Twin filmmakers the Dardenne brothers love to share naturalistic stories of working class Belgium, from a woman desperate to keep her factory job to a boy who just wants to find his bicycle. Their latest, The Unknown Girl, dips its toe into the thriller genre as it follows a young woman who learns that a stranger rang her doorbell just before being killed and takes it upon herself to investigate. On from April 8 at Human Trust Cinema Yurakucho (2-7-1 Yurakucho, Chiyoda-ku; www.ht-cinema.com).

In 2010, Iran slapped Jafar Panahi with a pretty heavy penalty for a filmmaker—a 20-year ban on making films or leaving the country to make them elsewhere. That has not stopped him, though, as his This is Not a Film was made secretly in his apartment, and his latest Taxi, on from April 15, has him posing as a taxi driver to speak with various members of Iranian society. Shinjuku Musashinokan (3-27-10 Shinjuku; shinjuku.musashino-k.jp).

German filmmaker David Sieveking turns his camera on his mother, who was a protest leader in the student movement of the 1960s, but is now fearful of losing memories of those days to Alzheimer’s in the documentary Forget Me Not. Playing from April 18 at Eurospace (1-5 Maruyamacho, Shibuya-ku; www.eurospace.co.jp).

Danish director Lars von Trier, who has often alienated critics and even his fans and recently announced his upcoming retirement, is the subject of an all-night marathon screening at Ikebukuro art house Shin-Bungeiza. The lineup includes Dancer in the Dark (pictured; 2000) and Breaking the Waves (1996). Kicking off at 10:30 pm on April 8. Shin-Bungeiza (3F, 1-43-5 Higashi-Ikebukuro Toshima-ku; www.shin-bungeiza.com)