger who had been thrown from one of the vehicles and he is lucky to survive after being found by some cops preparing a report.

Dequenne rushes to the hospital to check on the survivor's condition and has to endure a screamed accusation of negligence from his wife. Distraught at having made such a basic error, Dequenne offers to resign. But Zem refuses and co-opts Dequenne into helping him rescue a vineyard worker who has fallen into a tank after being rendered unconscious by the fumes. Sharing a set of breathing apparatus, they haul him free and are commended for getting him out in the nick of time.

Zem is keen to hook up with teenage daughter Lise Lomi, whom he hardly sees since he split up with her mother. However, the summer is a bad time for scrub fires and he is forced to cancel when the crew is summoned from their day jobs to tackle a blaze that is threatening to get out of control near the small town on Montlaur. The senior officer supervising the operation riles Zem by hoping that there will be no repeat of the car crash farrago and he feels compelled to keep Dequenne close to the tender. As the wind whips up the flames, Zem orders Brian Messina to increase the water pressure into the hoses and takes his eye off Dequenne, who is keen to make amends for her mistake. However, such is the noise that she fails to hear an order to withdraw and has to sprint and throw herself under the nearest engine as a scooper plane swoops down to unleash a powerful jet from above.

Mayor Gérard Dubouche is hugely grateful for their efforts and puts on a spread to thank them. However, Dequenne is still being teased by her colleagues when they go to a bar for a wind-down drink and she decides to sit with the still-comatose passenger at the hospital before heading home. Abiteboul returns to a mouthful from wife Vanessa Liautey, who is tired of being left to raise their daughter alone. Dequenne is also criticised for her anti-social hours by the prudish Muller, who has made no effort to tidy away after supper. But Labbé is welcomed with open arms by wife Aude Candela, as she is ovulating and has no intention of letting him doze off to sleep.

While investigating the Montlaur fire, Zem learns that Dubouche is frustrated because he wants to sell his house, but is unable to find any buyers because the insurance is so high because of the wildfire risk. Convinced that the fire was started deliberately, Zem follows Dubouche's teenage son, Adrian Wos, when he goes for a ride on his bike and sees him sulking in a burnt-out building outside the village. While Zem is away, Abiteboul pays a call on Fabrice Lebert, as they have been asked to submit reports about Dequenne's handling of the traffic incident. They feels it's unfair that the entire station should be under a cloud when Dequenne messed up and agree to collude in their accounts.

Always in need of new recruits, Dequenne interviews the ultra-keen Antoine Raffalli. He is concerned that the others won't like having a gay man on the force. But Dequenne is sure that he will be accepted when he gets the customary dousing. Not long afterwards, however, they are called to a apartment in Les Liseraies, a banelieu with a large immigrant population and a bad reputation. They break down a door to find a bride-to-be hanging from a rope and Zem clings on to her and orders Abiteboul to cut her down. He protests that they should not have tampered with a suicide scene and Labbé has to intervene on the way back to the station when Dequenne leaps to Zem's defence. He suggests that an exercise circuit would help clear their minds and confides in Dequenne that he grew up on the estate and knows how hard it is for the poor and the taunted and he was simply trying to spare the family unnecessary pain.

Feeling the need to spend some time with Lomi when she gets into trouble for fighting back against some bullies, Zem takes her shoe shopping. However, he is called away to provide back up to another unit and has to wait at the station because he had given his frontline crew the day off. When they arrive, the supervising officer informs Zem that another outfit has already answered the call and everyone returns to base. Rather than relax, however, Zem takes Dequenne to the scene of another wildfire and examines a burnt bush before concluding that this was a chance blaze caused by a carelessly discarded cigarette. His real purpose for getting Dequenne alone, however, is to inform her that the wife of the car crash victim is pressing culpable negligence charges against her. She is shocked, but Zem urges her to stay strong and not allow Muller to talk her into quitting. He asks why she signed up and she reveals that she was a chubby kid who wanted to prove that she was as good as anybody else. While they are out, a call comes through that Fatoumata Ouedraogo Camus has gone into labour (French fire fighters are frequently first responders in medical cases). As she speaks no French, Abiteboul decides to take her to the nearest hospital. En route, however, Camus starts to give birth and Raffalli has to help Labbé deliver twins and they are asked to be godfathers in gratitude. Back at the station, they show off photos of the tiny boy and girl on their phones. But Labbé isn't able to share his news with Candela, as she had been called out with another unit and had to console a five year-old girl as she slowly slipped away. She sobs at the recollection of the frightened look in the child's eyes and the anguish she had felt as she had zipped her shattered body in a morgue bag.

On reading Lebert's report on the crash, Zem asks why he is parroting Abiteboul. He blurts out that he doesn't see why the station should close because Dequenne isn't up to the job and he would rather damn her than let down his pals. She is having a similar argument with Muller, who seems indifferent to her anxiety over receiving a letter from the Interior Ministry. So, she packs a bag to sleep at the station and finds herself in the middle of a shouting match between Zem and Abiteboul and Isvarine, who have been caught in flagrante with a couple of women who are turned on by their uniforms. But, rather than take the reprimand, Abiteboul demands to know why he gets hauled over the coals over some harmless horseplay while Zem defends Dequenne over her dereliction of duty.

When they next meet up, Abiteboul and Lebert announce that they have been summoned to give evidence at Dequenne's hearing and intend telling the truth. She accuses Abiteboul of being a misogynist who hates the idea of having a female superior. But they are forced to forget their differences when a bus is set alight during a protest in Les Liseraies and Zem warns them that things could turn violent. As soon as they arrive, the fire fighters are pelted with stones and Isvarine is felled by a missile. Fearing for their safety, even though cops are trying to maintain order, Dequenne turns a foam hose on to the youths.

Back at the station, Isvarine complains that the kids were like wild animals and Zem tries to explain that they have it tough and sometimes lash out at those trying to help them. They agree that the cops did a decent job, but Abiteboul snipes that they were just as on the ball the night Dequenne missed the body. There is an awkward silence before Abiteboul storms out after declaring women in the brigade to be nothing but a waste of space.

He gets his comeuppance the next day, however, when Liautey steams up while he is at the top of a ladder during a drill and empties the condoms from his jacket pocket on to the yard floor. She bellows at a couple of the men when they snigger and sobs that she is sick of all the macho posturing when she simply needs a husband she can rely on. Abiteboul tuts in annoyance that Liautey is making such a scene and refuses to come down. Shortly afterwards, he is exercising with Labbé when the car crash victim shows up and asks to speak to Dequenne. He informs her that he is dropping the charges because the real culprit was the drunken brother-in-law who insisted he was sober enough to drive.

Fighting back the tears of relief, Dequenne answers a call with Abiteboul and Labbé. They find concerned neighbours outside the apartment of an elderly couple and warn Dequenne that the husband has a temper. He only allows her inside and her colleagues fear for her safety. But the old man is scared that his wife has a head injury and Dequenne has the situation under control by the time Abiteboul gains access. As they return to base, he tells Dequenne that he has requested a transfer and suggests that he dislikes having women in the crew because he worries so much about them that they distract him from his job.

Meanwhile Zem returns to Montlaur to check up on Wos. He discovers that he is the mayor's adopted son and watches from his car as they get into an argument and the boy cycles off in a huff. Keeping a discreet distance, Zem follows Wos into the Languedoc countryside, where he thrashes around with a branch before sitting down to light a cigarette. Plonking himself down next to Wos, Zem cadges a smoke and coughs when he inhales. He flicks the butt into the brush, which is so dry that it quickly starts to smoulder. As the smoke rises, Zem tells Wos that his father was mean to him and he made himself feel better by setting light to an empty house and watching it burn. At the time, the blaze looked beautiful from a distance. But he realises now that he had made a terrible mistake because fire does hideous things to human flesh. Wos becomes agitated that the bush fire will get out of control, but Zem hands him a branch and they beat it down together. Some time later, the crew competes in a drill challenge with another station and Isvarine wins first prize. Lomi chats to Liautey about firemen being wedded to danger, but Muller remains glued to his phone and Dequenne wonders why she bothers. As Abiteboul is about to leave, they have a farewell drink and he follows Isvarine's anecdote about being scratched by a dog he was rescuing with a story about having to dress as an old lady to lure a cat down from a tree. They dare Dequenne to tell a dirty joke and are all singing along to Zem's favourite rock song when a call comes through. Apparently, there is a suicide bomber at a nearby factory and, as they approach from the road, Zem reminds his charges that while it looks spectacular from a distance, the reality will be grimly different.

