Monster and The Old Oak
Afire (Roter Himmel)
(Country: Germany; Year: 2023; Director: Christian Petzold; Writer: Christian Petzold; Stars: Thomas Schubert, Paula Beer, Langston Uibel, Enno Trebs, Matthias Brandt)
Tensions and desire bloom among five people at a holiday home by the Baltic Sea.
La Chimera
(Country: Italy, France, Switzerland; Year: 2023; Director: Alice Rohrwacher; Writer: Carmela Covino, Marco Pettenello, Alice Rohrwacher; Stars: Isabella Rossellini, Josh O'Connor, Alba Rohrwacher, Lecu Chikovani, Carol Duate)
The story of a group of archaeologists and the black market in historical artefacts.
Close Your Eyes (Cerrar Los Ojos)
(Country: Spain; Year: 2023; Director: Victor Erice; Writer: Víctor Erice, Michel Gaztambide; Stars: Jose Coronado, Ana Torrent, María León, Soledad Villamil)
A TV show looking into the mysterious disappearance of an actor leads a director on a journey into his own past while making discoveries in the present.
Do Not Expect Too Much Of The End of the World (Nu aștepta prea mult de la sfârșitul lumii, Do Not Expect Too Much From The End Of The World)
(Country: Romania, Luxembourg, France, Croatia; Year: 2023; Director: Radu Jude; Writer: Radu Jude; Stars: Ilinca Manolache, Ovidiu Pîrșan, Nina Hoss, Dorina Lazăr, László Miske, Katia Pascariu)
Overworked and underpaid, Angela drives around the city of Bucharest to film the casting for a 'safety at work video' commissioned by a multinational company. When one of the interviewees reveals the company’s liability in his accident, a scandal erupts.
Eureka
(Country: Argentina, France, Portugal; Year: 2023; Director: Lisandro Alonso; Writer: Lisandro Alonso, Martín Caamaño, Fabian Casas; Stars: Viggo Mortensen, Chiara Mastroianni, Alianna Clifford)
Three stories set in wildly different terrain reflect lives haunted by the spectre of colonialist violence.
Close Your Eyes and The Taste Of Things
Fallen Leaves (Kuolleet Lehdet)
(Country: Finland; Year: 2023; Director: Aki Kaurismäki; Writer: Aki Kaurismäki; Stars: Alma Pöysti, Jussi Vatanen)
The course of potential love does not run smooth for a shelf-stacker and a metal worker.
Four Daughters (Les Filles D'Olfa)
(Country: Tunisia, France; Year: 2021; Director: Kaouther Ben Hania; Stars: Olfa Hamrouni, Eya Chikhaoui, Tayssir Chikhaoui, Nour Karoui, Ichrak Matar, Majd Mastoura, Hind Sabri)
A creative documentary following ten years in the life of a fortysomething Tunisian mother, a cleaning lady from a poor environment, who sees her two teenage daughters become radicalised, run away and join the terrorist organisation Daesh in Libya.
The Holdovers
(Country: US; Year: 2023; Director: Alexander Payne; Writer: David Hemingson; Stars: Paul Giamatti, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, Dominic Sessa, Tate Donovan, Carrie Preston)
An unpopular teacher, a talented but badly behaved student and a cook who recently lost her son in Vietnam spend Christmas together in an otherwise empty boarding school.
Full Review
See:
Alexander Payne’s graphic designer Nate Carlson in conversation on Election and more on The Holdovers
,
Nate Carlson, graphic designer, in conversation on Alexander Payne’s multiple Oscar-nominated The Holdovers
,
Wendy Chuck in conversation on Alexander Payne’s multiple Golden Globe-winning The Holdovers
,
Alexander Payne in conversation on The Holdovers composer Mark Orton, Marcel Pagnol’s Merlusse, W.C. Fields, Artie Shaw, and what’s coming up
,
Alexander Payne in conversation on The Holdovers team, Paul Giamatti, Carrie Preston and Westward The Women
,
Wendy Chuck in conversation on Alexander Payne’s multiple Golden Globe-nominated The Holdovers
In Our Day
(Country: South Korea; Year: 2023; Director: Hong Sangsoo; Writer: Hong Sangsoo)
Details coming soon...
Io Capitano
(Country: Italy, Belgium, France; Year: 2023; Director: Matteo Garrone; Writer: Matteo Garrone, Massimo Gaudioso, Massimo Ceccherini, Andrea Tagliaferri, Nicola Di Robilant, Chiara Leonardi; Stars: Affif Ben Badra, Hichem Yacoubi, Joseph Beddelem, Bamar Kane, Oumar Diaw, Mariam Kaba, Princess Erika, Taha Benaim, Seydou Sarr, Flaure B.B. Kabore, Beatrice Gnonko, Jackie Zappa, Emilie Adams, Bidar Abdelahad, Observateur Ebène)
Two Senegalese teenagers try to realise their dream of a new life in Europe.
Malena and Io Capitano
Kidnapped (Rapito)
(Country: Italy, France, Germany; Year: 2023; Director: Marco Bellocchio; Writer: Marco Bellocchio, Susanna Nicchiarelli, Edoardo Albinati; Stars: Enea Sala, Leonardo Maltese, Paolo Pierobon, Fausto Russo Alesi, Barbara Ronchi, Filippo
Timi)
In 1858, a six-year-old Jewish boy is forcibly seized from his family by the Catholic church.
