myDylarama

First edition of the Independent Iraqi Film Festival

Abla Kandalaft — 2020-08-24T09:07:13Z

Oline and entirely free to watch, the Independent Iraqi Film Festival brings us features, shorts and discussions, shedding a spotlight on a thriving cinematic culture in the country and among the Iraqi diaspora.

IA: Israa Al-Kamali
AH: Ahmed Habib
RT: Roisin Tapponi
SD: Shahnaz Dulaimy

1. How did the team come together and initiate the idea for the festival?

IA: It started with a call from Ahmed Habib, one of the four people working on the festival, back in March. Ahmed and I got together and started throwing all kinds of big ideas with no experience in film curating or directing a festival, but our love for Iraq and films kept us going. Soon Shahnaz and Roisin joined the team, both have a lot of experience in the industry, from making films to curating them. I cannot think of a better team than this one, our drive to make this happen continues to inspire me. We all know how much Iraqi filmmakers and storytellers in general deserve more representation, we also know that there is a huge appetite for this among Iraqis back in the homeland and in the diaspora. We also know that if we can show the world what Iraqis can do with the support they can get, maybe more attention can be given to this currently struggling industry. Making this happen, especially now with the ongoing October Revolution, is so important to us. The revolution proved the resilience of Iraqis and the creative power people hold despite the realities they live in.

AH: For decades, Iraqis have watched their lives and deaths on full display in sounds and images beamed into their lives by filmmakers that couldn't even pronounce their names. However, over the last few years, a shift has been taking place, where more and more Iraqis both inside the country and in the diaspora, have started telling their story, our story. This festival is for them, so that they are empowered to tell more Iraqi stories.

2. How did you source the films? Did you put out a call for submissions? Go through your networks?

IA: We put out a call for submissions and we received over 80 films from emerging and established Iraqi filmmakers all over the world. This was mainly generated from social media and word of mouth. We wanted to create a balance between established filmmakers and emerging filmmakers in our programme to give the audience a holistic experience.

RT: The number of submissions we received is a testament to the power of the Iraqi community and diaspora. We all watched every single submission and then I curated our favourites into a programme, which was edited and then approved by the rest of the team. It was important for us to reflect the diversity of Iraqi filmmaking in our programme, from experimental to feminist to narrative feature films, we wanted to represent the multiple intersections working within our culturally rich film industry.

3. Can you tell us a bit more about the logistics behind streaming the films? Did you hit any hurdles?

SD: Technically, online screening has been almost effortless for us to host, and the global views have been outstanding. The biggest hurdle, however, has been the horrendous internet speed in Iraq, and it's a shame that Iraqis locally are having trouble streaming an Iraqi film festival made for them, by them. Many in Iraq have never seen an Iraqi production, either because these films have never been screened in cinemas there, or because they are owned by foreign distributors who have chosen to make the films available only upon purchase on platforms such as Amazon Prime, or iTunes among others, making them completely inaccessible to some, especially to audiences in Iraq. Our intention in hosting an online film festival is to extend our reach, make these films accessible without unjust geo-blocking, and spotlight Iraqi cinema on an international level.

4. What is your experience of the Iraqi film scene? What have you found the main hurdles to be for filmmakers? Are there common themes tackled by current films?

IA: The hurdles are a combination of things: lack of financial support, lack of security and safety, as well as poor production and post-production equipment. The Iraqi filmmaker faces obstacles on many levels from development, to production, to post production, to distributing, and making it to festival circuits. Making a film in Iraq especially is truly a constant battle. Regarding themes, many of the films we are screening in the festival deal with themes such as war, loss, identity, exile and displacement, and memory of a distant past. Yet, it is important to note that compared to films from other Arab countries such as Egypt and Syria, the Iraqi film industry is still shaping its identity due to years of war and destruction. Therefore, we hope that this festival becomes part of this rebuilding process.

5. Is it common or straightforward to secure co production deals with
foreign producers?

SD: It's never straightforward and there's always a lot of politics at play within the film industry. The biggest problem with securing European grants, is that they tend to favour working with their own crews whether in production or post-production, and this is because they usually follow schemes to support their local industry and to benefit from tax rebates. This takes away the opportunity from Iraqi professionals to work on productions even if they are about Iraq and filmed in Iraq. It's quite ironic in my opinion, and without a doubt unfair.

