Tag: World Cinema review
Eagles of the Republic | Review
One Flew Over the Coup’s Nest: Saleh Muddles Through Propaganda Politics
“Propaganda, to be effective, must be believed. To be believed, it must be credible....
The Blue Trail (O último azul) | Review
Crimes of the Future: Mascaro Envisions Trouble Ahead
“Getting old ain’t no place for sissies,” a quote often attributed to Bette Davis (or similar variations...
Living the Land | Review
Land of Steady Habits: Meng Reflects Familial Upheaval in Quiet Saga
“Isn’t it queer: there are only two or three human stories, and they go...
DJ Ahmet | Review
All DJs, Great and Small: Unkovski’s Debut Can’t Stop the Music
While its location might feel inherently unique, the happenings in Georgi M. Unkovski’s narrative...
YES | Review
Break My Soul: Lapid Explores Compromised Artistry During Wartime
Essentially, YES, the latest film from Israeli auteur Nadav Lapid, is a portrait of an artist...
Kontinental ’25 | Review
Can You Ever Forgive Me?: Jude Skewers the Status Quo
Ownership is an unsaid key word in Kontinental ’25, the latest perambulating spasm from Romanian...
Alpha | Review
Turn to Stone: Ducournau Hits a Wall with Disease Allegory
“Death is the cure for all illness,” wrote English writer Thomas Browne, which is a...
Two Prosecutors | Review
Ordeal by Innocence: Loznitsa Mines the Terrors of Naïveté
A good man is hard to find, and if one were to be found, he’s likely...
The Stranger (L’étranger) | Review
Anatomy of a Mime: Ozon Explores the Seduction of Indifference
Decades before Hannah Arendt introduced her concept of ‘the banality of evil,’ Albert Camus...
What Does that Nature Say to You | Review
The Parent Trap: Sang-soo Takes Sideways Swipe at Social Etiquette
A constant purveyor of how subtle social cues are obliterated by the lowered inhibitions of...
Dreams | Review
Magnificent Obsession: Franco Finds Love is a Hopeless Place
Michel Franco lassos Jessica Chastain into his continued class conflict examinations in Dreams, an intimate portrait...
Soumsoum, the Night of the Stars | 2026 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Celestial Orgy: Haroun Ain’t Afraid of No Ghosts
Nestled deep down inside the core of Soumsoum, the Night of the Stars is a compelling narrative...
A New Dawn | 2026 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Grave of the Fireworks: Shinomiya Finds All the Colors in the Dark
For his debut film, A New Dawn, animator Yoshitoshi Shinomiya marries bureaucratic takeovers,...
Lali | 2026 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Ghosts of Past & Present: Sultan Khoosat Hones His Visual Flair But Latest Devolves Into Silliness
A universal thematic thread of the past haunting its...
Roya | 2026 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
I Confess: Mohammadi's Myriad of Memory Celebrates Women of Iran Who Don't Stand Idly By
While we understand imprisonment as punishment par excellence, what Iranian...
We Are All Strangers | 2026 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Strategy of Tragedy: Chen Overdoses on Drama in Sprawling Family Portrait
The most succinct aspect of Singaporean filmmaker Anthony Chen’s latest feature, We Are All...
No Salgas (Don’t Come Out) | 2026 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
It Doesn’t Follow: Linares Villegas’ Queer Horror Forgets the Fright Factor
Horror has long been a safe space to explore queer stories; from cult classics...
The Loneliest Man in Town | 2026 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Perfect Blue: Covi & Frimmel Marinate in Memories
“Everything changing all the time. Even the air you breathing change,” notes a character in August Wilson’s...
17 | 2026 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
This Makes Two of Us: Mitić Explores Binding Connection of Trauma & Silence
Adolescence is once again cinematically explored as a breaking point between innocence...
Home Stories | 2026 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
The Unbearable Likeness of Being: Trobisch Mines Banality in Family Drama
Each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way…and sometimes those unhappy ways are...
Light Pillar | 2026 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Capitalism & The Cosmos: Jinwei Ambitiously Explores China’s Future with a Stark Warning For Its Present
Long have Chinese filmmakers used the medium of film...
Flies (Moscas) | 2026 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
All the Small Things: Eimbcke Explores the Pleasures of Disruption
The titular insects of Fernando Eimbcke’s latest feature, Flies (Moscas), metaphorically represent an unwanted, aggravating...
Wolfram | 2026 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
The Torn Birds: Thornton Returns to Brutality of the Australian Frontier
The sovereignty of Australia was never officially ceded by its First Nations peoples, succinctly...
My Wife Cries | 2026 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Where Did Our Love Go?: Schanalec Deconstructs the Break-Up Drama
True to form, or rather, anti-form, Angela Schanelec’s latest exercise, My Wife Cries (Meine Frau...
Trial of Hein (Der Heimatlose) | 2026 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Far From Home: Stänicke’s Direction Leaves the Audience Marooned
How does one define their own home? Is it the place we were born? The place...
