★★★★☆ “We began before words, and we will end beyond them.” So begins Peter Krüger’s mesmerising N: The Madness of Reason (2014), a spiritual journey through the memories and regrets of Raymond Borremans, a freewheeling Parisian musician turned encyclopedia enthusiast for whom Africa was his destiny – its heat his Continue Reading
★★★☆☆ American independent director David Gordon Green’s first three films, George Washington, All the Real Girls and Undertow, were each deeply rooted in the poetic realism of classic American storytelling. Adept at presenting marginalised characters and imbuing their hopes and dreams with the bewitching atmosphere of their rural surroundings, Green Continue Reading
★★★★☆ Myanmar-born, Taiwan-based director Midi Z’s third feature, Ice Poison (2014), completes a trilogy of intimate portraits of contemporary life in Burma. Combining a sparse narrative with an intimate visual style, the director presents the moral dilemmas that accompany the drastic economic hardship of his homeland. Everything is getting more Continue Reading
★★★★☆ Originally filmed during the 2010 FIFA World Cup, Niki Karimi’s Final Whistle (2011) makes its UK premiere four years later. A courageous critique of class and gender inequality in Iran, Final Whistle is an against-the-clock drama that plays out against the backdrop of a male dominated sporting event currently Continue Reading
★★★☆☆ When Hong Kong reverted back to Chinese sovereignty on 1 July 1997, many thought that the removal of colonial education systems would lead to a gradual shift towards a stronger identification with China. Attempting to reconcile the past to build a brighter future, the city finds itself with something Continue Reading
Edinburgh Film Festival Artistic Director Chris Fujiwara has announced the full programme for this year’s 68th incarnation. Boasting 156 features from 47 countries, highlights include the UK premiere of Control and The American director Anton Corbijn’s A Most Wanted Man (featuring one of Philip Seymour Hoffman’s final performances), Gia Coppola’s Continue Reading
★★★★★ This year, the BFI has embarked on a glorious season of screenings that celebrate the last one hundred years of Chinese cinema. Acting as something of a centrepiece is a film that they have been attempting to licence for UK distribution for years, Fei Mu’s Spring in a Small Continue Reading
★☆☆☆☆ “We don’t have secrets in this family,” Themis Panou’s repulsive pater familias – who bears an uncanny resemblance to Donald Pleasance – states in Alexandros Avranas’ Miss Violence (2013), the baffling winner of several awards at last year’s 70th Venice Film Festival. However, when it comes to families in Continue Reading
★★★☆☆ Descartes believed that nothing ever existed, that everything his mind told him was a lie, and cinema is of course a standing recourse for memory and the unresolved tensions that plague the unconscious. Film’s representation of loss and the yearning chasm for its fulfilment trumps all other attempts at Continue Reading
★★★☆☆ Immigration has been a hot topic of late, with the fluidity of British borders given a great deal of political capital. It’s into this atmosphere that the feature debut of documentary man Bruce Goodison arrives in cinemas, delving into the somewhat unexplored subject of teenage asylum seekers in the Continue Reading
