Festivals and Events

A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence is ‘the final part of a trilogy about being a human being’, divided into over 30 self-contained scenes. In his note of intention, director Roy Andersson lists his influences: Bruegel the Elder’s painting ‘Hunters in the Snow’, in which four birds seem to observe a village scene from above; the New Objectivity (Neue Sachlichkeit) art movement, which emerged in response to the abstract, romantic, and idealised aspects of Expressionism; and (…)

Appropriate Behaviour is the first feature film from Desiree Akhavan, who writes, directs, and stars in this self-consciously superficial study of identity politics. The protagonist interrupts a discussion about bias against the queer community in the criminal justice system to make herself known and to make her ex-girlfriend Maxine jealous: ‘I thought we were going to talk about marginalised women today – ’‘My name is Shirin. I am an Iranian bisexual teacher and I would like to take you out (…)

Photo credit: Lynn Alleva Lilley Queens of Syria documents the first stage of the ongoing Syrian Trojan Women project, which began in Amman, Jordan, late 2013 (www.syriatrojanwomen.org). Through a combination of drama therapy and revisionist mythology, a team of theatre professionals work with a group of displaced Syrian women to develop a production of Euripides’ The Trojan Women. This tragedy recounts the consequences of the Trojan War for the women of Troy, focussing on four characters (…)

Every springtime the rising tide of the Inguri river sweeps across the Georgian mountains, washing soil and rock into the valley below. These pieces of earth congeal into tiny islands on which local peasants harvest crops of corn. Corn Island traces the lifespan of one such island, fertile and transient, as it solidifies, bears fruit and eventually disintegrates. In the damp mists of a spring dawn, an old Abkhazian peasant (‘grandpa’) surveys the island, tastes the earth and, with a ragged (…)

I am watching a 29-minute documentary called Victory Day because I want to hear from members of the LGBT community in Russia. Here they are, various same-sex couples. One of them has a teenage daughter. Some of them have dogs. One couple is cooking, another is doing D.I.Y. I like the telling glances, the smiles and the body language. I am interested in the clothing and the hairstyles. Are they ’passing’? In Russia what does ’looking gay’ look like? Oh yes, and I want to hear them talk (…)

In Chaitanya Tamhane’s impressive debut Court the mounting tension and increasing urgency of so many legal dramas are replaced by a beautiful but melancholic futility. The film meanders through the endless legal battles which the Indian state has brought against Narayan Kemble, a poet who dares to sing about oppression and the possibility of resistance. Tamhane subtly depicts the ideologically charged mechanisms of the Indian legal system. However this is no farcical critique; the trial is (…)

Set in the Agusan marshlands of the Phillipines Crocodile is an attentive depiction of the daily life of a family who suffer the death of their young daughter Rowena (Jolina Espana) after she is attacked by a crocodile. The film is based on the death of a 12 year old girl from the Manobo tribe who was killed by a crocodile in 2009. With minimal dialogue the film presents the pace, warmth and cohesion of the domestic world of Rowena’s family, their rituals and daily tasks - cooking, (…)

Cannes favourite Timbuktu is Abderrahmane Sissako’s depiction of the Malian city’s brief occupation by Ansar Dine militias in 2012. Kidane, a Tuareg , has settled with his wife, daughter and a young shepherd he looks after, in the dunes just outside Timbuktu, hoping to steer clear of the invading jihadists. They live in relative peace, herding cows, until Kidane confronts a fisherman responsible for killing one of his cows; tragedy ensues and Kidane comes up against the chaotic, obtuse and (…)

Creased whispers that fold out of mouths shrouded in darkness. One of the most aurally tactile films I have seen in a long time; a lady, Vitalina, only speaks in whispers, of past tragedies and celebrations. Monolithic black consumes an entire two thirds of the frame, as Ventura, a man imprisoned or hospitalised or sectioned, wanders empty. The Cape Verdian immigrants in this film-poem almost disappear in the blackness and the silence. They are ghosts remembering times fuller. (…)

Screenwriter and director Justin Simien follows the lives of four African-American co-eds on an elite university campus to explore media representation, black authenticity and white privilege in 2014. As a UC Berkeley alum (go Bears!), this was somewhat relatable, and as someone interested in racism and racial politics I was delighted to see characters who, despite being groomed for a privileged life by their upwardly mobile parents, found themselves balancing a need to find a sense of self (…)