From the moment Dequenne arrives at the traffic accident and editor Yves Deschamps starts slicing and dicing Jérôme Alméra's shakicam footage to show in docurealist detail the risks to which fire crews are consistently subjected, it's clear that Jolivet and co-scenarists Stéphane Guyot and Marcia Romano are determined to do justice to les pompiers. But, while action sequences are capably staged, the backstories of Dequenne and her colleagues feel ripped from bad television. The makers of London's Burning would certainly not be impressed.

Yet, despite being given little to work with, Dequenne and Zem avoid seeming like stock characters in a public information or training film, even though her domestic travails are as generic as the chip on Abiteboul's shoulder. More intriguing are Labbé and Candela's exchanges, with her account of the tragic loss of a young life achieving a sense of poignancy that Jolivet (abetted by his composer son, Adrien) fails to recapture in what are supposed to be more dramatically pivotal scenes.

Starting in Central and Eastern Europe, Yiddish cinema was heavily indebted to Jewish literature and theatre. During the silent era, the majority of Yiddish films were produced in Poland and the Soviet Union. But it found its voice following the success of Alan Crosland's The Jazz Singer (1927) and its godfather was the American, Sidney M. Goldin, whose Judea Pictures Corporation was responsible for the language's first Talkie, Until When (aka The Eternal Prayer, 1929), and dozens of `cantorial shorts'.

Sound proved something of a problem for cash-strapped Yiddish film-makers, however, and few managed to produce anything as memorable as Michal Waszynski's The Dybbuk (1937), an adaptation of Sholom Ansky's play that was filmed in the Expressionist manner in the Polish shtetl of Kazimierz. But the flamboyant director-producer Joseph Green established Green-Film in the mid-1930s and began producing such lively entertainments as Yiddle and His Fiddle (1936), which he co-directed with Jan Nowina-Przybylski and starred the irrepressible New York stage icon Molly Picon, who also headlined Green and Konrad Tom's Little Mother (1938), which proved to be the last Yiddish musical made in Europe before the Second World War.

Henryk Szaro and Marek Arnshteyn were among the Yiddish film-makers to perish in the Holocaust. But many others relocated to the United States to work for such companies as High Art, Yiddish Talking Pictures, Eron and Jewish Talking Pictures. Among the more pre-eminent Yiddish directors were George Roland (Joseph in the Land of Egypt, 1933), Henry Lynn (Jewish Father, 1934), Harry Tomashevsky (Jewish King Lear, 1935), Joseph Berne (Mirele Efros, 1939) and Max Nosseck (Overture to Glory, 1940). But the best known remains the Vienna-born Edgar G. Ulmer, who enjoyed considerable success with Green Fields (1937), The Singing Blacksmith (1938), The Light Ahead (1939) and American Matchmaker (1940).

Subsequently, there have been few American Yiddish pictures of the calibre of Maurice Schwartz's Tevye (1939). a dramatic take on the Sholom Alecheim story that was later adapted into the musical, Fiddler on the Roof (which was famously filmed by Norman Jewison in 1971). But acclaimed documentarist Joshua Z Weinstein revives the form for his feature debut, Menashe, which employs a wholly non-professional cast to provide an authentic insight into everyday life in New York's Hasidic community.

Menashe Lustig lives in the Borough Park district of Brooklyn and is a stickler for Orthodox tradition. Thus, he protests to boss Shlomo Klein in the food store where he works when he notices that they are selling unwashed lettuces and asks Rabbi Meyer Schwartz whether it's right that the children of a lapsed member of the congregation are allowed to attend the same school attached to their synagogue. However, he fails to see why he needs to marry again in order to raise his own son, Ruben Niborski, as he is still mourning the loss of his wife. But Schwartz patiently explains the law and recommends that Lustig keeps in touch with the matchmaker.

Keen to see the boy, Lustig picks him up from school and shows him the chick that he has just bought. Niborski helps out in the storeroom and asks why his teacher and uncle Yoel Weisshaus keep calling Lustig a bad influence. He asks if it's because he refuses to wear a hat and jacket like the others. But Lustig insists that he is a good man and that Niborski has nothing to be ashamed of. At that moment, however, Weisshaus comes looking for his nephew and drags him home after reprimanding Lustig for breaking the terms of the arrangement that means Weisshaus and wife Melanie Zoey Weinstein look after Niborski until Lustig can make a respectable home for him.

When Lustig does go on a date with Sheindy Weichman, however, he alienates the four-month widow who feels incomplete without a family by questioning whether she's his type. Seething at him for wasting her time, she demands to know who told him he was a catch and curses Hasidic men for being pampered by their mothers. Failing to sense her frustration, Lustig asks if she is ready to order dinner and she tuts incredulously. He similarly exasperates Weisshaus when he stops off on the way home from school to buy Niborski an ice-cream cone and they argue over a memorial service for his late wife. Nettled by Weisshaus accusing him of being incompetent, Lustig insists that he will raise his son from now on and bundles him out of the apartment.

The next morning, however, Lustig oversleeps and Niborski has to wake him before guzzling down some cake and cola for breakfast before dashing off to school. Klein is also cross with him for being late for work and Lustig takes little comfort in Hispanic co-worker Jorge Cea reassuring him that the shop would grind to a halt without him. But Weisshaus is a proud man with a successful real estate business and he refuses to allow a cashier to get the better of him. So, he complains to Schwartz, who gives Lustig a week to spend some time with Niborski before returning him to his uncle. When Lustig tries to protest, Schwartz scolds him for thinking he knows better than the Torah and threatens to expel Niborski from the school unless he moves back with Weisshaus and Weinstein.

They have a nice time juggling, climbing trees in the park and watching the sun go down over the Hudson River. Niborski also enjoys a study period at the synogogue, in which his father makes animal noises to explain a passage and annoys some of the older men trying to read in peace. But Niborski is taken aback by the sight of Lustig drinking heavily and singing along with some friends and calls his uncle to let him know what's going on. However, it's all smiles again on the way home when Niborski treads in some dog dirt and Lustig has to clean his shoe with a tissue. As they sit at the table with Lustig balancing the chick on his yarmulke, however, Weisshaus bangs on the door to collect Niborski and Lustig is furious that his son would betray him in such a way and that his brother-in-law would interfere so wilfully in his affairs. Insisting that the memorial will now take place in his tiny flat, Lustig orders Weisshaus to leave and sends Niborski to bed.

Relations are still tense between the pair when they go to see the Lag BaOmer bonfire. But, while they cheer up while buying a painting of a rabbi with reputed powers of keeping mice away, the pair are at loggerheads again when Niborski gets bored at the shop and tampers with the forklift truck while Lustig is loading up a van. He gets so stressed that he fails to close the doors properly and boxes of fresh fish tumble out on to the road. Returning to the store, Lustig tries to blame the van and Klein is incandescent at not only losing $1000-worth of stock, but also because Lustig asks for a loan to fund the memorial and then quibbles over working the night shift to pay off the damages.

Determined to cook his own kugel, Lustig asks neighbour Rose Gershkovich for a recipe and greets Bluma Gross, who is kneading dough at the table. Gershkovich asks him to stop Niborski from bouncing on the bed at night and he shrugs because he is a lively boy. He gets cross, however, when Niborski throws a ball at him while he is trying to tidy up and tells him to fetch some towels from the cupboard. In balancing on a chair to reach, however, Niborski falls and cuts his head. But rather than feeling sorry for him, Lustig slaps him across the face when Niborski repeats Weisshaus's claim that he was a poor husband who didn't even look after his wife while she was dying.

Having sent Niborski back to his uncle, Lustig mops the floor at the shop. He hears Cea and Reinaldo Olmedo drinking and singing in the storeroom and he joins them. They ask why he is so down and he tells them that his father took him to Israel when he was 23 to arrange a marriage to a woman he loathed from the outset. Despite the constant bickering, they had a son and she was so desperate for another child that they tried artificial insemination. However, she got a blood clot and died and he still feels guilty a year later because all he could feel was relief. His colleagues tell him to stop punishing himself and urge him to join them for a night out on Friday.

