Sucheta Chakraborty
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MAMI 2018: Shadow review
★★★★☆ Famous Fifth Generation Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou’s latest wuxia tale based in the Three Kingdoms period of Chinese history is about power, intrigue and survival, and the common man’s role in the affairs of the mighty. What stands out, though, is the film’s stunning visual style and spectacular action sequences. Yin and yang, the concept of…
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MAMI 2018: Grass review
★★★☆☆ A writer sits in a café listening in on conversations had over coffee and soju about serious and mundane matters. This 66-minute film is shot in simple black and white with Hong Sang-soo’s classic two-shots and zooms. Prolific South Korean arthouse master Hong Sang-soo has made another Hong Sang-soo film – economical in…
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Film Review: Diamantino
★★★☆☆ This debut feature by directors Gabriel Abrantes and Daniel Schmidt uses humour, a mix of genres and an insane plot full of topical nods at issues like the refugee crisis and right-wing propaganda. The result is a surprisingly entertaining film which also manages to comment on subjects like gender fluidity and the nature of…
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MAMI 2018: Fugue review
★★★☆☆ In Polish filmmaker Agnieszka Smoczynska’s fantasy-infused psychological drama Fugue, a woman loses her memory following a traumatic incident and comes back to her old life with a radically new personality. The crisis arises not when she attempts to reconcile with her past, but rather when she doesn’t. Trauma literally changes the protagonist of Fugue.…
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Film Review: Too Late to Die Young
★★★★☆ Too Late to Die Young, the third feature from Chilean filmmaker Dominga Sotomayor Castillo, is a tale of growing up in a commune amidst nature and simpler ways of living. Having little by way of plot, the film has a gentle, freewheeling quality, focusing instead on experiences, moments and sensations. Too Late to Die…
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MAMI 2018: Hotel by the River review
★★★☆☆ Shot in muted black and white, South Korean director Hong Sang-soo’s Hotel by the River lets two stories – one about a poet getting ready to die and the other about a woman recovering from heartbreak – unfold gently through idle conversations against a winter setting. At one point in Hotel by the River, an aging father explains to his two…
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MAMI 2018: Our picks of the festival
With the 20th edition of the Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival with Star well underway, film professionals and cinema lovers flock to theatres across the city to get a taste of some of the year’s best international and regional fare. Vasan Bala’s Mard Ko Dard Nahi Hota (The Man Who Feels No Pain) which premiered…