Life (Hayat)
(Country: Turkey, Bulgaria; Year: 2023; Director: Zeki Demirkubuz; Writer: Zeki Demirkubuz; Stars: Miray Daner, Burak Dakak, Cem Davran, Umut Kurt, Melis Birkan, Osman Alkas, Ozan Dagara, Dogu Demirkol, Kayhan Acikgoz, Muttalip Mujdeci, Seyit Nizam Yilmaz, Berfun Basel, Hande Ozen, Ozlem Turkad, Caner Cindoruk)
Young Hikran is forced by her father to marry Riza. Refusing to comply, she flees to Constantinople. Shamed, Riza sets out to find her in the metropolis.
Malena (Malèna)
(Country: Italy US; Year: 2000; Director: Giuseppe Tornatore; Writer: Giuseppe Tornatore, based on a
story by Luciano Vincenzoni; Stars: Monica Bellucci, Giuseppe
Sulfaro, Luciano Federico,
Matilde Piana, Pietro Natarianni)
An adolescent boy stalks
beautiful woman in small Sicilian
town during the war.
Maria Callas: Letters And Memoirs (Maria Callas: Lettere e memorie)
(Country: France, Italy, Greece; Year: 2023; Director: Tom Volf, Yannis Dimolitsas; Writer: Tom Volf; Stars: Monica Bellucci)
Consideration of the opera star.
MMXX
(Country: Romania; Year: 2023; Director: Cristi Puiu; Writer: Cristi Puiu; Stars: Igor Babiac, Dorian Boguta, Laur Bondarenco, Dragos Bucur, Bianca Cuculici, Roxana Ogrendil, Otilia Panaite, Adelaida Perjoiu, Florin Tibre)
Oana Pfifer, a young therapist, gradually slips into the net of the questionnaire she submits to her patient. Mihai, Oana’s brother, worrying about his birthday, is stuck in a story far bigger than he can handle. Septimiu, Oana’s husband, concerned about his health, vaguely listens to a strange story his colleague was caught up in a while ago. Narcis Patranescu, an organided crime detective, deals with an unsettling dark story while interrogating a young woman at a funeral.
The New Boy and Eureka
Monster (Kaibutsu)
(Country: Japan; Year: 2023; Director: Hirokazu Kore-eda; Writer: Yûji Sakamoto; Stars: Sakura Ando, Eita Nagayama, Soya Kurokawa, Hinata Hiragi)
A mother is shocked when she learns what a teacher has said to her son, but the truth is more complicated.
The New Boy
(Country: Australia; Year: 2023; Director: Warwick Thornton; Writer: Warwick Thornton; Stars: Cate Blanchett, Mezi Atwood, Deborah Mailman)
The story of a nine-year-old Aboriginal orphan boy who arrives in the dead of night at a remote monastery, run by a renegade nun, where his presence disturbs the delicately balanced world.
The Old Oak
(Country: France; Year: 2023; Director: Ken Loach; Writer: Paul Laverty; Stars: Debbie Honeywood, Andy Dawson, Reuben Bainbridge, Col Tait, Rob Kirtley)
A musing on the future of The Old Oak, the last remaining pub in a village in Northeast England, where people are leaving the land as the mines are closed. Houses are cheap and available, thus making it an ideal location for Syrian refugees.
Passages
(Country: US; Year: 2023; Director: Ira Sachs; Writer: Mauricio Zacharias; Stars: Franz Rogowski, Ben Whishaw, Adèle Exarchopoulos)
A married man cheats on his husband with a woman... then tells him about it.
The Peasants
(Country: Poland, Serbia, Lithuania; Year: 2023; Director: DK Welchman, Hugh Welchman; Writer: Wladyslaw Stanislaw Reymont, DK Welchman, Hugh Welchman; Stars: Kamila Urzedowska, Robert Gulaczyk, Miroslaw Baka, Sonia Mietielica)
A hand-painted animated film about an early 20th Century Polish peasant woman who creates havoc by marrying an older rich man.
Kidnapped and The Holdovers
Shoshana
(Country: UK, Italy; Year: 2023; Director: Michael Winterbottom; Writer: Laurence Coriat, Paul Viragh, Michael Winterbottom; Stars: Irina Starshenbaum, Harry Melling, Aury Alby, Ofer Seker)
Two UK police officers hunt for a charismatic poet and Zionist fighter who has been plotting to evict UK authorities.
The Survival Of Kindness (Das Überleben der Freundlichkeit)
(Country: Australia; Year: 2022; Director: Rolf de Heer; Stars: Mwajemi Hussein, Deepthi Sharma, Darsan Sharma)
BlackWoman is abandoned in a cage in the middle of the desert and left to die. But she is not ready to give up all hope. She escapes, and walks through pestilence and persecution, from desert to mountain to city, to find those who left her to die.
Woman Of (Kobieta Z...)
(Country: Poland, Sweden; Year: 2023; Director: Michal Englert, Malgorzata Szumowska; Stars: Joanna Kulig, Mateusz Wieclawek, Malgorzata Hajewska, Jacek Braciak, Bogumila Bajor)
A man begins to feel increasingly uncomfortable with his gender identity.