The experimental director and visual artist Ben Rivers is a respected name in the film festival circuit. The director debuts his works in principal events, such as the Locarno Film Festival, where he premiered his 2024 film Bogancloch and his new work, Mare’s Nest, both in the Concorso Internazionale. In …
In her fourth directorial effort, the Serbian director Ivana Mladenović returns to the Locarno Film Festival, where she premiered her 2019 film Ivana the Terrible, now with Sorella di Clausura. The director, who currently resides in Romania, presents a story about a wasted Romanian talent – someone who never reached …
The Austrian director Elsa Kremser and the German director Levin Peter are known for their documentaries Space Dogs and Dreaming Dogs, which approach the reality of stray dogs in Moscow. In Kremser’s fiction debut, they present White Snail, a romantic drama set in Belarus. The film narrates the story of …
The Vietnamese director Trương Minh Quý was one of the highlights of the 2024 Cannes Film Festival with his film Viet and Nam. The film had an extensive festival season, including a main slate slot in the New York Film Festival and a Wavelength selection in the Toronto International Film …
A competitive entry in the Filmmakers of the Present program of the Locarno Film Festival’s 78th edition, Fantasy, the feature directorial debut from Slovenian musician and director Kukla, at times credited as Katarina Bogdanović, is a hypnotic, surreal expansion of the story the filmmaker initially sketched in her award-winning short …
There has been a disturbing recent trend of setting stories in the afterlife, with the position that growth and change is really only possible after you are dead. This removes our agency, and posits that our situation is more important than our free will. This is especially aggravating when you …
The Paper is coming to Peacock, and comedy lovers should be excited. Fans of The Office are an extremely devoted group. Any mention of a remake or reboot is typically met with a swift and forceful reaction of cynicism, which is ironic considering the Steve Carell-led series was, itself, a …
In recent years, films that set out to explore non-traditional relationships or unconventional family dynamics have become more common, but they don’t always manage to do so with the necessary depth. Most fall into the trap of using the theme as a mere gimmick, without delving into the genuine emotions …
Life has been hard for Sabrina Parry. Her older sister is the pretty one, the sweet one, the one everyone loves. Sabrina is the difficult one, the exasperating one, the one everyone dislikes. When their father has to leave he gives Sabrina instructions “Keep Ceridwen and Gran safe…and stay out …
Frankenstein is a masterpiece, an instant classic and a complete and utter triumph. It sticks very close to the source material while managing to be something fresh and new, it maintains its historic setting while never forgetting the current moment, and it all hangs on two extraordinary central performances that …
In its third year, Rally festival finally became what it was meant to be. Two years of running on the only wet day in August because of freak storms would have caused any small festival to close and you wouldn’t blame them; despite capturing star zeitgeist acts like early career …
I wasn’t familiar with the work of James Sweeney (Straight Up), but there’s always something fascinating when a filmmaker decides to take on so many roles in a single project: writing, directing, producing, and, on top of that, playing one of the main characters. That kind of total exposure naturally …
The Indian Film & TV industry hasn’t managed to come out with a spy thriller that not only hits hard, but also makes viewers realize how these people put themselves on the line to protect their country. That’s where Netflix series Saare Jahan Se Accha steps in, finally delivering the sharp, …
An incommunicable solitude pulsates at the heart of Tabi to Hibi — also titled Two Seasons, Two Strangers — the bifurcated drama from Japanese writer-director Shô Miyake, who just won a career-defining Pardo d’Oro (Golden Leopard) for the movie, following its world premiere in the Concorso Internazionale section of this …
Premiering in the Filmmakers of the Present competition of the recently concluded Locarno Film Festival, A Balcony in Limoges, French writer-director Jérôme Reybaud’s feature follow-up to his debut 4 Days in France (2016), is the kind of movie that one might describe as deceptive, or unforeseen at the very least, …
I texted a friend that I’d just seen a movie about how hard it is to be George Clooney and he immediately suggested we show Jay Kelly to every Palestinian. Perhaps there would be less sarcasm about world-famous middle-aged white male American millionaires in life crisis if there was any …
Naomi Kawase is arguably the most well-known Japanese female director internationally. Previously, she competed in the Festival de Cannes competition five times with Shara in 2003, The Mourning Forest in 2007, Hanezu in 2011, Still the Water in 2014, and Radiance in 2017. Her 2020 feature, True Mothers, appeared on …
The Swiss director Fabrice Aragno is known for his collaborations with the cinematic genius Jean-Luc Godard. He worked as a cinematographer in Godard’s films ” Film Socialisme, Goodbye to Language, and Trailer of a Film That Will Never Exist: Phony Wars. He produced Godard’s last Cannes competition entry, The Book …
The French New Wave existed as a pinnacle moment in filmmaking. It served as a period of time that redefined “genre” by flipping conventions on their head. A master of that new ground of cinema was filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard. Films like Pierrot le Fou, Contempt, and Weekend revolutionized an industry. …
Meryn Cooper has one goal in Sable Sorensen’s Dire Bound: protect her sister. Their father died before Saela (her sister) was born and their mother slips further away every day thanks to her mental illness. All the two sisters have in the world is each other so that goal isn’t surprising. …