-
Riders of Justice
A revenge thriller that combines deadpan humour and violence will inevitably evoke the Coen brothers, while the dynamic of a scarred older man and a young girl on a revenge mission has its precursors in films such as Kiss-Ass and Léon (that the young girl is also called Mathilde is surely no coincidence in a…
-
The Taste of Tea
The Taste of Tea has been referred to as a psychedelic version of Ingmar Bergman’s Fanny and Alexander, but this is to undersell the humour and warmth of Katsuhito Ishii’s tale of three generations of the Haruno family. There is no oppressive religion and little angst beyond the growing pains of the children, Sachiko and…
-
Hit The Road
Debut writer/director Panah Panahi is inevitably described as ‘the son of Jafar Panahi’; he has acknowledged that fear of being compared to his famous father “completely paralysed me for years”. Jafar learned his craft working as the assistant of celebrated Iranian auteur Abbas Kiarostami – Panah remembers learning as a child from both filmmakers, “sitting…
-
The Quiet Girl
The debut feature film from the Irish documentary maker Colm Bairéad has earned plaudits both in Ireland and abroard, culminating in its nomination for the 2023 Academy Awards (Best International Film category). Bairéad both wrote the screenplay, based on the 2010 English-language novella Foster by Irish writer Claire Keegan, and directed the film, and his…
-
The Banshees of Inisherin
The setting of the film is obviously meant to represent a larger canvas. Inisherin literally translates as Island of Ireland. But this may be just one of many misdirections by Martin McDonagh who gleefully toys with the tropes of Irish history. Far from being a parable about the distantly-heard Civil War, this is a more…
-
Eric Ravilious: Drawn to War
Eric Ravilious, painter, illustrator and designer, came from a poor background but was taught by leading artists Paul Nash and Henry Moore. With his distinctive use of watercolour he created ethereally romantic landscapes of the British Isles.
-
Aftersun
Though widely described as a coming-of-age film, Aftersun is more accurately an essay in reflection as the adult Sophie (Rowlson-Hall) looks back on a holiday at a Turkish resort in the 1990s spent with her father, Calum (Mescal). While the wider circumstances are never fully explained, it’s clear that this was a pivotal moment for…
-
Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom
Bhutanese writer-director Pawo Choyning Dorji’s first feature film – made on an extremely small budget – weaves together images and stories that he collected as a photographer within Bhutan. Filming in the remote Himalayan village of Lunana was sun-dependent, as solar panels were used to power the crew’s camera, sound and laptop; Dorji explains that…