Skip to main content

Venice Film Festival · 2023

Venice Film Festival 2023

Venice Days

Programme

11 films · 6 reviews

Jump to a film

Backstage

A dance company finds themselves on a revealing nighttime trip through the forest after an onstage incident.

(Country: Morocco, France, Belgium, Qatar; Year: 2023; Director: Afef Ben Mahmoud, Khalil Benkirane; Writer: Afef Ben Mahmoud; Stars: Saleh Bakri, Afef Ben Mahmoud, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Abdallah Badis)

Coup!

Review preview for Coup!

How it feels to take credit for something you haven’t done is one of the questions Coup! invites us to contemplate.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 3.5 out of 5
Sheltering from the 1918 Spanish Flu at their seaside estate, a progressive journalist and his socialite wife take in a mysterious grifter as a private cook... and soon find themselves facing mutiny.

(Country: US; Year: 2023; Director: Joseph Schuman, Austin Stark; Writer: Joseph Schuman, Austin Stark; Stars: Peter Sarsgaard, Billy Magnussen, Sarah Gadon, Skye P. Marshall, Faran Tahir, Kristine Nielsen, Fisher Stevens, Callum Vinson, John Posey, Julia Ford Collier, Willa Dunn, Mike Liscio, Robert John Gallagher, Ali Wills)

Full review

Following The Sound (Kanata No Uta)

Relationship drama.

(Country: Japan; Year: 2023; Director: Kyoshi Sugita)

Foremost By Night (Sobre Todo De Noche)

When Vera was young, she wasn’t able to take care of her son and had to give him up for adoption. Years later, when she tried to find him, the institutions told her that her file did not exist. She has continued to look for him ever since. When Cora was young, her doctor told her that she could not have children and that only by adopting could she start a family. Cora has dedicated her life to teaching piano lessons and caring for her adopted son, Egoz, about to turn 18. Now, the paths of these three characters are about to cross.

(Country: Spain, Portugal, France; Year: 2023; Director: Víctor Iriarte; Writer: Isa Campo, Víctor Iriarte, Andrea Queralt; Stars: Lola Dueñas, Manuel Egozkue, Ana Torrent, María Vázquez)

Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person (Vampire Humaniste Cherche Suicidaire Consentant)

Review preview for Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person

While Louis-Seize’s treatment of the night is atmospheric, the emphasis here is firmly on comedy rather on gore.

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
Sasha is a young vampire with a serious problem: she’s too sensitive to kill. When her exasperated parents cut off her blood supply, Sasha’s life is in jeopardy. Luckily, she a lonely teenager with suicidal tendencies. But their friendly agreement soon becomes a nocturnal quest.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2023; Director: Ariane Louis-Seize; Writer: Christine Doyon, Ariane Louis-Seize; Stars: Sara Montpetit, Félix-Antoine Bénard, Steve Laplante, Sophie Cadieux, Noémie O'Farrell, Lilas-Rose Cantin, Arnaud Vachon, Marie Brassard, Madeleine Péloquin, Gabriel-Antoine Roy, Isabella Villalba, Patrick Hivon, Marc Beaupré, Micheline Bernard, Sylvie Lemay)

Full review See: Ariane Louis-Seize on making a vampire film with comedic bite

Melk (Milk)

Review preview for Melk

Jacob Oostra's work in sound design is part of an overwhelming naturalism, an intimacy of sensation and a sense of intimacy.

Andrew Robertson · 4.5 out of 5
A mum who has lost her baby tries to work through her grief as she attempts to donate her milk.

(Country: Netherlands; Year: 2023; Director: Stefanie Kolk; Writer: Stefanie Kolk, Nena van Driel; Stars: Frieda Barnhard, Jules Elting, Wimie Wilhelm, Marleen Scholten, Arnoud Bos, Hans Ligtvoet, Murat Toker, Aleksej Ovsiannikov, Dolores Leeuwin, Ruth Sahertian, Christophe Lowie, Monique Heijmink-Wiegman, Tanja Rozeboom, Charles Verhoeff, Maren Jebbink)

Full review See: Stefanie Kolk on space to think and being there in Melk

Oceans Are The Real Continents (Los Oceanos son los verdaderos Continentes)

Review preview for Oceans Are The Real Continents

There’s a still photographic quality to the cinematography from Lorenzo Casadio Vannucci, with the studious, fixed framing matching the meter of the film and allowing time for us to appreciate the texture, not just of the lives of these characters but the spaces they inhabit.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
A trio of stories unfold against a backdrop of Cuba.

(Year: 2019; Director: Tommaso Santambrogio; Writer: Tommaso Santambrogio; Stars: Alexander Diego, Edith Ybarra Clara, Frank Ernesto Lam, Alain Alain Alfonso González, Milagros Llanes Martínez)

Full review See: Tommaso Santambrogio on the freedom and migration in Oceans Are The Real Continents

Sidonie In Japan (Sidonie En Japon)

Sidonie Perceval, an established French writer, is mourning her deceased husband. Invited to Japan for the re-release of her first book, she is welcomed by her local editor who takes her to Kyot. As they travel together, she slowly opens up to him. But the ghost of her husband follows her.

(Country: Switzerland, Japan, Germany, France; Year: 2023; Director: Élise Girard; Writer: Maud Ameline, Élise Girard; Stars: Isabelle Huppert, August Diehl, Tsuyoshi Ihara)

Snow In Midsummer (Wu Yue Xe)

For 49 years, Ah Eng and Dou E were trapped in the "513" timeline. In 1969, post-election tensions gripped Kuala Lumpur when the Cantonese street opera "Snow in June" showcased Dou E, portrayed by the troupe master. Amid a riot, Ah Eng and her mother sought refuge with the troupe, losing contact with her brother and father. In 2018, Ah Eng returned to Kuala Lumpur and unexpectedly encountered "Dou E" at the cemetery.

(Country: Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan; Year: 2023; Director: Keat Aun Chong; Writer: Keat Aun Chong; Stars: Fang Wan, Pearlly Chua, Jen-Shuo Cheng, Pauline Tan, Peter Yu, Alvin Wong, Wei Hern Teoh, Koet Yenn Lim, Zi Ting Lee, Kok Hin Kuan, Siew Chin Teo, Lai Kan Loh)

The Summer With Carmen

Review preview for The Summer With Carmen

With a lesser canine star, the film would not have worked, but Nala is sensational.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
While enjoying a day at Athens’ queer beach, 30-something Demosthenes offers to help his bestie and aspiring filmmaker Nikitas in drafting an idea for his feature debut, inspired by the events surrounding a certain dog named Carmen.

(Country: Greece; Year: 2023; Director: Zacharias Mavroeidis; Writer: Fondas Chalatsis, Zacharias Mavroeidis; Stars: Yorgos Tsiantoulas, Andreas Labropoulos, Nikolaos Mihas, Nala, Roubini Vasilakopoulou, Vasilis Tsigristaris)

Full review

Through The Night (Quiter La Nuit)

Review preview for Through The Night

It’s not the first time a film has scrutinised what it means to be “a good victim” but Girard’s general restraint, coupled with a controlled central performance from Alaoui bring it home.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
The lives of three people are explored after a rape.

(Country: France; Year: 2023; Director: Delphine Girard; Writer: Delphine Girard; Stars: Selma Alaoui, Guillaume Duhesme, Veerle Baetens, Anne Dorval, Adèle Wismes)

Full review