🌟Reclaim the Gaze: 2025 FAVOURITES 🌟
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2025 has been a great year for film. I spent the majority of the year going to the cinema, meeting fellow cinema-goers, thinking and talking about films. This year has also solidified my desire to work in the film industry! Curating and writing for Reclaim the Gaze has allowed me to think more critically about the films I have watched while also applying my interests relating to politics and decolonial feminism. In a world that seems like it's either going to burst into flames or enter into a nuclear war, film has offered me some solace while also opening my mind to varied stories and perspectives. Escapism at its finest, I consider film a political vehicule and the camera its technology of power where story telling serves a greater purpose of promoting diverse perspectives and experiences to a wider public. Having watched over a 100 films this past year has made me realise the importance of story telling, especially living in the Western Europe, where you are mainly exposed to Western narratives. 2025 was a disastrous year in terms of justice, power and violence. The genocides happening in Congo, Sudan and Palestine, unsanctioned terrorism in the United States, increased police brutality everywhere, socially produced environmental disasters, feminicide, murderous repression of mutiny and totalitarian regimes, etc... This year has been beyond stressful. This is why Reclaim The Gaze grants the greatest importance to the message and socio-political material that a film is trying to engage with/ is deploying. In a world that is destroying itself, film as art needs to recognise its important role as cultural producer and play its part as voice and representation to the world.
I have decided to a curate a 2025 retrospective list of the films from all around the world that I have watched this year (not necessarily having been released in 2025) that have marked me the most and I deem culturally important in this day and age, in no particular order + my top 3 faves.
🌟MY TOP 3 FILMS OF 2025🌟
Sinners by Ryan Coogler
What a masterpiece of a film. I've seen it 4 times and I will keep watching it. To those who call it "overrated" or "badly executed" did not seek to understand the political and emotional depth of this film. This is not just a film, it is a cultural revolution. Coogler offers incredible original filmmaking that is gripping, haunting and deeply human. He crafts a devastatingly powerful story on racism, religion and memory brought to life by stellar performances and a stunning score. The horror genre about vampires in the American south is all just set dressing. This film is a tale on the pursuit of freedom and the costs of such quest amidst greater powers whether they be mystical or systemic. It's such an intoxicating blend of genres, a move that is a melting pot just like the cultural heritage this movie explores. Sinners highlights the idea of joy as worth all the pain that follows as seen in the epilogue with Sammy and Stack describing that night preceeding the chaos as the best day of their lives. This film also evokes the question of are we ever free and to what lengths would you take to attain that freedom in an unjust world? Assimilation is a threat to the binding ties of community while music is a precious, transcendent commodity. This film is fighting for what is yours against the powerful dominant forces trying to steal and drain you of your resources. Built upon a powerful script and upheld by incredible cinematography, this film is political, radical, hilarious, hopeful and hypnotic. The musical scenes sent me into orbit. Mesmerizing, intense, and electrifying, this is Ryan Coogler’s true masterpiece. One of the decade’s finest, and a film that will leave you absolutely speechless.
It Was Just An Accident dir. Jafar Panahi
Embarrassed to say that this is my first Panahi films. This film masterfully commands the audience's attention in its deceptively light almost farce-like tone behind which lurks real rage that is released slowly and organically. This film perfectly frames the question: when we are victims of injustice who do we direct our rage to? Are the perpetrators victim to a system too? What catharsis do we find in revenge? The maturity and empathy Panahi brings is even more remarkable as Panahi himself has been imprisoned and has been forced to make and produce semi-clandestinely his work. Panahi's films reflect in a metacinematic way his own limitations as an artist under state surveillance, of recently he is sentenced to a year in prison in absentia and a travel ban over "propaganda activities" agains the nation of Iran. And after all these legal confrontations to expose the realities of Iranian people under a totalitarian regime, this film is not worth a Best Picture or original screenplay nomination????? This drives me mad. This is a very personal film carried by a fantastic ensemble cast. The final scene is one of the most breathtakingly haunting endings that shows the battling of the scars that connect others in ways they don't deserve. This film beautifully depicts the process of healing, hiding and festering scars. Panahi manages to thred the needle of being boldy and unapologetically political, making room for difficult questions and ambiguity, and somehow maintaining an energy that is simultaneously playful and sinister.
