Reviews by Rebecca Naughten

Order by: Date, A–Z

• 
  Hamada (2018)

  Review preview for Hamada

  Despite desolate circumstances and habitat, Domínguez Serén's film buzzes with humour and human warmth.

  Portrait of a group of young Sahrawi friends who live in a refugee camp in the Sahara.
• 
  Hinterland (2015)

  Review preview for Hinterland

  Macqueen and DoP Ben Hecking capture the stark and savage beauty of the countryside and coastline in winter, using a colour palette that contrasts the rich blue of the sea with the faded greens and browns of a landscape still partly in hibernation.

  Two childhood friends reunite after many years apart for a weekend of revisiting the haunts of their youth.
• 
  Hippocrates (2014)

  Review preview for Hippocrates

  Hippocrates is an engaging coming-of-age drama centring on the problems within public medicine in France as budget cuts bite.

  A young doctor encounters challenges he didn't expect in his first post, working for his father.
• 
  Housing Problems (1935)

  Review preview for Housing Problems

  The film is one of the first examples of vox populi and the presentation of ordinary people talking directly to the camera was innovative for the era.

  A British documentary movement film drawing attention to the living conditions in the slums of 1930s Britain.
• 
  Humano (2013)

  Review preview for Humano

  It contains an interesting exploration of shamanistic beliefs, but it is also perfectly possible to view the entire proposition as an exercise in twenty-something navel-gazing.

  Twenty-five-year-old Alan sets off on an existential journey to discover the meaning of what it is to be human.
• 
  Ida (2013)

  Review preview for Ida

  A still, painterly vision in silvery monochrome - capturing the quiet contemplation of the two women and simultaneously encouraging the same on the part of the viewer.

  A novice nun comes face-to-face with her family’s past in 1960s Poland.
• 
  In A Foreign Land (2014)

  Review preview for In A Foreign Land

  At times profoundly moving, In a Foreign Land burns with indignation at the circumstances foisted on a generation who did what they were supposed to do but who have had little choice but to abandon the careers and futures they thought lay ahead of them.

  Documentary about Spaniards forced by commerce to seek work abroad.
• 
  In The Distance (2015)

  Review preview for In The Distance

  Quietly affecting.

  It’s calm and peaceful above the clouds. But in the distance is war, and night by night chaos advances.
• 
  The Iron Ministry (2014)

  Review preview for The Iron Ministry

  The Iron Ministry moves beyond the observational to the experiential, which is to say that sound and image come together to put us among the passengers rather than simply watching them from a distance.

  A portrait of China, experienced through its vast and expanding railway.
• 
  Ixcanul (2015)

  Review preview for Ixcanul

  A sensitively handled female coming-of-age tale.

  Story of a teenage girl living in the foothills of a volcano, who faces an arranged marriage but is won over by the charms of a plantation worker.
• 
  Journey To The West (2014)

  Review preview for Journey To The West

  A meditative miniature of hypnotic grace.

  A slow-moving Buddhist monk acquires a follower on the streets of Marseille.
• 
  The Kármán Line (2014)

  Review preview for The Kármán Line

  The Kármán Line packs a punch in the emotional stakes thanks to an excellent cast who all invest their characters with warmth and humour.

  A woman develops a rare illness causing her to lift off the ground at a slow but increasing rate.
• 
  Land Of Mine (2015)

  Review preview for Land Of Mine

  The randomness of death in times of war aside, Land Of Mine - perhaps unavoidably - leans towards the conventional in its overall narrative arc.

  In the aftermath of World War Two, the Allies used German prisoners of war to defuse and clear landmines from the Danish coastline.
• 
  Land Of Promise (1946)

  Review preview for Land Of Promise

  Paul Rotha's film is impressively rounded and researched in how it considers multiple perspectives and interrelating elements of infrastructure, economy and commerce.

  An impassioned post-war call for nationally co-ordinated action to solve the housing crisis that had blighted lives for decades.
• 
  The Last Days (2013)

  Review preview for The Last Days

  A showcase for Spanish special effects and relatively slick genre cinema, but plot and characterisation required more attention.

  A couple of months after an epidemic has rendered most of the world's population agoraphobic, and scared to actual death if they go outside, Marc heads underground to make his way across Barcelona in search of his girlfriend.
• 
  Life Is Sacred (2014)

  Review preview for Life Is Sacred

  The second half shows that the director played the long game by returning a year later once the dust had settled, and then again in 2014 for the next set of presidential elections.

  Antanas Mockus, the former Mayor of Bogota, challenges the normal violent political practice by running an unusually positive campaign in Colombia's 2010 presidential elections.
• 
  Li'l Quinquin (2014)

  Review preview for Li'l Quinquin

  Dumont - for all the outlandishness of the film in other aspects - prioritises a messy realism over straightforward likeability in relation to his protagonists.

