The ripped-from-the-headlines Case 137 (Dossier 137) combines two genres everybody loves. The first is the detailed bureaucracy of justice and how much easier it is to find objective truth since we all started carrying recording devices (our mobile phones) around at all times. Think Anatomy of a Fall and Saint …
The influence of The Zone of Interest is heavy on Two Prosecutors, a story about Stalinist terror that works as well as it does thanks to its discretion. It’s less about the sound design and more the enveloping knowledge of all the horrors out of frame. Anything that tried to …
The Portuguese director Pedro Pinho presents his latest film, O Riso e a Faca (I Only Rest in the Storm), at the Un Certain Regard section in this year’s Cannes Film Festival. The author’s last full-length feature, A Fábrica de Nada, had its premiere at the Quinzaine des Cineastes in …
In recent years, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has become a central part of the geopolitical discussions due to his scandals as the leader of his country. In 2016, Netanyahu was investigated for corruption and bribery. Over two years, Justice interrogated everyone near him. The result was thousands of hours …
Some years ago I went to Arles for the annual photography festival and discovered that, on Saturday nights, the local bullfighting school put on a show in the Roman amphitheatre. I paid my ten euros and watched three young matadors in training kill their bulls while the locals treated this …
Believe it or not, there was a time when the world was convinced of a global technological shutdown as computers had not been configured to deal with the year 2000, which was known as the Y2K bug! It was a time of fear, panic, and anxiety for many, and not …
Ritual Union Festival is a yearly, one-day event taking place in the heart of Bristol, one of the UK’s cultural capitals, to shine a spotlight on some of the brightest up-and-coming musicians in the scene now. Taking place over four venues – the iconic SWX; Rough Trade and Strange Brew, …
The Ecuadorian director Manolo Sarmiento is a crucial figure in the local documentary community. He is the co-founder and executive director of EDOC, Encuentros del Otro Cine, a singular festival for Ecuadorian cinema. Sarmiento produced a diptych, a two-piece work on the native people of the Rio Napo. The indigenous …
Lúcia Murat is a noteworthy filmmaker in Brazilian History. She engaged in an armed fight during the Brazilian dictatorship – She was jailed and tortured. Murat became a journalist and then a film director. Forty years later, she is still directing films and splitting her filmography between non-fiction and fiction. …
In 2016, the press revealed an espionage scheme for the asbestos industry. A hired person would infiltrate the anti-asbestos organizations and leak their plans to the hirers. That man is Robert Moore, a former TV producer of popular prank shows like Da Ali G Show and Candid Camera. After a …
In recent years, there has been a massive influx of movies and TV series that showcase the reality of the entertainment industry and how youngsters navigate the world of showbiz. Most importantly, these titles exhibit how young people navigate through life while trying to achieve something, which makes them raw …
The trouble with writers is that our work is not very cinematic. Watching someone type down their thoughts is only marginally more interesting than watching someone read a book. So it helps if the writer is easy to watch, whether that’s by being good-looking or from providing excellent archival footage …
Outer Town is one of the best one-day festivals in the UK; a celebration of the DIY spirit and the indie upcoming rising stars that you won’t see at the big, buzzy festivals like your Coachellas or your Reading and Leedses, or even in London; taking place in Bristol highlighting …
Outer Town Festival is the prelude to Ritual Union; instead of airing in the city centre at Bristol it takes place in the surrounding venues in collaboration with indie festivals overseas like the Netherlands’ famous Left of the Dial. Taking place across multiple stages as every bit as iconic as …
The only flaw in the magnificent The Return is that, by virtue of the casting, the audience is able to predict the plot before the characters can. This is however an extremely small complaint in the grand scheme of an unusually subtle and thoughtful war movie. For one thing, it’s …
Welcome to the Modern Era of metal. The two-day festival is London’s newest metal festival; taking place in the famous New Cross Inn in south London – one of the most iconic venues for the scene. It’s a barricade free venue famed for its intense pits; and the all-day nature …
Cinema represents reality by allowing us to imagine ourselves in situations that may seem far from our daily existence. In her directorial debut, Mexican director Urzula Barba Hopfner envisions the life of Corina (Naian González Norvind), an agoraphobic woman. She has an anxiety disorder that affects her when she is …
Long Day’s Journey into Night has been a core of the theatrical canon since its 1956 debut. It won the Pulitzer Prize posthumously for its author, Eugene O’Neill, and has been in worldwide repertory ever since. The role of the mother, Mary Tyrone, is one of the best in the …
In The End, Joshua Oppenheimer turns his camera from documentary towards fiction while continuing his exploration of the lies people tell themselves. The film opens with a young man (George Mackay) painstakingly painting miniature figures and landscapes onto a large diorama; on closer inspection, the diorama seems to encapsulate a …
Luck is not a belief unique to Americans, but The Luckiest Man in America – a half-fictionalised dramatisation of real events directed by Samir Oliveros – makes the case that no one commits to the myth of random good fortune with as much aplomb as does the denizens of the …