Damn you, Gaysorn Thavat, you made me cry. I thought this might be a run-of-the-mill feel-good drama about a feisty woman fighting the system but it was so much more.
Continue readingThe Justice of Bunny King (2021)
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Radiograph of a Family (2020)
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Firouzeh Khosrovani constructs a surprisingly tender collage of her parents’ lives that shows the fractures caused by the Iranian Revolution.
Continue readingHive (Zgjoi) (2021)
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Blerta Basholli’s quiet and forceful drama about the awfulness of war and its effect on women in patriarchal small-town society is a welcome companion-piece to Strong Female Lead (2021) where we saw how hard it was to maintain respect and autonomy, even when you are the elected leader of a country.
Continue readingApples (Μήλα) (2020)
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With a beginning that reminded me of the doleful surrealism of Lanthimos’s The Lobster (2015), Christos Nikou gives us an unexpectedly gentle portrait of a man struggling with grief.
Continue readingThe Nowhere Inn (2020)
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Messy, arty and wry, this mockumentary by Bill Benz weaves the true-life friendship of Carrie Brownstein and Annie Clark, stage-name St. Vincent, with a rumination on fame, identity and artifice.
Continue readingBandar Band (2020)
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This simple and joyful film, ostensibly about a young band trying to navigate flood waters to get to Tehran for an audition, hides a deeper meaning about the challenges for young Iranians.
Continue readingGaza Mon Amour (2020)
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A bitter-sweet romance that, by stealth, will show you the precariousness of living in Palestine.
Continue readingRiders of Justice (Retfærdighedens Ryttere) (2021)
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A surprisingly wholesome, bloody revenge movie that sees a father’s suppressed rage wreak havoc when he thinks his wife’s death was part of an assassination plot.
Continue readingChess of the Wind (1976)
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A glimpse into Iran between two revolutions, Mohammad Reza Aslani’s long-lost first feature manages to meld Vermeer-like drawing-room drama with gothic horror.
Continue readingDear Comrades! (Dorogie tovarishchi) (2020)
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In carefully composed black and white imagery, we watch the Soviet propaganda machine go into overdrive to cover up 1960s labour strikes and a subsequent, ill-advised massacre.
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