An Iranian woman and her daughter hope for a new life while in an Australian women’s shelter. Noora Niasari’s Shayda is a story about escaping fear and finding new beginnings. It is also a story about finding strength and confidence to buld that new life. Shayda is Australia’s submission for Best Foreign Feature consideration. Shayda…
“Next time is next time. Now is now.” Those who have read many of my reviews will know that I have a special affinity for Ecclesiastes, a wisdom book in the Hebrew Scriptures. That book tells of the Teacher’s (aka Qoheleth) search for meaning in life. Films are never “about” Ecclesiastes, but several manage to…
Anna Hints’s Smoke Sauna Sisterhood provides a glimpse into the lives of a group of Estonian women. Their lives are shared with humor, sorrow, and compassion. The documentary won the World Cinema Documentary Directing Award and is Estonia’s entry for Best International Feature consideration. The smoke sauna is included in UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage of…
Timm Kröger’s The Universal Theory (Die Theorie von Allem) opens with a brief segment of a 1974 TV talk show on which Johannes Leinert, an author of a new book with the same title as this film, is the guest. While the host talks of the book as science fiction, the author is adamant that…
Roger Ross Williams opens (and will close) his adaptation of Ibram X. Kendi’s history of racist thought, Stamped from the Beginning, with the question: What is wrong with black people? The query is addressed to Dr. Kendi, and a group of black women academics and activists from whom we will hear throughout the film. It…
When we visit a school in İlker Çatek’s The Teachers’ Lounge (Das Lehrerzimmer), we discover a microcosm for society. It is not just a story of teachers, students, and parents. It is a reflection of many of the issues that must be dealt with in many settings each day. The Teacher’s Lounge is Germany’s official…
Coming of age can open the world in new ways, but at what price? In Lukas Dhont?s Close (which is Belgium?s entry for Oscar consideration) we watch a sudden and tragic shift from the idyllic world of childhood to thechallenging world of trying to fit in to the expectations of society. The film has been…
?Happy memories here. Other memories here.? Joanna Hogg?s The Eternal Daughter is a film that is bound to memory?of times past, of love, of relationship. It is dark and moody attempt to uncover the mystery of a mother/daughter bond that seems a bit cold and distant. It is styled as a gothic ghost story, but…
Aesop told fables with animals to teach about human nature. In the Torah we find a story of Balaam and his donkey in which the donkey sees what Balaam cannot. EO is the story of a donkey, but it is also a story about us. EO is Poland?s entry for Best International Feature Oscar consideration….
?I?m full of shit. Pray for me.? Godland, written and directed by Hlynur P?lmason, has an interesting ?inspired by? designation. We?re told that a box of old photographic plates was found in Iceland, and the story is inspired by those early photos. The story that develops from those plates is filled with light and darkness,…