The Blood Countess | 2026 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
There Will (Not) Be Blood: Ottinger Returns with Anemic Vampire Comedy
New German Wave legend Ulrike Ottinger returns with her long gestating project The Blood...
Truly Naked | 2026 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Father Knows Best: Intimacy Cuts Deepest in d’Ansembourg’s Debut
“When porn has become the norm, intimacy is the new taboo,” reads an early tagline for...
Nina Roza | 2026 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Father Figure, Mother Tongue: Dulude-De Celles Curates Reconciliation
It turns out you can go home again…but don’t expect not to confront psychic wounds left untended,...
Dust | 2026 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Corporate Cannibals: Blondé Underwhelms with Ethical Reckoning
There’s an interesting idea behind Dust, which finds two Belgian entrepreneurs essentially navigating their last two days of...
Rose | 2026 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
A Self-Made Man: Schleinzer Explores the Privilege of Pants
If there’s a trough line (beyond the eponymous titles) of Austrian director Markus Schleinzer’s films, it’s...
Salvation | 2026 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Hysterical Intervention: Alper Gets Overwrought Exploring Tribalism
The land dispute at the center of Emin Alper’s latest film Salvation has all the trademarks of a...
Rosebush Pruning | 2026 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
The Killing of a Sacred Dogtooth: Ainouz Paints with Contempt
Karim Aïnouz doesn’t so much eat the rich as he does regurgitate them in his...
Nightborn | 2026 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Only Mothers Left Alive: Bergholm Tackles Motherhood Malaise
Finnish director Hanna Bergholm adds to the subgenre of motherhood body horror with Nightborn (Yön Lapsi), an arguably...
Dao | 2026 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Family Rituals: Gomis Goes For Broke in Sprawling Epic
With his first narrative feature in nearly a decade, French-Senegalese director Alain Gomis formulates a complex...
Everybody Digs Bill Evans | 2026 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
A Jazzman’s Blues: Gee Strikes the Right Chords in Tender DocudramaE
British filmmaker Grant Gee, heretofore best known as a documentarian of various musical artists,...
Yellow Letters | 2026 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
How to Beat the High Cost of Fascism: Çatak Flounders in Blaring Treatise
Following his Academy Award nominated The Teacher’s Lounge (2023), Turkish-German director Ilker...
In a Whisper | 2026 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
A Death in the Family: Bouzid Explores the Tolls of Open Secrets
What’s most expertly encapsulated in Tunisian filmmaker Leyla Bouzid’s third feature In a...
I Understand Your Displeasure | 2026 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
In the Realm of Defenses: Friedrich Examines Turmoils of the Working Class
Even in the democratic and social federal state of contemporary Germany, all is...
Iván & Hadoum | 2026 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Love Audit: de la Rosa Defies the Odds with Star-Crossed Lovers
Much like the shifting ideals and hard won identities defining the protagonists of Ian...
No Good Men | 2026 Berlin Intl. Film Festival Review
Up Close & Personal: Sadat Subverts the Spotlight in Stellar Melodrama
In her third directorial feature, No Good Men, which is part of a five...
How to Divorce During the War | 2026 Sundance Film Festival Review
Invisible Missiles: Blaževičius Offers Chilly Portrayal of a Couple & Country in Crisis
Given its title, Andrius Blaževičius’ third outing, How to Divorce During the...
Sirat | Review
A Bridge Too Far: Laxe Enters the Zone
“The Zone wants to be respected. Otherwise it will punish.” Aleksandr Kayadonvsky’s line from Tarkovsky’s existential sci-fi...
Pillion | Review
Sit & Deliver: Lighton Assumes Positions in Titillating Debut
There’s a melancholic seductiveness to Pillion, the directorial debut of Harry Lighton, based on the 2020...
Sound of Falling | Review
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown: Schilinksi Paints a Microcosm of Misogyny
The original title of Mascha Schilinski’s sophomore feature was The Doctor...
Maldoror | Review
Investigation of a Citizen Under Suspicion: Du Welz Revisits Bungled Belgian Murder Case
“It is grand to contemplate the ruins of cities; but it is...
Young Mothers (Jeunes mères) | Review
Bonjour Tristesse: The Dardenne Bros. Explore Teenage Pregnancy
In their latest neo-realist exercise on plights of the disenfranchised, the Dardenne Bros. return to gentler themes...
The Testament of Ann Lee | Review
Shake It Up: Fastvold Envisions the Life’s Work of a Religious Leader
There’s a fervor roiling beneath the surface of Mona Fastvold’s third feature, The...
No Other Choice | Review
Slay the Competition: Chan-wook Explores the Horrors of Capitalism
In many ways, Donald Westlake’s 1997 novel The Ax feels more relevant than ever, which is...
The Voice of Hind Rajab | Review
In a Child’s Name: Ben Hania’s Grueling Portrait of Genocide
It’s the responsibility of artists to use their platforms as a mechanism to speak truth...
Resurrection | Review
In Dreams: Gan Explores a Century of the Cinematic Syndrome
We are such stuff as dreams (and celluloid) are made on, according to the sumptuous...
