The Hill Where Lionesses Roar is a remarkable achievement by 20-year old actor Luàna Bajrami (seen recently as Sophie in Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019)), who is writer, director and star of this languidly beautiful story that captures the frustrations of youth, poverty and gender in rural Kosovo.
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This Oscar-nominated drama from Iranian director Majid Majidi begins as a heartfelt tale of plucky street urchins but soon reveals a deeper story of the grim realities for those who are most vulnerable.
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This is a beautifully-made documentary that carries us close beside the mayor of the Palestinian city of Ramallah, Musa Hadid, as he goes about his day, dealing with everything from fountains to Israeli aggression.
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With a run-time of 14 hours, this is a documentary to own so that you can dip in and out when you have the time. I was expecting a chronological exploration of female directors but this is something much more universal. Breaking the art of film-making down into 41 chapters, each technique and approach is illustrated only by clips from films made by women.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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You know if Steven Oliver is narrating, this is going to be a warm and fabulous ride through a serious subject. Taking the 250th anniversary of the landing of Captain Cook in Australia as a jumping off point, Indigenous artists create modern-day songlines that voice an Indigenous view of colonisation.
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Josephine Decker gives us a rich and textured exploration of feminism and patriarchy, wrapped around a fictionalised account of real-life gothic horror writer Shirley Jackson.
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I’m not sure what message director Lawrence Michael Levine was ultimately trying to convey in Black Bear but I thoroughly enjoyed the ride.
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