Most recent articles
Posted on 27 January 2020
LONDON SHORT FILM FESTIVAL - Recollective Resistance - Kamal Aljafari’s Port of Memory
by Arooj KhanAljafari’s Port of Memory is the second instalment of a three part series entitled Recollective Resistance, serving as a witness to the destruction, repopulation, and gentrification of the once thriving Palestinian port city of Jaffa – now an extension of Tel Aviv.
Using footage from imperialist–themed action films set in Jaffa, Aljafari provides us with a memoir of the everyday activities of a disappearing city that is bombarded by gentrification, re-construction and dispossession of its (...) Continue Reading »
Posted on 24 January 2020
Short of the Week: Ahmed Song, dir. Foued Mansour
by Elise LoiseauOne day Ahmed, employed at the public baths and nearing retirement, encounters Mike, a teenager adrift. Between the bath house walls, in a place on the point of disappearing, a strange relationship will develop between these two fractured souls.
A lovely, heart-warming short subtly exploring a growing relationship between the central characters and finding the beauty in the mundane. Available thanks to Univers Cine until 28 January!
Here’s our interview with director Fouad Mansour from (...) Continue Reading »
Posted on 23 January 2020
LONDON SHORT FILM FESTIVAL - London Lives 2
by Louis ChristieThe Mole, (Yiling Ding, 2018)
This short and enigmatic film is a glimpse into the life of a young masseur in Chinatown. A montage of moments in his working day at family-run Hong Ning Herbal Medicine, with voiceover narration in Chinese, proffers the tip of an iceberg, the scale and complexity of which is only made clear in the final shot. With all the reticence of an Imagist poem, the film leaves you deeply intrigued yet with the impression that it’s somehow said everything that needs (...) Continue Reading »
Posted on 22 January 2020
LONDON SHORT FILM FESTIVAL - London Lives 1
by Louis ChristieTelling a friend where I was going on Wednesday, I had hesitated over the title – was it ‘London Lives, as in ‘many lives’, or could it be lives, as in ‘she lives’? After taking in these eight juxtaposed stories, I felt sure it was the former – the lives were multiple, intersecting but leading to completely distinct worlds, rather than coming together to form a unified and living whole. Their placement alongside each other felt more like counterpoint than synthesis. The films, curated from open (...) Continue Reading »
Posted on 9 January 2020
Gaza, dir: Gary Keane & Andrew McConnell
by Tommy HodgsonGaza never falters in its intimate portrayal of humans whose lives have been profoundly affected by political decisions made without their consent or interests at heart. The footage is unmanufactured; it is not a passive news report about the body count of an active war zone but a real character study of personal and societal perseverance through the most devastating circumstances. It is both destruction and happiness; pain and dancing; and only political insofar as it spells out that (...) Continue Reading »
Posted on 18 December 2019
Road to Palestine (1985), dir: Layaly Badr and Upper Gate (1991), dir: Arab Loutfi - London Palestine FF
by Tommy HodgsonThe London Palestine Film Festival’s ‘Women of the Revolution’ event featured two films from female directors – both grainy but politically vital insights into the plight of Palestinians in the 1980s.
The first, Layaly Badr’s Road to Palestine, served as a dark short with a long message – one of deep-rooted resistance and tragic injustices, a tale of Palestine’s reality for decades. The film, as a cartoon, burdens stick figures with the results of conflict and oppression, in the setting of a (...) Continue Reading »
Posted on 9 December 2019
It Must Be Heaven by Elia Suleiman
by Tommy HodgsonThe London Palestine Film Festival opened with an expectedly strong, but nonetheless captivating experience, screening Elia Suleiman’s It Must Be Heaven at the Barbican. The film’s protagonist leads a life by observation, with Suleiman playing himself - only presumably more silent and bemused. His quizzical looks throughout invite us to view the bizarre events before our eyes with a similar detached penetration, as Suleiman lives day to day in his home country, then to Paris and New York (...) Continue Reading »
Posted on 5 December 2019
Court de la semaine : Nocturnes de Matthieu Bareyre
by Elise LoiseauAvant de réaliser le long métrage documentaire L’époque (2018), Matthieu Bareyre a posé sa caméra à l’hippodrome de Vincennes.
Loin des représentations de Degas et Manet, l’hippodrome est devenu un lieu devenu anonyme, voué à la fabrication et à la diffusion d’images. Sous les lumières blafardes et au milieu des chaises en plastique, Mehdi, Jimmy, Safir et Kader réalisent leurs pulsions par procuration : derrière une large fenêtre en verre, à distance de la course, ils font corps avec les chevaux et leur (...) Continue Reading »
Posted on 29 November 2019
Short of the Week: Nightmare of Gaza by Farah Nabulsi
by Abla Kandalaft"Gaza is unfortunately not a nightmare. Gaza is a horrifying reality. Farah Nabulsi’s short film, Nightmare of Gaza, presents that reality in an artistic way and reminds all of us of the ongoing tragedy." Gideon Levy, Israeli journalist.
A haunting, abstract and experimental narrative of a woman in the streets of Gaza surrounded by the devastation after the bombs have stopped. She has been helping others, but revelations show it is she who now needs help.
Our short of the week has just (...) Continue Reading »
Posted on 22 November 2019
Short of the Week: Baghdad Messi
by Mydylarama teamIraq 2009. Ten-year-old Hamoudi has only one leg, but is totally obsessed with football. He and his friends - like the rest of the world - are looking forward to the Champions League final between Barcelona and Manchester (Messi versus Ronaldo). But then Hamoudi’s television breaks down!
Kurdish-Belgian director Sahim Omar Kalifa’s award-winning short is ruthlessly heart-braking, with a beautifully moving central performance by Ali Raad Al-Zaidawy. Baghdad Messi was amongst the 10 short (...) Continue Reading »
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