A three-hour film better be pretty good and I went into this drama by Saeed Roustayi (Just 6.5 (2019)) well-caffeinated and expecting to be immersed in Iranian life.
Continue readingLeila’s Brothers (2022)
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Yuni (2021)
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Kamila Andini delicately explores the difficulties of being a 16 year old girl in a society that thinks it knows what’s best for you, without giving us any easy answers.
Continue readingBecause We Have Each Other (2022)
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This sad and beautiful documentary is about an ordinary family who is in fact quite extraordinary.
Continue readingMillie Lies Low (2021)
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A warm-hearted cautionary tale for all those feeling the need to flex about their lives.
Continue readingRobe of Gems (2022)
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I walked out of this film thinking “Beautiful. Profound. I have no idea what it’s about.”
Continue readingPilgrims (Piligrimai) (2021)
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A pilgrimage is a journey taken for devotion, redemption or salvation and for Paulius and Indre, it is an attempt at all three.
Continue readingUnclenching the Fists (Разжимая кулаки) (2021)
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This is a quintessential film festival film. It immerses you into a little known culture (North Ossetia), claustrophobically shows you the grim reality of an abused person (Ada), weaves a metaphor throughout (those clenched fists), and gives you a final act that will leave you confounded, exhilarated and thinking about it long afterwards.
Continue readingIncredible But True (Incroyable Mais Vrai) (2022)
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If you watched Deerskin (2019), you’ll know what to expect from ‘fabulist’ Quentin Dupieux.
Continue readingClara Sola (2021)
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A remarkable first feature (and Costa Rica’s Oscar submission), Nathalie Álvarez Mesén spins a lush and dark tale of the internal rage of a woman kept confined.
Continue readingKāinga (2022)
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The third in a trilogy of films raising the voices of women (after Waru (2017) and Vai (2019)), Kāinga (or home) gives us eight short films each focusing on a girl or woman from an Asian country trying to find her place in Aotearoa New Zealand. The connection between them, as the stories span decades, is the same house on 11 Rua Road where they all live or visit.
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