WHEN YOUR BODY says: ‘This much and no further!’ and your dreams are within arms’ reach but your land is burning down, what do you do? The story of Olga (played by Anastasiia Budiashkina) is a complicated one which offers a provocative understanding of nationhood and a prescient […]
… AND THEY ALL lived happily ever after. The classic love story is easily the one that’s the most well-used in storymaking contexts. But Clio Barnard’s work Ali & Ava comes with a special twist that force the cliched mould deliciously out of shape. It is on this […]
GLOWING, YET UNDERSTATED magic comes of a particular kind of candid, descriptive writing that doesn’t stoop to sensationalism or bald self-promotion. You can find this in George Orwell’s domestic diaries, but you can also find it in Adam Riley’s Birds of South Africa. This current publication offers an […]
LISTEN TO THE first few lyrics of Sodade, a song written in the 1950s which was popularised and rose to meteoric cultural proportions in the early 1990s, and you will know exactly who Cesária Évora was – or at least, you will know her voice, which runs like […]
PICTURE THE SCENARIO. A performance of Gustav Mahler’s first symphony, the Titan, composed in 1888, is about to begin. The bassoonists stand poised, the trumpets in the wings. All due time hewn established pomp and ceremony is de rigueur; performers are in black. The audience is quiet, in […]
IN THESE DAYS of earth-shattering news from every quarter, you might have news-fatigue. You might find yourself aimlessly scrolling through social media, not allowing your eye to catch on things that will tear holes in your sense of hope. And further to all of that, you might find […]
A CERTAIN LEVEL of cold-bloodedness seems a requisite in writing a critical biography of someone the author loved dearly, with the knowledge that strangers will read this book. And that the publisher wants a serious work on the shelves. But an enormous level of skill is necessary in […]
SOMETIMES WHEN YOU think your dream opportunity has finally presented itself, you’re rudely given to understand that the universe has a whole different narrative plotted for you. The sequel to Craig Freimond’s 2012 film Material, called New Material, released nationally on 26 November. It will have you reaching […]
BEHIND THE FEISTY face and wry sense of humour of 98-year-old Capetonian Ella Blumenthal is a history that underpins the life of many European Jews who lived through the scourge of the Holocaust, bereft, broken and with scant wherewithal to pick up pieces and start life all over […]
WHEN THE TRADITIONAL lines of documentary are allowed to blend into the messy whimsy of what fictional tales are about, real magic happens. A kind of universal sacred magic that speaks to what all of us are, as human beings. This is what you can anticipate in Maite […]
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