As a leading member of the Sixth Generation of Chinese film-makers, Jia Zhangke has always been willing to explore topics that the mainstream industry chooses to ignore. Indeed, he has largely operated outside the official sector in order to assess the impact that socio-economic reform has had on ordinary citizens. Following the self-financed shorts, One Day in Beijing (1994), Xiao Shan Going Home (1995) and Du Du (1996), Jia was able to make his feature debut with Xiao Wu (1997), a shoestring study of a pickpocket in Jia's native Fenyang that not only tackled provocative political themes, but which also tilted at the calcified pictorialism of the Fifth Generation that had done so much to raise the international profile of Chinese cinema.

Ironically, his sophomore outing, Platform (1998) was an epic three-hour chronicle of a provincial performance troupe's fortunes between the Cultural Revolution and the rise of Deng Xiaoping and Jia completed his `modernity trilogy with Unknown Pleasures (1999), which focused on the consequences of the one child policy. Although none of these films was granted a release in China, Jia's growing reputation abroad prompted the authorities to offer him state funding for The World (2004), which slyly used a Beijing theme park filled with miniatures of foreign landmarks to examine China's changing status and the shifting aspirations of its people.

The price of progress also came under scrutiny in Still Life (2006), a meditation on the Three Gorges Dam project that won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, and 24 City (2008), which charted half a century of change at a Chengdu factory. Throughout this period, Jia also made a number of shorts and documentaries. But he surprised many by returning from a five-year feature hiatus with A Touch of Sin (2013), which linked four storylines to expose the increasingly bleakness and violence of Chinese society. Now, he returns with Mountains May Depart, which took two years to reach UK cinemas and suggests that Jia is still spoiling for a fight with the powers that be.

As the people of Fenyang prepare for the start of the 21st century with a rousing dance routine to `Go West' by The Pet Shop Boys, gas station owner Zhang Jinsheng (Zhang Yi) comes to show singer Shen Tao (Zhao Tao) his new red Volkswagen sedan. He asks her devoted friend Liang Jangjung (Liang Jin Dong) how things are going at the coal mine where he works and boasts of driving Tao to America. She teases Jinsheng about his poor knowledge of geography and notes that Macao will soon be returning to China and suggests that they visit there or Hong Kong.

Shortly after the new year concert, Jinsheng takes Tao and Langzi for a day out. He lets Tao drive and laughs it off when she collides with a Yellow River signpost. However, he suggests that they lose the third wheel next time they go out and Tao fails to understand why he wants Langzi out of the picture. In order to boost his prospects, Jinsheng buys the mine and fires Langzi from his post in the helmet dispensary. But his aggression gets him nowhere, as he drops in to see Tao in the electrical shop where she works to find her sharing dumplings with Langzi behind the counter. He sulks as Tao plays a Sally Yeh song to a couple interested in buying a stereo and stalks out when she resumes her lunch. Catching up with him in the street, Tao asks why he is behaving so oddly and he awkwardly confesses his feelings for her and urges her to stay away from Langzi if she wants to remain friends.

While dancing at a disco, Tao seems to favour Jinsheng and Liangzi is so upset that he punches his rival on the nose. Taken aback by her mild-mannered friend lashing out in such a way, Tao barely responds when he walks away and she throws in her lot with Jinsheng. He buys her a Golden Labrador puppy and notes that they will be turning 40 if it lives its expected 15-year span. They drive out to the river in his car and Tao is appalled to discover a bundle of dynamite in the boot. She demands to know what it's for and he admits he bought it to blow up Liangzi (after the mine foreman refused to get him a gun). Glaring, Tao orders him to detonate the explosive and he tosses it into the river and hands her a lighter to spark the fuse.

Rather than breaking up with Jinsheng, however, Tao sticks with him and informs her father that she has a boyfriend while they are travelling on a train. He is less than impressed by her choice, but has no intention of interfering with her life. Tao poses with Jinsheng in front of a backdrop of Sydney Opera House for her pre-wedding photo and rides out into the country on her scooter to give Liangzi his invitation to the ceremony. Unable to find him anywhere, she pauses on a deserted road and watches in horror as a plane seeding the nearby forest spins out of control and crashes in the scrub. A truck driver pauses to rubberneck, but nobody goes to the aid of the stricken crew.

