79th Cannes Film Festival: “Che Guevara: The Last Companions” Review

Before Che Guevara became a symbol on posters and T-shirts, he was a revolutionary who helped change Cuba forever. Alongside Fidel Castro, he helped overthrow the Batista regime in 1959, promising dignity and equality for ordinary Cubans. Decades later, whether admired or criticised, Che’s shadow still hangs over Cuba and much of Latin America. His…

79th Cannes Film Festival: “Blaise” Review

Dimitri Planchon and Jean-Paul Guigue’s Blaise takes something very ordinary – the fear of saying the wrong thing and the need to be liked – and turns it into one of the strangest and funniest animated films in recent years. Beneath its dry humour and absurd situations lies a painfully honest portrait of people who…

79th Cannes Film Festival: “Flesh and Fuel” Review

Screened at the 65th Critics’ Week and featured in the Special Screenings section at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, Pierre Le Gall’s Flesh and Fuel is set within the often unseen world of European truck drivers. The film depicts the exhausting pace of life on the road and the emotional emptiness that can grow within…

79th Cannes Film Festival: “9 Temples to Heaven” Review

Thai cinema has always held a special place in Asian filmmaking, even if Western audiences overlooked it for many years. Early Thai films were often built around folklore, ghost stories, romance, and family drama, mixing spirituality with everyday life. During the 1970s and 1980s, Thai films were extremely popular in their domestic market, but internationally…

28th Far East Film Festival: “Ghost in the Cell” Review

In a prison in Indonesia, a mysterious ghost begins brutally killing inmates, arranging their mutilated bodies into elaborate art installations. Who is responsible, and who will be next? As fear spreads through the cell block, prisoners must now band together to stop the murders while trying to keep their heads on their shoulders. Such is…

28th Far East Film Festival: In Conversation with Koji Yakusho

In a darkened cinema in Udine, Italy, the audience watches the screen with rapt attention, it is a celebration of the life and career of Japanese actor Koji Yakusho. As they watch in awe, a figure steps out onto the stage, looking up at the medley of film scenes and the audience in front of him,…