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E. Nina Rothe

Film. Fashion. Life.
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Favorite movies only need apply. Life is too short to write about what I didn't enjoy. 

Actress Lyna Khoudri in a still from 'Papicha' by Mounia Meddour

Actress Lyna Khoudri in a still from 'Papicha' by Mounia Meddour

“Redefine what a heroine is”: Algerian filmmaker Mounia Meddour on her film ‘Papicha’ in Cannes

E. Nina Rothe May 29, 2020

I believe that if there were more women film critics, the business of cinema would be much different. There would be better films made, more communication between what audiences want and filmmakers create, and those projects which portray the truth of our humanity would receive the attention they deserve. 'Papicha' by Mounia Meddour would be one of those projects. Now let me explain what I mean.

‘Papicha’ is now streaming as part of the Virtual Cinema of Film at Lincoln Center, through June 4th. An act of courage if you read my piece!

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In Film Festivals, Film, Interviews Tags Papicha, Mounia Meddour, Algerian cinema, Arab cinema, Festival de Cannes, Thrive Global, Un Certain Regard, film, women filmmakers, Lyna Khoudri, Qumra, Doha Film Institute, Film at Lincoln Center, streaming
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A still from The Present

Farah Nabulsi on her haunting film 'The Present' and the "misrepresented Palestinian stories" she was born to tell

E. Nina Rothe May 27, 2020

The discovery of Farah Nabulsi’s stunning, honest and beautiful film ‘The Present’ I owe to Palestinian favorite actor Saleh Bakri. I mean, as soon as I saw his name on the Brooklyn Film Festival line-up page, I was hooked. But while his presence is undeniably a wonderful pull into the film, Nabulsi’s perfect oeuvre stands on its own.

The title ‘The Present’ could refer to a gift, the one Yusuf, Bakri’s character goes to buy for his wife on their wedding anniversary. But it also means, to me, the current state of affairs, the here and now, for the Palestinian people.

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In Interviews, Film Festivals, Film Tags Farah Nabulsi, The Present, Brooklyn Film Festival, BFF, Palestine, Kuwait, Lebanon, Palestinian cinema, Saleh Bakri, short film, Naksa, filmmaking, women filmmakers, Nael Kanj, Maryam Kanj, Hind Shoufani, Philistine Films, Covid-19
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Geeta in 'Brother Move On'

Antshi von Moos's 'Brother, Move On' is an ode to the courage of one woman driving her taxi at night in Delhi

E. Nina Rothe May 26, 2020

Antshi von Moos’s debut documentary short ‘Brother, Move On’ is one of those unmissable films which possesses the right appeal, even on paper. The story of a Delhi woman who drives a taxi at night, catering to an all-female clientele to make sure they get home safely, made up the perfect storm of place, leading character and premise to secure I’d yearn to watch it. That it is a real story, told with kindness and a deep understanding of the subject matter at hand, is just icing on the cake.

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In Film, Interview, Interviews, Film Festivals Tags Antshi von Moos, Brother Move On, India, Delhi, female taxi driver, women-only taxi, Mumbai, Brooklyn Film Festival, Geeta, Rangoli Agarwal, Valérie Sauvin
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truthtop.jpg

'Truth' in Journalism, Honesty in Life with James Vanderbilt

E. Nina Rothe April 11, 2020

I was always a huge fan of the CBS news show 60 Minutes. To this day, there are some indelible segments that have stayed with me, like the Mike Wallace interview with tobacco industry insider Jeffrey Wigand and the Dan Rather expose on George W. Bush and how the 43rd President of the United States of America came to be in the Air National Guard during the time of the Vietnam War.

Incidentally, both those segments have been made into films and these days 60 Minutes continues to be a trailblazer in US news reporting, with an analytical twist, though perhaps today they do what they do with a bit more caution.

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In Film, Film Festivals, Interviews Tags Mary Mapes, Truth and Duty, 60 minutes, Dan Rather, Mike Wallace, James Vanderbilt, Dubai International Film Festival, Robert Redford, CBS, Rathergate, Cate Blanchett
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Between Heaven and Earth

She put a spell on me: Najwa Najjar's bewitching 'Between Heaven and Earth'

E. Nina Rothe February 19, 2020

One of my favorite films in Berlin this year is not in Competition. Actually it’s not even in any of the sidebars. You’ll find Najwa Najjar’s stunning, heartwarming latest feature at the Berlinale’s European Film Market, with a screening on the 22nd of February, at 9.30 in the Simon Bolivar Saal.

