Over ten years ago, two of Britain's most critically acclaimed actors - Gary Oldman (Sid and Nancy, J.F.K.) and Tim Roth (Reservoir Dogs, Rob Roy) - made their respective directorial debuts with two chilling depictions of domestic abuse: Oldman's Nil by Mouth and Roth's The War Zone. More than one critic made comparisons between the two filmmakers. After all, the two actors were long-time friends: they auditioned for many of the same roles in the '80s and co-starred in Tom Stoppard's modernist Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead among others. Both men also cast Ray Winstone in their leads, effectively kick-starting his international career for the then-unknown cockney actor. Yet - despite the international acclaim of their very personal portraits of Britain - Oldman and Roth have not made any follow-ups, as both men found it very difficult to find financing for their challenging projects. 

 The similarly acclaimed Paddy Considine, too, has opted to make his directorial debut with a realist drama about domestic violence, Tyrannosaur. Like the work of the earlier actor-directors, Tyrannosaur is also extremely challenging and - in its unsentimental depiction of child abuse, animal cruelty and spousal violence - may lead to some walkouts due to its emotional intensity.

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Here is a quiet film. That might sound like a nothing comment when made in relation to the contemplative, often silent common thread that envelops the international section of a film festival, but Here is even quieter still. Will Shepard (Ben Foster, The Messenger) is a modern form of cartographer, searching for truth in landscape as he attempts to pin satellite images to their corresponding places on the world. Shepard is working in Armenia, where he doesn't speak the language and doesn't try in a very American kind of way, when he meets Gadarine, played by Lubna Azabel (Paradise Now), an Armenian native whose talent has taken her across the world as a photographer, and brought her back to search for a different truth. The two travel together and form a bond.

The film is a strong mix of experimental visual sequences and simple traditional filmmaking. The themes of journey and truth are universal, whilst being completely unique. The film feels more like a novel than a movie, with the use of voiceover 'chapters' that could be the corresponding opening paragraphs of a book. And yet the film does not feel out of place, but restful.

Foster is truly good. The way he manages to show such a sea of tightly wound emotions beneath a flesh surface that gives nothing away, is beyond me, and makes his subtle breakdown believable to the point of scary (true enough to life to remind me of a particular ex-boyfriend) - and yet he remains likeable throughout. Azabel is similarly wonderful, never overplaying what could have been a tricky role.

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Khoa Do (Mother Fish, The Finished People, Footy Legends) wasn't Young Australian of the Year for nothing. Do has spent much of his life tutoring young people, with a focus on those from disadvantaged backgrounds, and Falling for Sahara is no exception. The script was written in consultation with young African Australians (Teklay Gebreslassie, Nathanael Kebede, Daniel Haile Michael, Solomon Salew, Maki Issa) who were given the chance not only to get a taste for dialogue, but a couple of whom star in the film. Falling for Sahara was produced in part with money from the MIFF Premiere fund.

Falling for Sahara is the story of three young African Australians, Ramsey, M.J. and Benaim, living in the council flats in Flemington, Melbourne, all of whom have their distinct issues to deal with. When Sahara, an eastern suburbs Melbourne Grammar graduate comes on the scene, all three boys are enchanted. Jealousy, rivalry and the complications of life and culture get in the way.

This is a film that needs to be critiqued within its context. Do says that it is the first film to be made about African Australians, and the territory is new. It is also a film for young adults, whether or not it was intended to be. It covers issues of racism, immigration and cultural conflict well. The film is beautifully shot, for the most part, and is very Melbourne. Particular highlights include a realistic storyline following Ramsey's training with an Aussie rules team (the Essendon Football Club supported the film). The film is charming.

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"I hear people saying, the science says this - but this is a real story. This is affecting actual people."

Filmmaker Tom Zubrycki (Molly & Mobarak) followed Maria Tiimon and her family for two years to shoot The Hungry Tide, a documentary following the plight of her scattered island nation home Kiribati (pronounced Kiribas), at threat of death by drowning from ever rising tides. The Hungry Tide has a simple message, and Zubrycki tells it on two levels. The first is the story of a nation that feels ignored by governments that are large enough to do something about its future. Kiribati is two meters above sea level at its peak. The sea is relentless. There is not much time.