Having woken to find the chick dead in its box, Lustig calls on Weisshaus and pleads with him to let him host the memorial dinner and prove that he is not a loser. The following day, he dresses smartly, puts the frozen kugel in the oven and joins his male-only guests at the cemetery for prayers. They arrive home to find the fire alarm bleeping and the kugel scorched. But, while Weisshaus suggests that they repair to his place, Schwartz is happy to stay and not only compliments the food, but also Niborski's voice when he sings his mother's favourite song about some bears in the woods. At the end of the evening, Lustig thanks his friends for coming to honour his wife and Weisshaus promises to let Niborski live with Lustig the moment he finds a suitable bride.

Clearing away, Lustig asks Niborski if he thinks it went well. He nods and is pleased that his mother would have been proud of his singing. As he snuggles down to sleep, Lustig bathes and submerges himself in the water and almost seems to rise up like a new man, as he is seen wearing a hat and coat as he strides purposefully along a busy street in the closing shot.

Weinstein and co-scenarists Musa Syeed and Alex Lipschultz based their story on events in the life of Menashe Lustig, a web comedian who was separated from his own son by his rabbi after he had returned to New Square in Brooklyn after losing his wife while living in Britain. He has staunchly refused to remarry on the whim of a rav and this sense of familiarity with the situation reinforces Weinstein's neo-realist depiction of the Hasidic enclave. Sharing camera duties with Yoni Brook, Weinstein makes telling use of the contrasting interiors designed by Royce Brown, Carlen May-Mann and Laura Moss to show just how foolhardy Lustig's defiant dream is. Indeed, one wonders how the family of three had managed to co-habit in such a cramped space and it's intriguing to note that Weinstein (who has no connection with the community) seems to see the sense of Yoel Weisshaus's holier-than-thou stance.

Schlubby, scruffy and stubborn, Lustig certainly falls short of ideal parent (or husband) material. But this bundle of contradictions retains our sympathy, even though he fails at everything he undertakes, while managing to balance a chip on his shoulder. His gauche social skills are amusingly exposed during his excruciating date, while his domestic competence is questioned at every turn, as he kills a chick, burns a meal and stands by while his son gashes his head in a fall. He is also hopeless at his undemanding job and has a muddled pick`n'mix attitude to the tenets of the faith that seemingly means so much to him. Yet Lustig means well and most viewers will end up rooting for him in spite of his many flaws.

Adopting a cod fly-on-the-wall approach, Weinstein creates the impression of eavesdropping on actual exchanges that helps this feel more authentic than similarly themed offerings like Sidney Lumet's A Stranger Among Us (1992), Boaz Yakin's A Price Above Rubies (1998) and John Turturro's Fading Gigolo (2013). He is superbly served by his first-time actors, who deliver their lines with a conversational naturalism that could put many an indie cast to shame. And topping things off is a mournfully melodic score by Aaron Martin and Dag Rosenqvist that deftly complements the wonderfully evocative diegetic singing.

Dutch director Ate De Jong is probably still best known in this country for such pre-millennial offerings as Drop Dead Fred (1991), Highway to Hell (1992) and All Men Are Mortal (1995). However, he has continued to produce such serviceable genre items as Deadly Virtues: Love, Honour, Obey (2014) and now teams with editor Emily Harris on Love Is Thicker Than Water, a capable, but rarely compelling reworking of the Romeo and Juliet storyline that shows no sign of losing its appeal no matter how often and/or shoddily it is dusted down.

Lydia Wilson and Johnny Flynn embark upon a whirlwind romance after their first meeting culminates in a kiss and a cuddle on a London rooftop wearing fluffy hats. She is a talented cellist and he animates doodles on his laptop. When she introduces him to parents Henry Goodman and Juliet Stevenson on Hanukkah, Wilson announces that Flynn is moving in with her. While her doting doctor dad takes the news quite well, Stevenson is sniffy about the fact that her daughter is settling for the son of a Port Talbot steelworker who is odd-jobbing as a bicycle courier in the hope of studying economics so that he can land a job back at the works.

When Flynn asks why Stevenson was so offish with him, Wilson explains that she is the daughter of a concentration camp violinist and a career diplomat and she has great expectations for all three of her children. Flynn tries to laugh it off, but is nettled by the idea of being unworthy of Wilson. When he takes Wilson to Wales, however, he seems not to notice how awkward she feels when his mother, Sharon Morgan, teases Wilson about needing to put some meat on her bones before serving up a chip shop lunch in the kitchen. He also has no problem with sleeping on the sofa and ticks Wilson off when she tries to sneak under his blanket when everyone has gone to bed. But sister Remy Beasley has no problem sharing the bathroom with Wilson, while pigeon-fancying brother Alex Lanipekun asks if her divorce lawyer mother is a prostitute when she mentions that she would be out of a job if all men were as faithful as homing pigeons.

Back in London, Flynn tells Wilson about the 18 year-old brother who died shortly after starting at the steelworks and how dad Robert Blythe took permanent sick leave because of the shock. She suggests that Flynn creates an animation to celebrate his sibling's life, but he thinks it's a terrible idea and tells Wilson that certain things should always remain private. Montages follow of scene-setting animated snippets and images of Wilson playing cello as part of a trio in front of her mother and Flynn losing his nerve in trying to make a video application. One night, they decide on a drunken whim to get married and find a hotel concierge with the power to declare them man and wife. Returning to bed, however, Wilson says that there is no way they could ever wed for real and she proves evasive when Flynn asks why not. She suggests they get to know each other better and get the giggles before canoodling under the covers.

While making a meal of putting on a duvet cover, Wilson suggests throwing a birthday party for Flynn's dead brother and inviting his parents to the flat. He thinks it's a dreadful idea, especially when she claims that they could turn it into an engagement party. Flynn insists that Wilson's parents come, too, and mumbles when she gets upset by the fact that he is yet to declare his love for her. A certain tension develops over the next few days after Wilson overhears a video clip of Lanipekun making a casually anti-Semitic remark. It culminates in a breakfast row about dirty washing-up in the sink, a broken peanut butter jar and a favourite teaspoon. However, Wilson defuses the situation by giving Flynn a new camera-cum-camcorder and he films her musing about whether their parents would make good marital role models.

Having exchanged aspirational vows for their future beneath a large red umbrella on the roof, Flynn and Wilson celebrate with their families. Blythe plays the tuba and Goodman compliments him on his technique, while Stevenson rolls her eyes at everything she sees and hears, as members of the Flynn clan (including sister Jessica Gunning) chat about their domestic problems. Staggering under the alcohol and the chip on his shoulder, Lanipekun urinates on the magazines on the floor next to the lavatory, while Wilson's sister, Ellie Kendrick, joins Stevenson in poking fun at Morgan when she declines an invitation to spend the night in a local hotel because Blythe prefers to do it in their own bed.

Wilson and Flynn try to break the ice by playing an orange-passing party game and getting everyone to dance. But the strain of having fun proves too much for Blythe, who collapses and ends up in hospital. As the family gathers around the bed speaking Welsh, Blythe urges Flynn to come home and Morgan says he should obey his father's last wish. But, while Blythe returns home by ambulance, Stevenson dies in a hotel room after a tryst with her lover and Wilson has the news broken over the phone in the early hours of the morning by her brother, Al Weaver. Everyone gathers at home, where Goodman tries to stay calm. However, he reveals that Stevenson had been unfaithful many times when Kendrick needles him into saying something nice about his late wife.

As Goodman insists that life must go on, Lanipekun arrives to tell Flynn that Blythe has died and they rush home to take care of Morgan, who is trying to keep busy as a coping mechanism. Beasley and Gunning also snap into action, while Wilson, Kendrick and Weaver pay a visit to the hotel where their mother died and end up sniggering. Wilson goes to Wales to help Wilson and his siblings lay their father in his coffin and their bid to take the casket down a narrow staircase is milked for crass slapstick until the mood sours when Beasley brings up the fact that Blythe wasn't the mixed-race Lanipekun's father and he throws a chair through the window and Morgan tries to restore some order by averring that Blythe would be so proud that they had found a solution to the problem by all working together.

