“After one show, a young girl approached us and simply said, ‘thank you.’ She told us that being like us had always been her dream, and that watching us perform made her proud.” It’s a memory the Indian pop girl group W.i.S.H. recalls with deep fondness and pride. Consisting of sisters Ri and Sim, along…
82nd Venice Film Festival: “The Sun Rises on All of Us” Review (2)
The Sun Rises on Us All, (Chinese title: Ri Gua Zhong Tian), offers a more nuanced interpretation of the story. The title comes from an ancient Cantonese opera and calls to mind themes of forgiveness and reconciliation after hardship. This ties closely to the plot, in which Meiyun (Xin Zhi-lei) and Baoshu (Zhang Song-wen), once…
82nd Venice Film Festival: “Praying Mantis” Review
Praying Mantis is an 18-minute hand-drawn animation short film co-directed by Hong Kong director Yonfan and Taiwanese filmmaker Joe Hsieh, breaking his six-year silence. The film merges Yonfan’s expertise in portraying complex female characters with Hsieh’s recurring motifs of lust and death, telling the story of a mother who sacrifices herself entirely for her child…
82nd Venice Film Festival: “Girl” Review
Girl was the directorial debut of SHU Qi. It was undoubtedly one of the most anticipated films at the 82nd Venice Film Festival. Girl marked SHU Qi’s first step into directing. It captured immense attention at the event. SHU Qi is a regular presence at Cannes, Berlinale, and the Venice Film Festival. Her first arrival…
82nd Venice Film Festival: “The Sun Rises on All of Us” Review
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…
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…
VIEW OF THE ARTS 