Eventually, Tao finds Liangzi at his digs. But he declines the invitation because he is about to leave the area. He has no idea of his destination, but he knows he has to get away. As he tosses the keys over a wall, Tao asks him to say goodbye, but he insists he already parted from her at the disco. Despite her hurt, Tao goes ahead with the wedding and gives birth to a son, whom Jinsheng calls Zhang Daole and he promises to make lots of dollars so that he can live up to his name.

At this juncture, the title credit appears and Jia switches from the boxy Academy frame format to a wider 1:85 aspect ratio, as the scene shifts to 2014 and Liangzi poses for a photograph with his workmates at a provincial mine. He is married to an unnamed wife and has a young child. But he is also suffering from a cancer brought on by coal dust and his doctor advises him to return home and make arrangements for treatment with the local hospital. The trio arrive in Fenyang and Liangzi uses a hammer to break the padlock on the house he had abandoned 14 years earlier. His wife is dismayed by how big and bare it is, but she makes it cosy and resolves to help her husband through his ordeal.

When he is well enough to go out, Liangzi hooks up with the mine foreman (Sanming Han). But he is about to relocate to Kazakhstan to lay pipelines for a Chinese company and has had to borrow money from his brothers to pay his fare. Liangzi had hoped to secure a loan for his treatment, but is buoyed by the news that Tao and Jinsheng are divorced. As Jinsheng has made a small fortune with his shrewd investments, Liangzi's wife hopes that Tao will be willing to help with the medical costs and tracks her down to a wedding banquet, where she is among the guests of honour.

Tao comes to the house and is saddened to see Liangzi laid so low. She finds the wedding invitation he had discarded years before and explains that Jinsheng has custody of Dollar (Zishan Rong), who is studying at the International School in Shanghai. Digging into her bag, she produces a wad of banknotes and reassures Liangzi that she can afford the loan, as Jinsheng gave her his filling station as part of the divorce settlement. Walking away with tears in her eyes, Tao wonders how differently things might have turned out if she had chosen the right man.

Shortly afterwards, Tao drops her father (who has been trying to find her a new husband) at the train station so he can spend some time with an old army buddy. However, he dies in the waiting room after a long journey and Tao has to pay for an ambulance to bring his body back to Fenyang. She texts Jinsheng and asks him to put Dollar on a plane for the funeral. But she barely recognises him, as he has acquired big city attitudes and looks down his nose on his provincial relatives. Nettled, Tao forces Dollar on to his knees during the memorial service and makes him bow low in honour of his grandfather.

During the wake, Tao overhears Dollar calling his stepmother `mommy' while chatting online and, from a series of snapshots she finds on his tablet, she resents the fact that he has been so pampered. She also picks up that Jinsheng (who now calls himself Peter) is planning to move to Australia and she realises her time with her son is going to be short. They drive to the bridge spanning the river and she urges him to make the most of his opportunities. But she loses her temper when she sees him Skyping home again and defies Jinsheng's order to put him on the next flight by escorting him on a slow-train journey across the country. They stop off at the station where her father passed away and they sit in the deserted waiting room to pay their respects. On the last leg of the trip, Tao gives Dollar a key-ring and tells him that he will always have a home.

A final switch into the anamorphic 2.35 widescreen format takes the action forward to 2025, where Dollar (Dong Zijian) is finding life Down Under difficult, as his father has divorced again and they are drifting further apart. Although he has everything he could want, Dollar has few real friends and gets teased for his name in his Cantonese class with Mia (Sylvia Chang). He tells her that he has no mother, but disrespects Jinsheng when he interrupts a meeting with some old friends, who are discussing the possibility of returning to China now that the political situation has changed.

