Lillian

The feature film debut of celebrated documentary filmmaker Andreas Horvath, based on the true story of a poor woman in New York who in 1926 tried to walk home to Russia.

Polish-born Lillian Alling lived in New York in the 1920s. When her visa expired and her money ran out, her only chance of making a living would be to enter the porn industry. Instead, she walked to Canada, and from thence to Alaska and the Bering Strait. After that she wasn’t heard from again. Andreas Horvath (Views of a Retired Night Porter, GFF 2007) has transported the story to the United States under Trump. Polish actress Patrycya Planik is magnificent in the lead role, all without uttering a single line. The soundtrack predominantly consists of the radios playing in the cars she hitches a ride with. A visually powerful roadmovie, produced by Ulrich Seidl, about a person whose fate has captured the imagination of generations.

• Freddy Olsson