This is real cinema!!
Sorry Baby dir. Eva Victor
I will never stop raving about this stunning and tender piece of cinema. What an incredible directorial debut for Eva Victor. This film leaves the viewer to simmer in the beauty of unpolished humanity. This film deserves the award for Best Original Screenplay because how do you maintain a tone that knocks the wind out of you whilst hugging you with all its might. It is a disarmingly authentic approach to sensitive subject matter of sexual assault and the process of recovery from trauma. The perfect balance of humour, sensitivity and sincerity without ever sacrificing the heart and soul of its story. I am so grateful for this film to have been made. This film is absolute perfection. What a triumph! LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE.
🌟Reclaim the Gaze 2025 favourites🌟
An incredibly moving story about friendship, love, acceptance and respect in a world that wants to divide us. Based on a true story, this film exposes the reality of the COVID-19 pandemic for the larger world population, dependent on low-wage precarious labour. This film gives you a lesson in humility and enables you to have perspective on your own life and troubles. This film gives you a hard yet beautiful illustration on the systemic oppression that so many have to live with around the world. (I cried)
★★★★★ 5/5: Reclaimed Gaze
A cinematic journey that offers innovative shots and is oddly upbeat despite its heavy subject. This film provides a deep critique of capitalism and its effects on masculinity, social identity and personal value. No Other Choice successfully illustrates how capitalism ties our worth to our productivity. The protagonist's path demonstrates the ugly side of desperation that capitalism leads you down. The ending is perfectly dark and pathetic, highlighting how clouded by his actions aimed towards trivial, status coded, material things the protagonist wants. The director expertly handles the balance between comedy and dramatics making the audience simultaneously laugh and gasp in shock. This film provides a perfect illustration of the psychological effects of neoliberal capitalism ideology that upholds a system of "survival of the fittest", thus rendering everyone dispensable.
★★★★★ 5/5: Reclaimed Gaze
This devastating film offers us a perfect blend of documentary and fiction. Based on the very real and infuriating case of the murder of Hind Rajab, this film provides a view of the systemic issues and barriers that persist in occupied land. The acting, directing and editing work perfectly in symphony to expose the daily horrors, injustices and tragedy experienced by Palestinians. A MUST WATCH!!!
★★★★★ 5/5: Reclaimed Gaze
What can I say, I absolutely love this franchise. What more could you want: Zootopia is a fun, funny, light yet exceptionally deeply political film. With its first edition providing a metaphor on racism, its second one offers a metaphor on colonisation and occupation. This film is accessible for both adults and children. It is so clever and witty, almost overwhelmingly so. Every second is packed with allusions, references to films and fun little gags. You can tell that this film was made by an incredibly creative team who had had fun in the process of making it. This film is bursting with creative ideas and deep analysis on current socio-cultural politics.
★★★★★ 5/5: Reclaimed Gaze
A very interesting film depicting (a not so) dystopian world where AI and technology rule society. This film offers visual material on youth angst, racism and nationalism in Japan, immigration politics and technology-led control. This film didn't feel dystopian and rather grounded in reality, illustrating what is/can be our future with the emerging power of AI in our lives. This is a modern application of Foucault's "Panopticon" in the depiction of governmental use of technology to control its citizens. Offering a powerful critique of Japan's insular and xenophobic immigration policies, Sora challenges Japan's myth of homogeneity. The group of teens in this film are united through friendship in the face of populism, seeking freedom from societal pressures through music. This film delves into the complicated racist history between Japan and Korea and the struggles of non/fully ethnic Japanese individuals living in Japan. As the director notes, "to show politics you need to show society", a goal well-achieved in the depictions of diverse lived experiences of different ethnicities living in Japan as well as showing friendship dissolution due to political differences.