Back at their luxurious apartment overlooking Port Campbell, Dollar finds a couple of guns and some bullets lying on a coffee table and gets into an argument with Jinsheng about why he is finding it so tough to learn his mother tongue. Dollar has a job as a waiter at a nearby restaurant and he takes a delivery to an upmarket address and is surprised when Mia opens the door. She informs him that he is her first guest and invites him in. But he is nervous and feels more comfortable talking to her during a break in lessons. He reveals that he was joking about being a test tube baby, but insists he can't remember his mother's name. Mia explains that she left Hong Kong in 1996 to live in Toronto and found her way to Australia after her marriage broke down.

Dollar waits on Mias table when she has a frosty reunion with her ex-husband, who is demanding that she pays her share of some of the expenses he had covered during their marriage. Mia is stung by his pettiness and storms out, only for Dollar to call round with her order and a recommendation that she doesn't let the past ruin her life. However, he also needs to move on with his future and asks Mia to translate so he can have a heart to heart with Jinsheng. He announces that he is going to move out and quit college and find something to do that interests him. But Jinsheng mocks his notions of freedom and points to the guns he has bought since Australia changed its firearms laws and complains that it makes no sense to make owning a weapon legal and firing it a crime.

Mia and Dollar go for a drive and, sitting in the passenger seat, he gets a feeling of déjà vu (as he had earlier when Mia played the song he had listened to on the train with Tao). She is amused by how earnest and how naive he is and smiles when he takes the wheel and drives them into the middle of a field. When a helicopter passes overhead, he suggests that they take a flight over the bay and Mia is taken by surprise when he kisses her. She takes his face in her hands and kisses him back and they end up in bed together. As she lies with her head on Dollar's shoulder, Mia notices the key-ring around his neck and he begins to cry when he admits that his mother gave it to him. She suggests that he flies home to visit her and explains how much she missed her own mother when she first left and came to dread the ring of the phone.

Dollar and Mia go to a travel agency to plan their flights. But he gets cold feet when the clerk mistakes him for Mia's son and he urges her to leave. In the car park, he admits that he was suddenly concerned about how he would introduce Mia to Tao and she touches his cheek to show that she understands. Mia walks down to the beach and Dollar follows to apologise. But she reminds him that he is free and has a duty to himself to do whatever he wants. Meanwhile, back in Fenyang, Tao prepares some dumplings before taking her dog for a walk in the snow. Looking at the pagoda that dominates the landscape, she begins to dance and swings into the steps to `Go West' from the opening sequence.

Unfortunately, this last glimpse of Tao only reminds the audience of how much she has been missed during the last act. Poorly written and hesitantly acted, the Australian sequences require us to empathise with the most resistible characters in the storyline and take onboard a complete newcomer whose backstory is clumsily handled in a bid to coax us into identifying with her. Sylvia Chang is a wonderful actress, but even she struggles with lumpen dialogue that lurches between exposition and platitude. It hardly helps that Dong Zijian is so stiff as the teenage Dollar. But Jia also seems out of his comfort zone directing in a foreign language so far from home.

By contrast, the scenes in his hometown are handled with his customary sense of place and affinity for ordinary people. Once again, Jia works well with cinematographer Yu Lik-wai and art director Qiang Liu (whose of atmospheric colour is superb) to capture the atmosphere of Fenyang and the northern scenery in the surrounding Shanxi province, with the three sequences at the Yellow River being particularly effective, as three become one as fireworks, gelignite and controlled explosions send seismic ripples through the lives of Tao, Liangzi and Jinsheng.

Editor Matthieu Laclau and composer Yoshihiro Hanno prove equally adept at setting the pace and tone, as the triumvirate slowly disintegrates. But special mention should go to costume designer Li Hua, for the multi-coloured jumper worn by Tao (which ends up as a jacket for her dog), the black leather jacket and red pullover sported by Jinsheng and the hard-wearing blue jacket that identifies Liangzi as a lowly working man. Although their characters are somewhat sketchily drawn, Liang Jin Dong and Zhang Yi provide Zhao Tao with solid support, as she once again demonstrates how intuitively she understands the world that her husband seeks to explore. Its just a shame that he opted to deprive us of her company for so much of a disappointing denouement that doesn't delve deeply enough into the idea that luxury and escape are not all they are cracked up to be.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Marc Rothemund is primarily known in this country for his harrowing study of the White Rose resistance movement, Sophie Scholl: The Final Days (2006), which not only earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Film, but also the Best Director prize at the Berlin Film Festival. However, the true-life tale he tells in My Blind Date With Life couldn't be more different, as it chronicles the efforts of Saliya Kahawatte to disguise the almost complete loss of his sight in order to realise his ambitions in the hospitality industry. This may not sound like the stuff of feel-good gold, but screenwriters Oliver Ziegenbalg and Ruth Toma keep the cheap laughs and easy sentimentality at bay, even though Rothemund doesn't always manage to resist the temptation to rely on blurred perspectives.

