A Sister - Belgium, dir. Delphine Girard
Brotherhood - Tunisia, dir. Meryam Joobeur 
The Neighbors' Window - USA, dir. Mashall Curry
Saria - USA, dir. Bryan Buckley
Nefta Football Club - Tunisia/France dir. Yves Piat

A Sister. An emergency services dispatcher must tap into all her professional skills when she receives a call from a woman in a desperate situation. The person who puts the desperate woman in the situation is just not believable in his actions and there was a similar nominee a couple of years ago, but I cannot deny it's tense. 2.5 Stars

Brotherhood. Mohamed is a hardened shepherd living in rural Tunisia with his wife and two sons. Mohamed is deeply shaken when his oldest son Malik returns home after a long journey with a mysterious new wife. Tension between father and son rises over three days until reaching a breaking point. Good story and high tension. I had a slight problem with the ending. 3.0 Stars

The Neighbors' Window. The life of a middle-aged woman with small children is shaken up when two free-spirited twenty-somethings move in across the street. Voyeuristic grass-is-always-greener tale that gives away its point too early in the story. Others liked it more than me, though. 2.5 Stars

Saria. Saria, 12 and her sister Ximena, devise a daring plan to escape horrendous abuse in the orphanage that houses them. Edge-of-your-seat from start to finish and the fact that it's true makes you recoil at the horrors that can befall young women in 2020. Easily the best to me, but that never matters. 4.0 Stars

Nefta Football Club. Two young brothers come across a donkey in the desert. Strangely, the animal is wearing headphones over his ears and is carrying bags of white powder on its back. A mostly silly venture with a smack yourself in the forehead ending. Hard to believe this was one of the best five of the year. 1.5 Stars