★★★★★ 5/5: Reclaimed Gaze
The most incredible film that I will never for anything in the world watch again. This film is not for the faint hearted but is so so important. A horror on the realities of women in Europe in the WWI era. The use of black and white is visually stunning and the acting is superb but I have to say it was a really hard film to watch. This film deals with issues of unwanted children, illegal abortions, murder of babies, post-war trauma and poverty with extreme care and compassion. The characters are not likable and are easy to hate but are treated with great empathy. Especially regarding the true case of the Danish serial killer charged with killing over 25 babies, the film chooses a pro-choice perspective at a time where abortion is illegal. It is interesting to reflect on this film that depicts facts of more than 100 years ago in these regressing times where reproductive rights are being revoked in the United States. One could say that it is a very current and topical film in exposing the importance of having reproductive rights and the effects on uterus owners.
★★★★★ 5/5: Reclaimed Gaze
A very fun, layered and thrilling ride of a film. Despite its long running time, the film keeps you entertained and engaged. OBAA exemplifies the difference between resistance and revolution. It shows the cruel reality of a failed resistance movement amidst greater systemic corruption and oppression. Acts of resistance can be grand or silent. Via the medium of a very thoughtful script and great editing, the film highlights the persistent flame of resistance despite its failures and the importance of the passing the torch onto the next generation. Despite its very current material, this film is very hopeful. Their representation of White supremacists is ainst apathy. I do struggle to pinpoint how responsible the gaze is in their depictions of their Black female characters. As Perfidia's character is so layered I fear that the less critical viewer will assume simplistically that she is a selfish, hypersexual bad mother. The lack of clear substance in the writing of Perfidia and Regina Hall's character can lead to racist misconceptions as Black female characters are limited within the bonds of what is socially expected of them. Society is much less forgiving of Black women's imperfections and pain, of which I consider this film narrative to not protect them enough from outside judgment.
White supremacy and extremist racist rhetoric is incredibly well exemplified. The film also testifies to the cruel realities of solidarity in the face of structural inequality. All these individuals in the film are believers in equality and freedom and fight for this cause. This collides with the inevitable power imbalances that systemic oppression loves to exploit: people's vulnerability. The characters who end up betraying their fellow fighters are all under threat and are made to realise that they are still weak in the face of state power. Whether it is Perfidia's fear of losing her freedom, the radio man's love for his sister or the non-binary kid whose identity is under threat by the state, all these complexities underscore the cost of fighting for the world you want. It is a great film but i remain suspicious of its intent and unsettled by its execution.
★★★★☆ 4/5: Counter-Gaze Engaged
A stunning film on the deep history of the Occupation of Palestinian Land. It is hard to rate or even review a film that is so important in our current geopolitcal times. It is even a miracle that this film even exists, a film by a Palestinian filmmaker with shots of Palestine that feels so ambitious and radical. This film retraces the incredibly important colonial history that has led to the genocide happening today. It is not a perfect film, some parts dragged on and some storytelling parts lacked transition, but this is not the point. This film is groundbreaking in the scale that it shows the horrors, injustices and devastation caused by British and Zionist settler colonialism. It is a beautiful, devastating film with immaculate cinematography. The film manages to show the beauty of Palestinian land and culture, images that contrast completely with current footage of distress and ruins of Palestine. Coming out of this film was extra hard in the realisation that in the 90 years since the film is set, nothing has got any better, it is even worse. None of these families who were displaced, separated or killed have returned or reunited. Please watch this, it is a really important film.
★★★★★ 5/5: Reclaimed Gaze
Ugh what can I say, I really liked this film until the big reveal at the end. In this age of inceldom and the manospere, I find it arrogant, wrong and almost dangerous to leave that much space for thought on conspiracies, extremists and incels in a film. A dialogue-heavy film that exposes the flaws of our times. A very well written dark satire that highlights conspiracies motivated by corporate exploitation and rage towards an unjust system motivated by capitalist ideals. This film deals with the paranoia that many isolated people feel, exacerbated and reinforced by online extremist media and lack of mental health support. This film is quite perturbing in its depiction of violence and torture. The reveal of her actually being an alien and ending with the death of humanity was disappointing. Jesse Plemmons' character is severely disturbed, even though the film makes a GREAT effort of showing the roots to his madness, he remains an incel and a cold-blooded murderer. To go from the discovery of his scary lair of the body parts of the X amount of people he has tortured and killed to her actually being an alien almost works to justify his actions. Which is CRAZY?? It makes sense for a Lanthimos film who embraces and relishes the weird. Her being an alien and eradicating human life as her final act is the obvious punchline that feels incredibly defeatist. Don't get me wrong I believe that the human race is the greatest coloniser of planet Earth and am not against extinction but the mesh this with conspiracy theorists and incels?! I contend that this film is filled with heavy-handed metaphors and shallow social critique elevated by brilliant performances.