But Maria's story is a personal one - the first time we follow her home is upon news that her mother has died. Zubrycki captures the cultural nuances of a people relatively unknown to Australians. As Maria travels between her birthplace, her home in Sydney and to climate summits in Copenhagen (in a telling prediction, the conference's giant globe prop does not even include the tiny nation) and Cancun, she becomes more confident in her own ability, but also less optimistic that help will be found.

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A Separation is my first Iranian film, but there were a lot of Iranians in the audience. You could hear the jokes that they got that no one else noticed, and one filmgoer said afterwards, 'That's so true. It's exactly what it's like.' But culturally familiar or not, A Separation is a film in which, like others this year such as Face to Face, nothing is cut and dry. Directed by Asghar Farhadi, whose 2009 film About Elly was banned in Iran, but won awards including the Silver Bear (best director) at the Berlin Film Festival, A Separation is the tense and claustrophobic story of middle class couple Nader (Peyman Moaadi) and Simin (Leila Hatami), their impending divorce, and what results from the tensions it creates. Caught in the middle is the couple's eleven year old daughter Termeh (Sarina Farhadi), whose pain at being used as a bargaining chip is subtle but absolute.

A Separation pulls together some of the best performances I've seen all Festival in some of the hardest roles to play. Nuanced with stubbornness and need, Moaadi and Hatami show the slow decline into self-induced ruin by truly existing in the scenes they play. This could be a couple in any country in the world. And yet, one of the most absorbing aspects of the film is the inside glimpse of Iranian culture - the courtrooms and court system, the religious and cultural conflicts, the nature of agreements and disagreements, and the fact that even the most significant crimes are attended to with a sort of respect for decent process that seems foreign to Western culture. Especially good are performances by Shahab Hosseini and Sareh Bayat, a lower class couple who are enveloped in the drama. The only thing I would say is that the film runs a little long, with a lot of false endings - but that, in of itself, seems to be a reflection of reality in Iran.

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Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne - the Belgian filmmaking brothers responsible for neo-realist works The Promise, The Son and The Child - return with The Kid with a Bike, a focused and intelligent parable about the need for self-acceptance and responsibility. 

Cyril (newcomer Thomas Doret) is a troubled child. Abandoned by a hapless, immature father (Dardenne regular Jérémie Renier) at a children's home, Cyril lashes out at counsellors, unwilling to believe that his father left him and sold his bike. When Cyril meets a childless hairdresser (Cécile de France), he is taken into weekly foster care.

The Dardenne brothers are often compared to the Italian neo-realists of post-War Europe, and the title obviously alludes to Vittorio De Sica's The Bicycle Thief. This is an apt comparison, not so much in tone (the earlier films were much more overtly melancholic), but in its focus and drive. Unlike many contemporary filmmakers who deal with social realism, the brothers eschew shaky cam and heavy improvisation. Their films are beautifully constructed and narratively driven, and this film benefits from the disciplined writing approach (The Kid with a Bike took a year for the pair to write). 

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Red Dog, which was to close the Melbourne International Film Festival this year but was reshuffled due to an earlier popular release date, opened tonight to sellout crowds. Red Dog is the story of, well, a red dog named Red Dog - an ownerless Kelpie, master of his own domain, who stumbles upon the Western Australian town of Dampier, charming the transient inhabitants until fate and love cause him to find his true master. Starring Josh Lucas, Rachael Taylor, Noah Taylor and Luke Ford, Red Dog is not so much the story of the bond between animals and humans, as between mates. More than that, it is the story of the size of the hearts of men and women who work on the land.

Red Dog is an endearing story, most of all. But also has about it the flavour of an Australian classic-to-be. Set in a mining town in the seventies, where multiculturalism, stubbie shorts and terry toweling hats reigned supreme, the film is directed by Kriv Stenders (Boxing Day), who was apparently as surprised as anyone else to be brought on board. Stenders is known, according to his own interpretation, for 'dirty, digital films'. The choice seems to have paid off. Red Dog brings all the elements traditionally important to a hit Australian film together to weave what will most likely be a high score in the popularity stakes. Authentic, breathtaking cinematography; dirty, charming characters; a classic Aussie rock soundtrack; self-deprecating humour, and a self-sacrificing hero that meets with just the right amount of tragedy. Red Dog ticks a lot of the boxes when it comes to Australian films. Even the fact that the protagonist, who in Louis de Bernières's original novella is an Australian, is played as a yank by Hollywood B+ lister Lucas, does not harm the authenticity of the film, but rather adds to it.

