By Devapriya Sanyal. Qissa (“fable”), Anup Singh’s second directorial venture (2013; released in India in 2015), deals with many issues at the same time, with all its characters equally important. But this film belongs to the Sikh Punjabi character Umber Singh (played by Irrfan Khan). Beginning in the present, the film visits the past […]
Into the Land of Salt and Fire: An Interview with Veronica Ferres
By Jeremy Carr. Since the late 1980s, German actress Veronica Ferres has appeared in dozens of films and television productions, garnering widespread praise in the process. In recent years, she has starred in such English-language titles as Pay the Ghost (2015), with Nicholas Cage, and The Comedian (2016), with Robert […]
Frantz and the Gentle Art of Forgiveness
March 31, 2017
By Elias Savada. Let’s refresh: the films of French writer-director François Ozon tend to be sly, unsettling, and daring observations of the human condition, whether playing with a 1950s musical mystery (8 femmes [8 Women], 2002), diving into a provocative thriller (Swimming Pool, 2003), offering some froth in the 2010 wife-empowered […]
Practicable Jokes in Macdonald Hall: An Interview with Mike McPhaden
March 30, 2017
By Tom Ue. Following the enormous critical and commercial success of Go Jump in the Pool (2016), based on Gordon Korman’s novel of the same title, director Vivieno Caldinelli and the cast return for two more adaptations of Korman’s Macdonald Hall titles: The Wizzle War and This Can’t Be Happening at […]
The Women’s Balcony: An Interview with Screenwriter Shlomit Nehama
March 29, 2017
By Anna Weinstein. The Israeli film, The Women’s Balcony, directed by Emil Ben-Shimon and written by Shlomit Nehama, is a comedy/drama about community, old traditions and values, and the power of women to keep all of these together in the face of modern extremism. The story is set into motion when […]
Shopping for Ghosts: Olivier Assayas’ Personal Shopper
March 27, 2017
By Elias Savada. As I watched Personal Shopper, I wondered if this new, mostly English-language film from French filmmaker Olivier Assayas was a Euro thriller or not. I certainly wasn’t on the edge of my seat. The premise in this French-German production is that Maureen Cartwright (Kristen Stewart), a weary, despondent […]
More Than Plays on Film: Marcel Pagnol’s “Marseille Trilogy” Restored by Janus Films
By Christopher Weedman. Janus Films’ stunning 4K restoration of the “Marseille Trilogy” by the esteemed Marcel Pagnol is one of the essential revivals of the year. Adapted from Pagnol’s stage plays set in the provincial port city of Marseille in southern France, the three installments – Marius (Alexander Korda, 1931), […]
A Forgotten Country’s Forgotten Cinema: Searching for Hope in Post-Soviet Moldovan Cinema
March 24, 2017
By Brandon Konecny. It has been suggested, sometimes by Moldovan film professionals themselves, that cinema does not currently exist in the Republic of Moldova, Europe’s poorest and perhaps least known country. At first blush, we might feel inclined to accept this assertion. After all, Moldova’s cinema was virtually nonexistent in […]
The Controversy of Gamal Abdel Nasser in Nasser’s Republic, The Making of Modern Egypt
March 22, 2017
By Neila Driss. Michal Goldman’s documentary, Nasser’s Republic, The Making of Modern Egypt (2016), was screened on November 20th during the 38th edition of the Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF). Criticized by some viewers for historical inaccuracies, it got a stormy reception, and Goldman herself was in attendance to field […]
Kentucky Fried Chicken in the Moonlight
By Orville Lloyd Douglas. Black people are still mentally enslaved; even in the 21st century there is a psychic need by some Black artists to seek white approval and acceptance. The universal acclaim of the independent film Moonlight is due to white film critics, most heterosexual. Black films are made […]