Ainhoa Rodriguez’s feature film debut is committed to the unsaid. We see a man talking about a woman’s disappearance in a television interview; we do not see a woman just offscreen, muttering expletives at his falsehoods. Minutes later, we see another woman unable – or unwilling – to answer whether she has been married, begging … Continue reading Destello Bravio
While impossible to epitomise French cinema’s various movements and themes, Benoît Jacquot’s domestic drama – adapted from a play by Marguerite Duras – certainly captures many popularly held ideas of French stories, at least on the surface. Suzanna (Charlotte Gainsbourg) is married to a philandering millionaire; she does not know where he is. She appears … Continue reading Suzanna Andler
“Something happened to the men’s blood. They remained children.” Thus speaks Margarita, the matriarch of her family. She is convinced that someday her family curse will be broken – their winter stagnation will come to an end, her love will return to her, and perhaps, at the magical thirteenth hour, they will defeat death itself. … Continue reading The North Wind
Surveillance and found-footage films have been used for scares, for reflections on the digital age, and purely for the fun of piecing together a story from many everyday viewpoints. Jonathan Ogilvie’s LONE WOLF takes Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Agent into a near-future Australia, where the surveillance state can see – and access – every waking … Continue reading Lone Wolf
This stymied exploration of identity politics still drives home the enormity of Gritt’s desired subject: are good intentions and hard work enough to make meaningful art?
ARISTOCRATS is an anti-romcom decked out in the trappings of a romance film. The action is set in a city of opportunity, where two women chase their dreams against societal and family expectation. Carmen Paddock at IFFR.
The difficulties of motherhood and creation, in all its forms, are at the fore of AURORA. Carmen Paddock reviews at IFFR 2021.
RIDERS OF JUSTICE is underpinned by the innate absurdity of existence and love for the fools navigating this abyss. The film’s weakest sides are its predictable concluding beats, but it is hard to be mad at a film this good-hearted.
