Interview

By David A. Ellis. Filmmaker Jem Cohen was born in Afghanistan in August 1962. His father was working there for the United States Agency for International development, and Jem remained in Kabul for around two years before returning to the states. He went to public school before attending Wesleyan University […]

By Paul Risker. There is a touch of irony to British writer and director Saul Dibb’s career, whose most recent recent feature Suite Française (2015) is an adaptation of Auschwitz victim Irène Némirovsky’s two unfinished novellas. The most poignant moment in the whole film is a daughter’s (Denise Epstein-Dauplé) words […]

By Hooman Razavi. Since February 2015, producer Mostafa Azizi has been detained in Iran’s notorious Evin Prison (when visiting an ailing parent) on a bogus charge of endangering national security and insulting the supreme leader. Azizi is sentenced to 8 years and is now waiting for an appeal, supposedly to […]

By Paul Risker.  A film’s journey is comprised of multiple steps. The next step or chapter for writer-director Andrew Bujalski’s fifth feature Results (2015), following its warm reception at SXSW and Sundance, is one of continuation, as the transfer of ownership from filmmaker to audience continues. Known for his comedies: […]

By Paul Risker.  “Every project is unique,” explained Enzo Cilenti who recently delved into the past to explore a tale of magic in the Industrial Age in the BBC’s adaptation of Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell (2015). Cilenti is no stranger to the small screen having appeared in Game […]

By Amir Ganjavie. The brutal war that followed the disintegration of Yugoslavia and the hatred between Serbs and Croats have provided material for many Balkan filmmakers. Dalibor Matanic’s The High Sun, a fresh take on the subject from Croatia, is the first film from that country to participate at Cannes since 1991, […]

By Noah Charney. The first annual Kopedia Comedy Festival, held in the peaceful coastal town of Koper, Slovenia, a hybrid Italian-Germanic-Slavic port on the Adriatic, featured a special guest who, at least by Slovene standards, qualified as extremely exotic. Sharon Gan is a Malaysian producer, and had brought with her […]

By Paul Risker. The European continent shares an intimate connection to the detective archetype. Nordic shows The Killing (2007-2012), The Bridge (2011-) and Wallander (2005-2013), alongside the French double bill of Braquo (2009-2014) and Spiral (2005-) as well as Italy’s Inspector Montalbano (1999-2013) have over the past decade or so […]

By Matthew Sorrento. Veteran actor Joe Mantegna has all the wisdom that a life before the camera could provide. And yet he possesses an innocence long lost by most in his cadre. Looking back on a varied acting career – “I’ve done it all” from him sounds completely factual and […]

By Paul Risker. Argentine pianist Martha Argerich has always represented a swirling musical force – her performance of the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No.3 in particular having left me astounded and inclined to perceive her as a godlike force of artistic expression. I have heard whispers of the woman behind Argerich […]