BFI Flare 2024: 13-24 March 2024
★★★★☆
BFI Flare 2024: 13-24 March 2024
Alexa Dalby
Banel & Adama (2023)
★★★☆☆
Lusciously beautiful: the doomed romance in Ramata-Toulaye Sy’s poetic debut feature Banel & Adama takes place amid the severe effects of climate change in remote northeastern Senegal.
Do Not Expect Too Much From The End Of The World (2023) (Nu astepta prea mult de la sfârsitul lumii)
★★★★★
Do Not Expect Too Much From The End Of The World is a wide-ranging, vicious satire on the post-communist, rampantly privatised, chaotically capitalist economy in Romania and everything else in modern European life, by Radu Jude.
Four Daughters (2023) (Les Filles d’Olfa)
★★★★★
Four Daughters is a powerful and emotionally compelling mixture of documentary and drama directed by Kaouther Ben Hania that examines the roots of fundamentalism and how women pass on self-imposed repression through the generations.
Berlinale 2024: Reas (2024)
★★★★☆
Reas is an extraordinary documentary and musical by Lola Arias set in a women’s prison in Argentina, unlike anything you have seen before.
Berlinale 2024: The Editorial Office (2024)(Redaktsiya)
★★★★☆
The Editorial Office, the second film by Ukrainian Roman Bondarchuk, is a vicious, powerful satire of a post-truth world.
Driving Mum (2022) (Á Ferð með Mömmu)
★★★☆☆
Driving Mum by Icelandic director Hilmar Oddsson is darkly strange, absurd and poignant.
Perfect Days (2023)
★★★★☆
Perfect Days is acclaimed director Wim Wenders’ Tokyo-set film for which Koji Yakusho won a well-deserved Best Actor award.
Berlinale 2024: My Summer with Irène (2024) (Quell’estate con Irène)
★★★★☆
My Summer with Irène, directed by Carlo Sironi, is a beautiful summer elegy by the sea for two girls together.
Berlinale 2024: My New Friends (2024) (Les gens d’à côté)
★★★★☆
My New Friends written and directed by André Téchiné is an absorbing debate on a contemporary issue starring the wonderful Isabelle Huppert.
Berlinale 2024: Young Hearts (2024)
★★★☆☆
Heart-warming coming-of-age story Young Hearts is award-winning Anthony Schatteman’s feature debut at the Berlinale.
Berlinale 2024: The Visitor (2024)
★★★☆☆
The Visitor is a provocative feature allegory of contemporary British issues by Bruce LaBruce, the Canadian artist, writer, filmmaker, photographer and underground director.
The Letter Writer (2024)
★★★☆☆
The Letter Writer by Layla Kaylif is about the painful coming of age, emotionally and politically, for a boy and a country.
The Taste of Things (2023) (The Pot-au-Feu) (La Passion de Dodin Bouffant)
★★★★☆
The Taste of Things, directed by Tran Anh Hung is so, so French. It’s beautiful and it’s a 19th-century love story that is also food and beauty obsessed.