Maximilian von Thun
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Warsaw 2016: Icaros: A Vision review
★★★★☆ On the heels of Embrace of the Serpent comes another tale of spiritual purification in the Amazon, but one told in a very different manner. Set in present-day Peru in the same town as Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo, Icaros: A Vision begins as American traveller Angelina arrives at a shamanic retreat deep in the jungle. She…
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Warsaw 2016: Clair Obscur review
★★★★☆ Echoing the work of Turkish master Nuri Bilge Ceylan as well as recent Oscar nominee Mustang, Yeşim Ustaoğlu’s complex drama Clair Obscur tactfully explores female liberty in a modern-day Turkey torn between its secular and religious tendencies. Ustaoğlu juxtaposes two women who at first glance couldn’t be more different: Chenaz (Funda Eryigit), a socially…
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#LFF 2016: Park review
★★☆☆☆ Sofia Exarchou’s debut feature Park tackles the hopelessness of austerity-ravaged Greece through the lives of a ragtag bunch of children and teenagers that call Athens’ abandoned Olympic village their home. Some appear to be homeless, while others only visit during the day, but for all of them the decaying village is the hub of…
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Film Review: The Fencer
★☆☆☆☆ At first glance The Fencer has a lot going for it. Set in Soviet occupied Estonia, it is the oddball tale – partly based on true events – of a renowned fencer (Märt Avandi, known as Endel in the film) on the run from the authorities who sets up a school fencing club in…
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Interview: Ross Adam and Robert Cannan, dirs. The Lovers and the Despot
In The Lovers and the Despot, Ross Adam and Robert Cannan recount the bizarre and fantastic story of Shin Sang-ok and Choi Eun-hee, two darlings of the South Korean film industry kidnapped by Kim-Jong-il to make North Korea a leader in world cinema. CineVue’s Maximilian Von Thun spoke to the directorial duo about the making…
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Film Review: The Lovers and the Despot
★★★☆☆ Two subjects one would never expect to encounter in the same film; North Korea and cinephilia. They come together – bizarrely and fascinatingly – in Robert Cannan and Ross Adam’s documentary The Lovers and the Despot. In 1978, celebrated South Korean actress Choi Eun-hee visited Hong-Kong to discuss what she believed to be the…
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DVD Review: Embrace of the Serpent
★★★★★ Embrace of the Serpent is a film about the Amazon like no other. While Werner Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo and Aguirre, Wrath of God depict white European explorers losing themselves in the jungle, Ciro Guerra’s masterpiece is uniquely centred on the experience of an indigenous protagonist visited by white travellers. Through undertaking extensive research on the…
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Film Review: Hell or High Water
★★☆☆☆ Despite receiving near-unanimous praise upon its release in the US, Hell or High Water doesn’t do much particularly well, and it does a lot of things quite badly. Perhaps that is an indication of how low the stock of American action films has fallen in recent years. It is a predictable story of two…
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Film Review: Equity
★★★☆☆ Equity claims to be the first film about Wall Street from a female perspective, and it certainly delivers on that promise by putting women – and the specific challenges they face in finance – front and centre. These include answering business calls while undergoing ultrasound, fending off the sexual advances of a wealthy client…
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Film Review: Almost Holy
★★★★☆ How do we respond to tragedy and suffering when we encounter them? When our societal institutions are strong, we tend to see it as the state’s role to right wrongs and promote justice. Though altruism and charity are welcome, it is the police, public healthcare and the welfare system that are expected to deal…