The Best Independent Cinema to Look Forward to in 2025
By Rida Bilgrami2025 holds great promise for global independent and arthouse cinema from the return of old masters to a rich trove of breakthroughs by debut directors. Many of these films have received critical acclaim at film festivals while others have been flying a bit under the radar.
Seed of the Sacred Fig (Mohammad Rasoulof)
In Farsi
Exiled director Mohamed Rasoulof’s searing domestic drama is a portrait of generational revolt in a middle-class family in Tehran shaped by ongoing social unrest across Iran. Iman (Misagh Zare), the patriarch, receives a promotion within Iran’s judicial hierarchy and finds himself at odds with the political awakening of his two daughters Rezvan (Mahsa Rostami) and Sana (Setareh Maleki). The drama unfolds during the 2022 protests which erupted throughout the country after Mahsa Amini, a young Kurdish Iranian woman died in police custody. Shot entirely in secret and interspersed with documentary footage of the protestors and ensuing acts of police violence, it’s also the last film that Rasoulof made in Iran before being forced to flee his home country following an eight-year prison sentence.
Releases in UK cinemas on February 7th 2025
Santosh (Sandhya Suri)
In Hindi
Santosh, the UK’s nominated entry for Best Foreign Language Film for the Oscars, is titled after its protagonist Santosh Saini (Shahana Goswami), a young widow, who under a government scheme, inherits her husband’s job as a police constable in the rural hinterland of Northern India. When a Dalit girl is murdered, Saini is pulled into the investigation under the mentorship of a senior officer Geeta Sharma (Sunita Rajwar). Suri subverts the dynamics of a standard police procedure and complicates it with questions on how power is wielded and abused in a society fractured by religious and caste fault-lines. Goswami is a powerhouse performer whose filmography has included supporting roles as part of ensemble casts in Hindi cinema and streaming shows. Her performance in an author-backed lead role holds great promise.
Releases in UK cinemas on 21st March 2025
Caught by the Tides (Jia Zhangke)
In Mandarin
Jia Zhangke, one of the most gifted directors working in Asia today, is an astute chronicler of the vicissitudes of human experience in a country that’s changing faster than its citizens can comprehend. His films document the minutiae of life in the towns scattered between rural areas and China’s burgeoning megacities. Caught by the Tides, his first fiction feature in six years, has been hailed as his most coherent work to date. In 2001 he began shooting footage during the making of his two films starring Zhao Tao and Li Zhubin as enduring but volatile romantic partners in Datong, an old coal-mining city. Jia Zhangke paints a portrait of a woman, from youth to middle age in search of her estranged lover. Documenting over two decades of China’s economic transformation and cultural drift, the film brings a renewed perspective to life under a turbulent metamorphosis.
Releasing in the UK as part of Off Circuit series at the Institute of Contemporary Arts on 11th April 2025.
On Falling (Laura Carreira)
In Portuguese and English
The despairing labour conditions in the gig economy is the focus of Laura Carreira’s sobering debut On Falling. Aurora (Joana Santos), a young Portuguese warehouse worker struggles to make ends meet in an unspecified town in Scotland. Long days spent picking packages off shelves for an e-commerce giant barely enables her to make ends meet and leaves her exhausted and isolated. On Falling examines dehumanisation in the throes of late-stage capitalism through the experience of invisible workers meeting the demands of rampant consumerism. It marks one of Sixteen Films’ first produced features following Ken Loach’s retirement in 2023 and echoes many of the themes explored by the social realist British filmmaker throughout his career, from issues of labour to immigration and class inequality.
Releases in UK cinemas on 7th March 2025
I’m Still Here (Walter Salles)
In Brazilian Portuguese
Brazilian actress Fernanda Torres has received critical acclaim accolades (not least a Golden Globe Best Actress win) across the board for her poignant portrayal of Eunice, the wife of Rubens Paiva, a former leftist Brazilian congressman who was abducted by the military from the family’s Rio de Janeiro home in the early 70s and never returned. Under the direction of Walter Salles (best known for Motorcycle Diaries) Torres embodies the steely fortitude of a woman and mother of five who refuses to surrender to despair while striving for justice for her missing husband. The screenplay of I’m Still Here draws from Eunice’s son Marcelo Rubens Paiva’s memoir on a dark period of Brazil’s history and is a stirring ode to courage under dictatorship.
Releases in the UK on 21st February, 2025
Sister Midnight (Karan Kandhari)
In Hindi
Karan Kandhari’s first full-length feature is a quirky surrealist satire on modern arranged marriage starring Radhika Apte, whose range of immaculate performances in mainstream Hindi cinema has demonstrated her flair for black comedy. Uma (Radhika Apte) and Gopal (Ashok Pathak) are a mismatched couple shoved together in a small Mumbai shack. A listless Uma spends her days at home, intimidated by the chaos of the city and uninterested in fulfilling the rigid domestic expectations of a new bride. As her frustration grows, she begins to experience symptoms of a mysterious illness that unleashes her feral side. An eclectic soundtrack featuring Motörhead and 1960s Cambodian soul music enlivens the proceedings.
Releases in the UK on 14th March 2025.
Where the Wind Comes From (Amel Guellaty)
In Tunisian Arabic
Tunisian-born director, screenwriter and photographer Amel Guellaty’s long-awaited feature debut will premiere at Sundance in late January. Guellaty, until now best known for the critically acclaimed short Black Mamba in 2017, sets her new film in the outskirts of Tunis, where 18 year-old Alyssa (Eya Bellagha) and her friend Mehdi (Slim Baccar) are eager to escape their monotonous existence. An opportunity to participate in a contest in the south of the country leads them on a road trip which tests their friendship and surfaces past traumas.
Release date and UK distribution TBD
Morte Cucina (Pen-ek Ratanaruang)
In Thai
Celebrated Thai auteur Pen-ek Ratanaruang known for his neo-noir crime thrillers returns with his first feature in nearly eight years with the revenge thriller Morte Cucina. Set in Bangkok, the film focuses on Sao (newcomer Thanatphon Boonsan), a talented young female chef who encounters a man who sexually abused her years ago. Putting her culinary skills to use, Sao sets her revenge plan in motion. Lensed by Australian cinematographer Christopher Doyle, best known for his collaborations with Wong Kar-wai and in particular the hypnotic In the Mood for Love, this will be a visual treat.
Release date and UK distribution TBD.
Rida Bilgrami is a writer based in London. Her work spans poetry, essays and reported features with a focus on travel, books, visual culture and cities. Header photograph: Sister Midnight still, courtesy BFI.