Filmed over three years on the borders of Iraq, Kurdistan, Syria and Lebanon, Notturno is a documentary about desolation in the Middle East with more realism than most.

Although focused on the victims of all sorts of dictatorships and demagogues whose goons have torn through their lands in the past decade and more, the aftershocks of Isis are surely the most pronounced. Searing photography of ancient civilisations reduced to rubble makes up the bulk of Notturno, but it never feels gratuitous. Director Gianfranco Rosi has evidently taken immense care to tell the stories of the widowed mothers of lost sons and the children of men and women who fell victim to successive tyrants. Perhaps predictably, it is the mothers who leave the strongest impression. Their pain is unrivalled throughout most of the world, even if this year is giving them a run for their money in scores of places.

“Notturno...