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"Sometimes they stood Westerners up, stacked tyres over them, and set the tyres alight. It's hard to get confirmation about whether or not that happened. But that could have been my brother." Rob Hamill, younger sibling of eldest brother Kerry, who died thirty years ago at the hands of the Khmer Rouge, has fresh tears in his eyes. "You know, that's the first time in two years that I've been able to say that."

In 1978, at the peak of the Khmer Rouge brutal Cambodian reign, Kerry Hamill's yacht Foxy Lady took shelter from a storm in Cambodian waters. Of the three men aboard, Canadian Stuart Glass was shot instantly and buried at sea, while New Zealander Hamill and Englishman John Dewhirst were taken to notorious Khmer prison S-21. They would be tortured and 'smashed', and ultimately executed, after being made to sign false confessions admitting links to the CIA. Brother Number One is the story of Rob Hamill's journey to the place of his brother's death, and his eventual confrontation of the prison boss, nicknamed Duch, in a Cambodian court.

Annie Goldson (Georgie Girl, An Island Calling) seems to be the perfect filmmaker to have accompanied Hamill on his 2009 quest. Never breaking the fourth wall, Goldson's reportage is straight down the line, allowing the characters to speak for themselves. Indeed, nothing else is required. With the help of translators, including translator and line producer Kulikar Sotho - who ends up playing a part in the film, at great risk to herself - Goldson manages to get interviews with people who were there, and who took part in the horror.

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Veteran film editor Mary Stephens (The Romance of Astrea and Celadon, The Last Train Home) ignored three emails from young Turkish filmmaker Seren Yüce, before an industry friend told her to check out a rough cut of his first feature film. Stephens, a Chinese/Canadian living in France, had done another film in Turkey, and was delighted to hop on board. "I'm God-mothering the film," says Stephens, with a warm grin - her favourite role is to nurture emerging filmmakers. Good thing, too, because Yüce's resulting film Majority has gone on to win pretty much every film award Turkey country has to offer, and quite a few more, including best debut feature at the Venice Film Festival. "There was a time when, in every café in Turkey, this film was being discussed," says Stephens.

Majority is certainly a discussion starter. Young Turk Mertkan (Bartu Küçükçaglayan) is led through life by his dictatorial father, Kemal (played by Turkish film regular Settar Tanriogen). Sexually repressed and devoid of ambition, Mertkan sees a glimpse of a different life when he meets a young girl from, what his father considers, the wrong background. Majority is a very slow burn and maintains a sense of reality, and a refusal to submit to a Hollywood-style narrative arc, and in the process becomes beautiful. A minimalist work of art, Majority premiered tonight and deserves to be seen.

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The festival is now in its fourteenth year and ran from July 14-24 at the Astor Theatre. There were 100 films showcased including documentaries, features and shorts. International guests, filmmakers, festival programmers, actors and directors were also in attendance to share their experiences and love of film.

Program Director Jack Sargeant programmed a diverse range of animated, short, genre and dramatic pieces, with a focus on independent film and a sampling of experimental and underground movies. I was fortunate enough to watch nearly everything on offer over the ten-day period and have selected some of my favourites from the program. Each of these films has their own unique qualities that allowed them to stand out from the crowd.

Tyrannosaur may well be the most intense film I saw during the ten days of the festival. Joseph (Peter Mullan) is a bitter, drunken widower with a short temper and is quick to resort to violence. Most people stay out of his way until he meets Hannah (Olivia Colman). She is the first person to offer him any kind of sympathy and despite his initial aggression and disparaging comments, the two of them form an uneasy friendship. Hannah's initial calmness in the face of Joseph's hostility is well practised, having suffered at the hands of her abusive husband. When Joseph discovers this, it seems like it will only be a matter of time before he meets Hannah's spouse and sorts him out. Tyrannosaur is Paddy Considine's directorial feature debut and he proves that his talents extend beyond acting. This is a powerful and affecting film with superb performances that will make you catch your breath more than once.