The unadorned observation of the physical aspects of the relationship in which middle-aged bodies are shown without artifice is one of the most hypnotic aspect of Naveriani’s vision.
The story of a 40something in a dead-end town who discovers love for the first time.
(Country: Georgia; Year: 2023; Director: Elene Naveriani; Writer: Elene Naveriani, Nikoloz Mdivani based on the novel by Tamta Melashvili; Stars: Eka Chavleishvili, Temiko Chinchinadze, Anka Khurtsidze)
Purev-Ochir gives a sense of the pressures the younger generation are under through their experience in the classroom, with a tacit implication that Ze’s struggles are reflecting a spirit of a nation.
A teenage shaman finds his life shifting after he meets a girl.
Moreno isn’t shy about his use of symbolism...What this effects to disguise, however, is the degree to which [the men's] own thinking has been shaped by symbols and by the belief system which surrounds them.
Kordofani uses the greater intimacy offered by the camera to bring us close to the characters and reveal the complex layers of relationship developing between them.
Wracked by guilt after covering up a murder, Mona — a northern Sudanese retired singer in a tense marriage — tries to make amends by taking in the deceased’s southern Sudanese widow, Julia, and her son, Daniel, into her home.
(Country: Sudan, Egypt, Germany, France, KSA, Sweden; Year: 2023; Director: Mohamed Kordofani; Writer: Mohamed Kordofani; Stars: Eiman Yousif, Siran Riak, Nazar Goma, Ger Duany, Issraa Elkogali Häggström)
A transformational visit to a hypnotherapist sees Vera throw off the trappings of ‘civilised’ behaviour.
(Country: Sweden, Norway; Year: 2023; Director: Ernst De Geer; Writer: Ernst De Geer, Mads Stegger; Stars: Asta Kamma August, Herbert Nordrum, Andrea Edwards, David Fukamachi Regnfors, Moa Nilsson, Simon Rajala, Aviva Wrede, Alexandra Zetterberg, Kristina Brändén Whitaker, Karin de Frumerie, Julien Combes, Victor Iván, Björn Ekegren Augustsson, Sarah Viktoria Engman, Barry Hammar)
The idea of different things being in and out of focus for the various generations runs through a film that has sweetly comic moments and poignancy in equal measure.
In a large house, friends and family meet for a dual ritual: it is the birthday of young father and painter Tona, but also a farewell ceremony.
