5 things to watch this bank holiday weekend – 23 to 26 August

Where’s it on? Cinemas nationwide, including BFI Southbank

Kneecap is the name of the hip-hop trio from Belfast who’ve ruffled many feathers with their Irish-language rapping and raucous reclaiming of hip-hop to assert Irish cultural identity. Now they’ve got a fictionalised account of their rise to prominence in this breathless, at times electrifying pop-movie from director Rich Peppiatt, who borrows some of the pep of the Beatles’ films and more than a few moves from Trainspotting-era Danny Boyle to tell the boys’ story. Mo Chara, Móglaí Bap and DJ Próvai all play themselves, while Michael Fassbender is on hand as a fictional father – an IRA operative who fakes his own death to go into hiding. 

Where’s it on? Select cinemas and on demand

In the opening scenes of this grippingly realistic thriller, two sisters in Guatemala City enjoy a night of clubbing, but the next day Sarita notices that Bea hasn’t come home. Her bed hasn’t been slept in. Determined to find out what happened to her, and with little interest from the police, Sarita travels to a coastal community to try to infiltrate the drug gang she believes is responsible for Bea’s disappearance. Justin Lerner’s crime drama unfolds as a grim exposé of the violent world of the cartels and their terrifyingly youthful foot soldiers. Its trump card is a revelatory performance from Karen Martínez, who makes Sarita a protagonist of steely, fearless determination.

Where’s it on? Blu-ray

With poignant timing, this latest UK Blu-ray release from Criterion showcases the peerless talent of Gena Rowlands, who died last week. Rowlands plays the Hollywood exec who is picked up by Winona Ryder’s Los Angeles cabbie in the opening story of Jim Jarmusch’s globe-trotting anthology movie. There are five stories, each based around the conversation between a cabbie and the traveller in their back seat, with other locations including New York, Paris, Rome and Helsinki. All taking place during one night on Earth, it’s an unusually successful example of the anthology format, offering a series of short-story vignettes that are full of Jarmusch’s customary wit and idiosyncrasy. The ensemble cast also features Rosie Perez, Roberto Benigni, Isaach de Bankolé and Béatrice Dalle.

Where’s it on? Blu-ray

Probably the most celebrated of Akira Kurosawa’s contemporary dramas, Ikiru was made in the spell between his landmark samurai films Rashomon (1950) and Seven Samurai (1954). It’s the affecting story of a long-serving office worker who, after discovering he has cancer, is left pondering what his salaried dedication has all been for. Takashi Shimura, who would go on to lead the seven samurai, plays the melancholy bureaucrat in a humanist drama that – in fine Dickensian tradition – offers a path to selfless redemption. A classic of Japan’s 1950s golden age, Ikiru’s story proved durable enough to withstand being transposed to mid-century London for the 2022 film Living, starring Bill Nighy as the fated office worker. 

Where’s it on? Sunday, 00:55, BBC2

Only Almodóvar, or perhaps David Fincher, rivals Oldboy (2003) director Park Chan-wook in his recent burst of lushly directed, labyrinth-plotted melodramas. This 2022 thriller is as head-spinningly tricky to keep up with as The Handmaiden (2016), but its pristine storytelling is just as seductive. This is filmmaking that purrs. The plot is a riff on Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo (1958), seeing a Busan detective (Park Hae-il) investigate the death of a man found at the bottom of a local climbing rock. Police procedural becomes perverse love story as he falls for the man’s beautiful widow (Tang Wei), even as she emerges as suspect number one.