★★★☆☆ 3/5: Shifting Gaze
What a masterclass of a queer film depicting the real mind-boggling case of child custody taken away by an angry husband because his ex-wife is now a lesbian, accusing her of pedophilia and incest. And they say that women are privileged when it comes to custody battles. You would think that this film is based in a distant past, but it is actually very contemporary. Vicky Krieps carries the baggage of the film in a sophisticated and statuesque way. This is the story of a woman and a mother battling against a unfair justice system that is supposedly protecting but failing the best interests of the children. It is a story about courage, love and freedom in one's identity. It is a message of love and acceptance. To be queer is to be free which society greatly envies and seems not ready for.
★★★★★ 5/5: Reclaimed Gaze
A captivating and unusual biopic that is filmed with as much as whole-hearted conviction as Ann Lee herself. The music, the cinematography, the choreography and acting are all performed with breathkaing determination and care. Amanda Seyfried's force and courage in this film is felt through the screen. I didn't know anything about the Shaker religion, and this film really set the scene for the viewer in an easy and digestable manner. The production design is incredibly well done as you really felt like you were in 18th century England and US. Amanda Seyfried was truly incredible in delivering a committed performance and deserves way more recognition. When people walk out because they find the childbirth scenes too traumatic or the film too freaky, that's when you know you've done a film right lol. What a beautiful journey this film is.
★★★★★ 5/5: Reclaimed Gaze
What a gut-punching, uncomfortable, and bold delight of a film. Shot with a first-person point of view camera has this ineffable hypnotic quality that commands you to immerse yourself into the story and wholeheartedly identify with the characters. The storytelling and directing makes it impossible for the viewers to passively watch this film. It is uncomfortable and consuming in the best way. These techniques refuse to surrender to the heaviness of the subject material. This film does great justice to the severity of the true case it is based on and redefines our place as the complacent audience. It is an unapologetic and powerful film and would have won Best Picture in a fair world.
★★★★★ 5/5: Reclaimed Gaze
A good effort in portraying the true horrors happening in the East of DRC which is nothing short of a genocide. Based on the true story of Denis Mukwege, it is a politically necessary film that is truly imperfectly made. You can feel the persistence of an imperial gaze in how the topics of sexual assault are approached and the pattern of white saviourism in the intervention of the White Belgian doctor. Also why was all the dialogue in French even between Congolese people?? That really annoyed me. The gaze felt exploitative and amplifying the racist narrative that surrounds modern humanitarianism that relies on the racialisation of pity and public empathy. By trying to depict the realities of the horrors of the sexual assaults, they ended up rendering Congolese women as intelligible only through the paternalistic discourse of rescue. This film constructs the women as passive objects of care, without agency and reinscribing
colonial power relations under a guise of altruism.
★★★☆☆ 3/5: Shifting Gaze
A film full of heart and compassion with good intentions. You follow the beautiful journey of the protagonist discovering herself and her sexual identity amidst exterior constraints of faith, social class and informal social control. However, this film establishes a gaze that is pedo-porno deploying a very stereotypical lens to the lesbian world. The psychological conflict of lesbian-faith-social class- cutlure is badly and barely treated. Her inner turmoil is not explicit and comes in secondary to many seemingly male-gaze sex scenes despite this film being directed by a woman. This film portrayed a very hyper-sexualised image of queer women. Where was the doubt? Where was the sensitivity and the gentleness? I don't feel that this film's gaze is legitimate. I did enjoy watching it but I do consider that it does not honour the real experiences of such queer women.
