There’s no shortage of films that deal with the concept of childhood bullying, but very few document experiences that will ring true to anybody who has been through it. In recent years, bullying has been depicted in film almost exclusively as an online phenomenon, with all attempts to show the harrowing effects of cyberbullying falling […]
In cinema, drug and alcohol addiction is often treated like the darkest iteration of Chekhov’s gun: if someone says they’re in recovery in the first act, expect them to relapse in the second. Because of this narrative cliche, very few films directly grapple with the realities of rehabilitation, and that rather than being an end […]
Despite the importance that has been attached to education on a global scale over the years, the world still faces enormous inequalities in terms of access to education. The immediate and most telling effect of not receiving education is illiteracy. While only 3% of people in Europe are illiterate, in South America, Asia and Africa […]
Good Hong Kong action cinema is like poetry – stuffed with great lead actors, grace, fantasy and pacing, it provides the audience with truly wild action. There is no denial that it has had a huge impact on Hollywood – the appearance of John Woo, Andy Lau, Donnie Yen, Aaron Kwok, Jet Li and Jackie […]
While not as stylistically apparent as Kim Jee-woon’s The Good, the Bad, the Weird (2008), Kundo: Age of the Rampant by Yoon Jong-bin is the second highest budget South Korean film, made by using western conventions. The film’s plot is firmly embedded in the late Joseon period and deals with a gang of thieves called […]
Social media has been prevalent in our lives for more than a decade, although it feels like filmmakers are only now getting the hang of telling stories about how we exist online without succumbing to cheap moralising. This may be because a new wave of filmmakers who actively use and understand different social media platforms […]
Among Asian film festivals that take place in Europe, the Udine Far East Film Festival is the cherry on the cake. Often filled with a superb film programme and unforgettable guests, the festival was defeated by the pandemic last year. Although it took place online, there were still great films to choose from, not many […]
Much like how Pulp Fiction spawned an entire genre of poor imitators, Andrew Haigh’s 2011 film Weekend has a lot to answer for. The beautiful simplicity of that whirlwind gay romance seems effortless in the hands of such an accomplished filmmaker, to the extent that countless other filmmakers have seen it and assumed they too […]
In Brazil, 82% of trans kids will drop out of school at some point during their education. Among these children is Valentina (Thiessa Woinbackk) a 17-year-old girl who’s just moved across the country with her mother Márcia (Guta Stresser) to start afresh in a new town and retake her sophomore year. However, problems arise when […]
Protests at screenings of LGBTQ+ films are a common sight in Eastern Europe. Most notably, a screening of the Georgian film And Then We Danced led to violent protests after debuting in Tbilisi cinemas, with arrests and hospitalisations as those hostile to the queer coming of age story burned pride flags on the streets outside. […]