Neustadt teenager Saliya Kahawatte (Kostja Ullmann) is approaching his final exams when he begins having problems seeing clearly. Tests reveal that he has a hereditary condition that is causing the detachment of his retinas and an operation can only save 5% of his sight. Father Niluka (Sanjay Shihora) takes the news badly, but mother Dagmar (Sylvana Krappatsch) promises that Saliya can stay at his old school to acquire the qualifications he requires to study hotel management. His sister, Sheela (Nilam Farooq) helps him study and he develops a way of repeating information in order to memorise it. Yet, even though he gets excellent grades, his father can barely bring himself to look up from his beer bottle and offers little support when Saliya struggles to find any hotel that will take a risk on his disability.

Deciding that honesty is not the best policy, Saliya omits to mention his problem when applying for an apprenticeship at the Bayerischer Hof in Munich and Sheela coaches him in interview technique prior to meeting personnel manager, Fried (Alexander Held). Fortunately, Max Schröder (Jacob Matschenz) arrives late for his interview and repays Saliya backing up his excuse by helping him survive a tour of the hotel. They meet chef Krohn (Michael A. Grimm) and maitre d' Kleinschmidt (Johann von Bülow), who is a stern taskmaster and Saliya does enough to convince Fried that he is an honest man with ambition and a love of the trade.

Sheela helps him settle into his digs and walks him through his route to work and he is relieved to find Max has also been accepted. Housekeeper Frau Reidinger (Johanna Bittenbinder) puts them in a group with Jala Asgari (Samira El Ouassil), Tim Wasmuth (Michael Koschorek), Hannah Kümmerle (Agnes Decker) and Irina Saizew-Müller (Jasmin Wisniewski) and, during their first morning tidying rooms, Max promises to cover for Saliya after he spots him using a magnifying glass to clean a mirror. He also takes him on a guided tour of the hotel, so that he can familiarise himself with the layout. Max also reveals that his father is a restaurateur who despairs of him ever being suited for employment and that this is his last chance before he cuts off his allowance.

Picking up tips about using towels to clean mirrors and coping with the bruises from tripping over steps, Saliya begins to impress Reidinger, while Max just about keeps ahead of the game despite sleeping with guests and chambermaids alike. When they transfer to the kitchen, Saliya meets delivery girl Laura (Anna Maria Mühe), who takes an instant shine to him. As does dishwasher Hamid (Kida Khodr Ramadan), a refugee surgeon from Kabul who realises that Saliya has problems seeing and promises to keep shtum. Indeed, he helps staunch the bleeding when Saliya cuts himself on a cheese-slicing machine and he is relieved when Krohn agrees to go along with the deceit and helps him master potentially dangerous tasks.

However, Max has to break the bad news that Laura has a boyfriend and he tries to cheer Saliya up by taking him clubbing. Such is his highly developed hearing that he hears Tina (Olivia Marei) telling her friend that she intends sleeping with the `Indian boy' and Max coerces him into inviting her over for an evening that culminates in a noisy sex session. He also ends up in a clinch with Irina during a snowball fight in the street and Laura thinks they are an item. She is also put out when Saliya fails to wave when he is talking to Hamid about his work permit problems. But he rushes after her and she agrees to go on a date.