★★★☆☆ 3/5: Shifting Gaze
A beautiful and enchanting journey on family and generational trauma. The acting and directing is stellar. The film is very tender and emotionally honest. I wasn't particularly moved and found it hard to identify with it but this film does a great job to show vulnerability and depression. Found this review on letterboxd:
"broken people raise broken children, expecting them to be full".
★★★★★ 5/5: Reclaimed Gaze
A hopeful, empathetic and tender film that never casts judgment and offers a tender telling of female friendship seeking a sense of belonging.
★★★★★ 5/5: Reclaimed Gaze
A fully immersive process into the mind of a woman destroying herself just to prove that she exists.
★★★★★ 5/5: Reclaimed Gaze
This is such an important film that everyone needs to see. A biopic about memory of those we've lost, of our happiest moments with them and periods of history that we dare not forget, lest be repeated. Fernanda Torres is a force and is absolutely mesmerizing in this devastatingly tender film. This film bears witness to the resilience and the unimaginable trauma of the Brazilian people having survived the dictatorship. I'm Still Here puts its finger on the wound so that new generations can learn better about the past.
★★★★★ 5/5: Reclaimed Gaze
FILMS THAT MARKED ME IN A BAD WAY
A fleshed out anti-woke film that is flashy and hollow. The whole film presents itself as a weighty declaration, circling around delicate themes as if mere proximity to them could grant it moral and intellectual authority. What is born, however, is not depth but total dispersion: a collage of ideas, none of them developed with the clarity or focus necessary to truly matter. The result is a work desperate to convince its importance, yet increasingly unsure of what it actually wants to say. To make a film that plays with the imperfect narrative of sexual assault , of the he said/she said, I consider it incredibly irresonspible and arrogant. These causes are too important and sensitive to play with the ambiguity.
★★★☆☆ 3/5: Shifting Gaze
WTF was this?? In it trying to be provocative, it trivialises and somewhat ridicules the important social issues it treats. This seemingly anti-woke woke, wannabe critique of the Left film is actually just an out-of-touch white due attempting to make a film mocking the "out of touch" white folks. It is a grossly irresponsible
film in how it attempts to examine the intensely vitriolic state of American politics amidst the beginning of COVID. The belittling of the protests around the murder of George Floyd
and the dismissing of women who succumb to right- wing conspiracies as a coping mechanism in dealing with trauma is incredibly disappointing and worrying. This film was just simply unintelligent and a waste of money.
★★★☆☆ 3/5: Shifting Gaze
Another WTF movie. I left the cinema stunned and not in a good way. Watching this film, I felt dehydrated, sweaty and dirty. I literally felt like I was stuck in the Sahara desert with them. So little yet so much happens in this film. I really don't understand why this is so critically acclaimed. It's so bizarre. It is only in the last 45 min that things start to happen and you come out light-headed. It is interesting from a geopolitical lens as it is set in a dystopian world that situates privileged White French and Spanish people at a rave in Morocco, a country previously colonised by these countries, amidst the beginning of a Third World War. These individuals are in the sole pursuit of their joy and thrill which is listening to deep EDM in the desert. The out of touch privilege and entitlement of this land can be applied to a wider metaphor of colonisation, we can also think of the events of the rave in Israel on the 7th of October. The film Sirāt uses the Sahara as an abstract, unnamed desert, masking a dense geopolitical reality: Morocco’s past occupation of Western Sahara. By implying Morocco borders Mauritania, the film silently endorses the colonial fiction that Western Sahara “is” Morocco. Laxe aestheticizes one of the world’s most violent territories while stripping it of political history, turning the Moroccan military wall and its vast minefields into a moral spectacle. Non-Western characters lack agency, while Western bodies become the focus of suffering and suspense. Under the guise of critiquing Western decadence, the film reproduces a colonial fantasy. Depoliticized space, aesthetic danger, and cruelty as narrative form.
