Ema

A hellraising, booty-shaking and emotionally pulverising drama, Ema is the latest showstopper from Chilean director Pablo Larraín. Taking fear of female empowerment as its starting point, the story begins with the titular dancer (the entrancing Mariana Di Girolamo) having handed back her adopted son, to the horror of those around her. As Ema and her older choreographer husband (regular Larrain collaborator Gael García Bernal) lambast each other with astonishing ferocity and Ema visibly struggles with her guilt, the film seems steeped in sadism and bitter regret. Yet Ema is a woman of (not necessarily wise) action and, armed with a flamethrower, sets about forcing a reunion with her child. Ema is every female-related moral panic made manifest - she's a reckless mother, voracious lover and master manipulator, with a tendency to break into dance that makes her impossible to contain. It's a thrillingly intelligent characterisation at the centre of a frequently rousing film. Appropriately fluid camerawork and a vivid visual palette are the icing on top of a wonderfully provocative and confounding confection.