An animated interlude shows Flynn and Wilson having a quickie in the car before we see them in live-action strolling on the beach by the steelworks. She needs affection, but Flynn is in no mood to offer any and tells her she is a spoilt brat and can sling her hook if she doesn't think he or his ways of showing love are good enough. Wilson is upset that Flynn failed to show up at Stevenson's funeral, while she came to Blythe's. But he clams up when she asks about Morgan's first husband (Lanipekun's dad) and fumes with her when she asks him to catch her as a gesture of trust and she flops backwards on to the sand. They sit on the sea wall and Flynn announces that he is staying with his mother and Wilson breaks his camera, knees him in the groin and punches him so hard that he falls on to the beach, as she tells him they are finished.

Wilson goes home so that Goodman can share out Stevenson's belongings with her siblings. She is surprised to discover that her mother wrote music and left each child £500,000. By contrast, Blythe leaves his tuba, workshop keys and a pencil case full of his dead son's red hair and Flynn and Lanipekun get into a fight when the latter sets light to it on the kitchen table. A montage follows of Wilson and Flynn getting on with their separate lives (although they are still linked via a split screen).

A few months later, Goodman comes to Port Talbot to see how Morgan is doing. He tells her that Kendrick has gone to Israel to become an air force pilot to defend the homeland and invites her to come to a memorial service for Stevenson and offers to make it a joint tribute for Blythe. She is touched, but suspicious about his readiness to pay for a coach to bring the family to London, while Flynn is unimpressed that Wilson submitted some of his work to the Royal Academy of Arts and that she has opened a letter offering him a place. Indeed, he gives Goodman the camera to return to Wilson as a parting gift and this prompts them to chat on Skype before their reunion.

Sitting alone, as the guests mill around them, Goodman and Morgan discuss the flaws of their loved ones with resigned shrugs, while Wilson tells Flynn that she has given up music to train as a doctor. He apologises for making a mess of things and they hug. But, when Flynn goes to the bathroom, he finds himself in the middle of a brouhaha between the newly out Weaver and the uniformed Lanipekun (who was seemingly thrown out of the army for homophobia). Their punch-up interrupts a conversation that Wilson, Beasley and Gunning are having about oral sex in the ladies' and the Welsh visitors bundle back on to their bus after Wilson and Flynn trade what seem to be final insults.

On the coach, however, Lanipekun tells Flynn not to be an idiot and patch things up with Wilson. He goes to the apartment and uses his key to gain admittance and clean up the peanut butter jar (which has remained on the floor under a plastic dome). Clutching his suitcase, he repeatedly tells her that he loves her and they waltz around the room wrapped in a blanket quoting films at each other. He compares them to Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor and she says that didn't end happily. But he insists the remake will and they make more relationship vows eating cheese and biscuits on the roof, as it starts to rain.

Often feeling like an elongated episode of Gavin & Stacey, this is often as disorderly and deranged as it is derivative. Refusing to examine any social, class, regional or romantic issue in any depth, Ate De Jong's screenplay lurches between moments of crass melodrama and clumsy knockabout, while the direction is intrusively ostentatious and often badly misjudged, as De Jong and Harris bombard the slender storyline with animated segments, split screens, jump cuts, eccentric framings and camera angles, and a glut of cheesy pop songs by the likes of Holly Holden, Marika Hackman and Lulu and the Lampshades. Every scene feels like it has been agonised over to ensure it's as cinematic and quirky as possible, with cinematographer Zoran Veljkovic and editor Antonio Ribeiro straining for effect throughout the picture.

Yet, while it should prove eminently resistible, this muddle of a movie gets under the skin. Much of this is down to Charlotte Pearson's thoughtful production design and the willingness of supporting stalwarts like Juliet Stevenson, Henry Goodman and Sharon Morgan, who atone for some of the over-playing by some of their younger co-stars. But there is so much genuine chemistry between Lydia Wilson and Johnny Flynn that it even spills over into Nate Milton's affably rough-and-ready animation. As was the case with Matthew Stathers and Lizzie Philips in James Kermack's Hi-Lo Joe, Flynn and Wilson feel like a couple whether they are smooching, bantering or arguing, and De Jong and Harris wisely leave the question mark hanging over their hard-earned happy ever after.

There's a double helping of Italian titles, this week, as CinemaItaliaUK signs off for the year with Sergio Castellitto's Fortunata showing at the Genesis Cinema in London on 10 December and Francesco Bruni's Tutto quello che vuoi screening at the Regent Street Cinema on 13 December.

One of Italy's finest actors, Castellitto has made a number of films with his Dublin-born actress-cum-screenwriter wife Margaret Mazzantini, including Libero Burro (1999), Don't Move (2004), Love & Slaps (2010), Twice Born (2012) and You Can't Save Yourself Alone (2015). Apparently, this drama set in the migrant-packed eastern outskirts of the capital has been inspired by Pier Paolo Pasolini's Mama Roma (1962). But, while Jasmine Trinca might have won an award in the Un Certain Regard strand at Cannes, she is no Anna Magnani, although she is scarcely helped by either Castellitto's direction or Mazzantini's script, which ensure that just about every minor incident spirals into a full-blown crisis.

Opening with a shot of some Chinese women exercising in neat rows in the ruins of the ancient Alexandrina Aqueduct, the story centres on Jasmine Trinca, a freelance hairdresser who is having trouble raising her spirited eight year-old daughter, Nicole Centanni. She hates school and would much rather help Trinca and long-haired tattoo artist Alessandro Borghi work on the salon they are about to open. However, as well as being a valued childhood friend, Borghi is also an addict, who has problems coping with the antics of his mother, Barbara Schygulla, a German actress who is suffering from Alzheimer's.

Trinca is divorced from brutish security guard Edoardo Pesce, who is furious that their social worker has received so many complaints about Centanni's behaviour that they have ordered her to visit psychiatrist Stefano Accorsi. He smashes a bottle in the sink and forces himself upon Trinca, who puts up no resistance, as the crestfallen Borghi watches from a window across the courtyard of their soulless tenement block. But Pesce ducks the appointment and Trinca tries to answer the questions that Accorsi puts to her Centanni to protect her. He understands her concern, but reassures her that he is only trying to help and he is delighted when Centanni brings him a drawing of a fish to her second session.

Left alone, Accorsi asks Centanni about her life with her mother and is amused when she reveals that Trinca talks in her sleep and sings out of tune. He quickly gains her trust and persuades her that spitting and throwing stones aren't the only ways to respond to a problem. Bothered by having her secrets shared with a stranger, Trinca gazes from her window at a group of Muslim men praying at the Aqueduct. But she has too many clients to linger and she visits chubby bride-to-be Emanuela Aurizi, well-heeled Chinese neighbour Jaclyn Parry and feisty friend Liliana Fiorelli before returning to crash out in the bed she shares with her daughter.

One sunny afternoon, Trinca leaves Centanni eating an ice lolly with Schygulla outside a café, while she works out her lottery numbers with Borghi. She is amused by how seriously he takes his system. But, when she checks on Centanni, she is horrified to see she has disappeared and a friend at the playground tells her that Pesce has taken her away. Trinca confronts him, but he insists that Centanni spends the afternoon at a barbecue with her cousins and Trinca has to tell Accorsi why she has missed her appointment. He asks Trinca to stay and discovers that her addict father died when he was only 27 and he recognises the strength she has had to show from a young age in order to survive. But Trinca doesn't want pity and swears that everything will be better once her divorce is finalised and her shop opens.

At their next session, Accorsi asks Centanni to select some plastic animals to place in a sand pit he has in his office. He is keen to see how she would populate a fantasy. But, sensing something between Accorsi and Trinca, Centanni asks to go to the bathroom and returns in the arms of Pesce, who criticises Trinca for allowing their daughter to go barefoot in a clinic where there could be needles on the floor. Bristling with machismo, Pesce introduces himself to Accorsi and goes out of his way to stress that Trinca still belongs to him, even though she is trying to bleed him dry and is useless at everything except oral sex.