6. What are your hopes and ambitions for the festival? And for the film sector in the country?

SD: That Iraqi filmmakers are given a fair and equal chance in this industry. Iraqi films have been underrepresented on the international circuit thus far, and I hope to see that reversed in the very near future. By providing encouragement and support; Financially, creatively and technically, we can achieve it.

RT: We hope the festival introduces Iraqis worldwide to our incredible contemporary cinema. Our festival is not working on the extremely exclusive ‘premiere status' of competitive festivals. We want this to be extremely accessible, it is available to watch internationally for free with subtitles and there is no geo-blocking at play, an evil distribution-led practice dominating online distribution of new releases. We hope that our festival introduces people from all backgrounds to Iraqi cinema, not just those working at the ‘top' of the industry. That way, we are bringing Iraqi cinema to the people, and hopefully it will give Iraqis the chance to reconnect with and feel proud of their cultural heritage.

The festival is available online here from 21-28 August. Follow them @IIFF

Emerging Filmmakers Night - Q&A with Ben Mallaby

Erifili Missiou — 2020-05-22T15:35:19Z

Despite our collective laptop confinement, the EFN team has managed to create a fun and interactive film experience in their 2nd LIVESTREAM event.

The multi-award winning directors Francesco Gabrielle, Francesca Fowler and Ben Mallaby livestreamed their films and engaged in an informative and fun Q&A. In real time, the directors answered questions submitted to them by our cinephile audience.

We especially enjoyed the two shorts films by BAFTA-nominated comedy director Ben Mallaby and listening to him describe how he works with actors to get stellar performances.

Below is an clip of the event with Ben's Q&A.

You can still watch the entire event on Facebook.

Get in touch or comment if you have any suggestions, input or questions you'd like to ask the team or one of the participating directors.

This week's picks - Striking Colour Schemes

George Crosthwait — 2020-05-04T13:01:25Z

Japanese Avant-garde and Experimental Film Festival [JAEFF] producer George Crosthwait picks his three favourite films currently available on streaming platforms in the UK. This time tailored to suit precise days. It's May and the world is looking lush and vibrant (and empty). So this time I'm recommending three films with particularly striking colour schemes.

Viva - BFI Player

Watch on: Wednesday (because like a bored 70s housewife, you'll only get through the rest of the week with cocktails and pastel colours).

Wandering through the twisting labyrinths of Netflix and Amazon Prime is maddening even when only occasionally required. With home entertainment the only entertainment, maybe you're becoming more acquainted with streaming libraries than you ever dreamed possible. Now those endless “failure-to-choose-your-adventure” searches transcend frustration and erode your love of movies itself (dear Netflix algorithm, stop trying to make me watch Extraction). Praise be then for BFI Player's “Collections” category for providing some thematic coherence to salve the choice-bloat of the larger VOD platforms.

The BFI Flare LGBTIQ+ collection is a fabulous starting point, full of queer jewels and softens the loss of the festival's physical presence earlier this year. There's a ton of great stuff here but my personal pick is the uniquely talented Anna Biller's (The Love Witch) Viva. Ostensibly a pastiche of Russ Meyer-type 70s sexploitation, Viva (Biller herself) is your typical bored suburban housewife looking for sex, cocktails and liberation. Unlike films such as Black Dynamite, the recreation of genre aesthetics in Viva is both amazingly exact and surprisingly unreflexive. Biller herself frequently rebuffs terms like “homage” and “pastiche”, challenging her audience to view her films on their own terms. Indeed, her deliberate colour palette is like nothing else in contemporary cinema, something that we might only appreciate once we deactivate our desire to make comparisons to older films (a critical habit that's hard to break). Viva is a work of high camp that nonetheless demands sincerity and rejects irony. A most ludicrous and enjoyable film that is somehow shockingly serious.

Revenge - Shudder

Watch on: Friday (because it's the end of the working/furloughed week and you either need to blow off some steam or generate some energy for the weekend).

On the face of it, Revenge is another entry into the grottiest of cinema sub-genres: rape-revenge. Neither leaning on the male-avenger trope of Straw Dogs or The Virgin Spring/Last House on the Left, nor the cheap titillation of I Spit on Your Grave, Revenge aims to flip the stereotypes and gender roles around. The rape is deeply uncomfortable and un-sensationalised; the revenge is just really, really painful. Taking place in an unspecified and empty desert space, Revenge becomes a sandpit for eye-bleeding evisceration shot in extreme colour saturation. (male) Nude bodies glisten (with blood) under a burning sky as Jen (Mathilde Lutz) slays her way out of her nightmare vacation.

