Ukrainian directors Alina Gorlova, Yelizaveta Smith, and Simon Mozgovyi present their take on the war with Militantropos. The word, which appears after the title cards, comes from the Latin word Milit (soldier) and the Greek Antropos (human). The film uses the combination of those words to formulate its thesis on …
Why is a movie about the aftermath of a Parisian career woman’s mental breakdown, set in a small town in eastern France, named after an area of the west coast of Ireland? Because in 1981 a French singer, Michel Sardou, had a massive hit with a song called “Les lacs …
This Japanese movie is named after an art print a preteen girl buys her terminally ill father. This strange misdirection fits this quietly misguided film, about how that girl passes the time while her parents are too preoccupied for her. This includes some topics on the very edge of what …
Bold, primary colours take centre point within the animated tale Death Does Not Exist (La mort n’existe pas) which convey the film’s blunt messaging effectively. Political in nature and economic in scale, the film lays bare its stance within its opening sequence leaving no doubt about its eat the rich …
Paul Mescal has the very rare talent of making unusually good choices. He has made a few damp squibs; nobody loved Carmen but me, and while his charisma carried his stage performance of A Streetcar Named Desire from London to Brooklyn, the whole show was misguided. That said, he has …
Everybody knows the greatest thing about Wes Anderson’s movies is their sense of style. Style is the tool he uses to bring lightness to dark and complex subjects such as grief, the creeping threat of fascism and being an insufferable young person. The staging and blocking, the centering of images, …
For his next trick – not his follow-up to Anora, since he did not direct – Sean Baker has co-written, edited and co-produced this Taiwanese movie about a family of three women trying to make it in Taipei. The director (and co-writer) is Shih-Ching Tsou, who has worked with Mr. …
Caravan (Karavan) is the debut feature by Zuzana Kichnerová and is another selection of the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival. The film narrates the story of Ester (Anna Geislerová), a forty-five-year-old woman who spends most of her time caring for her special needs son, David (David …
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 …