Pedro Pinho’s I Only Rest in the Storm is a hypnotic and textured look at power, identity, and longing, set in a tense West African city. The film follows Sergio, an environmental engineer working on a controversial road between the desert and the forest, as it explores the tangled realities of neo-colonialism, expat privilege, and relationships in…
Tag: cinema
30th Busan International Film Festival: “Shape of Momo” Review
Shown at this year’s Busan International Film Festival, Tribeny Rai’s debut feature, Shape of Momo, is a wonderful piece of writing. A powerful film that listens closely to the hidden struggles of women living within the limits of tradition. The narrative centres on Bishnu, a 32-year-old who abandons her city job and returns to her…
Sylvia CHANG Receives BIFF x CHANEL 2025 Camellia Award at the 30th Busan International Film Festival
Taiwanese filmmaker Sylvia Chang has been awarded the 2025 Camellia Award for her groundbreaking contributions across generations and roles, paving the way for Asian women in cinema. The Camellia Award, presented by CHANEL in partnership with the Busan International Film Festival, honors women whose cultural and artistic impact shapes the film industry. At the 30th…
BFI London Film Festival 2025: A Strong Year for Asian Cinema
The 2025 BFI London Film Festival has announced a particularly rich programme, one that emphasising its role as a global event for daring, ambitious as well as diverse cinema. Among the many highlights, Park Chan-wook’s No Other Choice is probably one of the year’s most anticipated Gala selections. The darkly comic thriller follows a desperate…
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: “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: 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…
78th Locarno Film Festival: Roberto Rossellini’s “ANNO UNO” (Restored) Review
Roberto Rossellini was a key figure in Italian neorealism, known for films like Rome, Open City (1945), Paisan (1946), and Germany, Year Zero (1948). His use of non-professional actors and real locations transformed postwar cinema. Later, his collaborations with Ingrid Bergman – Stromboli (1950), Europe ’51 (1952), and Journey to Italy (1954) – showed how…
78th Locarno Film Festival: “The Fin” Review
Korean cinema continues to prove its global dominance not just through streaming platforms, but through visionary films that challenge and expand the very language of cinema. With The Fin, director Park Syeyoung delivers a haunting work, an unsettling look at control and survival in the aftermath of ideology. Set in a post-unification, ecologically devastated Korea,…
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