Interview

By Amir Ganjavie. Asghar Farhadi’s newest film, The Salesman, recently won prizes at Cannes for both Farhadi’s screenplay and for Shahab Hosseini’s lead performance. The film presents the familiar idea of private space being disrupted and touches upon the question of how violence emerges in society and how a non-violent and peaceful […]

By Ali Moosavi. A few years ago an impressive short film debuted called Two and Two (2011). Fast forward to 2016 and that young filmmaker, Babak Anvari, has made his first feature, Under the Shadow. This psychological supernatural thriller, not only a hit with the critics, also impressed the British […]

By Amir Ganjavie. Based on firsthand observations from his childhood, Thomas Vinterberg’s latest movie, The Commune, helps us reflect on the difficulties involved in many people living and sharing together in a big house. This take on communal living could be seen as a metaphor for a type of idealized alternative […]

By Amir Ganjavie. The latest film from Kelly Reichardt, Certain Women, centers on topics that define and characterize her cinema. Based on short stories from Maile Meloy’s collection Both Ways is the Only Way I Want It, the film presents a story of four strong, independent women coping with the difficulties of living […]

By Tom Ue. Benjamin Cleary is a writer/director from Dublin, Ireland. In 2015 he wrote, directed and edited his first short film “Stutterer” which has played 70 plus festivals and won over 20 awards including an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short in 2015, a London Critic’s Circle Award, an Irish Film and […]

By Anna Weinstein. Described by Variety as a “strange, savvy, big-hearted teen adventure,” Rosemary Myers’ debut film, Girl Asleep, is the story of a young girl navigating the frightening forest of adolescence. Myers describes this forest as “a place where characters go into the wild,” where they’re forced to confront […]

By Tom Ue. Clay Liford’s new film Slash (2016) centers on high school freshman Neil (Michael Johnston) and his slightly older fellow student Julia (Hannah Marks), both of whom write fanfic online. The process of writing for a public provides the introverted Neil with an outlet but it also pushes […]

By Sotiris Petridis. Killbilllies (original title: Idila, i.e., Idyll), a harrowing tale of abduction, violence and hoped-for survival, is Slovenia’s first ever horror movie. It features a group of fashionistas from the city, including models Zina (Nina Ivanisin) and Mia (Nika Rozman), make-up artist Dragica (Manca Ogorevc) and photographer Blitcz […]

By Tom Ue. Canadian-born Claire Leona Apps was raised in Hong Kong and Indonesia before relocating to Britain. She graduated in Pure Mathematics at Imperial College and then completed an MA at the London Film School, graduating as a director. For a decade her work has been fuelled by a vivid […]

By David A. Ellis. Retired cinematographer Billy Williams (born on 3 June 1929 in Walthamstow, London) began working in documentaries at age fourteen (his father, Billy senior, was also a cinematographer) and then graduated to television and feature films. He had Oscar nominations for Women in Love (1969) and On Golden Pond (1981) and had several […]