Trinca is embarrassed and Accorsi is repelled by Pesce's boorish display. But, when she takes Centanni for her next appointment, she is astonished to discover that Accorsi has discharged her. She takes the train to her next appointment and is worn down by Centanni asking whether she would wear a burqa and why she takes cash for jobs when she should be paying tax. However, she is shocked when Centanni jumps off the train and the doors close before she can get to the platform. Fuming with her daughter after she accuses her of stealing Accorsi away from her, Trinca bursts into his session with Gianluca Spaziani (who has Down Syndrome) and gives him a piece of her mind for abandoning Centanni and causing her to spit like Linda Blair in The Exorcist (1973). He chases after her when she storms into a nearby park and tries to explain that he cancelled the treatment because he has feelings for her. As Spaziani pelts them with pebbles, they kiss passionately on the riverbank and, for once, Trinca is left speechless.

A few days later, Trinca shows Borghi the neon sign for their shop. She has named it `Lucky' and is sure that good times are just around the corner. They go to a Chinese restaurant to celebrate Schygulla's birthday and Accorsi comes along with Spaziani. He gives Centanni a present, but she can feel his eyes straying to Trinca and she simmers with resentment. Borghi also picks up on the vibe, even though Schygulla begins quoting Antigone to Accorsi, while refusing to let go of his hand. When Borghi tries to intervene, his mother pours her drink over him and he wonders why he bothers when she ignores the candles on her birthday cake and he has to blow them out for her.

Watching Borghi fill in lottery tickets, Accorsi asks to see the pills he is taking. He tells him he is dicing with death and recommends something less risky, but Borghi is only interested in his numbers and warns Accorsi that Trinca is fragile. Yet, he agrees to take care of Centanni when the pair go away for a couple of days on the back of Accorsi's motorcycle and they ride through a huge puddle. He takes her to his home city of Genoa and describes how his father deserted his mother and set up an illegal gambling den in Ivory Coast. When he tracked him down, he could barely remember his own son's name and, yet, Accorsi takes Trinca to the casino, where they win before bopping around their room to Chubby Checker singing `Let's Twist Again'.

While they make love, Borghi tells Centanni the story of Antigone. He asks if she likes tragedies and, while his attention is elsewhere, she heads to the roof and falls from the same ladder she had once seen Schygulla climbing. Trinca speeds back to Rome and finds Pesce hurling abuse at Borghi in the hospital corridor, while Centanni lies in a neck brace clutching one of the plastic figures from Accorsi's sand pit. Determined to make Trinca pay for her selfishness, Pesce seeks custody of his daughter and shows the female judge a phone clip of Centanni complaining about Accorsi and Trinca kissing. Forced to admit that she left her child with unfit persons to enjoy a romantic weekend, Trinca loses Centanni, who refuses to speak to her.

Worried that she will lose the shop because Borghi is in a bad way, Trinca asks Accorsi to get him some medication. While they are making love, however, Borghi takes Schygulla for a walk and she spouts the lines from the Sophocles play she had once headlined. As they sit by the river, she uses her fingers to turn his lips into a smile. But, as we see Schygulla's black umbrella floating away on the water, Trinca learns that Borghi has been charged with drowning his mother and she rushes to the police station to see him. Accorsi tries to hold her back, but she promises Borghi the best lawyer she can get because she knows he would never harm his mother in his right mind. In return, he hands her a lottery ticket and urges her to play, as he knows he has got the right numbers.

As they leave the police station, Accorsi tells Trinca that he has to take a step back from her because her world is out of control and he doesn't want to be sucked into the madness. She accuses him of failing to write a prescription that might have helped Borghi and he urges her to shut up because she could destroy his career. But, as she bellows at Accorsi, she recalls Borghi telling her something about her father drowning when she was eight years old and the suppressed memory comes bubbling to the surface, as Trinca remembers going to the beach with her father and letting him drown in the shallow tide after he had shot up. With her eyes staring wildly, she asks Accorsi what a child was supposed to do in that situation, but she feels guilt at doing nothing to help a man who could no longer help himself.

Accorsi goes looking for Trinca in her neighbourhood, but there is no sign of her. She has given the keys of the salon to Parry because she can't repay her loan and her mood is as bleak as the downpour that soaks the Chinese women exercising in the square. But she is not alone in her misery, as Centanni doesn't want to live with her father and Pesce bursts into Trinca's flat brandishing a gun because he would rather kill her than let her triumph. He doesn't shoot, of course, and Trinca storms out.

She is next seen speeding along in a motorboat with Accorsi to identify Schygulla's body, which has finally washed ashore. She thanks him for getting treatment for Borghi and asks if he played the lottery numbers (which we had earlier seen him checking over news footage of migrants being rescued from a boat in the Mediterranean). Trinca thinks it's a shame things didn't work out, as she would have been good for Accorsi. Instead, she remembers watching her father float face down in the swell and strips naked to wade into the water. Turning to the shore, she sees her eight year-old self realising there was nothing she could do to help him and wandering off to play. Striding purposefully, Trinca is reunited with Centanni and she sweeps her into her arms, as the film ends on a defiantly optimistic freeze frame.

Played to the hilt by a willing cast, this can't be faulted for its conviction. But, for all the steely determination demonstrated by Jasmine Trinca, the wistful sadness displayed by Hanna Schygulla and the tainted innocence shown by Nicole Centanni, the scenario lurches from one contrivance to another without the slick direction being unable to disguise its glaringly melodramatic nature. Far too many scenes teeter on the verge of histrionic soap opera rather than provocative social realism, with the selection of power ballads and up-tempo pop songs on the soundtrack reinforcing the sense that this is novelettish pulp masquerading as an artistic treatise on fate, memory, masculinity and the bond between parents and children.

When not reducing the male characters to ciphers, Castellito and Mazzantini stuff the action with references to the migrant population of this part of Rome and allow Centanni to chuck in the odd casually racist remark. Yet they avoid making their own definitive statement on the situation and leave viewers pondering whether they think the influx of new cultures is a good thing or whether Italians like Trinca are being socially and economically squeezed by their presence. Film-makers are not duty bound to express opinions. But, having taken such pains (in conjunction with cinematographer Gian Filippo Corticelli) to show Chinese women and Muslim men in such an historical setting as the Alexandrina Aqueduct, it feels more than a little disingenuous to skate on by without considering the wider significance of the image. Another character suffers from Alzheimer's in Francesco Bruni's Tutto quello che vuoi/Everything You Want, which draws on the writer-director's own experiences. Having made his name as Paolo Virzi's screenwriting companion between La Bella vista (1994) and Human Capital (2014), Bruni won the David di Donatello and Nastro d'Argento for Best New Director for Easy! (2011), which he followed with the family comedy, Noi 4 (2015). Acclaimed by Italian critics, his third feature earned him a Nastro for his screenplay, although it lost out in the Best Film and Cinematography categories.

Since dropping out of college, 22 year-old Andrea Carpenzano hasn't done a day's work and idles away his time with his slacker pals Emanuele Propizio, Riccardo Vitiello and Arturo Bruni. Following an altercation with a couple of cocky Roman scooter kids, Carpenzano finds himself in the back of a squad car and father Antonio Gerardi orders him to sort himself out and stop being so rude to his Slovakian girlfriend, Andrea Lehotská. He also informs him that he has found him a job as a caregiver for Giuliano Montaldo, an elderly neighbour with Alzheimer's who needs a companion on his daily walks.

Carpenzano is having an affair with Bruni's newsagent mother, Donatella Finocchiaro, who fights him off when he ushers out a customer and pulls down the blinds so they can have sex behind the counter. They are interrupted when Bruni gets home and Carpenzano has no option but to pay a call on Montaldo, who lives in an old house belonging to Raffaella Lebboroni at the top of a steep flight of steps. She explains that he is an 85 year-old poet from Pisa, who has been living with her since he helped her out when she was in a crisis. He is only in the early stages of the disease and can wash and dress himself. But he is becoming increasingly absent-minded and Lebboroni hopes that Carpenzano can take some of the strain.

When the old man wakes from his nap, he mistakes Carpenzano for someone else and seems pleased that he has returned. He pulls his hand away when Montaldo clasps it and nods, as though satisfied with his new/old acquaintance. But Carpenzano is still freaked out by the experience when he chats to Finocchiaro, while his mates wait for him to come and play cards. She tells him to stop being foolish and pushes him away when he closes in for a kiss.