Meanwhile, Saliya has survived a stint on reception (where he has a few problems with keys that Max has to solve for him) and has moved into the restaurant, where the officious Kleinschmidt lies in wait. In order to master the art of cocktail making, Max sneaks into his father's restaurant after hours and prints out recipes in large print so that Saliya can learn them. A bartending montage follows, as the boys prank around and get drunk on their samples. Saliya decides this is the perfect place to take Laura to dinner and he learns the wine list and menu in advance. But he tells Max that he isn't going to come clean about his eyesight on a first date.

It goes well and he is delighted to hear that Laura works on a farm belonging to her parents. But he is taken aback to discover she has a five year-old son. She also has her suspicions about his sight, when he fails to notice her hinting about a wine refill and doesn't see a party of pretty girls pass their table. Nevertheless, she invites him on a river trip the following Sunday and he throws himself into mastering the bottle tops and labels so he can keep Kleinschmidt off his back. Unfortunately, Max cops off with a guest and Saliya is forced to re-wash and polish the wine glasses to meet Kleinschmidt's exacting standards. After several repetitions, he loses his temper and is warned that two more infractions will lead to his dismissal.

Glad to get away from the hotel, Saliya spends a day by the lake with Laura and Oskar (Pepe Remiger) and manages to play football with him without giving the game away. At bedtime, the boy asks if Saliya is an alien from a planet where they don't play sport, but Laura is touched by how well they get on and kisses Saliya before he gets his taxi home. She also mentions that she stopped seeing Oskar's dad because he kept lying to her. His own father turns out to have been living a double life, too, as he decamps to Sri Lanka, annuls his marriage to Dagmar and clears out their bank account. Thus, Saliya is forced to join Hamid working at a night bakery to help his mother get by and he starts drinking and popping pills in order to cope.

Furthermore, Kleinschmidt has issued a written warning for being late on his first day in the hotel restaurant and he scarcely veils his almost racist contempt in reminding Saliya that he is on the precipice. A montage shows him burning the candle at both ends and finding it tough to take orders during a busy service and Hamid is concerned for him. Max also warns him he risks knocking down his house of cards and calls him when he is late for a shift. He is looking after Oskar at the playground while Laura does her rounds and she is furious when she returns to find the boy has wandered away and that Saliya had no idea where he had gone. When he tries to explain, she tuts and stalks away.

Late for service, Saliya is stoked on pills and Max pleads with him to take extra care. But he trips and drops a tray of champagne flutes and, when he ignores Max to take out some replacements, he walks into a trolley carrying a large wedding cake and crashes to the ground. Kleinschmidt throws him out of the dining-room and another montage shows Saliya popping pills at the bakery and falling down a flight of steps after being ejected from a nightclub for being a drunken nuisance. Max comes to find him in hospital and flirts with Sheela, who has come to tell him that Dagmar has found a job and can keep the house. Saliya concedes that he has bitten off more than he can chew. But he hates his new job in a call centre and, when Max talks him into cycling down a steep Alpine road (and he emerges largely unscathed), he decides to take the final Bayerischer exam after all.

Much to his delight, Kleinschmidt and Fried give him a second chance after the rest of his group speak up for him and Max lets him practice laying tables in his father's restaurant. He even gets to speak to Laura again after she spots him helping Hamid with his medical registration appeal. But, while she turns away when he insists he has been missing her, he refuses to let it get him down and he does the exam under Kleinschmidt's beady eye. He does well until it comes to setting places for four when he trips rushing to add water glasses after one of the other examiners tips him off. Fumbling around on the floor, he puts them in what he hopes is the right place. But, even though Kleinschmidt declares his table a disaster, he awards Saliya his diploma and everyone applauds.

At a drinks party on the hotel roof, Kleinschmidt offers Saliya a job as a sommelier. But he reveals that he is opening a restaurant with Max, who admits to Fried that he didn't think he'd last a week on the course. Hamid calls up to thank Saliya with his ambulance megaphone and everyone raises their glass for a toast. Max and Saliya find their place and Dagmar and Sheela attend the grand opening. As does Laura, who brings Saliya a rattling football to make it easier to play with Oskar and they kiss before she leads him to dance with the rest of the staff.

