At the start of ‘Backstage’, the first feature directorial collaboration between Moroccan filmmaker Khalil Benkirane and Tunisian star Afef Ben Mahmoud, the unthinkable happens. And we, the audience, are along for the ride of a lifetime.
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Amr Gamal on his groundbreaking, award winning film 'The Burdened' at Berlinale
The Yemeni film, which screened in the Panorama section and won the Amnesty International Film Award at this year's Berlin Film Festival, is a groundbreaking oeuvre which transcends the already strong power of cinema.
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Reviewing David Fincher's 'The Killer' without giving too much away...
Starring the magnificently contained Michael Fassbender as the unnamed hitman, this is one film that must be viewed without any previous knowledge of its story and possibly on a cool Fall evening, with a shot of premium whiskey nearby. But you’ll have to see for yourself why that is.
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Olmo Schnabel talks directing 'Pet Shop Days', dual identities & laws of attraction
Olmo Schnabel’s directorial debut is everything you could wish for in a film, from a man with such an impressive background — artist and filmmaker Julian is his dad and mom is Spanish actress Olatz López Garmendia — but also someone who is perfectly at ease with both his American and Spanish sides. And refreshingly believes life is best when lived outside the boxes of convention.
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'Stane' by Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović is the latest must-watch from Miu Miu Women's Tales
When the filmmaker of 2021 Cannes Camera d’Or winner ‘Murina’ becomes the latest in a line of wondrous women filmmakers to feature in the beloved fashion brand’s series, the result is definitely something worth writing about!
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Yorgos Lanthimos' 'Poor Things' Venice review
There are incredible Things to be said about the production value of the latest Lanthimos oeuvre, and there are beautiful Things in the film, but for me personally it was not all good Things for ‘Poor Things’.
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Five indie films to watch at this year's Venice Film Festival
It may be a Netflix world and we’re just living in it, as the streaming giant is hot on the Lido this year with Bradley Cooper’s ‘Maestro’, Pablo Larrain’s vampire dictator romp and Wes Anderson’s latest — but there are a couple of indie titles that you need to watch.
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Bradley Cooper transforms into Leonard Bernstein in first images & trailer released by Netflix for 'Maestro'
The film, which is also directed, co-written and co-produced by Cooper, chronicles the lifelong relationship between Leonard Bernstein and Felicia Montealegre Cohn Bernstein.
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Netflix drops Pablo Larrain Venice-bound 'El Conde' trailer and poster
The highly anticipated dark comedy horror by the Chilean auteur will premiere at this year’s Venice Film Festival, before going into theaters on Sept. 7th and finally streaming on the site from September 15th.
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Afef Ben Mahmoud in ‘Backstage’
Remembering the great Andrea Purgatori, Venice's Giornate degli Autori announces film selection
As the Venice Film Festival’s beloved sidebar turns twenty this year, no longer being a cinematic teenager means celebrating those who have left us in this world, but also looking ahead to some groundbreaking cinema.
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‘The Palace’ by Roman Polanski will be world premiering in Venice, out of competition
Counter-cancel culture: Venice announces latest from Woody Allen, Polanski & Wes Anderson's take on Roald Dahl's stories in lineup
Watch minds explode as they try to wrap their heads around this impressive lineup just announced by the iconic festival on the Lido, which will also feature the first African American woman filmmaker Ava DuVernay featured in the official competition. Along with much, much more.
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"You can't judge a book by its cover": Darren Aronofsky's 'The Whale' in Venice
'The Whale', which is the film version of the play by Samuel D. Hunter, deals with an obese man's last chance at redemption.
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The Mehdipour family in a still from Hamy Ramezan’s ‘Any Day Now’, photo courtesy of Aamu Film Company, photo by Sami Kuokkanen
Perfectly Nonconformist: Hamy Ramezan's 'Any Day Now' premieres at Berlinale
It was hard for me to fully wrap my head around the fact that ‘Any Day Now’ is Hamy Ramezan’s first feature film. This 80-some minutes story of an Iranian boy and his family, awaiting their fate as refugees in Finland is so profoundly perfect that I imagined a seasoned filmmaker at its helm.