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In Film, Film Festivals, review Tags Najwa Najjar, Between Heaven and Earth, Berlinale, European Film Market, Berlin, Palestine, Israel, Occupied Territories, women filmmakers, EFM, Souad Massi, Yuma, Natasha Atlas, Orange Blossom, Tania Saleh, Gazal, Arab cinema, Arab women's cinema, Mouna Hawa, Firas Nassar, Eyes of a Thief, Tot Ard, al Raseef
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A still from 'Fig Tree'

Aalam-Warqe Davidian's 'Fig Tree' in NYC: the power of cinema with a conscience

E. Nina Rothe June 3, 2019

There may be a woman at the helm of Ethiopia as a country, but there is still a long road to travel for women in the Ethiopian film industry. In fact, while still plentiful considering the small number of male counterparts, —Haile Gerima is probably the best known filmmaker hailing from the country in the West — Ethiopian women filmmakers can still be only counted on the fingers of one hand. Maybe two.

Aalam-Warqe Davidian defies those odds, singlehandedly, bringing a tale inspired by her own teenage years growing up in the midst of the Ethiopian civil war. In 1989, to be more exact, is when her film ‘Fig Tree’ takes place, in a remote area of the country.

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In Film Festivals, Film Tags Fig Tree, Aalam-Warqe Davidian, Ethiopia, Women filmmakers, Betalehem Asmamawe, Jewish Ethiopians, Falasha Jews, Ethiopian civil war, Israel Film Center Festival, Red Cow
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Hook Up 2.0 by Dana Nachman

There's an App for that! Dana Nachman on sex in the #MeToo age in 'Hook Up 2.0' at the Tribeca Film Festival

E. Nina Rothe April 22, 2019

A typical present day college party. A girl. A guy. They hook up and go the man’s pink hued apartment, yes pink you read that right, to be alone together. But this is the age of #MeToo and nothing is quite the way it used to be. I mean, and just the pink lights of the man’s apartment alone should have given that away!

‘Hook Up 2.0’ screens in the “Shorts: Funhouse” program at the Tribeca Film Festival. Check out all screening times and dates here.

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In Film, Film Festivals, Interviews Tags Hook Up 2.0, Dana Nachman, Tribeca Film Festival, NYC, MeToo, Sex, The Final Show, Lunafest, Silicon Valley, feminist satire, Veronica Dunne, Billy Meade, Dominique Martinez
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Letizia Battaglia

A Woman, armed with courage and her camera: 'Shooting the Mafia' by Kim Longinotto

E. Nina Rothe February 12, 2019

Letizia Battaglia, her last name not incidentally means “battle,” has been a one-woman army fighting that decline. Through her photographs of the Mafia and the destruction it caused in her home city of Palermo — courageous because each one could have meant her death by execution, if only for having captured the soul of the unworthy, or the wrong moment in time — Battaglia has shown the world what courage, resilience and being Italian really does mean, at its highest form.

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In Film, Film Festivals Tags Letizia Battaglia, Shooting the Mafia, Kim Longinotto, Sicily, Palermo, Italy, Italian politics, Mafia, Sundance, Berlinale, trailer, Giovanni Falcone
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Todos somos marineros

'Todos Somos Marineros' at IFFR: Addressing our global displacement with Peruvian filmmaker Miguel Angel Moulet

E. Nina Rothe February 1, 2019

It’s a fact that there has never been such a movement of global general uprooting, in the history of our planet. Most of us feel deep inside ourselves a sense of dissatisfaction and the easiest way to deal with it seems to be to pick up and leave -- for work, love or life experience. But that can also turn into the most difficult decision of our life, because sometimes you cannot go home again.

As an old friend used to remind me, in moments when even traveling to the other end of the planet hadn’t really fulfilled its purpose, “Nina, the problem is that when you travel, no matter where you go, you’ll always take yourself along.” It’s so true, our inner struggles transfer well, hidden within the deep recesses of our beings. And even the furthest journey sees us as our sometimes unfortunate travel companion.

Miguel Angel Moulet’s haunting, sultry and perfectly shot film ‘Todos Somos Marineros’ (‘We Are All Sailors’) tackles that idea, but also mixes in several other themes, including the rhythm of language and how we change depending on the words we speak, as well as the filmmaker’s own unresolved childhood family mysteries.

