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All That Breathes
After a successful world premiere at the 2022 Sundance Festival, Shaunak Sen’s documentary on two brothers who tend injured Black Kites in New Delhi went on to pick up major awards at Cannes and the London Film Festival, and was nominated for both the Oscars and BAFTAs. Focusing on a particular ecological crisis in the…
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Pretty Red Dress
Debut feature from writer and director Dionne Edwards, who chooses the inner city streets of South London as a backdrop to her complex exploration of black masculinity and self acceptance. Travis, recently released from prison, strives to reintegrate himself into family life but as secrets and desires surface, his life unravels. This moving drama is…
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Pamfir
A family man returned from working abroad is dragged back into crime for one last job. Thrilling and compelling Ukrainian drama set deep in the Carpathians during carnival season, drawing on local folklore to great visual and dramatic effect. "Savagely cinematic, charged with feral energy" (Guardian)."Bold and brave, like its protagonist, PAMFIR gorges on its…
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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…
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The Doo Dah Man
The film features some of the classic tropes of American cinema, most obviously from the road-trip movie and the ill-assorted buddy movie, but this familiarity belies a more substantial story about fathers and sons, as well as a deeper literary tradition that goes back to Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn. A young man, Jake (Brittain), leaves…
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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…
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Official Competition
Argentine directing duo Gaston Duprat and Mariano Cohn brings together two of Spain’s most famous actors: Penelope Cruz (Best Supporting Actress Oscar winner for Woody Allen’s Vicki Cristina Barcelona), plays indie darling director Lola Cuevas; Pedro Almodovar’s ‘male muse’, Antonio Banderas (Cannes Best Actor winner for Pain and Glory) the film star Felix Rivero. While…