The 72nd Berlin Film Festival has undeniably been a strange affair. After 2021’s virtual edition , a necessary evil thanks to the pandemic, the hope was that the 2022 Berlinale would be back with a bang. The Omicron Covid-19 variant spoiled that, but organisers have soldiered on, slimming down the programme and cutting the festival back by four days. Industry guests and journalists – those that came – were subjected to rigorous daily testing. Meanwhile, the lack of Hollywood presence was notable, and even confirmed guest Isabelle Huppert, due to receive an honorary award, was forced to stay home after contracting the virus. But all this aside, there were rewards to be found in the official selection. Here, in no particular order, are the 10 best films from this year’s festival. Incredible But True Is there a more imaginative filmmaker out there right now than Quentin Dupieux? The French writer-director behind Rubber , Deerskin and Mandibles is fast rivalling Charlie Kaufman as cinema’s greatest poet of the weird. Playing in a Special Gala slot, this latest effort sees a couple (Alain Chabat and Léa Drucker) move into a new house that comes complete with a vertical tunnel. What happens when you enter it? You go 12 hours into the future, but get three days younger. That’s just the first surprise in this absurdist comedy that smartly examines our fear of ageing. Peter von Kant The opening film proved to be one of the best. François Ozon’s remix of Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant saw Denis Ménochet offer up everything he has as Peter, a film director with an ego the size of France. A story about the way artists can exploit their muses in the name of creativity, it’s also a film about loneliness, brilliantly conveyed by Menochet, whose Peter tears down everything around him only to find there’s nothing left. Stefan Crepon, who plays his put-upon (and very silent) assistant Karl, also gave one of the performances of the festival. Flux Gourmet Peter Strickland launched his career at the Berlinale in 2009 with the no-budget Katalin Varga . He returned to the festival’s Encounters section with the radical Flux Gourmet , an offbeat comedy about art, food and the body. In a story centred on a “culinary collective”, a group of artists tinkering with the aural pleasures of food are invited for an exclusive residence. Documenting their every move is a writer with severe gastric issues, giving Strickland licence to play with scatological humour. Asa Butterfield, Gwendoline Christie and Strickland regular Fatma Mohamed all feature, but as ever the real star is the director’s linguistic gymnastics. Call Jane This competition entry marks just the second feature directed by playwright/screenwriter Phyllis Nagy, who previously scripted Todd Haynes’ 1950s lesbian drama Carol . Moving on a decade or so to the late ’60s, Nagy tells the story of the “Jane Collective”, an underground service, run by women, to provide safe abortions at a time when they were illegal in the United States. Elizabeth Banks plays the ordinary housewife who joins the service, while Sigourney Weaver co-stars as the group’s gutsy activist leader. Steadily told by Nagy, it is a film that makes its points with recourse to overcooked melodrama. Return to Dust Chinese director Li Ruijun’s competition entry proved to be both accessible and emotional ; it is just the sort of film that could flourish in the international market. The story of a rural couple – a farmer and a woman who has been bullied her whole life – locked into an arranged marriage, Return to Dust is a beautifully sensitive work full of dignity and humility. The film is set in a village in China’s Gansu province, and politics are held at arm’s length, but Li neatly conveys the march of progress as state policy sees houses torn down and concrete monstrosities erected. Good Luck To You, Leo Grande Sophie Hyde’s comedy had already premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, albeit virtually. This time, there was a chance to see it with an audience, perfect for a crowd-pleaser such as this. Emma Thompson plays Nancy Stokes, a former religious education teacher who was trapped in a sexually unsatisfying marriage. Now a widow, she hires a sex worker (Daryl McCormack) for a series of encounters in a London hotel room. Scripted with real verve by comedian Katy Brand, it’s a very, very funny look at life, intimacy, desire and ageing. Thompson is brilliant, while McCormack gives a star-making performance. This Much I Know To Be True Andrew Dominik grabbed the headlines at the festival, talking up his Marilyn Monroe movie Blonde and talking down reputed arguments with Netflix. But he was really here to promote his second Nick Cave documentary following 2016’s One More Time With Feeling . While that was laced with tragedy, coming after the death of Cave’s son Arthur, this latest sees Cave in lockdown, recording music with the ever-present Warren Ellis and even Marianne Faithfull. Dominik shoots the songs evocatively, but it’s little moments – like Cave’s FaceTime call with son Earl – that really bite. Both Sides of the Blade Claire Denis, remarkably, had never played a film in the Berlinale competition before. Both Sides of the Blade (also called Fire in some territories) rectified that, while also pairing Juliette Binoche and Vincent Lindon for the first time. They play Sara and Jean, a couple whose lives are disrupted by the return of François (Grégoire Colin), Jean’s best friend and Sara’s former lover. Intimate, intense and filled with all-consuming close-ups, this is also one of the few films on show that recognised the world we now live in – with characters wearing masks as they go about their business. The Passengers of the Night This competition film from director Mikhael Hers divided critics, but this writer for one fell for its heady mix of 1980s nostalgia, teen love and adult angst. Charlotte Gainsbourg plays a mother going through a divorce in early ’80s Paris who finds a job at a radio station, and meets a young girl, Talulah (Noée Abita), in dire need of help. When her teenage son (Thibault Vinçon) falls for her, the story explodes with the rush of first love. Abita, who appeared in 2020’s Slalom , makes a genuine impression. Leonora Addio The 90-year-old Italian director Paolo Taviani delivers the first film of his career without his brother Vittorio, who died in 2018. Together as the Taviani Brothers, they won the top prizes at Cannes, Venice and Berlin, and this latest effort is dedicated “to my brother Vittorio”. A dreamy mix of fantasy and history, switching between monochrome and colour, Leonora Addio follows the journey of Nobel Prize-winning writer Luigi Pirandello as his ashes are relocated to his home during fascist Italy in the 1930s. It is a film that examines the inevitable. To quote one line from it: “Time must pass and carry us away.” Want more articles like this? Follow SCMP Film on Facebook