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In Film Festivals, Film, Interviews Tags Todos somos marineros, IFFR, International Film Festival Rotterdam, Peru, Daniel and Diego Vega, Panza de Burro, diaspora, Miguel Angel Moulet, Katitza Kisic, Rotterdam
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Jean-Luc Godard

'The Image Book' at IFFR: Watching cinema as God(ard) intended it

E. Nina Rothe January 31, 2019

I’d read the reviews, both out of Cannes where the film premiered, and lately for its US release. A.O. Scott’s was my favorite for the NY Times, as it usually is. Then, I’d listened to friends — some admitted to breaking down after viewing the film, some pointed to the filmmaker’s problematic mishmosh of the Arab world with Iranian images.

But having missed ‘Le livre d’image’ (‘The Image Book’) at the Festival de Cannes, I had to view it for myself. And, it turns out, I did well to wait.

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In Film Festivals, Film Tags Jean-Luc Godard, Le livre d'image, The Image Book, International Film Festival rotterdam, Rotterdam, IFFR, cinema, Arabia, The Arab world, Iran, NH Atlanta, film festivals, Kino Lorber, NYC, IRAN
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Emilia Derou Bernal and Julien Debard in a still from Anaïs Volpe’s ‘Indemnes’

Emilia Derou Bernal and Julien Debard in a still from Anaïs Volpe’s ‘Indemnes’

Anaïs Volpé's 'Indemnes' reinvents the palette of tragedy at the International Film Festival Rotterdam

E. Nina Rothe January 24, 2019

How do you personally survive tragedy, when it hits close to home?

It’s a question that has played in my mind over and over in the last few months. Each of us has a distinct and very human way of dealing with personal tragedy, and none of it is wrong or right, I’ve figured out. It just is.

Filmmaker Anaïs Volpé says that her way of coping with terrorist attacks, which have hit very close to home, literally for the Parisian, is to turn blood into glitter and imagine that the victims have gone to a better place. We hear that time and time again, “they have gone to a better place now,” but in Volpé’s exquisite ‘Indemnes’ (which translates to “Unharmed”) that better place is filled with color, beauty, peace and harmony. It’s a beautiful view into the afterlife, complete with stylish golden jackets, from an artist who has had her own creative style from the get-go.

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In Film, Film Festivals, Interviews Tags Indemnes, International Film Festival Rotterdam, IFFR, Bero Beyer, Anais Volpe, Emilia Derou Bernal, Unharmed, tragedy, cinema, terrorist attacks, Paris, social media, HEIS: Chroniques, Leo Soesanto
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Trieste Film Festival

The Trieste Film Festival turns 30 this year and in this edition teaches us the trouble with walls

E. Nina Rothe January 17, 2019

The Italian city of Trieste has always had its own particular history. From its Austro-Hungarian and Slovenian influences, to its proximity to the Croatian border, its people have enjoyed a special status. At the end of the 19th Century, Trieste had more Slovenian inhabitants than Slovenia's capital of Ljubljana and at the start of the 20th, great luminaries and intellectuals like James Joyce, Italo Svevo, Sigmund Freud, Zofka Kveder, Dragotin Kette, Ivan Cankar, Scipio Slataper, and Umberto Saba frequented the bustling cosmopolitan city.

To me, it has always been a city with a foot deeply planted in its Italian roots yet the other striding towards its Eastern European culture. A bridge city overlooking a port, filled with people of different ethnicities and speaking several languages and dialects. A utopia for the perfect world, a place where everyone truly, and mostly could get along. And have gotten along.

We have so much to learn from the city of Trieste these days.

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In Film, Film Festivals Tags Trieste Film Festival, Trieste, Italia, cinema, Isabelle Adjani, Possession, Andrzej Żuławski, Berlin wall, Dogman, Matteo Garrone, Paul Thomas Anderson, Phantom Thread, Donbass, Sergej Loznica, Cannes Film Festival, The White Crow, Ralph Fiennes, Cairo International Film Festival, Rudolf Nureyev, Andre Singer, Werner Herzog, Meeting Gorbachev, Michail Gorbačëv, Soviet Union, James Joyce, Italo Svevo, Sigmund Freud, Scipio Slataper, Umberto Saba, Marcello Fonte, Dominique Issermann
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