Berlin 2013: ‘Layla Fourie’ review
Advertisements ★★☆☆☆ Swedish/South African director Pia Marais has garnered a small, yet loyal following on the festival circuit thanks to her assured debut The...
Directors Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett’s “Abigail” mashes up crime caper and monster movie, but fails to deliver fear or humor. Spoilery trailers and unoriginal characters overshadow promising elements, resulting in a dull, lifeless experience lacking creativity and wit.
★★★★☆ In Alex Garland’s Civil War, a group of journalists embark on a road trip to interview the US President amidst a second American Civil War, while exploring media’s dehumanizing relationship with violence.
★★★★☆ Having won the Jury Prize in 2013 for Like Father, Like Son and the Palme d’Or in 2018 with Shoplifters, Cannes favourite and Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda returns with Monster, a masterful work of intricate storytelling, complemented by a lovely score by the late Ryuichi Sakamoto.
★★★★★ Theodor Adorno famously wrote that poetry was not possible after Auschwitz, but is cinema? Billy Wilder certainly thought so, getting footage from the camps as evidence as much as anything else. Steven Spielberg, Claude Lanzmann, Alain Resnais and Roberto Benigni have all with differing degrees of success tried their hands.
Advertisements ★★☆☆☆ Swedish/South African director Pia Marais has garnered a small, yet loyal following on the festival circuit thanks to her assured debut The...
Advertisements ★★☆☆☆ Denis Côté’s Vic + Flo Saw a Bear ( Vic et Flo ont vu un ours, 2013) is the follow-up to the...
Advertisements ★★★★☆ BBC Four have been reaping in high viewing figures after their early recognition of Nordic Noir programming, and can now add Borgen...
Advertisements ★★★★☆ A surprise inclusion in many categories at this year’s Academy Awards, Benh Zeitlin’s debut feature Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012) arrives...
Advertisements ★★★☆☆ Harry Patramanis’ Fynbos (2012) is an enigmatic parable for modern South Africa’s evolution away from its troubled past. A tense and atmospheric...
Advertisements ★★★☆☆ Based on Matthew F. Jones’ dark and atmospheric novel of the same name, David M. Rosenthal’s A Single Shot (2013) finally makes...
Advertisements ★★★★☆ A starkly-shot Russian addition to the Berlinale’s Forum section, Svetlana Baskova’s For Marx (Za Marksa, 2013) might not have much cinematic polish, but...