Skip to main content

Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival · 2018

Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival 2018

Signatures

Programme

13 films · 7 reviews

Jump to a film

Ash Is Purest White (Jiang Hu Er Nv)

A story of violent love within a time frame spanning from 2001 to 2017.

(Country: China, France, Japan; Year: 2019; Director: Zhangke Jia; Writer: Zhangke Jia; Stars: Tao Zhao, Fan Liao, Xiaogang Feng)

At Eternity's Gate

Review preview for At Eternity's Gate

For those who know and love Van Gogh's work, the effect is hypnotic, a translation of his vision into a new medium.

Jennie Kermode · 5 out of 5
The last days of Vincent van Gogh.

(Country: UK, France, US; Year: 2018; Director: Julian Schnabel; Writer: Jean-Claude Carrière, Julian Schnabel; Stars: Willem Dafoe, Rupert Friend, Oscar Isaac, Mads Mikkelsen, Mathieu Amalric, Emmanuelle Seigner, Niels Arestrup, Stella Schnabel, Patrick Chesnais, Victor Pontecorvo, Frank Molinaro, Alan Aubert, Willem Dafoe, Rupert Friend, Oscar Isaac)

Full review See: Jean-Claude Carrière and Julian Schnabel‪ on‬ paintings, movement and the emotions in At Eternity's Gate

Donbass

Review preview for Donbass

Each successive scene hits you over the head with the ferocity of the action.

Richard Mowe · 3 out of 5
In the Donbass, a region of Eastern Ukraine, a hybrid war takes place, involving an open armed conflict alongside killings and robberies on a mass scale perpetrated by separatist gangs.

(Country: Germany, Ukraine, France, Netherlands, Romania; Year: 2018; Director: Sergei Loznitsa; Writer: Sergei Loznitsa; Stars: Valeriu Andriutã, Boris Kamorzin, Sergey Kolesov, Georgiy Deliev, Sergey Russkin, Alexander Zamuraev, Konstantin Itunin, Irina Plesnyayeva, Vadim Dubovsky, Svetlana Kolesova, Evgeny Chistyakov, Valeriu Andriutã, Boris Kamorzin, Sergey Kolesov, Georgiy Deliev)

Full review

The Fall Of The American Empire

An over-educated delivery guy finds himself caught up in a robbery. Should he take the money and run?

(Country: Canada; Year: 2018; Director: Denys Arcand; Writer: Denys Arcand; Stars: Maxim Roy, Vincent Leclerc, Maripier Morin, Rémy Girard, Claude Legault, Alexandre Landry, Yan England, Ayana O'Shun, Paul Doucet, Louis Morissette, Pierre Curzi, Anoulith Sintharaphone, James Hyndman, Florence Longpré, Benoît Brière)

Husband Material (Manmarziyaan)

A man is madly in love with his wife... but she is commitment phobic.

(Country: India; Year: 2018; Director: Anurag Kashyap; Writer: Kanika Dhillon; Stars: Vicky Kaushal, Tapsee Pannu, Abhishek Bachchan, Abdul Quadir Amin, Saurabh Sachdeva, Jasmin Bajwa, Sukhmani Sadana, Zebby Singh, Vikram Kochhar, Ashnoor Kaur, Arun Bali, Neelu Kohli, Priyanka Shah, Gaurav Amlani, Poonam Shah)

The Image Book (Le Livre D'Image, The Picture Book)

Review preview for The Image Book

Elusively impenetrable stuff that only loosely can be described as cinema.

Richard Mowe · 1 out of 5
Nothing but silence. Nothing but a revolutionary song. A story in five chapters like the five fingers of a hand.

(Country: Switzerland; Year: 2018; Director: Jean-Luc Godard; Writer: Jean-Luc Godard)

Full review

Insect (Hmyz)

Review preview for Insect

In short, Insect is a self-consuming product, always at pains to expose its artifice as it offers behind-the-scenes commentary on both its own and the play's making.

Anton Bitel · 3.5 out of 5
An amateur drama troupe rehearse the Čapek Brothers’ The Insect Play.

