VENICE 2024: Manas (2024)
★★★☆☆
Manas by Marianna Brennand takes us into turmoil in a closed Amazonian community.
Brazil
Joaquim (2017)
★★★☆☆
A pastoral account of the politicisation of Brazilian hero Tiradentes, Marcelo Gomes’ Joaquim makes up for its slow pace with delicious images.
Festival Review: Don’t Call Me Son (2016)
★★★☆☆
Depicting the impossible situation of teenagers reclaimed by birth parents, Anna Muylaert’s Don’t Call Me Son clothes her emotion in a plain black smock.
Festival Review: A Guy From Fenyang (2014)
★★★☆☆
Uncovering the life and works of Jia Zhangke in his home city, Walter Salles’ A Guy From Fenyang reveals the metropolis behind the man.
The Second Mother / Que Horas Ela Volta? (2015)
★★★★☆
With a cracking performance from Regina Casé and a sharp script, Anna Muylaert’s The Second Mother is a well polished gem of class friction in Brazil.
Future Beach / Praia do Futuro (2014)
★★★★☆
A sumptuous gay love story in Brazil and Berlin, Karim Aïnouz’s Future Beach is a provocative and sensual tale of maleness, same-sex love and self-discovery.
Festival Review: Blue Blood / Sangue Azul (2015)
★★★☆☆
A mesmerising portrait of the loneliness of the beautiful, Lírio Ferreira’s Blue Blood is an enigmatic blend of circus, ballet and cinema.
The Way He Looks / Hoje Eu Quero Voltar Sozinho (2014)
★★★☆☆
A Brazilian tale of blind love, Daniel Ribeiro’s The Way He Looks is a lyrical mood piece of adolescent self-discovery but short on feeling.
London Film Festival 2014: The Way He Looks / Hoje Eu Quero Voltar Sozinho
The Way He Looks Love is blind. And all the more so for Leo (Ghilherme Lobo), a São Paulo teenager with not much going…
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Reaching For The Moon / Flores Raras (2013)
★★★☆☆
Bringing to light the sexual blossoming of American poet Elizabeth Bishop in Brazil, Bruno Barreto’s Reaching For The Moon loses its way in an overload of story.
Berlin Film Festival 2014: Day 6
All’s fair in love and war. But in Feo Aladag’s war film Zwischen Welten, it seems like nothing’s really fair. Following an Afghani interpreter…
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Viramundo (2013)
★★★☆☆
On tour through the globe’s indigenous and marginalised peoples in Pierre-Yves Borgeaud’s Viramundo, Gilberto Gil is turning the world upside-down.