Arriving the next day, Carpenzano finds Montaldo in his hat and coat, but needing Lebboroni to remind him that the stranger is his new carer. The go to the nearby park, where Montaldo gives some money to the elderly Aurora Quattrocchi, who is begging on the grass verge. Appalled that he has given away almost half his hourly rate, Carpenzano tries to retrieve the cash. But Quattrocchi fights back and he catches up with the poet, unaware that Bruni has spotted them walking with linked arms. Returning home slightly baffled by Montaldo's whimsical conversation, Carpenzano stumbles into a small study with writing scratched into the wall. He asks Lebboroni what it means and she recalls finding him in a state of distress after his wife died and he had run out of paper and typewriter ribbons. She bought him new ones, but he declared he had nothing more to say and has never written since.

When he bumps into his pals watching a street performer, they ask about the old man and turn up at his house the next day. As it's too wet to go out, Carpenzano has been reading from the sports pages of the newspaper. Thus, when Montaldo wakes from his nap and finds Propizio, Vitiello and Bruni playing a football game, he sinks into his chair with delight, thinking they are watching a live match on the television. Lebboroni is surprised to see so many people squashed into the book-lined sitting room, but thinks it might be good for Montaldo to have a little male company.

On their next saunter, Montaldo and Carpenzano venture into some woodland and the old man gets the feeling of déjà vu. He asks Carpenzano if he's ever been in love and thinks wistfully about the love of his life. While wandering home, they pass Finocchiaro's shop and Montaldo mistakes her for Carpenzano's mother. He kisses her hand and she is charmed by him and, as they walk on, he asks his companion why she had such a look of love in her eyes. Carpenzano explains that his mother died when he was two, but doesn't go into any detail about Finocchiaro.

During their next visit, Bruni, Vitiello and Propizio bring a war game and Montaldo watches spellbound. Having fought as a 15 year-old during the Second World War, he has fond memories of three American friends and, when the others ask what he is talking about, Carpenzano takes them into the study and shows them the scratched walls. They have to look up the dates of the conflict and have no idea where Pisa is, but they develop a new respect for the old boy, who mistakes them for plasterers and orders them not to shirk.

While on their next stroll, Montaldo and Carpenzano bump into Gerardi and Lehotská at a viewing spot overlooking the city. They introduce themselves and Lehotská is touched when Montaldo kisses her hand and invites them to walk with them. However, Gerardi thinks that Carpenzano was trying to avoid them and is less than amused when Lebboroni asks Carpenzano to move in with Montaldo for a month, while his cleaner is away. Having nearly been ambushed by the brother of the scooter kid he beat up, Carpenzano is glad to get away from the neighbourhood. But, while packing, he snipes at Lehotská and accuses her of trying to take over their cramped apartment.

Woken in the night by a dream visit from his mother, Carpenzano goes to the study and uses his camera to take pictures of the verses scratched into the walls. He looks through some of the books, but can't make sense of the text. When the guys come round to play poker, however, Bruni becomes convinced that the poem is about his wartime friends and a treasure that they hid together. Thus, when Montaldo has a sip of booze and a drag on a strong cigarette, he becomes a little disorientated and mistakes the gang for his American buddies. He addresses them in English and wins three hands in a row. But Carpenzano dislikes the turn of events and ushers his pals out, as Lebboroni chides him for tiring the old man out.

During the night, Montaldo calls out and Carpenzano finds him sitting fully clothed in his chair. He wishes to return to somewhere in his past, but he can't remember where it is and whispers in his Carepenzano's ear and urges him to hurry because time is running out. Venturing back to the university library, Carpenzano bumps into Carolina Pavone, a student who works in the gang's favourite bar and who asks if he has come back to complete his course. He asks for her help in tracking down some books and borrows a sheet of paper and a pen to make some notes. Jotting down place names from a map, he accepts a lift home on Pavone's scooter and fails to notice Finocchiaro watching him from behind a street stall.

Guided by a drawing of a cross that Montaldo has etched into the wall, Carpenzano searches online for places outside Pisa that would match. Eventually, he finds a monument at Ospitale and shows it to the old man. He is in bed and is confused. So, Carpenzano pretends to be one of the wartime Americans and Montaldo thanks him for taking care of him after his parents and younger brother were killed in an air raid (the latter being the boy whom Montaldo keeps mistaking Carpenzano for). Taking his cues from what he had read on the wall, Carpenzano asks Montaldo if he buried his treasure beneath the cross and he recognises the place from a photograph on the laptop.

Convinced he has stumbled across a valuable stash, Carpenzano asks Finocchiaro if he can borrow her car to drive to Ospitale and she agrees. They kiss in the rain and she is relieved he still loves her. However, Bruni recognises the vehicle and insists on riding along with Propizio and Vitiello. On arriving in the country town, however, they discover that the cross is now on a small island in the middle of an irrigation lake and they have to steal some diving equipment because they don't have the money to pay. When they are flagged down by a police car, they think they are in trouble, as Propizio only has a provisional licence. But Montaldo shows them his and a photo of him with ex-president Sandro Pertini falls out of his wallet and he explains that the ex-partisan was a close friend.

Driving away, with the lads more impressed than ever by their unlikely accomplice, they book into a motel for the night and Montaldo (who has already imagined them all in GI uniforms as they walked along the woodland path to the cross) looks around in the darkness and feels both confused and pleased by the sense of camaraderie. The next morning, Carpenzano and Bruni don the wetsuits and dive down with a torch and spade to dig under the cross. After a while, they surface with a metal US Army box and Vitiello falls into the water in his eagerness to see what's inside. Stubbing out the crafty cigarette he had been smoking in the car, Montaldo comes to join them and is overjoyed to find the pair of boots he had wrapped up seven decades earlier are still inside.

Bruni is furious that they have wasted so much time and effort on something so useless. But Vitiello suddenly throws up from eating too much junk food for breakfast and they have to rush him to the nearest hospital. Carpenzano stays with Montaldo in the car, but wanders in to see what's keeping the others. He runs into Bruni, who squares up to him for bringing them on this wild goose chase and for sleeping with his mother. They grapple, but Montaldo separates them with his walking stick and slaps Bruni across the face. Holding his temper, he tells them to get back to Rome on the train and, with Propizio waiting overnight for Vitiello, Bruni finds himself alone in the car park.

With three hours to wait for the train, Carpenzano dozes off in the waiting room. But Montaldo is keen to see Pisa again and wanders off alone. Rushing after him, Carpenzano remembers an address from the wall poem and finds Montaldo beneath a window in a quiet street. He doffs his hat to an elderly lady as she passes and tells Carpenzano they can leave. On the train, he explains that she was his childhood sweetheart until her father had forbidden her to see him. He has kept the memory of her alive in his verses, but tells his companion that there is a great deal of difference between life and poetry. Carpenzano inquires how it's possible to tell if a girl is interested and Montaldo tells him to watch how she laughs and remember to ask permission before kissing her.

Arriving home late at night by cab, the pair are greeted by Lebboroni, who is disappointed with Carpenzano for not taking her into his confidence. She tells him that Gerardi and Finocchiaro have been worried and demands that he hands over the keys the next morning. Putting Montaldo to bed, Carpenzano is touched when he calls him by the right name for the first time and the old man consoles him as he starts to cry.

Sneaking away early the next morning, Carpenzano gets a grilling from Gerardi, who announces that Lehotská is pregnant. He also insists that Carpenzano comes to work with him and he agrees (and even tells his father that he loves him), but he has to return the boots that he accidentally took away in his rucksack. As he leaves the flat, however, he gets a call from Lebboroni and rushes through the streets. Halfway up the steps, he is ambushed by the scooter kid and his brother and gets punched in the face. Thus, he arrives in time to see a body being placed into the back of an ambulance.

A tearful Lebboroni says she found him in his chair and Carpenzano places the boots beside it. He spots a screwdriver on the reading table and wanders into the study to find that Montaldo had finished his poem and claimed to have found everything he wanted in his final adventure. At the funeral, the friends carry the coffin and Finocchiaro tells Carpenzano that she has sorted things with Bruni by saying that it was just a crush and that nothing happened. He thanks her, as they watch the hearse drive away. Sitting outside the bar, they confide that they have found jobs and might not see as much of each other. But they clasp hands in a fond farewell and agree to meet up for a pizza. Carpenzano waits for Pavone to start her shift and surprises her by giving her a potted history of Montaldo's eventful life. She laughs and he takes this as a sign to ask for permission and move in for a kiss.

