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Venice Film Festival · 2020

Venice Film Festival 2020

Critics' Week

Programme

9 films · 3 reviews

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50 Or Two Whales Meet On The Beach (50 (o dos ballenas se encuentran en la playa))

(Year: 2020; Director: Jorge Cuchi; Writer: Jorge Cuchi; Stars: José Antonio Toledano, Karla Coronado, Gerardo Trejoluna, José Antonio Toledano, Karla Coronado, Gerardo Trejoluna)

Bad Roads (Pohany Dorogi)

Four short stories are set along the roads of Donbass during the war.

(Country: Ukraine; Year: 2020; Director: Natalya Vorozhbit; Writer: Natalya Vorozhbit, Natalya Vorozhbit; Stars: Zoya Baranovskaya, Vladimir Gurin, Maryna Klimova, Igor Koltovskyy, Yuri Kulinich, Andrey Lelyukh, Yuliya Matrosova, Anastasia Parshina, Sergei Solovyov, Oksana Voronina, Ekaterina Zhdanovich, Anna Zhurakovskaya, Zoya Baranovskaya, Vladimir Gurin, Maryna Klimova)

The Book Of Vision

The life of a promising young doctor in the present day and that of an 18th-century Prussian physician blend together.

(Country: Italy, UK, Belgium; Year: 2020; Director: Carlo Hintermann; Writer: Carlo Hintermann, Marco Saura; Stars: Charles Dance, Lotte Verbeek, Sverrir Gudnason, Filippo Nigro, Isolda Dychauk, Rocco Gottlieb, Justin Korovkin, Douglas Dean, Vera Graziadei, Marco Quaglia, Abel Tesch, Giselda Volodi, Charles Dance, Lotte Verbeek, Sverrir Gudnason)

Opening film

The Flood Won't Come

Review preview for The Flood Won't Come

Ideas of war in the abstract and the tension between the necessity of an action and the action itself will go on to be explored throughout a film that mostly concerns itself with the horrors of war that happen away from the frontline.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
A war-weary general oversees his troops close to home.

(Country: Lithuania; Year: 2020; Director: Marat Sargsyan; Writer: Marat Sargsyan; Stars: Valentinas Masalskis, Petras Simonis, Sarunas Zenkevicius, Sigitas Rackys, Remigijus Vilkaitis, Petras Simonis, Valentinas Masalskis, Sarunas Zenkevicius, Sigitas Rackys, Remigijus Vilkaitis)

Full review

Ghosts (Hayaletler)

Review preview for Ghosts

Shot with a fluid intimacy by cinematographer Baris Özbiçer, Oyay's film gathers momentum and an increasingly punk energy as it goes.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
Four lives intersect on day in Istanbul.

(Country: Turkey, France, Qatar; Year: 2020; Director: Azra Deniz Okyay; Writer: Azra Deniz Okyay; Stars: Nalan Kuruçim, Beril Kayar, Emrah Ozdemir, Dilayda Günes, Nalan Kuruçim, Beril Kayar, Emrah Ozdemir, Dilayda Günes)

Full review See: Interview with Azra Deniz Okyay about Ghosts

The Rossellinis

Review preview for The Rossellinis

Insightful and at times wonderfully playful.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 4 out of 5
A documentary recounting the lives of Roberto Rossellini's children from the perspective of Alessandro Rossellini, the first grandson of the director.

(Country: Latvia, Italy; Year: 2020; Director: Alessandro Rossellini; Writer: Andrea Paolo Massara, Alessandro Rossellini, Davis Simanis Jr.; Stars: Alessandro Rossellini, Isabella Rossellini, Ingrid Rossellini, Robin Rossellini, Renzo Rossellini, Nur Rossellini, Katherine Cohen, Elettra Wiedemann, Caleb Lane)

Full review See: Alessandro Rossellini in conversation on The Rossellinis and his grandfather Roberto Rossellini

Closing film

Shorta

After a teenager dies in police custody, a pair of cops find themselves in trouble in the ghetto.

(Country: Denmark; Year: 2020; Director: Frederik Louis Hviid, Anders Ølholm; Writer: Anders Ølholm, Frederik Louis Hviid, Anders Ølholm; Stars: Jacob Lohmann, Simon Sears, Tarek Zayat, Issa Khattab, Özlem Saglanmak, Arian Kashef, Josephine Park, Dulfi Al-Jabouri, Michael Brostrup, Abdelmalik Dhaflaoui, Imad Abul-Foul, Anne Plauborg, Morten Brovn Jørgensen, Ibrahim Asmaa Ahmad, Hanin Georgis)

Thou Shalt Not Hate (Non odiare)

A Jewish surgeon is filled with guilt after the discovery of a Nazi tattoo leads him to abandon a man to his fate.

(Country: Italy, Poland; Year: 2020; Director: Mauro Mancini; Writer: Davide Lisino, Davide Lisino, Mauro Mancini, Mauro Mancini; Stars: Alessandro Gassmann, Sara Serraiocco, Luka, Lorenzo Buonora, Lorenzo Acquaviva, Cosimo Fusco, Gabriele Sangrigoli, Antonio Scarpa, Alessandro Gassmann, Sara Serraiocco, Luka, Lorenzo Buonora, Lorenzo Acquaviva, Cosimo Fusco, Gabriele Sangrigoli)

Topside

Deep in the underbelly of New York City, a five year-old girl and her mother live among a community that has claimed the abandoned subway tunnels as their home. After a sudden police-mandated eviction, the pair are forced to flee above ground into a brutal winter night.

(Country: US; Year: 2020; Director: Celine Held, Logan George; Writer: Celine Held, Logan George; Stars: Zhaila Farmer, Celine Held, Jared Abrahamson, Fatlip)