Just as its predecessor, Blade Runner 2049 (2017) is a production design monster, whose director uses this as an emotion-arousing machine. Pushed to the max, this strategy brings about one of the most imaginative love-making scenes of the sci-fi genre, authentic and touching. Aferim! (2015) is a sparkling combo of Romanian XIX century action road-movie held together by a consistent stylistic approach and an unconventional directorial intention. It makes for a dense-rewarding experience. Naomi Kawase’s Sweet Bean (2015) brings about that same humanistic elegance that the Japanese director masters with greatness and offers a fable on the passing of time trough the vehicle of a street food stand where an old lady, a former convict and a high-school girl come together for a brief period of time. The story looses focus on the second part, but nevertheless imprints that same trademark Kawase delicate touch which lingers for days. Octav (2017) is cinema at its most self-indulgent. An elderly gentlemen visits his childhood house and the ghosts of the past are conveniently popping up, reconstructing the man’s past. If anything, it’s the film’s tone that makes one cringe, a bourgeois honey dipped melancholy trip with no other point to make besides the fact that it exists.