Skip to main content

Venice Film Festival · 2022

Venice Film Festival 2022

Venice Days

Programme

11 films · 4 reviews

Jump to a film

Bentu

Drama about a farmer and his simple life on this farm.

(Country: Italy; Year: 2022; Director: Salvatore Mereu; Writer: Salvatore Mereu; Stars: Peppeddu Cuccu, Giovanni Porcu)

Blue Jean

Review preview for Blue Jean

Everything about McEwen’s performance sings with stress, from the way she reacts to casual comments to the manner in which she lights increasing numbers of cigarettes.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
A schoolteacher is forced to live a double life against the backdrop of Thatcher's Britain.

(Country: UK; Year: 2022; Director: Georgia Oakley; Writer: Georgia Oakley; Stars: Rosy McEwen, Kerrie Hayes, Lydia Page, Stacy Abalogun, Deka Walmsley, Amy Booth-Steel, Gavin Kitchen, Farrah Cave, Lucy Halliday, Lainey Shaw, Aoife Kennan, Elizabeth Shaw, Edmund Wiseman, Emily Fairweather, Kate Soulsby)

Full review

The Damned Don't Cry (Les Damnes ne pleurent pas)

Review preview for The Damned Don't Cry

As with Boulifa’s first film, much here is built not upon what a specific character does but on another character’s reaction to that.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
Selim follows his mother from place to place, forever trying to outrun the latest scandal she's been caught up in. When they arrive in Tangier, new opportunities will give them a shot at the legitimacy they each crave – but not without threatening their fragile love for one another.

(Country: France, Belgium, Morocco; Year: 2022; Director: Fyzal Boulifa; Writer: Fyzal Boulifa; Stars: Abdellah El Hajjouji, Antoine Reinartz, Aicha Tebbae)

Full review

Dirty Difficult Dangerous

An impossible love blossoms between a Syrian refugee and a migrant Ethiopian worker as he is inflicted by a mysterious illness and she tries to free herself from her employers.

(Country: France, Italy, Lebanon; Year: 2022; Director: Wissam Charaf; Writer: Wissam Charaf, Hala Dabaji, Mariette Désert; Stars: Clara Couturet, Ziad Jallad, Rifaat Tarabay, Darina Al Joundi, Kawsie Chandra)

The Last Queen

Algeria, 1516. The pirate Aroudj Barbarossa frees Algiers from the tyranny of the Spanish and seizes power over the kingdom. Rumor has it he murdered King Salim Toumi, despite their alliance. Against all odds, one woman will stand up to him: Queen Zaphira.

(Country: Algeria, France, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Taiwan; Year: 2022; Director: Adila Bendimerad, Damien Ounouri; Writer: Adila Bendimerad, Damien Ounouri; Stars: Dali Benssalah, Adila Bendimerad, Dimitri Boetto)

The Listener

The story of a helpline volunteer's life comes to light over the course of a shift.

(Year: 2022; Director: Steve Buscemi; Writer: Alessandro Camon; Stars: Tessa Thompson)

Closing film. Out of competition

The Maiden

Review preview for The Maiden

For every shot when you wish Foy would learn melancholy doesn’t have to be meandering, there’s another of striking poignance.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
The lives of three suburban teenagers intersect.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2022; Director: Graham Foy; Writer: Graham Foy; Stars: Jackson Sluiter, Marcel T Jiménez, Hayley Ness)

Full review

Ordinary Failures

As their world descends into chaos, the three women struggle to find their place in life.

(Country: Czech Republic, Italy, Hungary, Slovakia; Year: 2022; Director: Cristina Grosan; Writer: Klára Vlasáková; Stars: Vica Kerekes, Tatjana Medvecká, Petra Buckova, Jana Plodková, Jana Stryková, Tereza Hofová, Martina Babisova, Rostislav Novák Jr., Beata Kanokova, Jirí Simek, Radka Caldová, Hana Drozdová, Marta Matová, Simon Bilina, Nora Klimesová)

Padre Pio

Drama about the life of the Catholic monk who became a saint.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2022; Director: Anthony Sarracco; Writer: Anthony Sarracco; Stars: Shia LaBeouf, Marco Leonardi, Luca Lionello, Ignazio Oliva, Alessandro Cremona, Brando Pacitto, Roberta Mattei, Martina Gatti, Michelangelo Dalisi, Carla De Girolamo)

Stonewalling

A young flight-attendant-in-training’s plans to finish college are thrown into doubt when she discovers she’s pregnant.

(Country: China; Year: 2022; Director: Huang Ji, Ryûji Otsuka; Stars: Honggui Yao)

Wolf And Dog

Review preview for Wolf And Dog

Shot in a superficially chaotic style which gradually coalesces into something meaningful, Wolf & Dog perfectly captures the haste and ambiguity of teenage life.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
A girl begins to question the world around her through her friendship with her gay best friend.

(Country: Portugal; Year: 2022; Director: Cláudia Varejão; Writer: Leda Cartum, Cláudia Varejão; Stars: Ana Cabral, Ruben Pimenta, Cristiana Branquinho, Marlene Cordeiro, João Tavares, Nuno Ferreira, Mário Jorge Oliveira, Luísa Alves, Maria Furtado, Tomás Furtado de Melo, Emanuel Macedo)

Full review