Queen at Sea

Winner of the Berlinale Silver Bear Jury Prize and Best Supporting Performance (shared by co-stars Tom Courtenay and Anna Calder-Marshall), Queen at Sea is a superbly crafted, London-set morality tale that faces the thornier issues of caregiving head on. Amanda (Binoche) and her stepfather Martin (Courtenay) are deeply divided on the issue of care for Amanda’s mother, Leslie (Calder-Marshall), who suffers from advanced dementia. Is Leslie still able to give meaningful consent and make critical decisions, and who has the right to make that determination? Earning comparisons to Haneke’s Amour with its towering performances and unsparingly honest portrayal of ageing, this is one of the year’s finest dramas.