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Nostalgia
Nostalgia is based on a 2016 novel by Ermanno Rea, brought to the screen by the distinguished and prolific Italian auteur Mario Martone, who was born in Naples in 1959 and has since directed more than 30 films. Now a Rome resident, he was during the 1990s associated with the new wave of Neapolitan cinema…
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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…
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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…
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Benediction
A non-conventional film biography of the poet Siegfried Sassoon (Jack Lowden), Benediction spans three distinct eras: the horror and waste of World War I, and the poetry it gave rise to; the interwar years of “gay” society (and covert homosexuality); and finally the 1960s, where we see the elderly poet, played by Peter Capaldi, attempt…
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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…
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Blind Ambition
An audience favourite at festivals, Blind Ambition ticks all the boxes for a feelgood underdog documentary, but the film’s popularity rests on more than dramatic clichés and familiar tropes about competitive spirit. It reflects a multi-faceted tale of refugees, urban violence and the eurocentrism of tasting (e.g. requiring a familiarity with strawberries), as much as…