The recent successes of The Hunt and Bacurau suggest we're currently all down for a bit of human hunting in our life. Revenge will scratch that itch whilst staring down genre misogyny and providing some wince-inducing catharsis.

Ran – Mubi

Watch on: Sunday (because its an immensely long feudal war epic).

Amongst the many cinematic casualties of COVID-19, and particularly hard for me to take, is the postponement of the BFI's massive Japan season, which had been due to start this month. A planned restoration of Kurosawa's Seven Samurai has also been shelved, but we can take some comfort by settling in with his (arguably—depends how you feel about Richard Gere) final masterpiece: the magnificent King Lear adaptation Ran. Kurosawa revised Shakespearean tragedies several times throughout his career. The Bad Sleep Well loosely used the structure of Hamlet, the wonderful and ghostly Throne of Blood (coming soon to BFI Player) took on Macbeth and Ran sets Lear in Feudal Japan.

Having already secured a place amongst the greats with his films made during the golden age of Japanese cinema, Kurosawa proved himself to be a master of colour with late period work such as Kagemusha, Dersu Uzala and Dreams. “The Emperor” was exacting and exacerbating in his methods. Chris Marker's quasi-making-of-Ran, A.K. (also showing on Mubi this month) shows Kurosawa demanding that his production team paint an entire field of reeds gold in order to achieve the desired aesthetic quality. The scene was later cut from the final version of the film. Ran features a signature role for Tatsuya Nakadai (as the Lear surrogate), one of the greatest actors in cinema history. Also present is queer icon Pītā (Funeral Parade of Roses) as the Fool.

Ran is filmmaking on a scale to rival anything that Kurosawa, or anyone else, had attempted to date. It is one of the great historical epics and arguably the greatest imagining of Shakespeare ever set to celluloid.

VOD Picks Of The Week - Japanese triple bill

George Crosthwait — 2020-04-20T20:05:56Z

Japanese Avant-garde and Experimental Film Festival [JAEFF] producer George Crosthwait picks his three favourite Japanese films currently available on streaming platforms in the UK.

Visitor Q – Mubi

First up is something thoroughly deranged. Takashi Miike's no-budget tale of incest, domestic violence and lactation, shot on unappealing digital video. It's a comedy.

This won't come as a surprise to followers of Miike's career. A famously hard working filmmaker (over 100 films in less than 30 years) whose genre hopping tales of excess made him a poster director for Tartan's “Asia Extreme” DVD imprint in the late 90s/early 00s. Whilst Miike delivered a string of jidaigeki action epics in the 2010s (Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai, Thirteen Assassins, Blade of the Immortal), and the recent gangster/boxing film First Love (released in UK cinemas in January), it was through his earlier hyperviolent and surreal films such as Audition, Ichi the Killer, The Happiness of the Katakuris and Gozu that he made his name.

Visitor Q oozes out of this period, and perhaps tops the lot in terms of risqué content. Ostensibly a riff on Pier Paolo Pasolini's 1968 satire of the bourgeois family, Teorema, Visitor Q likewise annihilates its middle-class milieu. In Pasolini's film, the family are seduced and liberated by a mysterious stranger. In Miike's updating, the family are abused and traumatised by both the titular visitor and each other. Their liberation, if we can call it that, comes from the evaporation of taboos and pleasure of transgression. If you can access the wavelength of this hysterical satire then you too may be released from the restrictions of your social coding (if not from your lockdown).

The Night is Short, Walk On Girl – Netflix

If, like me, in times of strife you seek solace in the loving embrace in anime, then you're probably spending a fair amount of lockdown life working through Netflix's auspiciously timed deployment of Studio Ghibli's entire catalogue. But Ghibli is not the last word for Anime, and Netflix offers a (patchy) selection of delights beyond the gateway drugs of Totoro and Ponyo. On furlough with endless hours stretching out ahead? No better time than to dive into Hideaki Anno's Neon Genesis Evangelion (a kind of anime Twin Peaks). Other choice cuts include pre-Your Name work from Makoto Shinkai (Garden of Words), a rare example of anime directed by a woman (A Silent Voice), and the inventive Hiroshima-set WW2 drama In This Corner of the World.

My pick for this week, however, is Masaaki Yuasa's The Night is Short, Walk On Girl. A Lewis Carroll inspired, offbeat odyssey encompassing an epic pub crawl, an improvised musical play within a film, a viral epidemic (how topical), a mysterious after dark second-hand book fair, unrequited romance and clandestine shunga traders, all in the course of one long (short) night!

