Festival Review: Alone In Berlin (2015)
★★☆☆☆
Adapting Hans Fallada’s German resistance novel for the silver screen, Vincent Perez’ Alone In Berlin recreates the plot but none of the drama.
Berlinale
Festival Review: Death In Sarajevo (2016)
★★☆☆☆
Set in the multilayered world of a hotel, Danis Tanovic’s Death In Sarajevo begs the question whether we really need a metaphor for the Balkans.
Festival Review: Being 17 (2016)
★★★☆☆
Exploring themes of identity, masculinity and desire, André Techiné’s Being 17 is a delicate portrait of adolescent confusion and first love.
Festival Review: Yarden (2016)
★★★☆☆
Adapted from Kristian Lundberg’s autobiographical novel, Måns Månsson’s Yarden is a parable of entitlement that turns welcomingly political.
Festival Review: Kater (2016)
★★★★☆
Set in Austria’s musical circles, Klaus Händl’s sensuous and delicate Kater sees an idyll of gay love torn asunder by a moment of violence.
Festival Review: Fire At Sea (2016)
★★★★☆
Half-documentary, half-fiction, Gianfranco Rosi’s Fuocoammare paints a portrait of life on Lampedusa with its fishing traditions and new waves of migrants.
Festival Review: Boris Without Béatrice (2016)
★★★★☆
Vibrant, ridiculous and bombastic, Denis Côté’s Boris Without Beatrice treads a deliciously new path of metaphor and internalised anxiety.
Hail, Caesar! (2016)
★★★★☆
A riotous romp through Hollywood’s golden age, the Coen brothers’ Hail, Caesar! is a hilarious tribute to the (strangely religious) cult of cinema.
Festival Review: Hedi (2016)
★★★☆☆
A tale of personal and political freedoms, Mohamed Ben Attia’s Hedi finds a troubled revolution in Tunisia’s deserted tourist resorts.
Woman In Gold (2015)
★★★☆☆
Telling the story of Gustav Klimt’s masterpiece, Simon Curtis’ Woman In Gold paints a portrait of Nazi-looted art and its journey back into the right hands.
THE 65TH BERLIN FILM FESTIVAL – BERLINALE 2015
Pitting first-time directors against studio blockbusters, the 65th Berlin Film Festival reserves its glitz for the red carpet as Jafar Panahi’s Taxi takes the Golden Bear.
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Festival Review: The Second Mother / Que Horas Ela Volta?
★★★★☆
The glorious story of one woman’s emancipation, Anna Muylaert’s The Second Mother is a hilarious and quietly devastating parable of modern Brazil.
Festival Review: Pioneer Heroes (2015)
★★★☆☆
The portrait of a lost generation, Natalya Kudryashova’s Pioneer Heroes unpicks the disappointment of not living up to those childhood Octoberist dreams.
Festival Review: Dora Or The Sexual Neuroses Of Our Parents (2015)
★★★☆☆
The portrait of a teenage mentally handicapped girl in the first throes of sex, Stina Werenfels’ Dora Or The Sexual Neuroses Of Our Parents comes unhinged.