Closing with a credit crawl cameo by the real Saliya Kahawatte embracing Kostja Ullmann, this is an easily digestible confection that can always use truth as an excuse for its more contrived elements. Rothemund and cinematographer Bernhard Jasper have little choice but to blur the imagery whenever they need to show something from Saliya's point of view. But the repeated use of this gambit suggests a reluctance to trust the audience to read the perplexed expression on Ullmann's face and gauge his thought processes at each new crisis. It also means that when his lack of sight becomes critical, as in the playground sequences, the shallow depth of field feels less disorientating than it would have done if the blurring had been utilised more sparingly.

Fortunately, Ullmann conveys his physical and psychological difficulties with a conviction and charm that retains audience interest in the rather predictable storyline. Jacob Matschenz and Anna Maria Mühe also lift their rather one-dimensional characters off the script page, while Johann von Bülow makes a splendidly suave adversary. But, in truth, everything runs a touch too smoothly, whether it's Christian Eissle four-star production design or the way in which the songs by Djorkaeff and Beatzarre slot into Michael Geldreich and Jean-Christoph Ritter's mood-guiding score. Thus, while this is never anything less than enjoyable, it's not that memorable, either.

Having disappointed with his English-language debut, Louder Than Bombs (2015), Norwegian director Joachim Trier returns closer to form with Thelma, which curiously reaches British cinemas a day or two past Halloween. While not on a par with his earliest outings, Reprise (2006) and Oslo, August 31st (2011), this variation on the story that Brian De Palma told in Carrie (1976) often feels like a conscious attempt to de-genrify a drama centred on telekinetic powers. Yet Trier and regular co-scenarist Eskil Vogt (who made a considerable impact with his own directorial bow, Blind, in 2014) also dot the action with hommages to the likes of Alfred Hitchcock (more of whom anon) to keep the audience on edge.

When she was six years old, Thelma (Grethe Eltervåg) had gone hunting with her father, Trond (Henrik Rafaelsen). She had been intrigued by the fish swimming beneath her feet as the crossed a frozen pond and had sipped a hot drink while watching her father load his rifle. But she had also turned as he had pointed the gun at her head rather than at the young deer in the middle distance.

Now, several years later, Themla (Eili Harboe) has started college in Oslo and Trond looks on as her wheelchair-bound mother, Unni (Ellen Dorrit Petersen), calls to check she is settling in. Thelma seems reluctant to chat, but tells her parents she loves them as she hangs up. The next day, she suffers a fit after Anja (Kaya Wilkins) sits beside her in the library and a flock of birds flies up from a tree int he courtyard. She undergoes tests, but is keen for the doctor (Marte Magnusdotter Solem) to be discreet about contacting her GP, as she doesn't want her parents knowing anything is wrong or that she has been having bad dreams about slithering snakes.

They come for a visit shortly after Anja makes herself known to Thelma at the campus swimming pool and Thelma looks up her profile on Instagram. When they go for dinner, Thelma tries not to draw attention to a gay couple sitting nearby and is admonished by Trond for mocking Creationist ideas when she knows to respect other people's beliefs. On returning to her digs, he asks if she is okay and she laments that nobody seems to want to be friends and he urges her never to forget that she is a wonderful person.

Leaving the library at closing time, Thelma checks Anja's profile and heads to the bar where she is drinking with her friends. She is introduced to Julie (Ingrid Giæver), Daniel (Oskar Pask) and Kristoffer (Steinar Klouman Hallert), and, when the latter teases her about being teetotal and a devout Christian, she makes him look foolish by asking if he knows how his mobile phone works. They go on to a nightclub and Anja coaxes Thelma on to the dance floor. But, just as she is having fun, Trond calls to chide her for not returning their calls and makes her feel guilty for Unni's anxiety.

Walking home alone, Thelma gazes at Anja's picture on her phone, as she tries to sleep. The intensity of her feelings wakes Anja, however, and she feels herself being drawn to the nondescript apartment building in which Thelma lives. Sensing she is close, Thelma goes to the window and sees Anja lingering on the footpath beneath a streetlight. She hurries down to greet her, but has a fit and has to be helped upstairs. Anja insists on staying and they share the bed, with Thelma reaching out in the night to touch her friend.

