While Perla looks and feels extremely well-made, its surfeit of style overwhelms the emotional heart of this communist-era tale. Live from Rotterdam!
Perla Ponders the Perils of the Communist Patriarchy
Rotterdam
Located in the busiest port city in Europe, Rotterdam Film Festival traditionally kicks off the European Film Festival circuit.
Strandzha. Between the Borderlines.
The woods straddling Bulgaria and Turkey are imbued with multivalent meanings in Pepe Hristova’s Strandzha, playing in Harbour at IFFR.
Gay Men’s Book Club. Jubilee for Normal People.
The end of identity politics is discussed with nuance and heart in Matthew Lax’s simple yet effective mid-length documentary Gay Men’s Book Club.
Sisterhood Prevails Amongst 78 Days of NATO Bombs
78 Days by Emilija Gašić uses a documentary, found-footage approach to depict the trials of girlhood growing pains in the midst of NATO bombings.
The Ballad of Suzanne Césaire Rejects Conventionality in Favour of Archival Speculation
Madelaine Hunt-Ehrlich’s The Ballad of Suzanne Césaire mounts a corrective to the surrealist’s occluded legacy through a personal essayistic structure.
The Light Provides a Fleet Danish History Lesson about the Lingering Complications of Nazi Occupation
Alexander Lind’s The Light investigates an incendiary art project that used bunkers as a metaphor for Danish collaboration during the Nazi occupation, live from Rotterdam.
Schirkoa: In Lies We Trust Won’t Be a Hit. It’s Too Unique For That.
Using an Unreal Game Engine to bold and unsettling effect, Ishan Shukla’s Schirkoa: In Lies We Trust is a truly unique and strange sci-fi vision.
Small Hours of the Night Gives Testimony to Disembodied Dissidence
Daniel Hui’s chamber piece makes the most of its limited location to provide fascinating ruminations on the reverberations of Singaporean history.
Godsterminal Remains as Empty as a Reenactment
The concluding chapter of Georg Tiller’s Gotland trilogy, Godsterminal struggles to escape from the legacy of Ingmar Bergman’s seminal works.
Eternal in Name. Eternal in Nature.
Science-fiction romance Eternal is pretty good for the first twenty minutes. Then it repeats the same point over and over again, to diminishing results.