Do I have any right to be disappointed that the story of Lee Miller is book ended by her role and failures as a mother?
Continue readingLee (2023)
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The Zone of Interest (2023)
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The ‘zone of interest’ was the Nazi party term for the 40 square kilometre area around Auschwitz and also the name of Martin Amis’s novel, a very different version of a glimpse into the life and home of Rudolf Höss.
Continue readingCivil War (2024)
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There aren’t many films I watch where I feel my heart is in my mouth right up until the final act. Alex Garland is not one of my favourite directors so perhaps my expectations were slightly lowered for this intimate meditation on media and the personal choices we make.
Continue readingI Shall Not Hate (2024)
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I had a bit of a revelation after watching this documentary about a Palestinian doctor working in Gaza and Israel, that if you want to understand situations like this, conflicts that are happening all over the world, the best way is to watch a documentary about it.
Continue readingIntercepted (2024)
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I found this documentary hard going. If I’d seen it at the start of the festival and less tired, I might have been awed by the technique of overlapping footage with disconnected but meaningful audio.
Continue readingNo Other Land (2024)
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I remember feeling similarly shell-shocked after For Sama. There is something devastatingly compelling about first person footage during wartime and with No Other Land, it wasn’t even officially a war.
Continue readingThe Damned (2024)
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Occupied City (2023)
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A four hour documentary is always going to have its challenges. Steve McQueen (Hunger (2008)) takes a deep dive into the recorded history of the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam by overlaying a narrated retelling with a river of footage of the city in 2020 and 2021.
Continue readingQuo Vadis, Aida? (2020)
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Where are you going Aida? Aida (Jasna Đuričić) is a former teacher, co-opted into translating for the UN in Srebrenica during the 90s Bosnian war.
Continue readingAll Quiet on the Western Front (Im Westen Nichts Neues) ( 2022)
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If you are looking for a film that relentlessly depicts the awful hopelessness of war, Edward Berger’s re-adaptation of Erich Remarque’s novel is the one to watch.
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