Karlovy Vary International Film Festival

Latest reviews

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  The Falling

  Review preview for The Falling

  A difficult film, and a film about difficult women.

  A fainting sickness hits a girls school in the Sixties.
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  The Crazies

  Review preview for The Crazies

  The simplicity of the location, with its gentle green hills and thin woodland, makes it feel as if it could be anywhere, yet Romero positions his camera so as to generate maximum tension from it.

  The military attempts to contain a manmade combat virus that causes death and permanent insanity in those infected, as it overtakes a small Pennsylvania town.
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  Lamb

  Review preview for Lamb

  Amare's performance is a real gem.

  A boy's bond with his pet sheep strengthens after the loss of his mother... but trouble with his relatives brews.
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  The Greedy Tiffany

  Review preview for The Greedy Tiffany

  Fehu, in a careful balancing of tone, ensures that Pepa's situation remains tragicomic to the last, rather than merely exploiting him for cheap laughs.

  A rube named Pepa robs cottages for cash but the discovery of a strange video recording points him to a place where he’ll find a treasure of immense value... little realising there is a plan for those who turn up looking for it.
• 
  Schmitke

  Review preview for Schmitke

  It's worth noting that this is Altricher's graduation film - he's certainly got his career off to an impressive start.

  A level-headed engineer arrives to repair a creaking old wind turbine. Out there in the misty woods he also goes in search of something else deep inside him.
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  Arabian Nights

  Review preview for Arabian Nights

  Mixes observations on capitalism, society and storytelling.

  Stories based on the 1001 Nights but transplanted to the present day. The film is split into three parts.
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  Embrace Of The Serpent

  Review preview for Embrace Of The Serpent

  Structurally illustrates how the indigenous people don't see time as being a chronological straight line but as multiple realities existing simultaneously.

  The story of the relationship between an Amazonian shaman and two scientists who, decades apart, search the Amazon for a sacred healing plant.
• 
  The Brand New Testament

  Review preview for The Brand New Testament

  The levels of twee are fairly high, and contrasted with the bizarre and often regressive gendered comedy it’s likely to divide audiences right down the middle.

  The new adventures of God, who lives in Brussels with his teenage daughter and falls foul of her hacking skills.
• 
  You Carry Me

  Review preview for You Carry Me

  Its female-centered narrative hints at a new, rapidly crystallising modern identity which constitutes a conscious and eager shift away from old divisions.

  A mosaic of stories whose common denominator is the fight for survival, forgiveness, and new opportunities.
• 
  Goodnight Mommy

  Review preview for Goodnight Mommy

  Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz’s film is one entirely about small details.

  Twin boys suspect that their mum, who has just undergone reconstructive facial surgery, is an imposter and set out to discover the truth.

A–Z of Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2015 reviews →

Features

• Music of the ancestors
  Atli Örvarsson on his family connection to Rams, a move to Europe and drawing on tradition.
• Learning from history
  Aferim! director Radu Jude on language, prejudice and seeing the past in the present.
• American lives
  Nicolas Steiner and Thomas Schneider on festivals, fighting cows and Above And Below.
• Keitel - a man for all seasons
  Youth star Harvey on Sorrentino, Campion and Scorsese.
• Udo Kier's life on the dark side
  Cult star on playing evil, Fassbinder, Von Trier and Van Sant.
• Romero - master of the macabre
  Veteran director on zombies, religion and genocide.
• A grand connection
  Hermes Paralluelo talks about capturing his grandparents on camera for docufiction Not All Is Vigil.
• Gere turns up the heat
  Star talks about faith, hope and charity.
• It’s Czech party time for Richard Gere
  Music and fireworks greet star in Karlovy Vary.
• The real world of Vincent Lindon
  Cannes best actor on career and causes.
• Coming soon - Cannes sex extravaganza
  Love director Gaspar Noé reveals all in 3D.
• Caine candid in Cannes
  Youth star talks age and virility with Jane Fonda, Paolo Sorrentino, Paul Dano, Harvey Keitel and Rachel Weisz.
• Magic in the West
  Director John Maclean on fairy tales, magical realism and two-trick ponies in Slow West.
• Mountain views, part 2
  Laura Bispuri and Alba Rohrwacher on creating characters and transformation.
• Westward bound
  Kodi Smit-McPhee on love, murder, horses and Slow West.
• Indigo blue
  Saverio Costanzo on casting and directing Hungry Hearts.
• Mountain views, part 1
  Laura Bispuri and Alba Rohrwacher on gender roles and Sworn Virgin.
• Virgin territory
  Flonja Kodheli on Sworn Virgin and life in regions of Albania.
• Into the abyss with Alba Rohrwacher
  Inside Saverio Costanzo's Hungry Hearts.
• Go west, young man
  Ben Mendelsohn on playing the sinister stranger in Slow West.
• Facing the music
  Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala on Goodnight Mommy.
• The invisible man
  Richard Gere and Oren Moverman on homelessness and Time Out of Mind.

News

• Bob climbs to the top of the trees
  Docu-drama wins Crystal award at Karlovy Vary.
• Box delivers a winning punch
  Romanian film wows critics.
• Fifty shades of Czech
  Jamie Dornan to star in war drama Anthropoid.
• 45 Years makes shortlist for Lux prize
  British film one of 10 vying for European Parliament award.
• In top Gere for Karlovy Vary
  American Gigolo icon to receive career honour.
• Accent on youth in Karlovy Vary
  Festival unveils 50th anniversary bumper programme.
• Jubilee celebrations at Karlovy Vary
  Czech festival gets ready for landmark anniversary.