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Trust me: 'Moon, 66 Questions' by Jacqueline Lentzou premieres at Berlinale
At the center of the story by the Greek native is a troubled father/daughter relationship, revisited when the father Paris, played with stunning vulnerability by Lazaros Georgakopoulos, develops Multiple Sclerosis or MS. The daughter Artemis, a force of nature in the masterful hands of actress Sofia Kokkali, ends up becoming his full time carer and in the process not only discovers something about her father she never knew, but also ends up finding herself.
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A still from ‘Liborio’ by Nino Martínez Sosa
Island Life: 'Liborio' and 'I Comete' are both must-watch titles at IFFR
Two films play at this year’s International Film Festival Rotterdam that will make you yearn to a visit to an island. Any island…
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When the acting bug hits you: 'The Cemil Show' by Baris Sarhan world premieres in Rotterdam
In ‘The Cemil Show’ the film’s namesake leading character, played to perfection by Ozan Celik whom you may remember from ‘Sivas’ in 2015, is someone much like my friend and me — bad at acting, but still desperate to make it.
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Birgitte Larsen in a still from ‘Gritt’ the debut feature by Itonje Søimer Guttormsen
'Gritt' is the film you need to watch in this brave new world. Why? I'll let filmmaker Itonje Søimer Guttormsen tell you.
In her debut feature ‘Gritt’ filmmaker Itonje Søimer Guttormsen, with the help of leading actress Birgitte Larsen, makes Gritt the perfect anti-heroine we will all aspire to be, once we’ve watched her quiet masterpiece.
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A still from ‘The Translator’ directed by Anas Khalaf and Rana Kazkaz
The Uncertainty of Everything: 'The Translator' by Rana Kazkaz and Anas Khalaf at Tallinn Black Nights
While there have been loads of documentaries about Syria and its place in the Arab Spring revolutions of 2011, no narrative film has even come close to the way ‘The Translator’ tells the story. A complete story that goes as far back as the first Syrian revolts in 1980 under Bashar al-Assad’s father, Hafez which resulted in the Hama massacre in 1982. The filmmakers telling this spellbinding story are husband and wife team Anas Khalaf and Rana Kazkaz, both multi-hyphenated nationalities but at the center of it all, Syrian. Because let’s face it, there are currently many more Syrian living spread out around the world than in Syria itself.
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Ali Suliman plays Mustafa, a father separated from his family by a wall, in Ameen Nayfeh’s ‘200 Meters’
Love in the time of occupation: Ameen Nayfeh's stunning '200 Meters' starring Ali Suliman in Venice
A father, his family, a wall. It’s a theme, an image we think of often these days, particularly when speaking of certain American policies and our current US President. But where is another part of the world where such a policy has been tried and tested, and of course, failed miserably on a human scale? Palestine, or Israel if you wish to call it with its post-1948 name. A land belonging to many and claimed by some.
In Ameen Nayfeh’s quiet masterpiece ‘200 Meters’, which premiered as part of the Giornate degli Autori lineup in Venice this year, Palestinian superstar Ali Suliman plays Mustafa, a loving husband and doting father.
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Ziad Bakri and Maria Zreik in Zain Duraie’s ‘Give Up the Ghost’
"Choose love over fear, always": Zain Duraie talks about her short film 'Give Up the Ghost'
One of the hottest button issues for a modern woman concerns her ability to have a child. Depending on which society you are born into, it ranges from being a duty to a God-given right, with all shades of grey in between.
In her haunting, beautifully shot (by Benoît Chamaillard) and perfectly sound designed (by Israel Bañuelos) short film ‘Give Up the Ghost’, Jordanian filmmaker Zain Duraie explores the consequences on a marriage around the ability or inability to have a child.
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