OUR CONTEMPORARY WORLD, replete with elements such as social media queens, influencers and the like is one fraught with the dangers of too much shallowness in a context tainted with commercialism and driven by arbitrary ‘likes’ and ‘hits’. It’s a reality which feeds a pathology that spells terror […]
IT’S A LITTLE difficult to believe, in this era where colonialism is now a four-letter word and the shackles of communism were smashed decades ago, in a context where feminism is a value that is taken seriously and one’s sexual identity isn’t something that need be closeted, that […]
WHEN A GREAT classic is slipped between the covers of a festival of contemporary film, you may approach it with the eye of a novel ready to embrace its nuances and romances. But you also may wish to switch gear to reflect on its epic greatness and philosophic […]
WHEN YOU ARE pushed so far from your comfort levels that a voice from your belly cries out with everything you’re worth and reforms you, it’s a kind of rebirth. You may have witnessed this in John Logan’s searing play Red about Mark Rothko. You will rediscover this […]
THE STORY (SO far) of Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg is biblical in its hugeness and in the power that the voice of a youngster can have on how the world turns. On paper, Nathan Grossman’s I am Greta could be the biggest jewel in the crown of this […]
Combining a rich, yet candidly legible ensemble of platitudes and values, nostalgia and truths, without slipping into a pond of maudlin and with several hilarious and jolting bends in the tale, Bernabé Rico’s One Careful Owner is a complete delight, which will bring on the tears of tonic […]
WHAT IF YOUR most treasured relative didn’t even know they were yours? The premises of Steven Woutelood’s magnificent work, My extraordinary summer with Tess, a Dutch-language film with English subtitles and magnificent sprinklings of salsa will take you through the whole gamut of holiday romance tropes, down to […]
SOMETIMES WHEN 110% of attention is focused on the beautification of every nuance offered in every film still, something very important gets lost. Pedro Almodóvar’s long awaited semi-autobiographical film Pain and Glory resonates, in some ways with the premises of Federico Fellini’s (1963) 8½, but with too much […]
YOU KNOW THE guy who stands on the street corner you drive past every day? The woman who walks through the shopping centre where you shop, all her worldly possessions in two bags she carries? What about the teenager you see skulking around the municipal bins when the […]
THE CUT AND thrust of child trafficking in the skanky Italian village of Castel Volturno in Naples is the central focus of Vice of Hope, a beautifully told and immensely balanced tale of guttural possibility told through carefully constructed symbols in Italian with English-subtitles directed by Edoardo De […]
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