Somewhere in the USA, the police comes into “a drop house” – a hideaway where illegal immigrants are being kept by traffickers before transporting them deeper into the country – and what they witness is a plastic rubbish bag, filled with human waste. In it, there is a man who is barely alive, and next…
Tag: film festival
A Taxi Driver Review
“As a journalist, you shouldn’t be in a place that’s too comfortable,” German reporter Jürgen Hinzpeter says to his colleagues as they discuss the civil unrest in Gwangju, South Korea. He craves an interesting story, a chance to uncover a hidden truth to the world so when he hears about what’s happening there, he knows he must go….
The 25th Raindance Film Festival Programme Announced
Raindance Film Festival, the largest independent film festival in Europe, is returning for its 25th anniversary edition this year; it is slotted from September 20th to October 1st 2017, with its venue in Central London – and just yesterday, on August 15th 2017, the festival announced its 25th line-up of over 200 feature and short films. For…
19th Far East Film Festival: In Conversation with Kim Tae-yoon, the director of ‘New Trial’
Kim Tae-yoon appears to be a fairly ‘new’ director on the South Korean cinematic scene, given that he only has three director credits under his belt (with him also being the screenwriter for all of his projects), even though his debut feature, A Cruel Attendance, dates all the way back to 2006. 3 features in…
19th Far East Film Festival: New Trial
Injustice, corruption, and oppression of the underprivileged are continuing topics in the South Korean motion pictures, but instead of focusing on the themes of personal vengeance, filmmakers often turn to common social issues to raise public awareness. 2000. In the southern city of Iksan, a 15-year-old boy was sentenced to 10 years in prison for…
19th Far East Film Festival Opening: The Survival Family
On Friday, 21st April 2017, the Far East Film Festival (FEFF) opened the doors of Italy’s Teatro Nuovo Giovanni da Udine for the 19th time; the selected opening film was Shinobu Yaguchi’s The Survival Family that promptly announced one of the “red threads” of this year’s edition: we were up for 10 days of excellent…
The 11th London Korean Film Festival: Breathing Underwater
On the gorgeous Korean islands of Jeju and Udo (and the surrounding islets of Jeju province), almost every day, over 4000 women risk their lives to challenge the sea in order to bring out its treasures – sea urchin, conch, algae, octopus, and the highly treasured abalone. They are called haenyo – sea women – and…
The 11th London Korean Film Festival: Inside Men
In the current global political climate, dirty politicians seem to be abound; some even appear to have strong underground connections, so it comes as no surprise that these topics wound themselves into films – in Korean cinema, it appears to be the filmmaker’s favourite topic of the year, along with Japanese occupation era films. Much…
The 21st Busan International Film Festival: Afterimage (Powidoki)
The good Lord gave the director two eyes – one to look into the camera, the other to be alert to everything that is going on around him.- Andrzej Wajda 1926- 2016 Busan, South Korea. I was sitting in the Busan International Film Festival press office when I heard that one of my favourite Polish directors,…
The 24th Raindance Film Festival: Five Days on Lesvos
“The world is facing an unprecedented displacement crisis,” European Commission has said. The EU has been discussing the aforementioned issue for months; however, their help is inadequate to deal with the rising numbers of dislodged people who are predominantly refugees from war-torn countries such as Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq. Many people arrive in the EU after…
VIEW OF THE ARTS 