  A blackly comic murder mystery develops in a small town in northern France.
• 
  Limbo (2014)

  Review preview for Limbo

  Confidently slow burning and comfortable with moving at its own speed.

  A connection grows between a teenager and a newly arrived teacher.
• 
  Listen To Britain (1942)

  Review preview for Listen To Britain

  A poetic evocation of Britain under pressure.

  A symphony of sounds in a day in the life of Britain during wartime.
• 
  Little Indi (2009)

  Review preview for Little Indi

  Recha depicts a hardscrabble existence but finds fleeting moments of beauty, affection, and pleasure by focussing on the things that truly matter to Arnau.

  Living on the outskirts of Barcelona, Arnau raises a menagerie of songbirds and tries to accumulate the funds to hire a lawyer for his imprisoned mother.
• 
  Long Live The Republic (1965)

  Review preview for Long Live The Republic

  The film is shot through with dark humour, and in Oldrich's youthful incomprehension Kachyňa finds a way to critically depict the community's baser instincts without being overtly moralistic.

  The German retreat from a Czech village, and the subsequent arrival of the Russian forces, as seen from the point of view of an imaginative small boy.
• 
  Lovers (1991)

  Review preview for Lovers

  Vicente Aranda blatantly plays up the virgin/whore dichotomy between the two female characters but the women give nuanced performances that suggest. undercurrents of complexity

  After finishing his military service, a young man intends to settle down with his fiancée but begins a dangerous affair with his landlady.
• 
  Macario (1960)

  Review preview for Macario

  The film feels surprisingly modern but never anachronistically so.

  A peasant is befriended by 'Death' and given a water that can heal any disease... but his new powers attract unwanted attention.
• 
  La Maladie Blanche (2011)

  Review preview for La Maladie Blanche

  There is little substance beneath this atmospheric top layer.

  In an isolated village in the Pyrenees, the nocturnal world entangles stories of shadow puppets, magic mirrors, and prehistoric paintings for a father and his young daughter.
• 
  María Candelaria (1944)

  Review preview for María Candelaria

  There are several standout compositions among Figueroa's cinematography.

  A young woman faces prejudice because her mother was a prostitute.
• 
  Mataharis (2007)

  Review preview for Mataharis

  A through-line in the work of writer-director Icíar Bollaín is her interest in representing a variety of female experience, in both private and professional spaces.

  Three female detectives find a series of cases combine with personal upheavals to give them new perspectives on their own lives as well as those of their clients.
• 
  The Mysterious Death Of Pérola (2014)

  Review preview for The Mysterious Death Of Pérola

  As with the exaggerated use of sound, this 'borrowing' from other films is excessive and becomes increasingly grating despite the short running time.

  Living alone in an old and gloomy apartment, Pérola feels fear to the extent that dream, fantasy and reality lose their borders.
• 
  My Name Is Hmmm... (2013)

  Review preview for My Name Is Hmmm...

  Conversations are awkwardly stilted and lacking in the rhythms of natural speech.

  An abused young girl runs away from home and forms an unlikely bond with a trucker.
• 
  My Name Is Salt (2013)

  Review preview for My Name Is Salt

  A lyrical celebration of human endeavour in challenging circumstances.

  Documentary about salt production.
• 
  Neither God Nor Santa Maria (2015)

  Review preview for Neither God Nor Santa Maria

  The scratchy texture of the film lends an ethereal quality to the images almost as if the passing sea frets and attendant mist have soaked into the very fabric of the film.

  Old audio recordings of pastors discussing the mythical existence of witches and their travels play over the images of the daily life of an elderly woman.
• 
  Nightcleaners (1975)

  Review preview for Nightcleaners

  The Berwick Street Collective did not set out to make a by-the-numbers film and instead crafted a documentary that is experimental in form, and that strives to get at deeper truths about gender and labour inequalities.

  A documentary about the campaign to unionise underpaid and victimised women who clean office blocks at night.
• 
  Night Without Distance (2015)

  Review preview for Night Without Distance

  This is a film of silences and pauses, hushed conversations and isolated contemplation.

  An instant in the memory of landscape - the smuggling that for centuries crossed the line between Portugal and Galicia.
• 
  Noah's Ark (2014)

  Review preview for Noah's Ark

  The semi-improvised film finds real heart in its characters.

  In Spain 2020, two security guards suddenly lose their jobs and join forces to build a machine to escape the world of economic crisis.
• 
  No Cow On The Ice (2015)

  Review preview for No Cow On The Ice

  A thoughtful and personal meditation on language, identity and landscape.