Often citing René Laloux's 1973 classic symbolist sci-fi animation The Fantastic Planet as his key inspiration, Yuasa's wildly imaginative brand of surrealism has garnered him a dedicated following. Films like Mind Game, Lu Over the Wall, and adaptations of novelist Tomohiko Morimi (The Night is Short, Walk On Girl; The Tatami Galaxy) demonstrate the possibilities afforded to an animator with only a passing relationship to logic. Given that civilisation no longer makes any sense, why not dive into an animated world where nonsense rules supreme.

Still Walking – Curzon Home Cinema / BFI Player (rental)

My final pick goes to Hirokazu Kore-eda; a household name following the Palme d'Or winning Shoplifters, and fresh off his first film made in Europe: The Truth. As seen in the latter, return to the childhood home and intergenerational relationships are two Kore-eda staples. These themes never crystallised as perfectly as in my personal favourite Kore-eda film, 2008's Still Walking.

Still Walking plays as a kind of reversal of Tokyo Story (don't say this to Kore-eda, he loathes the constant comparisons to Ozu) where the grown-up children visit their elderly parents. To me, Still Walking is a fulcrum around which the rest of Kore-eda's filmography turns. The aforementioned themes aside, the cast includes some of his favourite actors: the great, and sadly late, Kirin Kiki, Hiroshi Abe (I Wish, After the Storm) and You (best known now for Terrace House!); there is a strong focus on food preparation and eating; and a final Kore-eda trope, the train. Without giving too much away, there is one long take at the end of the film which captures a train sliding across the screen. It's very simple, although the timing is very precise. It's one of my favourite moments in cinema.

Not much happens in Still Walking. The family argues and reminisces. Food is eaten. Walks are taken. This is a film of quiet moments and contemplation. Its a film that requires you to sync with its rhythm. If you do, you should achieve a sense of beautiful calm. A welcome meditation during these testing times.

Netflix Double-Bill

Tommy Hodgson — 2020-04-07T13:41:13Z

More top picks from our team. Here are Tommy's Netflix recommendations.

Fartsa

Fartsa TV series Trailes-HD with sub from Sreda Production Company on Vimeo.

A smart, vibrant Russian drama series about a young group of friends in the Soviet Union, 1961 - exploring the phenomenon of Fartovska, the act of illegally buying and selling foreign goods and currency. This particularly Soviet phenomenon occurred as part of the country's ‘second economy' which boosted the prestige of owning rare foreign products and revolved around bribery, speculation, and the black market.

Fartsa follows amateur writer Andrei, who returns home from a work placement - idealistic and swept up in national pride following the successful Soviet space mission - only to find his friends are entangled in criminal dealings and insecure debt with no escape plan. Hence the turn to Fartovska, which is treated as an inevitability of the particular circumstances the friends find themselves in. A multitude of characters are introduced throughout, many either hustlers or professionals or both, building an immersive web of relationships to gradually unpack as the series progresses.

The show makes glorious use of mid-20th century costumes and set designs which is reminiscent of the work behind AMC's Mad Men set in the same era, though the perspective of Soviet life provides many more historical curiosities to Western audiences. Fartsa often benefits from plot convenience; the show can be forgiven for some of its more jubilant plot moments as it is following on from its historical setting - the bright and positive films of the ‘60s Soviet era.

It is at its strongest when exploring of the pitfalls of idealism and challenging the simplicity of blind faith in ideologies. Colourful and attractive, Fartsa is both engaging in its drama and playful in its characterisations, making it a treat to watch; even if you have no knowledge of Russian history or Soviet society, consider this a laid-back and fun, if somewhat fictionalised, lesson.

Tiger King

This multi-part documentary series about pet tigers and lions has exploded in popularity in just two weeks since its release, and based purely on just the premise, it not hard to see why. Following a ridiculous zookeeper named Joe Exotic, who was infamously interviewed in Louis Theroux's 2011 documentary America's Most Dangerous Pets, the often-meandering series goes down a dark and absurd path as the the scale of abuses and rivalries in this strange industry become even more apparent. Tiger King purposefully crafts a narrative which makes you question if any of the events explored even occurred - as they are based on often unreliable narratives - and further leaves you wondering when human society left the realms of sanity.

