Can anyone escape their past? Almaz has learned the hard way how to survive in a harsh contemporary world: from her time in servitude in the Eritrean army, she has made her way, as seemingly just one refugee among hundreds, to a centre in Calabria, Italy. But, in between, she was Madame Luna, a powerful, illegal operator who held the lives of many people in her hands. As she moves from isolation and solipsism to a new position of benevolent influence in a multicultural community, she discovers how difficult it is to erase the tragedy that haunts her nightmares – and how easy it is to slip into insidious, seductive networks of local criminality. Can Almaz manage to save others, yet alone herself?

Driven by the extraordinary central performance of Meninet Abraha Teferi, Madame Luna marks the return of Swedish-Chilean director Daniel Espinosa to a type of social issue cinema reminiscent of the Dardenne brothers, after a decade of star-studded work in America. The narrative proceeds without flashbacks, gradually unfolding the complicated past. The filmic style emphasises immediacy, immersion, sensory overload – especially when we arrive at the decadent villas of those who oversee the generalised corruption of labour conditions and welfare services.

– Adrian Martin