Even before the closing dedication to Francesco Bruni's father and his friends Mike, John and Robert (the Americans mentioned by Montaldo), it's evident that this is a deeply personal film. Lovingly photographed by Arnaldo Catinari and scored by Carlo Virzi, it meanders in places and the subplots involving Carpenzano's father and new girlfriend don't quite gel as convincingly as the central bond with Montaldo and the surprisingly sweet fixation with Finocchiaro. But Bruni weaves in the details of the unfinished poem and the buried treasure with a deftness that matches his asides on the way that Italy has dealt with its wartime divisions and the millennial generation's struggle to find a niche in the post-recessional world. Perhaps a touch too dim at times for a college dropout, Carpenzano still makes a genial anti-hero, as he learns to look beyond his own petty problems. He is well supported by Vitiello, Propizio and Bruni (who is the director's rapper son), as well as by Lebboroni and Finocchiaro, who are essentially surrogate mothers for the hapless manchild. However, he is upstaged by Giuliano Montaldo, who brings to mind Victor Sjöström in Ingmar Bergman's Wild Strawberries (1957). A veteran director in his own right, Montaldo fittingly started his career with Pigeon Shoot (1961), which focused on the partisan resistance, while The Reckless (1965) exposed the flaws in the postwar economic miracle. Among his other works are Grand Slam (1967), Sacco and Vanzetti (1971) and the Emmy-winning mini-series Marco Polo (1982). But this must go down among his finest hours.

China's most celebrated dissident artist is no stranger to film, as he makes his own, as well as appearing in such documentaries as Matthew Springford's Ai Weiwei: Without Fear or Favour (2010), Alison Klayman's Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry (2012) and Andreas Johnsen's Ai Weiwei: The Fake Case (2013). Instantly recognisable, Ai Weiwei runs the risk of being a bit of a distraction in Human Flow, as he keeps popping up in unlikely places while seeking to expose conditions in some of the world's biggest refugee camps. Nevertheless, the footage captured by 25 different camera crews should alert audiences to the efforts being made by governments and charitable organisations alike to combat poverty, persecution and extremism and to the ignorance, prejudice and fear that has driven 65 million people from their homes in recent times.

Following a towering aerial shot picking out a small craft speeding across the Mediterranean, we cut in to see a large rubber dinghy being escorted to shore. It is crammed with people, who are wrapped in foil blankets and offered tea, as Ai Weiwei takes photographs and offers his concern to a young man who has come from Salah Al-Din in Iraq. A drone shot looks down on a tented camp, as a caption reveals that there are 277,000 refugees in Iraq, the majority of whom are trying to flee the country. A second note explains that 268,000 have been killed since the 2003 US invasion, while more than four million Iraqis have been forcibly removed from their homes. Two women recall the bombardment that drove them away, as a drone hovers over a decimated settlement and Ai poses various ordinary people in front of a blank screen to reinforce the idea that the occupants of the camp are human beings like the rest of us.

The 1951 United Nations definition declares a refugee to be a person with `a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion'. Nocturnal footage shows a boat coming ashore at Lesvos, as a newspaper headline claims that 56,000 souls are arriving in Greece each week during peak sailing periods. A caption confirms that over a million refugees arrives in the country during 2015-16, with the majority coming from Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. Ai surveys the coastline and learns from UNHCR Communications Officer Boris Cheshirkov that this is the largest mass movement of people since the Second World War.

Scenes show the Lesvos arrivals boarding a ship to be resettled in Sweden, Germany and other European countries. Many of the passengers take photos on their phones and a young father tells the camera that he hopes to find a home in a place where he is accepted. A small child fusses over a pair of boots and there is a sense of optimism that the worst is over, as a caption repeats Angela Merkel's hope that Europe can cope with the crisis.

The scene shifts to Bangladesh, as a small rope ferry crosses a placid patch of water. But, as Rohingya community leader Ustaz Rafik reveals, things have been anything but peaceful for this Muslim minority in Myanmar, as settlements have been destroyed, women have been raped and innocent victims have been killed without resistance. As a result of what many believe to be a concerted policy of ethnic cleansing, 500,000 Rohingyas have fled to Bangladesh, Thailand and Malaysia. Rafik laments the need for his people to leave their ancestral lands and is dismayed by the lack of respect for their basic humanity.

Back in Northern Greece, we see a column of refugees trudging through the countryside on a dank day. They cross a rushing stream and skirt muddy fields to reach the Macedonian border, where they are greeted with a barbed wire fence. Some 13,000 refugees occupy a makeshift camp near the village of Idomeni and the camera roams a settlement that is traversed by a busy railway line. Ai tries to cheer up a small boy by doing a drawing for him and he smiles. But, according to Peter Bouckaert from Human Rights Watch, there is nowhere for them to go and conditions are already deteriorating.

Another caption reveals that the number of countries with border fences and walls has increased from 11 to 70 in the period since the Berlin Wall was toppled in 1989. On the Serbian-Hungarian frontier, there is a camaraderie among the border guards and Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, compares the situation to the Cold War when smaller numbers sought sanctuary from the Soviet bloc. But Europe was not ready for such a mass influc and has been improvising policies since 2015, with the result that the individual responses trap thousands of helpless strangers with no option but to stay put and hope.

Over an aerial shot of a camp on the Syrian border with Jordan, a caption details that 1.3 million have fled the civil war and we see troops escorting people through an official entry point before they are driven away in trucks. Another caption explains that Jordan has become home to over two million Palestinians since 1948 and Ai cooks kebabs in a busy market place in one of the camps. Some have become so large that they have developed their own economies and we see one camp with its own artificial football pitch.

Jordanian princess Dana Firas tells Ai that the average refugee spends 25 years away from home and she hopes her nation keeps offering sanctuary, as it reminds citizens of the need to maintain their own status quo and to be a good neighbour. According to the Washington Post, 75,000 Syrians are trapped on the Jordanian border and, having filmed a camel at some ancient ruins, Ai sends a drone over another vast tented settlement in the middle of the desert.

From here, he goes to Southern Italy, where over 210,000 refugees arrived from Afghanistan between 2015-16. We see a group of men being herded off a boat by troops and dressed in white boiler suits to be frog-marched along the quay. Others are wrapped in foil capes by soldiers and civilians wearing face masks that give off a signal that the newcomers are as unwelcome as any potential diseases they may be carrying No wonder Hanan Ashwari, the head of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation's Department of Culture and Information, says that refugees are open to forms of cruelty that are not always intended.

Hundreds spill off a boat in Athens and wander the city centre. Ai films them on the road and asks a woman with her mother and daughter what she plans to do because the Macdeonian border has been closed. She shrugs and gets cross with the daughter, who is wearing a balloon hat that keeps poking her mother in the face. The girl (who is also holding a couple of balloon animals) giggles charmingly, as, while she has no idea of the gravity of her situation, she finds the balloon prodding her mother to be highly amusing. Ai buys oranges from the back of a truck before we hear a young man with his back to the camera describe why he paid traffickers to get him out of Iran and the trials he has endured since crossing into Turkey and then Greece.

A drone shot surveys that pitiful scene at Idomeni, as the wind whips the tents and Ai picks his way through the puddles to take more pictures. A woman suggests that some of Europe's leaders should spend some time in the camps and see the reality for themselves. Another feeds her ginger-and-white cat, Taboush, and shows Ai a photo on her phone on her phone of the creature wrapped in a special costume. Ai swaps passports with a man named Mahmoud and says he respects him and his right to belong and declines the offer to take his tent.

Moving to Eastern Turkey, we meet a couple who are among the 30 million Kurds living in the region that straddles Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria. They explain how the used to have a nice life with their own vegetable garden. But the struggle for political and cultural autonomy has cost them their homes and their livelihood. As we see the rubble in one settlement, a caption says 500,000 Kurds were displaced during a Turkish crackdown in 2015. Cameras prowl inside shelled homes, as people try to salvage belongings and a couple of people lament the damage and the senseless loss of life. But Ai opts not to discuss the reasons for the scenes he surveys. He is solely interested in the collateral damage and its impact on those whose lives will never be the same again.