HONOURABE MENTIONS
FILMS THAT HAVE MARKED ME BUT WERE NOT RELEASED IN 2025
Probably one of the most life changing documentaries I have ever watched. I've never had such a visceral reaction to a film ever. I could not stop crying during and after watching it. This documentary perfectly exposes the intricacies of corruption, imperialism and racism embedded in international institutions and global governance structures. In its impeccably sharp editing, you realise how structural and systemic oppression operate and how these institutions collude to destroy others deemed unworthy. The necropolitics of this film is just aboslutely enraging and mind-bogglling. It makes you realise how everything is so entangled and makes you wonder how can you make a change when those with power to enact such change are so corrupt. The blending of this tragic story with jazz as resistance allows for a free floating experience. It is a meticulously organised and intellectually stimulating documentary. It sheds light to a tragic and unfair history, alleviated by 150 mins of jazz music making the unbearable bearable for a fleeting moment in time. Justice for Patrice Lumumba!
★★★★★ 5/5: Reclaimed Gaze
A realist thriller that sheds light on the daily realities of illegalised gig workers. This is such an important film and makes you reflect on the daily anxieties of asylum seekers. I feel such gross privilege in writing this review. I don't have to live with the anxiety of being stopped for not having the right papers. I don't have to run across Paris at night in the rain for work and be treated like trash. After watching this 1h30 min film I get to go home and carry on with my life. Souleymane does not have the freedom to opt out. He has to run to get to the homeless shelter, wake up at 5am to book his spot for the next night at the shelter and then spend the whole day on a bike delivering food to ungrateful and entitled people. This film perfectly weaponises our guilt as passive viewers and demonstrates the reality of the despair of illegalised individuals squashed and exploited by a capitalist and dehumanising world.
★★★★★ 5/5: Reclaimed Gaze
Such an eye-opening documentary on the devastating reality of disaster capitalism. The supposed most powerful nation in the world choosing to protect and save only those they deem worthy within their own citizens. This documentary masterfully demonstrates how the political responses to the disaster were impinged in racist and imperial logics, underpinned with the neoliebral pursuit of capital accumulation.
★★★★★ 5/5: Reclaimed Gaze
Such a quiet movie that
explores the dislocated experiences of asylum seekers being kept in a perpetual state of waiting. You feel the sense of isolation and frustration that these individuals have to endure. This film is cold, calm and reflective. Incredible!
★★★★★ 5/5: Reclaimed Gaze
Considered a classic for a reason. Despite it being 3H long, I was kept fully engaged. From the production design, cinematography, acting and directing, this film is nothing short of a masterpiece.
★★★★★ 5/5: Reclaimed Gaze
What an enchanting and meditative piece of art. This film plays with the audience's expectations of witnessing Black individuals' pain, suffering and violence. Instead, this film is pure open-hearted and empathetic tenderness. Queer identity as loneliness and isolation is translated through mesmerizing visual poetry. This film is magnificient. It shows slivers of masculinity in this modern world through a lens of care and understanding. This film is seared into my brain. It is perfect. Coming out of the cinema, Moonlight haunted my thoughts for days. Thankyou for making it.
★★★★★ 5/5: Reclaimed Gaze
My favourite director making the most magical film about chosen family in an unjust world. The family dynamic is perfectly expressed. The family warmth and bond among strangers is effortlessly portrayed. It is a kind film that appears happy at the beginning then Kore-eda appears to deftly take every piece of us apart. He nimbly arranges and turns our hearts into punching bags before stealthily removing them from our chests forever. I want to hug all the characters and advocate for them. One of my most favourite films ever.
★★★★★ 5/5: Reclaimed Gaze
This film perfectly captures what a walk at 4am in streets of Hong Kong would be like. It is a romantic portrait of the oddballs and outcasts of the underworld of Hong Kong. This film represents the freedom felt in the quiet of the early morning. The shots of this film are seared into my brain. It is moody, magical, mesmerizing and charmingly bizarre.
★★★★★ 5/5: Reclaimed Gaze
A love letter to cinema. A film about joy, passion, friendship and nostalgia. It is magical and simultaneously devastating and heartwarming. It is perfectly executed. This is cinema!
★★★★★ 5/5: Reclaimed Gaze
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