The next morning, Thelma asks Anja why she came over and she searches her phone in vain for the text she thought Thelma had sent her. She also admits to having no idea how she knew where Thelma lives and they laugh it off before leaving for college together. But Thelma knows she is developing a crush on Anja and treasures a hair she finds on her pillow. During a lecture, she shows her a bottle of wine she has bought and they get tipsy and imagine the worst things to say to a Christian. Thelma even tries a cigarette on the balcony, but Anja reassures her that she doesn't have to smoke.

A few days later, Anja invites Thelma to a ballet at the Oslo Opera House with her mother (Vanessa Borgli). As they sit in the impressive auditorium, Anja reveals that she has broken up with Daniel and takes Thelma's hand as the lights go down. During the performance, Anja lets her fingers stroke Thelma's bare legs and she becomes increasingly tense, as she feels emotions that she has been taught to suppress. Pinned back in her seat, Thelma gives off such powerful forces that a fixture above the stage starts to sway and she rushes out into the foyer to regain her composure. However, Anja follows her to the cloakroom, where they kiss and Thelma responds eagerly before another wave of guilt prompts her to flee.

Back in her room, she calls home and Trond detects her distress. She confesses to drinking beer and he sounds disappointed. But he accepts that she has to make her own decisions, while warning her not to lose sight of her true self or to let her new friends have undue influence over her. Thelma goes to a student church service and, during a hymn, tries to reconnect with what she has been taught. But she goes to a party with Kristoffer and surprises Anja by drinking wine and lying about being too busy to return her calls.

Anja is even more taken aback when Thelma accepts a joint and takes a deep puff before going into a reverie, in which she imagines Anja's hand slipping into her underwear and the snake from her nightmare coiling itself around her neck before sliding into her open mouth. She jolts back into consciousness and is embarrassed to discover that Kristoffer had only given her a cigarette and Anja looks ashamed at having been in on the prank, as Thelma throws up on the floor before hurrying away.

At the suggestion of her doctor, Thelma has an MRI scan and is asked about the breakdown she suffered when she was six. Thelma has no memory of this and the doctor recommends that she asks Trond about it when she lets slip that he is a doctor. As they need to measure her brain during a seizure, Thelma is hospitalised for a few days and she flashes back to Unni fussing over her baby brother and how she had been told to play on her own. When the infant had started crying in his playpen, Thelma had closed her eyes and concentrated hard to make him stop. But she had also managed to move him and Unni and Trond are shocked to find the child trapped beneath the sofa.

While being subjected to flashing lights in an effort to provoke a fit, Thelma has to answer questions about her past while breathing deeply. However, she struggles to register any abnormal patterns until the doctor mentions romance. As she recalls the places where she met Anja, Thelma begins to lose control. Down in the laundry room of her residence, Anja starts to feel something unusual surrounding her and she is disturbed to find music playing in her room when she returns upstairs. Turning away from the window, she feels the glass shatter behind her and Thelma is shunted into a full fit, as she sees Anja's library and lecture hall chairs empty.

Rushing back to her room, Thelma calls Anja, but there is no reply and she is appalled when her nose begins to bleed into a glass of milk, which she drops on the floor. The specialist (Anders Mossling) informs her that she does not suffer from epilepsy, but could well be experiencing psychogenic non-epileptic seizures. He asks about the condition afflicting her grandmother and Thelma is puzzled because she had been told she died years ago. She looks up the symptoms online and sees lots of old religious paintings depicting fits, as well as black-and-white photographs and case studies.

Determined to get to the bottom of the family mystery, she visits her grandmother (Vibeke Lundquist) and is disappointed to find her so unresponsive. A nurse (Ingrid Jørgensen Dragland) informs her that she used to be lucid and had told her that she had caused herself to have cancer as punishment for her husband disappearing off his boat. She thinks the old lady's medicine is too strong, but Trond believes he knows what is best for his mother.

Unable to raise Anja on the phone, Thelma has a fit in the swimming pool and struggles to surface. But she hauls herself out of the water and goes to visit Anja after her mother sends a worried text. She finds the door of her bedsit open and is relieved to see the glass intact in the window. But she also notices a strand of hair seemingly encased in the glass and, convinced that she is somehow responsible for her friend's disappearance, she asks if she can come home.

