It’s a pleasure to watch a meticulously crafted film where the story keeps unfolding right up until a transcendental ending.
Continue readingMonster (怪物) (2023)
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Four Daughters (Les Filles d’Olfa) (2023)
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This is one of the most heartfelt and inventive documentaries I ever remember seeing.
Continue readingFremont (2023)
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I loved Babak Jalali’s Radio Dreams (2016), and he doesn’t disappoint with the tonally very different but just as meticulous Fremont.
Continue readingNudo Mixteco (2021)
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This stunning first feature by Ángeles Cruz interweaves the stories of three indigenous women across one festival day in a small village in the Cerro Nudo Mixteco mountainous region between Puebla and Oaxaca in Mexico.
Continue readingFor Sama (2019)
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Image via miff.com.au
“He is my son. This is my love.” says a mother as she carries her young son, killed by an air strike. He was taken by his brothers to the makeshift hospital that Hamza, the husband of journalist and a writer/director Waad Al-Khateab has established in Aleppo during the siege of 2016. Continue reading
Roma (2018)
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Image via http://www.lonelyplanet.com
The film that should have won the best picture Oscar, Alfonso Cuarón’s sublime meditation on the life of an indigenous maid in 1970s Mexico city is filmmaking at its best. Continue reading
Glory (Slava) (2016)
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Image via miff.com.au
Glory grabbed me from its first realistic scenes to its devastating ending. Described as Capra-esque and a black comedy, this is anything but; intense, understated and bleak, it is a powerful drama about what is lost when corruption and greed win out over humanity. Continue reading
The Song Keepers (2017)
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Image via miff.com.au
Naina Sen’s radiant documentary about the funny and spirited women (and a few men) of the Central Australian Aboriginal Women’s Choir stole my heart. Continue reading
The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017)
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Image via miff.com.au
More akin to Dogtooth than The Lobster, The Killing of a Sacred Deer takes time to show its hand but when it does, it slowly and surely builds to a devastating conclusion. Continue reading
Only the Brave (1994)
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Alex (Elena Mandalis) is now one of my favourite characters ever. She’s the kind of tough girl I would have been scared of at school. Greek, working class and a misfit, her only choice is to push back. Continue reading
