Pacifiction: Tourment sur les îles (2022)
★★★★☆
Pacifiction, a hypnotically paced, dark political thriller set in French Tahiti directed by Catalan Albert Serra, enjoys the Polynesian island’s beauty, but also its inherent vulnerability to threats.
Portugal
Listen (2020)
★★★☆☆
Listen, Ana Rocha de Sousa’s powerful first film about forced adoption, is heart-rending and almost unbearable to watch at times.
FÁTIMA (2020)
★★★☆☆
Fátima is a fascinating glimpse of Catholic faith, respectfully translated to the screen by Marco Pontecorvo.
Frankie (2019)
★★★☆☆
In Frankie, written and directed by Ira Sachs, Isabelle Huppert stars in an ensemble piece that illuminates a terminally ill actress’s final attempts to control the tangled relationships of her extended family.
The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (2018) – ON DEMAND
The Man Who Killed Don Quixote by Terry Gilliam is a confusingly intricate blend of past and present, fiction, reality and filmmaking.
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BFI LFF 2019: Previews (2-5 October)
★★★★☆
BFI London Film Festival previews 2-5 October: Recorder, Axone, Öndög, Clemency, The Warden, A Pleasure, Comrades! and The Antenna.
Zama (2017)
★★★★☆
In Lucrecia Martel’s hallucinatory, dreamlike, absurdist Zama, Spanish colonialists take on South America and lose.
Cannes Film Festival 2018: Day 12
★★★★☆
Cannes Film Festival 2018
BFI LFF: 9 Fingers (2017)
★★★☆☆
Ossang’s latest is a nonsensical escape caught somewhere between Stalker and Maddin. It’s maddening stuff, but intentionally and admirably so.
The Death of Louis XIV (2016)
★★★★☆
Albert Serra’s compelling film about the slow death of the Sun King features an extraordinary performance by the legendary Jean-Pierre Léaud.
Colo (2017)
★★☆☆☆
An observational portrait of a family falling apart, Teresa Villaverde’s Colo goes beyond crisis towards independence.
Festival Review: Letters From War (2016)
★★★★☆
A black and white correspondence between an army medic and his new wife, Ivo Ferreira’s Letters Of War is a hauntingly beautiful portrait of war.
Festival Review: Arabian Nights (2015)
★★★☆☆
A six-hour reflection on the financial crisis in Portugal, Miguel Gomes’ Arabian Nights is an intelligent and visually arresting compendium of uneven tales.
After The Night / Até Ver a Luz (2013)
★★★☆☆
Of loneliness and low-lives in the slums of Lisbon, Basil da Cunha’s intimate community portrait After The Night brings neo-realism into the 21st century.