Features

Ahead of its UK release in the Autumn, here’s our review of Our River…Our Sky (aka Kulshi Makoo in Arabic), Iraqi filmmaker Maysoon Pachachi’s most recent feature film. Enjoy your summer, everyone! Set in Baghdad in 2006, specifically between Christmas and the Adha Eid, the film tells the stories of ordinary Iraqis going about their daily business against a backdrop of random bombings and kidnappings that plagued the country following the American-led invasion. The central character (…)

Asmae El Moudir won the best director prize in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard for Kadib Abyad (The Mother Of All Lies) A story about forgotten history and buried secrets unravels when a young girl realises she only has one picture from her childhood and that girl in the picture is not her. ‘Mother of All Lies’ transports us to a story in Morocco’s history with the director, Asmae’s own narration as she debuts her first feature film. From her own perspective, Asmae tries to relay the history of (…)

"Wajib" is a masterfully crafted film that unfolds with subtle brilliance, leaving a profound impact on its audience. Set in the Palestinian city of Nazareth within Israel, the story follows Shadi and his father, Abu Shadi, as they hand-deliver wedding invitations for Shadi’s sister, Amal. Under the skillful direction of Annemarie Jacir, this slow burn masterpiece delves deep into the intricate dynamics of family, culture, and identity. The performances in "Wajib" are nothing short of (…)

Under the Fig Trees opens in rural Tunisia; we see a glorious blue sky streaked with hues of reddish yellow. It is the dawn of a new day, but it is also an immediate introduction to a key theme of the film - freedom. The camera slowly brings us to a group of women standing together by the side of a road, shortly after revealing a few men loitering nearby. The order is deliberate; while Under the Fig Trees centres on the lives of Tunisian harvesters, it gravitates towards the female (…)

“It’s a love story” – this was the conclusion of an audience member after the screening of “Blue Caftan”, Maryam Touzani’s latest film, at the Garden Cinema in early May. And indeed, it is a love story, but quite a surprising and complex one, that explores love in its various forms. It leaves us wondering what can be considered love, pondering its intricacies, here portrayed without judgement. The three-dimensional characters are constantly trying to overcome their inner frictions, confront (…)

At the end of Memory Box, Alex (Paloma Vauthier) films her mother Maia (Rim Turki) at a party on her smartphone, panning out to capture the sun rising on the city skyline. It’s a new technology of image capture, itself caught by the digital camera, aligned with the memory of 8mm and 16mm, still photographs, and notebooks which populate the preceding scenes. Even as we live moments, we are thinking about how we will remember them, with time allowing for increasing recording clarity. Memory (…)

London audiences were able to watch the film at our screening at the Garden Cinema on 25 April, which was followed by a Q&A with the directors, hosted by journalist Steve Topple. See pictures below and a link to the post-screening Q&A with Steve. A 90-minute documentary film about the roots and rise of the most popular revolutionary song in the world. With more than 20 interviews on three continents, this historic documentary traces the cultural history of the song and investigates (…)

In Lausanne, a group of twenty-something women and queer persons start directing ethical and dissident pornographic films: the OIL Productions collective is born. Committed to an artistic and political approach, they create adult films aiming to positively represent sexualities and bodies in all their diversity. Patrick Muroni’s debut documentary is a sensitive and eye-opening look at the process of Oil’s work and productions and the context they developed them in. Where his film works (…)

À Lausanne, en Suisse, un groupe de jeunes femmes et de personnes queers d’une vingtaine d’années se lance, caméra au poing, dans la réalisation de films pornographiques. Entre leurs jobs pour certaine.x.s et leurs études pour d’autres, iels mettent tout en œuvre pour produire des films éthiques et dissidents. Très vite, les médias du pays, puis le public, s’intéressent au collectif. Aux yeux de tous, les voilà plongée.x.s dans un combat pour une autre vision du désir et de la sexualité. (…)

The Shining was shown at The Garden Cinema as part of their Jack Nicholson season. The film was followed by an in-depth discussion with Professor Roger Luckhurst, writer of The Shining: BFI Film Classics and hosted by Mydy’s Abla Kandalaft. The discussion was recorded as part of the Garden Cinema Film Talk podcast and can be found [HERE->https://thegardencinemafilmtalk.podbean.com/e/the-shining-inventing-new-horror-tropes-a-discussion-with-bfi-classics-writer-prof-roger-luckhurst. The (…)