Valentyn Vasyanovych knows how to frame and hold an image. This slow and poignant exploration of the aftermath of war is like a series of tableau, stitched together to create a compelling and rigorous story.
Continue readingAtlantis (2019)
StandardDigger (2020)
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I can see what this austere drama from Georgis Grigorakis was trying to do and, for a first feature, it is well crafted and tonally interesting. Pitched as a David and Goliath battle between an everyman and a mining company and also, oddly as a ‘Western, revisited’, it didn’t quite achieve its aim.
Continue readingSweet Thing (2020)
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A low-budget family affair with a crew made up of director Alexandre Rockwell’s film students, Sweet Thing feels like a home movie as seen through the eyes of children.
Continue readingJust 6.5 (Metri Shesh Va Nim) (2019)
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From the first moments of this high-speed Iranian cop thriller, you think you know what it’s about. Drug dealers are bad, cops are a bit rough around the edges but basically good. They’ll struggle and the problem isn’t solvable but they’ll get their man. Saeed Roustayi second feature is much more than it says on the tin.
Continue readingIdentifying Features (Sin Señas Particulares) (2019)
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It’s hard to believe that this compelling drama is the first feature directed by Fernanda Valadez. It is a beautifully constructed film that pulls you in by various threads into a story of mothers and sons, broken by a cruel society.
Continue readingFirst Cow (2019)
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We begin in true Kelly Reichardt style with a long slow shot that lets us take in the slow movement of a river and the sounds of a forest. We are in present day and watch as a woman (Alia Shawkat) unearths a bone, then uncovers two skeletons lying side by side.
Continue readingSome Kind of Heaven (2020)
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What at first seems a bright and cheesy opportunity to poke fun at the ignorance and excess of wealthy, white America becomes an insightful and somewhat bleak exploration of ageing.
Continue readingSunless Shadows (2019)
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Following on from Starless Dreams (2016), Mehrdad Oskouei returns to the same Iranian juvenile detention centre to interview young woman convicted of killing their fathers, along with their mothers and sisters, some who are on death row.
Continue readingCoded Bias (2020)
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At first, this look at the inherent bias of algorithms in our daily lives made me uneasy and tempted to ditch all my technology. I stuck with it, though it nearly had me nodding off with its ambling pace, and was rewarded with some third act gems,
Continue readingLa Llorona (2019)
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Mixing just the right notes of folklore, social realism, tragedy and horror, Jayro Bustamante deftly weaves a compelling and emotional story about the genocide of the indigenous Mayan-Ixil people in 1980s Guatemala.
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