  Documentary following a young Galician filmmaker when he emigrates to Sweden. As he learns about Swedish culture, society and lifestyle, he develops a new identity.
• 
  No Land's Song (2014)

  Review preview for No Land's Song

  It is significant that No Land's Song in some ways mirrors that inclination for layering female voices by only presenting Sara's thoughts and opinions through conversation with others.

  The Islamic revolution of 1979 banned female singers from appearing in public in Iran. Now Ayat Najafi tries to revive tradition, planning an evening of Iranian and French female soloists to rebuild shattered cultural bridges - but can it work?
• 
  No Man's Land (2012)

  Review preview for No Man's Land

  Lamas highlights the power of the much-maligned 'talking head' format of documentary while simultaneously striking out into less clearly defined territory aided by the shadowy life story of that same man.

  A former mercenary confesses to the brutal acts for which he is responsible.
• 
  N-VI - Vanishing Roadsides (2012)

  Review preview for N-VI - Vanishing Roadsides

  The close-up textures of worn surfaces - the asphalt, the concrete road markers with flaking paint, the walls of abandoned buildings - speak of neglect coupled with stubborn endurance.

  A portrait of the abandoned N-VI road between Madrid and Galicia, presented through those who still live alongside it.
• 
  Obra (2014)

  Review preview for Obra

  Obra is as layered as the past it seeks to uncover.

  In São Paulo, a young architect discovers a clandestine burial on the worksite of his first important project, located in a lot belonging to his family.
• 
  On Football (2015)

  Review preview for On Football

  Makes adroit use of the Beautiful Game's resonance in people's lives as a route in to a personal story.

  An estranged father and son reunite after 20 years in order to watch the 2014 World Cup together.
• 
  Painless (2012)

  Review preview for Painless

  There is a great story in here somewhere.. but the combination of the two narratives - presented as tonally and visually distinct from one another - does not entirely work.

  Gothic horror entwining the story in 1930s Catalonia of a group of children who cannot feel pain, with a man searching for his biological parents in the present day.
• 
  Plácido (1961)

  Review preview for Plácido

  Berlanga excels at the chaos of everyday life - the messiness of human interactions and the way in which lives randomly interconnect.

  A town's charity initiative to 'sit a poor man at your table' for Christmas dinner continually thwarts one man's efforts to protect his livelihood.
• 
  Precinct Seven Five (2014)

  Review preview for Precinct Seven Five

  There is a great story here and Russell tells it in detail from multiple perspectives and with numerous forms of documentation.

  The real-life story of dirty cops who worked alongside brutal drugs gangs in New York in the 1980s.
• 
  Prophet's Prey (2014)

  Review preview for Prophet's Prey

  A fascinating but deeply disturbing film.

  A look at the mega- lomaniacal leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
• 
  Queen Of Earth (2015)

  Review preview for Queen Of Earth

  A psychologically astute and darkly funny look at the deep bonds of female friendship and the damage that can be wrought by those closest to you.

  Following her father's suicide and breaking up with her boyfriend, Catherine seeks refuge with her friend Virginia, but the young woman's shaky grasp on reality strains their relationship to breaking point.
• 
  Redeemer (2014)

  Review preview for Redeemer

  Overall, fans of the genre will probably enjoy the fight sequences but the story and characterisation do not stand up to closer inspection.

  An ex-hitman turns vigilante to seek redemption for his sins by taking on a vicious drug cartel and facing deadly assassin "The Scorpion".
• 
  Refuge England (1959)

  Review preview for Refuge England

  Refuge England is a film made by someone with empathy for the man onscreen and genuine insight into the experience of leaving your home through necessity rather than choice.

  The film records the experiences of a Hungarian refugee arriving in London with no English, little money and with his only prospect of help an incomplete address written on a postcard.
• 
  Refugiado (2014)

  Review preview for Refugiado

  A suspenseful and jittery depiction of how fear can nestle in the place where you should feel safest.

  After a young boy finds his mother unconscious on the floor, they decide to flee their abusive home life and embark on a terrifying journey.
• 
  Rapture (1979)

  Review preview for Rapture

  The film achieves a state of grace through the performances and chemistry of the actors.

  Sliding into a heroin-induced oblivion, a director and his actress girlfriend become entangled with an aspiring filmmaker, whose addiction to cinema proves equally dangerous.
• 
  Revue (2008)

  Review preview for Revue

  Loznitsa does not impose his opinions onto the material in an obvious fashion.

  Based on archive propaganda newsreels produced in the USSR in the 1950s and 60s.
• 
  Salam Cinema (1995)

  Review preview for Salam Cinema

  You can't help but feel that Simon Cowell may have seen this film - it's the audition stages of The X Factor, avant la lettre.

  Five thousand hopeful actors turn out for an audition unaware that the film is about hopeful actors auditioning.