The larger-than-life Joe Exotic exudes criminality, spite, paranoia and egotism - not so much as a personality defect but a fully-fleshed characteristic. His evident narcissism is apparent from the get-go, the same narcissism which seemed to have convinced all parties involved in this sordid phenomenon to adopt large cats in the first place. Far from being the tiger king, he is but part of a collection of tiger antiheroes.

The series - with its many dead-ends, gotchas, twists and turns - forces you to conclude that egomaniacs really can create their own worlds, away from what they view as oppressive structures, yet in reality they are merely building their own personal fiefdoms. Tiger King studies their deluded mindsets, pushing the boundaries of realism in showcasing their pursuit of exploitation of both animals and humans.

As well as the countless animals who will never know life outside of a cage, the victims of this affair are the numerous private zoo volunteers, often runaways and drifters with no other hope of a life, who came to believe in the vanity projects of these selfish charlatans to the point of cultish brainwashing and life-altering devastation. Truly the captivating part of Tiger King is not the bizarre eccentricity of Joe Exotic and his rivals, but rather the salient fact that barely a soul involved in the sleazy, backwards industry of big cat trading and breeding has a salvageable conscience.

It is not a study of tigers but of the monsters who see big cats as a pathway to their own gratification, a means to a rich and self-satisfying end. Outlandish, squalid and spirit-shatteringly sad, you just cannot look away.

Recommandations françaises - Spécial confinement !

Elise Loiseau — 2020-04-06T11:48:01Z

La suite de nos recommandations de films, séries et documentaires à voir en ligne, en attendant des jours meilleurs.

Validé - MyCanal et avec Canal+ Séries

Clément, aka Apash, défie Mastar, le boss du rap game, lorsqu'il highjack son Planète Rap sur Skyrock. Son freestyle surprise en fait la nouvelle star du rap, en même temps qu'il déchaîne la jalousie de ses rivaux… Validé chronique les coups bas, les rencontres et les rivalités qui vont jalonner le parcours du jeune rappeur.

Réalisée par Franck Gastambide (Pattaya,Taxi 5 et la série Kaïra Shopping), Validé propose en dix épisodes de trente minutes en instantané une certaine scène rap française d'aujourd'hui. La nouvelle création originale de Canal + met en scène sans complaisance et avec efficacité les opérations médiatiques, le culte de l'image et la culture du clash qui y règnent. Les multiples caméos (Fred Musa de Skyrock, les rappeurs Lacrim, Kool Shen et Soprano), et le talent des nouvelles têtes (le rappeur Hatik dans le rôle principal, entre autres) ont visiblement séduit le public français : la série a désormais passé la barre des dix millions de vues. À voir, pour ne pas rater la première série française de cette envergure consacrée au rap.
En revanche, les articles en ligne consacrés à Validé spoilent parfois sans vergogne le final de la saison 1 : méfiance, donc !

Taxi Driver – La Cinetek

Lancée en 2015 par Laurent Cantet, Pascale Ferran et Cédric Klapish, La Cinetek est une plateforme VOD qui se distingue par sa sélection pointue. Son catalogue fonctionne sur un système de recommandations : plus de quatre-vingt cinéastes proposent une liste de leurs films préférés, “les plus décisifs pour eux à un moment ou à un autre de leur histoire, de leur vie, ceux qui les ont nourris, constitués ". Et suite aux mesures de confinement, les 1400 films du site sont en location à l'unité pour 1,99€.

C'est l'occasion de découvrir Taxi Driver, un des plus grands films de Martin Scorsese, sorti en 1976 et Palme d'Or au festival de Cannes. Le film met en scène Travis Bickle qui, tout juste revenu du Vietnam, se fait engager comme chauffeur de taxi à New York. Solitaire, insomniaque, il s'enfonce dans les quartiers les plus mal famés de la ville, fasciné par l'obscénité qui y règne. Il développe une obsession pour l'inaccessible Betsy, qui travaille pour la campagne électorale d'un politicien, puis pour Iris, une prostituée de quatorze ans. Enfermé dans une vision fantasmatique du monde, Travis, en quête d'absolution, s'attribue le rôle de l'ange exterminateur. Un classique du New Hollywood à revoir chez soi.

Paroles de mecs - France TV Slash

France TV Slash est une chaîne de service public 100% numérique : ses programmes sont disponibles sur leur plateforme mais aussi sur Youtube et Instagram. Elle se donne pour objectif de conquérir une génération qui aurait délaissé la télévision pour internet, celle des 18-30 ans. Pour contrer cette désaffection, France TV Slash reprend les codes du web et des réseaux sociaux, en proposant des formats courts et sériels. Surtout, ses programmes s'intéressent aux problématiques qui questionnent cette génération. Les différentes mini-séries, web documentaires, portraits et interviews abordent la santé mentale (Mental), le genre (Océan, Entre meuf) la sexualité (Sexy Soucis, Clit révolution) les intox (WTFake)… Une ligne éditoriale engagée, qui traite ces multiples problématiques sociétales avec beaucoup d'efficacité.

