One of our favorite films of the summer is David Michod’s “The Rover” starring Guy Pearce and Robert Pattinson. It’s a completely stark and austere tale of a man hell bent on retrieving what is his, by any means necessary. But remember, it’s not quite post-apocalyptic. “It’s post-catastrophic economic collapse!” Michod stressed in a recent Reddit AMA. Got that?

Robert Pattinson and Guy Pearce team up for an apocalyptic western that has divided critical opinion -- are you sold? Tell us your thoughts, and vote in our poll.http://www.hitfix.com/blogs/in-contention

Having proven, with the terrific “Animal Kingdom,” that he could take a potentially small story of desperate men and blow it up into something much grander, David Michod attempts something like the opposite with “The Rover,” taking the epic, sweeping backdrop of a post-apocalyptic, dusty Australian desert, and turning in a tiny two-hander road movie, that is as spartan as its predecessor was operatic. It’s a mark of just what a talent the director is, then, that he can, on the evidence of this morning’s Cannes press screening, turn in such distinctive and compelling work in either register.

The Rover stars Robert Pattinson and Guy Pearce are joined by director David Mich&#244d in a new featurette, which takes fans behind-the-scenes of this upcoming drama. David Mich&#244d reveals that he wrote the character of Eric specifically for Guy Pearce, who is relentlessly angry at how the world has evolved after the collapse of modern society 10 years prior. Robert Pattinson plays Rey, who is forced by Eric to help track down his former gang, with the actor revealing that his character has never had to think for himself before meeting Eric.

Nuri Bilge Ceylan trained as a photographer and has mined the expressive terrain of his native Anatolia to great effect throughout his career. As a director, he has used the landscape not simply as a backdrop, but often as an integral player in the fabric of his films. Which makes it all the more surprising that the vast majority of his latest work Winter Sleep, a film set in the primordial, truly awe inspiring region of Cappadocia, is set indoors, squarely between fours walls. Well, initially surprising anyway.