What does the body know that we refuse to say out loud? This year's New Talents, hailing from across Europe, the Americas and Asia, answer with films that are restless in form and fearless in subject. Guilt festers behind small lies, silence turns into action, and family, political and colonial histories press on characters caught between childhood and adulthood. Bodies itch, mutate, desire and rebel, becoming the place where private anxieties and social expectations collide. The approaches are as varied as the stories. Coming-of-age dramas share the screen with essay films and found-footage collage. Documentary turns personal and confessional. Body horror seeps into realism. Magical realism turns grief into myth. Art history bleeds into the everyday. Awkward comedy sits next to feverish night-time odysseys and quiet rural portraits. Bold, strange and often funny, these young filmmakers show that growing up never really ends. It just changes shape.

• Darya Levchenko