Warning: Spoilers ahead. Set amongst the fairytale-like rural landscapes of Belgium, Anthony Schatteman’s Young Hearts takes us into the lives of Elias (Lou Goossens) and Alexander (Marius De Saeger) as they pry open their feelings for one another – and navigate first love. With musical magic from Ruben De Gheselle, the film suffocates you with…
Tag: Berlinale
74th Berlin International Film Festival: “Through Rocks and Clouds” (Raiz) Review
Premiering in the Generation Kplus section at this year’s Berlin Film Festival, Through Rocks and Clouds weaves a poignant if predictable tale of tradition and industrialization, set in the rural Peruvian community of Rumicancha. At the heart of this Peruvian-Chilean coproduction lies Feliciano (Alberth Merma), an innocent 8-year-old alpaca herder whose world revolves around football…
73rd Berlin International Film Festival: “The Teachers’ Lounge” Review
It’s Carla Nowak’s (Leonie Benesch) first semester teaching within a school. Young and idealistic, she’s the type of teacher who greets her students with a good morning clap and chant routine, organises pop quizzes, and lends out Rubik’s cubes to kids who can’t afford their own. Carla is a teacher constantly on the go, so…
73rd Berlin International Film Festival: “Silver Haze” Review
For nearly a decade, on the 1st of June, Franky (Vicky Knight) has sent a vaguely threatening Facebook message to a figure from her past, asking for the true story about an event she is still physically scarred by to this day. It’s an anniversary that throws her life into turbulence every year, and director…
“I’m Your Man” Review
Stories about artificial intelligence in cinema are often told from a distinctly male point of view. From recent indie hits like Spike Jonze’s Her and Alex Garland’s Ex_Machina, to a history of more fantastical narratives like John Hughes’ Weird Science, films about AI always seem to posit a relationship between user and machine – the…
Los Conductos Review
A former cult member Pinky (Luis Felipe Lozano) works at a sweatshop at an undisclosed location in Bogota, Colombia. Although there is nothing to provide a window into how he was indoctrinated into a cult, with a certain look of uncertainty about this world in his eyes one can imagine that he’d make the perfect…
70th Berlin International Film Festival: Jumbo Review
Machines have feelings just like us, or at least that’s what Zoé Wittock’s debut feature film Jumbo would have you believe. Centred on the love affair between Jeanne (A Portrait of a Lady on Fire’s Noémie Merlant) and a theme park ride she’s named Jumbo, this erotic drama, which is based on a ‘true’ story,…
70th Berlin International Film Festival: Yalda – A Night For Forgiveness Review
It took a while for Iranian cinema to come to light, nonetheless, this doesn’t mean that there haven’t been any works worth paying attention to. With Abbas Kiarostami, Rakhshān Banietemad, Bahram Beyzai, Dariush Mehrjui, and Asghar Farhadi paving the way for worldwide recognition, Iranian cinema became a frequent ‘guest’ at many prestigious film festivals. Although…
70th Berlin International Film Festival: Semina Il Vento Review
Nica (Yile Yara Vianello), a 21-year-old student, returns to Apulia to her parents’ home after being gone for three years. There, she finds that her father (Espedito Chionna) struggles with debts, the local workers are about to be laid off and her grandmother’s land and its olive trees are dying of an insect infestation. Deeply…
69th Berlin Film Festival: In Conversation with Matija Strniša, a Film Music Composer
The competitive Generation 14plus section of this year’s Berlinale featured international gems with a focus on young adult themes, and the Grand Prix Award for Best Film was awarded to Kim Bora‘s House of Hummingbird, which finally got its European premiere after wowing the audience with its world premiere at the 2018 Busan International Film…
VIEW OF THE ARTS 