Trond and Unni are happy to see her, in their buttoned-up way. He recognises the symptoms she describes and urges her not to be afraid. However, he laces her tea so that she sleeps and confides that he has something painful to tell her. He takes her back to the night her baby brother Matthias vanished from his bath and she pointed to the place in the frozen lake where his body could be found. Her mother had tried to kill herself by jumping off a traffic bridge, but she had been left disabled and bitterly resentful. As Thelma takes in this revelation, Trond warns her that she has a power within her that can make awful things happen and swears that they have always tried to help and protect her. When she tells him about Anja, he suggests that she misused her powers to trap her into a relationship and that Anja would walk away if her free will was restored.

Hurt by this assertion, Thelma begins to resent being made to pray on her knees for forgiveness for her wicked desires. She also tires of taking pills and being locked in her room each night and asks Trond if he is trying to do to her what he did to his mother. The next morning, he goes on to the lake in his boat. Smoking, he looks up to see birds circling overhead. He thinks he catches a glimpse of Thelma on the shore, but looks down to see that the palms of his hands are burning and he throws himself overboard when his entire body is engulfed by flames. Thinking the blaze is out, he tries to clamber into the boat, only for the fire to begin again and he disappears beneath the calm surface of the water.

Suddenly, Thelma wakes from a nightmare and she rushes to the edge of the lake. Wading in, she dives deep into the inky depths, only to surface in the campus pool, where Anja is waiting to embrace her. With memory, fantasy and reality now blurring beyond distinction, Thelma struggles on to the bank and vomits. A caterpillar crawls over her skin and she lies on her back and tries to work out what is happening to her.

Striding back into the house, she goes to the dresser where her phone has been hidden to find a message from Anja. Unni calls to her husband and is astonished when she gets out of her chair and walks after Thelma touches her knee and cheek. But her daughter refuses to remain and she is next seen waiting for Anja on the sunlit campus. She anticipates her arrival and the kiss on her neck and smiles at seeing her lover before they wander hand in hand across the square, as the camera pulls away from them to depict them as two insignificant dots moving in space.

If Stephen King ever decided to re-imagine Ingmar Bergman's Persona (1966), it might end up looking something like this initially compelling, but increasingly improbable saga. While Trier and Vogt keep the focus on Thelma's struggle to find her niche and some friends at college, this remains an intriguing study of relocation anxiety and social awkwardness, which is made all the more teasingly credible by the fact that parents Trond and Unni appear to have been imposing their conservative religious values on a daughter who is as insecure in her sexuality as she is in her suppressed sense of self. But the nature of the story changes the moment Thelma has her first seizure and her burgeoning feelings for Anja are steadily sidelined to make way for the dark revelations about her past and the discovery that her parents have been raising her so strictly for good reason.

The notion that a young girl could have inherited her grandmother's ability to use her willpower and telekinetic talent to get whatever she wants is amusing enough. But, after such a meticulously crafted opening, it feels more than a little anti-climactic, especially as Trier is unable from his vantage point of lofty detachment to prevent the growingly significant paranormal elements from tipping the premise down a generic slope. Jakob Ihre's unsettling camerawork, Olivier Bugge Coutté's deft editing and Ola Fløttum's brooding score sustain the air of suspense. But, notwithstanding Anja's unexplained disappearance, Trier fails to impart any palpable dread into proceedings that often seem frustratingly short of bleak humour, sensual potency and a reckless sense of risk.

Eili Harboe makes a stoic heroine, as she endures shuddering fits, as well as an array of medical tests and the joshing of her worldlier classmates. But her most chilling moment comes when she greets Kaya Wilkins in the enigmatic closing scene, as there is no guarantee that she has reined in her powers and allowed true love to find a way. As the dour parents, Henrik Rafaelsen and Ellen Dorrit Petersen do well in roles designed to mislead the audience, but their contrasting fates reinforce the impression that Trier miscalculates in jettisoning character analysis in order to generate a few superficial thrills.