A World War II opus and a humanistic look at those who often don’t make it into the history books.

How a German Jewish, gay, ex-political prisoner, and prosecutor fought East and West German bureaucracies to bring war criminals to court.

Two Czech operatives parachute into Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia with minimal supplies and months-old intel. Their mission: to contact the local resistance forces and assassinate the highest ranking Nazi official.

Within the first 10 minutes, you feel you are safely in the hands of a master.

At 98 minutes, this entertaining and quietly ambitious film never wears out its welcome and stays true to its small-scale intentions.

Director Anne Fontaine’s stirring drama takes religious faith as a starting point and looks at different approaches to compromised belief within a Polish abbey in the disastrous aftermath of World War II.

In this sprawling historical drama, a solemn white man in the Confederate South (Matthew McConaughey) fights for his freedom and that of his black allies.

In this roundup: the powerful, timely National Bird; Memories of a Penitent Heart, an intimate family portrait and a mystery; Sam Neill as a crusty old codger; and the charming, low-key Don’t Think Twice.

Director Tobias Lindholm, employing a realistic, almost documentarylike style, explores the moral consequences of the choices men make. He has, with A War, made his finest film to date.