What the 80s Mean in Czechoslovakia: Alexandra Makarova on Perla

By Ali Moosavi. It was clear for us that we wanted to have an observer’s perspective so that it feels like I am invisible and standing with the camera and looking at these people.” –Alexandra Makarova One of the films showing at this year’s Rotterdam Film Festival is Perla by […]

A Strange Passion Indeed: Luis Buñuel’s Él (1953)

By Jeremy Carr. This story of hidden obsessions and malicious passions, climaxing in a scene of wild delirium, is like a bipolar soap opera and tragicomedy rolled into one subtly piercing satire of masculinity, authority, and persecution.” A Good Friday mass is underway. Somber music plays while altar boys have […]

Big Day for a Small Finnish Town: Cinéma Laika

By Jonathan Monovich. Vidak/Felce’s film serves as a meaningful exploration of the role that cinema and movie theaters play in our lives.” Driving through the wooded roads of Karkkila, a small Finnish town, Emmanuelle Felce tells Veljko Vidak “I could live here. You can be in deep nature, beautiful nature. […]

A Lebanese Artist Challenged: Eric McGinty’s Stockade

By Ken Hall. Ahlam’s mission acquires a Hitchcockian aspect as this law-abiding artist in the US becomes trapped in a situation which she does not understand, with mysterious people posing a threat to her safety.” This subtly presented independent mystery-drama relates the economic and emotional challenges facing Lebanese artist Ahlam […]