Everybody Knows (2018) review

Laura (Penélope Cruz) and her two kids return to Spain for a wedding - old flame Paco (Javier Bardem) is there as well - but during the ceremony her daughter is kidnapped and the ransom is 300,000€ which Laura can't afford (her husband is broke) - this crisis also brings up old grudges between Paco and Laura's family not to mention a deep secret between the two of them.  Iranian Farhadi, working outside his native land (... which is probably for the best), does a superb job with this family drama, building up tension throughout - he writes almost like a novelist (for this project), and even though his characters make some dumb decisions at various points, he's always most interested in the ethics and morality of every storyline he comes up with.  I wouldn't have taken him for being a Leonard Cohen fan, but surely he's aware of this line from one of the Canadian bard's best songs: "Everybody knows that the good guys lost."