Films

The revolution introduced me to art, and art, in its own turn, brought me to the revolution.

Sergei Eisenstein

Friday, 05 November 2021 12:36

'With art, you change people': Sara Shazli’s Back Home

Written by Rita Di Santo

in Films

Emerging filmmaker Sara Shazli’s Back Home had its world premiere at the El Gouna Film Festival. Twenty-eight years-old, she is the daughter of filmmaker and producer Marianne Khoury, who was the niece and long-time collaborator of Youssef Chahine. Back Home was filmed during the pandemic and sees Sara going back…

El Gouna

Friday, 05 November 2021 10:26

Captains of Zaatari: An El Gouna Film festival documentary on refugees and their right to dream

Written by Rita Di Santo

in Films

El Gouna Film festival documentary on refuges and their right to dream. El Gouna Film Festival with its selection of Arab Films provides a wide-ranging view of the Arab world, bringing to the screen issues, problems, struggles and dreams of the people of the region. Among those, the documentary Captains…

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Friday, 05 November 2021 09:58

Natural Light’s Dénes Nagy at the El Gouna Film festival

in Films

Written by Rita Di Santo

“Nagy recasts historical and political traumas, which resound into the strange realities and shifting narratives of today’s Europe”. The 5th edition of El Gouna Film festival began with an open-air screening of the powerful Hungarian movie Natural Light’s Dénes Nagy, an absorbing, beautifully crafted addition to the new Hungarian cinema,…

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Wednesday, 03 November 2021 09:47

Kill-Gang Curtain: On 'Night of the Living Dead'

in Films

Written by Ciaran O Rourke

In early April 1968, after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jnr, a panoramic rebellion, fuelled by the rage and grief of black communities grown increasingly forthright in their own self-defence, rocked America’s political establishment to its foundations, and left a trail of smoking cities in its wake. “White America…

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Wednesday, 03 November 2021 09:36

No Time To Think: The Changing Geopolitics of International Blockbusters

in Films

Written by Caoimhghin O Croidheain

The latest Bond flick No Time To Die was certainly a rollercoaster ride of exciting action scenes and great special effects, yet contained more than a quantum of longueurs. With a running time of 163 minutes it certainly tries the patience and the bladders of its audiences (who I saw…

No Time To Die James Bond

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Wednesday, 20 October 2021 10:53

Our Imaginary Arizonas: John Ford’s Stagecoach

in Films

Written by Ciaran O Rourke

“All aboard for Lordsburg!”, my Dad used to shout. Immediately, my sister and I would scramble out to the garden to take our seats in the creaking, rust-spattered swing-set planted there, which our parents (playing the part of the workhorses) would push and pull, as we began the journey through…

Wednesday, 06 October 2021 12:20

“We’s Who’s the Earth is For”: Storm Visions

Written by Ciaran O Rourke

in Films

Ciarán O’Rourke reviews Take Shelter and Beasts of the Southern Wild A decade ago I began to form a habit that in the intervening years has evolved into a strange passion: going to the cinema, and watching movies, alone! Two films in particular, from those early days, seemed so urgent…

Beasts of the Southern Wild Take Shelter Parasite James Baldwin

Friday, 24 September 2021 12:16

Sleepless Nights

Written by Ciaran O Rourke

in Films

As the predicted and real-time effects of climate change grow more dire by the day, and Covid-19 continues to devastate the world’s most impoverished (predominantly black and brown) populations, due in large measure to a commercially oriented global vaccine regime, the prospects for communal life, collective liberty, and non-coercive happiness…

The Big Sleep The Asphalt Jungle The Big Heat

Thursday, 19 August 2021 07:38

Epicentro

Written by Cameron Speller

in Films

Cameron Speller reviews Epicentro Hubert Sauper’s documentary Epicentro, explores the realities, the lies and the people that live in Havana, Cuba. Metaphorically, Sauper captures Cuba’s culture, politics, and its history as it exists today within the definition of the word ‘utopia’; an ideal place that does not exist. The film…

Che Guevara Fidel Castro

Monday, 02 August 2021 18:07

Marvel's Loki

Written by Reece Goscinski

in Films

Reece Goscinski reviews Loki through a Zizekian lens Loki is the latest entry in the canon of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), streaming as a TV series on Disney+. The serial takes place around the midpoint of 2019’s Avengers: Endgame and sees the Nordic God of mischief (Tom Hiddleston) flashing…

Disney+