(Country: Czech Republic, Slovakia; Year: 2018; Director: Jan Svankmajer; Writer: Karel Capek, Josef Capek, Jan Svankmajer; Stars: Jan Budar, Jirí Lábus, Kamila Magálová, Jaromír Dulava, Ivana Uhlírová, Norbert Lichý, Jan Budar, Jirí Lábus, Kamila Magálová, Jaromír Dulava, Ivana Uhlírová, Norbert Lichý)

Full review

Land Of Hope (Oma Maa)

Two lovers try to build a new life after the end of the Second World War.

(Country: Finland; Year: 2018; Director: Markku Pölönen; Writer: Antti Heikkinen, Markku Pölönen; Stars: Oona Airola, Hannu-Pekka Björkman, Arto Heikkilä, Konsta Laakso, Marjaana Maijala, Mika Nuojua, Marja Packalén, Sanna-Kaisa Palo, Antti Virmavirta, Oona Airola, Hannu-Pekka Björkman, Arto Heikkilä, Konsta Laakso, Marjaana Maijala, Mika Nuojua)

International premiere

Shoplifters

Review preview for Shoplifters

Some may be dissuaded by the painstaking pace yet the tone manages to be both humorous and heart-rending at the same time.

Richard Mowe · 4 out of 5
A family of small-time crooks take in a child they find on the street.

(Country: Japan; Year: 2018; Director: Hirokazu Kore-eda; Writer: Hirokazu Kore-eda; Stars: Kirin Kiki, Lily Franky, Sôsuke Ikematsu, Mayu Matsuoka)

Full review

The Sisters Brothers

Review preview for The Sisters Brothers

Phoenix gives his character more depth than such men are usually afforded but deliberately takes a back seat, allowing Reilly the dramatic lead role he has long deserved.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
Two assassins set out into the wilderness on the trail of a man with a secret.

(Country: France, Spain, Romania, US; Year: 2018; Director: Jacques Audiard; Writer: Jacques Audiard, Thomas Bidegain, Patrick Dewitt; Stars: Joaquin Phoenix, Jake Gyllenhaal, John C. Reilly, Rutger Hauer, Riz Ahmed, Carol Kane, Creed Bratton, Duncan Lacroix, Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson, Niels Arestrup, Rebecca Root, Aldo Maland, Ian Reddington, Philip Rosch, Lexie Benbow-Hart)

Full review See: Venice 2018: The Sisters Brothers, Sunset, Non-Fiction, The Mountain, Dragged Across Concrete, Charlie Say and Vox Lux

A Tramway In Jerusalem

Drama set on a tram journey that heads from West Jerusalem to the Palestinian Territory of East Jerusalem.

(Country: Israel, France; Year: 2018; Director: Amos Gitai; Stars: Noa Ahinoamam Nini, Mathieu Amalric, Hana Laslo, Yael Abecassis, Pippo Delbono, Yuval Scharf, Karen Mor, Lamis Amar, Mustafa Masi)

Transit

Review preview for Transit

Time and place hold both no and every meaning in Christian Petzold's latest film.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
Georg flees to Marseilles to escape the German army. Assuming a false identity, he tries to obtain passage on a ship bound for Mexico. But then he meets Marie and his plans change.

(Country: Germany, France; Year: 2018; Director: Christian Petzold; Writer: Christian Petzold, baesd on the novel by Anna Seghers; Stars: Franz Rogowski, Paula Beer, Godehard Giese, Lilien Batman, Maryam Zaree, Barbara Auer, Matthias Brandt, Sebastian Hülk, Emilie de Preissac, Antoine Oppenheim, Louison Tresallet, Justus von Dohnányi, Alex Brendemühl, Trystan Pütter, Ronald Kukulies)

Full review See: Franz Rogowski ‪in conversation on‬ controlling his breath, a space for the imagination, the images and colours in Transit, and his work at the Kammerspiele , Christian Petzold ‪in conversation on‬ Franz Rogowski, a memory, an identity and the language in Transit , Christian Petzold ‪in conversation on‬ Alex Brendemühl and George Romero in Transit, author Anna Seghers, Isabelle Huppert and Claude Chabrol , Franz Rogowski ‪in conversation on‬ Christian Petzold's Transit and The State We Are In

Your Face (Ni De Lian)

Digital experiment considering the human face.

(Country: Taiwan; Year: 2018; Director: Tsai Ming-liang)