Tales of trauma, pain, memory and vanishing animate an instructive and illuminating Tallinn Black Nights, a ray of light amid bleak November.
Bruising and Vanishing
Festivals
Reviews and dispatches exploring the best new cinema premiering around the world.
18 Holes to Paradise Keeps Things Under Par
The absurdities of the privileged in the face of incoming disaster is smartly dissected in João Nuno Pinto’s Tallinn entry 18 Holes to Paradise.
The Pupil Hauntingly Depicts Grooming Hidden in Plain Sight
At a time when “groomer” is used as a political smear, The Pupil shows us the truly sickening impact the reality can have on young boys and girls.
Peeping Trojans, Slivering Sofas
A sleek German answer to Philip Noyce’s Sliver, Interior uses a sexual taboo to interrogate a world where all we do is watch — and rarely intervene.
Current Responses to a Degrading Status Quo
From Radu Jude’s take on AI slop to Benning’s pointedly political piece, Currents at NYFF has its experimental finger on today’s disintegrating world.
Forastera. Teenage Grief Under the Mallorcan Sun.
Lucía Aleñar Iglesias’ promising debut finds a unique angle on coming-of-age and haunted house tropes — marking her as a director to watch.
An Eerie Maternal Bond, Under a Volcano’s Shadow
Borrowing Reygadas’ DOP, Ana Cristina Barragán’s taboo-breaking film The Ivy doesn’t satisfy, even if it keeps us curious.
Between Dreams and Hope. Between Risk and Compromise.
Farnoosh Samadi’s blistering thriller Between Dreams and Hope captures the compromises of a young trans man navigating the difficulties of modern-day Iran.
En el camino Updates the Queer Road Trip Playbook
David Pablos’ riveting Mexican film En El Camino, winner of the Queer Lion, presents a fresh take on the queer road trip movie.
Made in EU. Exploitation in the Peripheries.
Stephan Komanderev uses the coronavirus pandemic to explore the horrors of labour exploitation in one of Europe’s poorest regions.