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Continue readingTag Archives: 4.5 stars
The Carnival (2023)
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Isabel Darling’s The Carnival reminded me of a particular ilk of great Australian documentary storytelling, like Maya Newell’s Gayby Baby (2015) and In My Blood it Runs (2019) and Justine Moyle’s Tall Poppy (2021). The storytellers find a subject or a family who seem absolutely ordinary and build a rapport that allows them to tell the story of how they are extraordinary.
Continue readingPast Lives (2023)
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Celine Song’s debut feature is a quiet and lyrical ode to inyeon, the Korean term for “the miracle of being in the same room together at the same time.”
Continue readingMass (2021)
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What might you say if you came face to face with the parents of the child who killed your child?
Continue reading107 Mothers (Цензорка) (2021)
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This must be one of the most convincing ‘docufictions’ I have even seen. Peter Kerekes spent five years filming in a Ukrainian women’s prison and has crafted an austere and profound drama where the voices of the women are integral to the story.
Continue readingThe Lonely Spirits Variety Hour (2022)
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You always hope for a gem at a film festival – a film you know nothing about, that you have no particular hopes for but that transports you somewhere transcendent.
Continue readingChildren of the Mist (Những đứa trẻ trong sương) (2021)
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Documentaries don’t usually make me so angry I want to throw something at the screen. Vietnamese film maker Hà Lệ Diễm gives us unprecedented insight into Hmong culture and their tradition of bride kidnapping.
Continue readingThe Eight Mountains (Le Otto Montagne)(2022)
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Even though this is a very intimate story of friendship, it feels epic in scale and rich in detail, set against a glorious backdrop of Alpine mountains.
Continue readingInnocence (2004)
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Lucile Hadzihalilovic’s first feature-length film is an austere and ominous parable about the societal limitations imposed on young women.
Continue readingThe Exam (2021)
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Shawkat Amin Korki cranks up the tension in this exploration of the desperate lengths people will go to when they are given few choices.
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