Is Outlaw King, directed by David Mackenzie, Netflix’s direct answer to Mel Gibson’s Braveheart? Where William Wallace’s tale ends, Robert the Bruce’s (Chris Pine) begins. After the guerrilla war against England, Scotland falls under the rule of Edward I (Stephen Dillane). It doesn’t take long for Bruce to learn that oppressor is even crueler than…
Category: Film
62nd BFI London Film Festival: Namdev Bhau in Search of Silence Review
By 2020, Mumbai’s population is expected to grow to 28 million, making it the most populated city on Earth. With a population this size, it’s no wonder that Mumbai is one of the noisiest cities in the world; its noise pollution being three times worse than that of New York and London. Noise pollution is…
62nd BFI London Film Festival: Leto Review
In the Soviet Union, like in many other communist countries, a free growth of specific music genres was quite limited. The story of Kirill Serebrennikov’s new work, Leto (Summer), begins in the 1981 Leningrad, at a concert of an underground rock band. But unlike what a person would expect when there is a rock concert…
62nd BFI London Film Festival: Colette Review
When Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette wrote her debut novel under her libertine husband’s name Willy, she had no idea that the book ‘Claudine at School’ would be the first step towards her liberation, freedom and an ‘escape’ from the traditional heteronormative social values of the early 20th century Paris. Raised in the south of France, Colette (Keira…
62nd BFI London Film Festival: Birds of Passage Review
Guajira peninsula, northern Colombia. It’s the late 60’s; while the western world is amidst its social and cultural revolutions, a young woman, dressed in a bright red ceremonial robe, is engaged in a frenetic courtship dance with her soon-to-be husband. Set at the backdrop of a wide and windy desert, this visually striking scene introduces…
62nd BFI London Film Festival: United Skates Review
“If this world don’t change its ways, we’ll all perish”. Roller-skating rinks in the U.S were once a booming hub of hip-hop and disco culture, a form of cathartic expression and freedom for many African-Americans. However, due to increased land taxes and gentrification forcing many rinks to close, they are now a rare find. Dyana…
62nd BFI London Film Festival: The Spy Gone North Review
The historical drama is a tale that is constantly over-shadowed by its real-life counterpart’s undoing. No matter which way the film may elude to direct itself, the foreboding presence of certain real-life individuals makes clear to an audience which way the film will steer. This is especially the case when dealing with the infamous Kim…
62nd BFI London Film Festival: Last Child Review
There is nothing more distressing for parents than to lose a child. It is no wonder that the topic is one of the hardest to convey on the screen, especially so since the grief and unimaginable suffering take on many different faces and stages. The complex, confusing and isolating feelings associated with the loss of…
62nd BFI London Film Festival: Arctic Review
The bleak mid-winter in the frozen wilderness; a man clears the snow and stones away, the camera moves back, slowly revealing a huge SOS sign, dug into the snow. Without using any words and only with the sounds of nature, Joe Penna perfectly depicts the situation of the protagonist, Overgård (Mads Mikkelsen: Hannibal, Doctor Strange), in…
62nd BFI London Film Festival: Styx Review
Ascension Island is an isolated volcanic atoll, located 7°56′ south of the Equator in the Atlantic Ocean. Charles Darwin visited this lonely archipelago in 1836 aboard HMS Beagle as a part of his second survey expedition of the world, during which he gathered data that aided him in the development of the theory of evolution…
VIEW OF THE ARTS 