One of the benefits of seeing films at their very earliest screenings, before they’ve even been unveiled to the world at a splashy festival premiere, is being able to experience them truly blind. In the case of The Sun Rises On Us All, the latest film from Chinese auteur Cai Shangjun, which just premiered in…
Category: Film
82nd Venice Film Festival: In Conversation with Tereza Nvotová, Director of “Father”
Tereza Nvotová has been an important voice in contemporary European cinema. Her debut feature, Filthy (2017), confronted the taboos around sexual assault and went on to win more than 20 international awards. The same year, her HBO documentary The Lust for Power took aim at corruption in Slovak politics, establishing Nvotová as a filmmaker unafraid…
82nd Venice Film Festival: “Silent Friend” Review
Hungarian filmmaker Ildikó Enyedi’s Silent Friend traces three distinct eras – 1908, 1972, and 2020 – through the enduring presence of a single ancient ginkgo tree, connecting lives and histories across time. The film traces how humans have tried to understand the natural world under the witness of an ancient ginkgo tree in the botanic…
82nd Venice Film Festival: In Conversation with Adam Suzin, DoP of “Father”
Polish cinematographers are among the most talented people behind the camera, shaping European and global cinema. Legends like Sławomir Idziak (Black Hawk Down, Blue), Paweł Edelman (The Pianist, Cold War), Ryszard Lenczewski (Ida, Last Resort), and Janusz Kamiński (Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan) are known for their superb compositions and visual depth. And the new…
82nd Venice Film Festival: “Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don’t” Review
Storge love is the sun Gianni Di Gregorio’s Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don’t (Come ti muovi, sbagli) orbits around: a celestial rhythm that does not cease for its 97-minute run. The film premiered at Venice, closing the festival’s Giornate Degli Autori section. Starring is Di Gregorio himself as the nameless professor, a…
82nd Venice Film Festival: In Conversation with Anuparna Roy, Director of “Songs of Forgotten Trees”
At the 82nd Venice Film Festival, Anuparna Roy’s Songs of Forgotten Trees was a rare kind of debut, one that challanges the ways Indian cinema has historically positioned women: not as symbols or accessories to a male narrative, but as living, breathing individuals. Her film places women firmly at the centre and lets them be…
82nd Venice Film Festival: “Songs of Forgotten Trees” Review
In Indian cinema, women have long been denied the role of true protagonists. Too often, they are framed as satellites orbiting male narratives, often instrumentalised rather than fully realised characters. Screened in the Orizzonti section at the Venice Film Festival, Songs of Forgotten Trees, directed by Anuparna Roy, challenges that legacy by placing women at…
82nd Venice Film Festival: “Father” Review
Tereza Nvotová’s Father (Otec) had its world premiere in the Orizzonti section at this year’s Venice International Film Festival, and from its opening frame, we are in the hands of a filmmaker unwilling to compromise on emotional or cinematic truth. Known for her courageous portraits of trauma in Filthy and Nightsiren, Nvotová turns her attention…
In Conversation with Salvatore Scarpa and Max Burgoyne-Moore, Directors of “LARGO”
With LARGO, the filmmakers, Salvatore Scarpa and Max Burgoyne-Moore, take a necessary approach to the refugee crisis, telling the story entirely through the eyes of a child. By centring the narrative on Musa, a young boy confronting trauma and displacement. The decision to adopt a child’s perspective was not only a creative choice but also…
78th Locarno Film Festival: “GREEN LIGHT” Review
Few subjects are as emotionally fraught or politically charged as the right to die. Yet in GREEN LIGHT, director Pavel Cuzuioc approaches this terrain not with controversy, but with a clear-eyed compassion. Premiering in the Semaine de la Critique section at the Locarno Film Festival, the film shows the life and work of Dr. Johann…
VIEW OF THE ARTS 