One of Hou’s constant themes (one that recurs in the work of many of the notable Taiwanese directors) is alienation, not just of a personal, but of a national sort.
In keeping with his recent work, Panahi turns the camera on himself and his own government-imposed creative struggles.
See below for a list of the films that just missed making it onto our list of the best films of 2014, followed by our contributors’ individual ballots.
The bars in both Closed Curtain and Crimson Gold allude to the cognitive imprisonment of its characters.