Winter of the Crow

The superb Lesley Manville is trapped in the frosty labyrinths of Warsaw in a nerve-jangling neo-noir.

It’s 1981, and a heavy chill hangs over Warsaw as psychology professor Joan Andrews arrives from London to give a lecture at the university. In the middle of her assignment, student protests against Soviet rule erupt, and the streets soon fill with soldiers. Joan is caught in a nightmarish situation and forced to navigate desolate concrete landscapes in search of a way out. A striking piece of hyperrealism in a gripping thriller based on Nobel Prize winner Olga Tokarczuk’s short story — with a phenomenal Lesley Manville at its center.

• Niclas Goldberg