Over a slightly contrived image of a moth flying up against a wire fence, a caption reveals that Turkey and the European Union reached a deal in March 2016 to restrict the numbers being allowed on to the continent. In return for being allowed to send back unwanted migrants, the EU promised Ankara €6 billion and visa-free travel. Emboldened troops fire tear gas into the camps and we see frightened children clinging to their grandparents and young men clashing with riot police. Ai has his head shaved in solidarity with the refugees, as we hear a couple of brothers vowing to press on to Germany, as they cannot abandon their dream. A woman with her back to the camera complains that no one has helped her apply for asylum and Ai (with a full head of hair) sits with her and offers a bucket when she vomits. Despite sit-down protests, thousands are deported and the authorities try to stop the crews from filming, as they are loaded on to boats and sent back to the nightmare from whence they came.

A towering aerial shot reveals the layout of another enormous camp, with the residents scurrying around like ants. Turkey now holds the most refugees in the world, with the majority of the three million having fled from Syria. However, only 10% live in official camps, with the rest receiving little or no humanitarian aid. Dr Cem Terzi of the Association of Bridging Peoples tries to treat some of the sick, but bemoans the fact that his compatriots aren't really interested in helping them. He despairs that they have no rights and can be moved at the whim of politicians grandstanding to their electorates. A man named Sediqi shows the camera a row of graves and the ID cards of the five family members who drowned trying to reach Europe. He sobs in the rain, as he reveals that he dreams of those he failed to save. His pain is palpable.

Lebanon hosts two million refugees from Palestine and Syria and they make up a third of the country's entire population. As kids clamour to give the peace sign to the camera at the Ain al-Hilweh camp, Tanya Chapuisat from UNICEF explains that several generations have been raised here, but few Syrian kids receive more than a rudimentary education. Maya Yahya from the Carnegie Middle East Centre suggests that such a situation leaves them vulnerable to exploitation and radicalisation. Druze leader Walid Joumblatt tells Ai that Europe has a very hypocritical approach to refugees, as they pay to keep them away. But Lebanon has slipped down the order of importance and they are struggling to integrate more outsiders into an already delicately balanced society. He insists they will continue to look to the future, but implies that he thinks it's bleak.

Ai wheels a suitcase through a checkpoint before a caption outlines the plight of the Palestinians, who are the world's biggest refugee group, with 4.7 million being cooped into the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. We see armed brigades driving through the streets and being hailed as heroes, as Ai films through a gap in the Defence Wall, which is covered with paramilitary murals and tributes to martyrs. As Israel and Egypt have been blockading Gaza since 2007, 80% of the population depends on humanitarian assistance. Over shots of penned queues waiting to go through a checkpoint, Hagai El-Ad from the Israeli B'Tsalem group decries the injustice that this represents. Ai meets a group of young women, who claim Gaza is a large prison and, yet, they somehow remain cheerful enough to joke about their situation.

A laboured top shot on to a tiger circling in a confined space presages an explanation from Dr Amir Khalil from Four Paws that the big cat named Laziz was smuggled through the Gaza supply tunnel. He organises papers for it to be taken to South Africa. For the humans trapped in the enclave, however, there is no easy escape and we see the whole settlement fall into silence as power cuts disrupt life on a regular basis.

The earliest human migration took place 140,000 years ago and Ai returns to Kenya because 26% of the world's refugees reside in sub-Saharan Africa. A dust storm blows up as a result of global warming and Ai photographs people moving like spectres through the parched landscape. He also goes to Dadaab, which is the biggest refugee complex on the planet, with 500,000 sheltering here from civil war and famine in Somalia, Eritrea and South Sudan. Ai films goats looking for somewhere to graze on the parched terrain, as we meet Wella Kouyou from UNHCR, who reveals that numbers are rising as resources are dwindling and 250 million Africans are expected to experience drought, hunger and disease because of climate change, as the continental population rises to 2.5 billion by 2050.

Captions inform us that Pakistan has accepted three million Afghans since the Soviet invasion. However, many are now being deported for security reasons and we see mud huts being demolished in a cleared settlement. Marin Din Kajdom and Maya Ameratunga from UNHCR state that many have answered a rallying cry to rebuild their shattered country and we see a convoy of brightly painted lorries heading through the mountains. Ahmed Shuja from Human Rights Watch explains that many have been away so long that they are not able to return to their tribal lands and face difficulties in establishing themselves in alien territory. But, as least they will be citizens of their own homeland again.

Leaving men building new mud dwellings, we land in Berlin, where Ai films people lined up at Templehof, as a caption reveals that 1.2 million arrived in Germany seeking asylum between 2015-16. Manager Pascal C. Thirion takes Ai over the layout of the airport, while a drone hovers over the booths that have been partitioned out inside. Maria Kipp from Tamaja Shelter says the key task is to make them feel human again, although one teenage girl complains that she is bored and is tired of being told what to do.

In Paris, African migrants sleep rough on the street and one man is saddened that the democracy he had heard so much about is so ineffectual. Further north, 10,000 live in The Jungle outside Calais in the hope of crossing to Britain. Over views of the camp, Greek migration minister Ioannis Mouzalas says the only way forward is in union to combat isolationism and xenophobia. But, as we see The Jungle being demolished, it seems as though national interests are consistently being put before those of the migrants seeking a better life.

Back in Iraq, Mosul falls to Islamic State and refugees flood out of the second city. A caption blames the rise of ISIS on the 2003 invasion by the Coalition of the Willing and notes that the recapture of Mosul led to ISIS destroying the oil fields and putting 300,000 out of their homes. Angry orange flames fill the black smoked-sky, as people wander through their devastated neighbourhoods. One man missing half of his right arm describes how the fundamentalists treated the women they found on the streets, as a cow wanders through the rubble as though in a surrealist dream sequence. But this is all too real for those with their belongings on their backs, as they look for somewhere safe to stay.

Out on the Mediterranean Sea, a patrol boat scours the horizon for rafts. According to a caption, over 5000 drowned trying to cross to Europe in 2016, while another claims that 34,000 flee their homes every day because of famine, poverty or war. A blue boat filled with Africans in orange life jackets is picked up and health workers describe the emergencies they had to deal with, including eight pregnancies. Happy to be safe, some of the women sing and clap in the holding hall.

Despite John F. Kennedy's assertion that only one group of Americans has not immigrated, the border with Mexico is now partially walled and vigorously patrolled. A patrolman asks Ai what he is filming and helpfully points out where the US ends and Mexico begins. As Ai cuts a Mexican migrants hair outside their shack near the border, we hear human rights activist Gabriela Soraya Vázquez state that everyone is entitled to move to better themselves. Kemal Kirisci, Senior Fellow at the Brookings Insitution avers that social media has helped spark the current upsurge, while globalisation has also had a double-edged effect and much will depend for the future on how well people from different cultures and religions learn to live together in a shrinking world.

Syrian astronaut Mohammad Fares concurs, as he saw people sharing a single, fragile planet when he was in space - which he thinks is a good place for the evil people who spoil life for the rest of us. Final shots take us over camps across the globe and we are left with a sense of the magnitude of the problem and the difficulty that humankind faces in not just accepting the right of others to exist, but also to improve, prosper and worship without prejudice.

Numbering Christopher Doyle among its cinematographers and including quotations from the likes of Baba Tahir, Nazim Hikmet, Sherko Bikas, Mahmoud Darwish, Nizor Qabbani and Ali Ahmad Said Esber (aka Adonis), this is always as much an artwork as a piece of advocacy. It also comes perilously close to a vanity project, as Ai Weiwei inserts himself in situations as a hale fellow well met when his absence would not in any way diminish the potency of his message. That said, Ai knows all about displacement after being caught up in the Cultural Revolution and, if his presence helps the film reach the widest possible audience, his cameos are a minor irritation worth enduring. As are the occasionally illegible captions and subtitles (why do they always insist on fixing white text to light areas of the frame when they could so easily use another colour or thicken the letter edging?).

But nothing should detract from the fact that this is a compelling and provocative encapsulation of a problem that should shame us all. What is so remarkable about the people depicted here is the combination of dignity and determination that enables them to face each fresh challenge with fortitude and faith. Ai opts not to name any of the migrants he interviews, but he also avoids patronising them in allowing them to speak their minds. Moreover, he and editor Niels Pogh Andersen also tellingly juxtapose God's eye viewpoints with earthbound close-ups to put the issues in perspective. But he might have identified the camps, as their names are bywords for the insularity and intolerance that blights our world.