Parmi ces programmes, la série “Parole de mecs” se donne pour objectif de libérer une parole masculine que l'on entend encore trop peu, alors que les hommes sont les premiers concernés par les enjeux du féminisme. Comment se positionnent-ils face aux changements générationnels initiés par la nouvelle vague post MeToo ? Les participants sont interrogés sur leur rapport au porno, aux filles, ou encore sur la calvitie ou la drague. Leur parole sincère, recueillie par Léa Bordier, auparavant journaliste pour le site madmoiZelle.com, dessine les contours d'une nouvelle génération dont la perception du genre oscille entre clichés tenaces et évolutions bienvenues.

Three New Documentaries To Watch Now

Benjamin Hollis — 2020-04-01T10:48:37Z

Documentary Weekly creator Benjamin Hollis shares his top three doc picks available to watch online.

Cunningham – Curzon Home Cinema, Amazon Prime, iTunes

Trailer

As unfortunate and disruptive as the Covid-19 outbreak has been for the film industry, the resulting boom of online releases will be welcomed by cinephiles around the world. On March 20th, Alla Kovga's highly anticipated « Cunningham » joined the growing list of films forced into an early online release.

An ode to legendary dance choreographer Merce Cunningham, the film blends artistic performance with archival footage, interviews and excerpts from letters to provide a fascinating account of his phenomenal career that spanned the best part of the 20th century.

But it's the dazzling modern-day interpretations of Cunningham's dances that will keep you watching. These are beautiful, modern, trance-like performances enhanced with cutting-edge camera work and breathtaking sets, whether shot in the courtyard of a French chateau or in the midst of a pine forest.

Despite being originally slated as a 3D cinematic experience, this documentary and dance performance hybrid serves well as a refreshing escape from isolation via the small screen.

Midnight Family – Curzon Home Cinema, Amazon Prime, iTunes

Trailer

The Ochoa family operates a private ambulance in Mexico City, where only 45 publicly funded ambulances watch over 9,000,000 people. That's one ambulance per 200,000 citizens. The Ochoas help to fill the gap, saving lives as they go, but they don't do it out of charity, they do it for a living.

After befriending the Ochoas on his walk to work, director Luke Lorentzen joined them in the back of their van for a night. Gobsmacked by what he witnessed, he grabbed his filming gear and lived out of the ambulance for 6 months. The result is a thrilling first-person account that charts not only the shocking cases they come across, but also their increasingly desperate financial plight and the tough decisions they're led to make.

Indeed, despite patrolling wealthier areas of the city, the Ochoas are not paid often. Even when they beat rival ambulances to the scene, many patients won't, or simply can't, pay them. On top of that, they're alert to marauding police, more likely to request a bribe than to help them get paid.

“Midnight Family” inevitably asks a lot of questions of the system it portrays, most of which go unanswered. But as debate rages on healthcare systems in both the US and the UK, the film serves as a gut-wrenching insight into what a fully privatised system can look like.

Tell Me Who I Am - Netflix

Trailer:

Although not as recent a release as the previous two, “Tell Me Who I Am” can't be missed. This is one of 2019's best documentaries with a truly unbelievable story at its heart. If you've already heard about it, you've probably been told of how disturbing it is, but don't let that put you off.

After falling into a coma, 18-year-old Alex Lewis wakes up in hospital. He recognises his identical twin brother Marcus but is confused by the anxious woman beside him and unable to recall his own name. Marcus starts by reintroducing Alex to his own mother and showing him how to tie his shoelaces but before long, he starts re-writing his brother's past, omitting a horrific childhood that Marcus himself doesn't have the strength to relive.

Upon making a peculiar discovery in his thirties at his recently deceased mother's house, Alex discovers the brothers' secret. But Marcus refuses to tell the whole story, leaving Alex with a gaping hole in his memories and identity.

Twenty years later, in the process of making their documentary, the brothers are seen together on screen for the first time in a surreal and cathartic unscripted climax nearly 40 years in the making. Finally, Marcus is able to tell his brother, and us, what happened all those years ago.