Tessa Thompson in ‘Hedda’ by Nia DaCosta, photo courtesy of Amazon
The film, directed and written by Nia DaCosta based on the play by Henrik Ibsen, transports the story to 1950s England, with all its class issues and gender bias, and adds into the mix an LGBTQ twist that transforms what could be a dated narrative into one for the here and now.
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A still from ‘Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale’ courtesy of Focus Features
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what makes a perfect “franchise” film and the Simon Curtis-directed 2025 gem, in theaters on Friday, September 12th, may just end up winning the prize.
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A film that, aside from its spellbinding leading man and touching crucial themes about the habits that bring us down, again and again, also begs the question: “Who do the streets of London belong to? Those who thread upon them or those who call them home?”
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In his latest film, a crucial masterpiece titled ‘Why War’, Amos Gitai reminds us of an exchange of letters between Sigmund Freud, the father of modern psychoanalysis, and Albert Einstein, the scientific genius. If only we’d listen to these brilliant men.
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Image copyright Fondo Giuseppe Quatriglio, used with permission
The film, which world premiered at this year’s Berlinale, will enjoy its UK Premiere as part of the 3rd bi-annual Cinecittà Italian Doc Season, on July 20-21 at London’s Bertha DocHouse.
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This is definitely a film you won’t want to miss. And read on for a personal interview with the Syrian filmmaker to find out why.
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A still from ‘Ladies Coffee’ courtesy of Al-Agroobi.
The London-based Emirati director is a personal favorite and her latest project breaks all the conventions set for Arab women filmmakers, in favor of a genre bending short that begs to be watched on the big screen.
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After world premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival in NYC earlier this year, Stuart Gatt’s captivating thriller finally screens in the UK at the upcoming Raindance Film Fest. And I caught up with the filmmaker to ask about his influences, why he’s so good at writing women’s characters and more.
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There is just so much good stuff screening at this year’s London Film Festival — from a documentary about a nearly-cancelled forever fashion icon, to a film featuring Austin Butler and Michael Shannon as bikers, to MENA gems, Oscars and Golden Globes hopefuls and indie treasures. So buckle your seat belts, it’s going to be a bumpy fortnight.
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The Families for Freedom bus in London — a still from ‘Ayouni’
“Whenever you throw stones into the sea, it sends ripples through me.” — Dunya Mikhail
Bookended at its beginning and end by the stunning stanza from the esteemed Iraqi-American poet quoted above, the documentary ‘Ayouni’ proves both a heartbreaker and a dream maker of a film. Now let me explain.
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Jean Whitehorse in a still from Lorna Tucker’s ‘Amá’
When I spoke to Italian filmmaker Roberto Minervini in Venice, I asked why he’d made ‘What You Gonna Do When the World’s On Fire?’ His answer still haunts me today, “one of the biggest reasons I made this film is that I realized that progressive America to which I belong, has accepted a level, a threshold of tolerance which includes inequality.” Minervini then added, as a mantra that now accompanies my own daily mundane struggles as a woman “there is no more fight for equality, lesser inequality has become the new equality.” We as a society tolerate, we no longer wholeheartedly accept or deny. And we seem to be OK with tolerating a lot of human beings.
In introducing Lorna Tucker’s latest documentary ‘Amá’ I feel like I must mention my fellow Italian Minervini, because I, like him and Tucker, wear a different pair of glasses when I look at American society today. I see America through the lenses of a first generation immigrant. I don’t see Trump as the new evil, but simply a reincarnation of all that is considered to be as “American as apple pie” — institutionalized racism and the persecution of people who are different and who have the courage to remain different.
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Hédi Jouini and Ninette in 1946
English-born filmmaker Claire Belhassine didn't know, for most of her young life, that her grandfather was Hédi Jouini, who is recognized as the Godfather of Tunisian music and the “Tunisian Frank Sinatra.” She spent summers in the company of her Tunisian extended family, yet they never talked of his historic past — and this is a man who was even featured on a Tunisian postage stamp! Until, one day in the back of a Paris taxi, she learned that her grandfather Hédi was a superstar.
So how is that possible, you may be thinking right about now? Well, I won't give the details of Belhassine's spellbinding and utterly pleasant to watch documentary away, but I will tell you that the filmmaker takes us on a personal journey with her, accompanied by Jouini's music and her own soothing narrative.
This coming week, 'The Man Behind the Microphone' premieres in Tunis at the Manarat Film Festival of the Mediterranean in Tunisia, a passion project by another wondrous woman, producer Dora Bouchoucha. The film originally world premiered at the Dubai International Film Festival where I watched it and it was probably the most interactive film there, complete with an impromptu concert on the beach by some of Belhassine's talented family.
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Chris Hondros/Getty Images; Courtesy of HONDROS Film
Just as the sound of bullets hitting a tin ceiling is heard, a mobile phone rings. "Call me back in about half an hour," says the man answering the phone.
And thus begins 'Hondros' one of the most beautifully terrifying cinematic looks into what it means to be a tried and true photojournalist. The man answer the phone is Chris Hondros. The late, great Hondros, who for years was the man behind the lens of some of the most iconic photographs of our times.
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