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Sundance Film Festival · 2022

Sundance Film Festival 2022

Spotlight

Programme

5 films · 5 reviews

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After Yang

Review preview for After Yang

Kogonada is the directorial equivalent of a careful tea maker himself, he knows how to infuse his films with complex ideas without getting preachy or overtechnical about it.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
In a near future, a family reckons with questions of love, connection, and loss after its A.I. helper unexpectedly breaks down.

(Country: UK; Year: 2021; Director: Kogonada; Writer: Kogonada, based on the short story by Alexander Weinstein; Stars: Colin Farrell, Jodie Turner-Smith, Justin H Min, Malea Emma Tjandrawidjaja, Haley Lu Richardson, Sarita Choudhury)

Full review See: Kogonada and Justin H Min on construction of identity and catching up to grief in After Yang

Happening (L'Evenment)

Review preview for Happening

Diwan lets the cold hard facts trickle in as weeks are marked off at the bottom of the screen.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
France, 1963. Anne is a bright young student with a promising future ahead of her. But when she falls pregnant, she sees the opportunity to finish her studies and escape the constraints of her social background disappearing.

(Country: France; Year: 2021; Director: Audrey Diwan; Writer: Audrey Diwan, Marcia Romano, based on the book by Annie Ernaux; Stars: Anamaria Vartolomei, Kacey Mottet Klein, Luàna Bajrami, Louise Orry-Diquéro, Louise Chevillotte, Pio Marmaï, Sandrine Bonnaire, Leonor Oberson, Anna Mouglalis, Cyril Metzger, Eric Verdin, Madeleine Baudot, Alice de Lencquesaing, Fabrizio Rongione, Isabelle Mazin)

Full review See: Happening director Audrey Diwan on abortion, prizes, equality and truth

Neptune Frost

Review preview for Neptune Frost

Set in a futuristic Rwanda, the themes are as old as the hills - with colonialism, identity and self-determination chief among them.

Amber Wilkinson · 3 out of 5
The love story between an African intersex runaway and a coltan miner, and the virtual marvel born as a result of their union.

(Country: US, France, Rwanda; Year: 2021; Director: Anisia Uzeyman, Saul Williams; Writer: Saul Williams; Stars: Eliane Umuhire, Eliane Umuhire)

Full review

Three Minutes: A Lengthening

Review preview for Three Minutes: A Lengthening

There is a lengthening here - but also a shortening of the emotional distance between us the viewer and those caught on camera.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
The three minutes of footage explored in this film are the only moving images left of the Jewish inhabitants of Nasielsk before the Holocaust.

(Country: Netherlands, UK; Year: 2021; Director: Bianca Stigter; Stars: Helena Bonham Carter)

Full review See: Bianca Stigter on Three Minutes: A Lengthening

The Worst Person In The World (Verdens Verste Menneske)

Review preview for The Worst Person In The World

There is a lingering, half blossomed melancholy that lies underneath the often very funny, fast-paced moments of quotidian chaos.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 4 out of 5
Four years in the life of Julie, a young woman who navigates the troubled waters of her love life and struggles to find her career path, leading her to take a realistic look at who she really is.

(Country: Norway, France, Sweden; Year: 2021; Director: Joachim Trier; Writer: Joachim Trier, Eskil Vogt; Stars: Anders Danielsen Lie, Renate Reinsve, Herbert Nordrum)

Full review