Thessaloniki Documentary Festival: The Laughing Boy (An Buachaill Geal Gháireach) (2022)
★★★★☆
An Buachaill Geal Gáireach (The Laughing Boy) is the extraordinary untold story of a song that resonated for freedom in Ireland and Greece.
★★★★☆
An Buachaill Geal Gáireach (The Laughing Boy) is the extraordinary untold story of a song that resonated for freedom in Ireland and Greece.
★★★★☆
Holy Spider, angrily written and directed by Ali Abbasi (Border), is a grisly, reality-based story of violence against women in a patriarchal, theocratic society.
★★★☆☆
Peter von Kant is a gender-flipped re-imagining by François Ozon of Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s 1972 classic power play of sexual obsession The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant.
★★★★☆
A compelling woman-led re-imagining of the life of Empress Elisabeth of Austria in Corsage, directed by Marie Kreutzer and starring Vicky Krieps.
★★★★☆
Emily Brontë’s creative inspiration is explored through an imagined version of the author’s short life in Frances O’Connor’s stirring directorial debut Emily.
★★★★☆
Chilean political thriller 1976 screening at the BFI London Film Festival is an unbearably tense and involving debut from actor turned director Manuela Martelli, starring award-winning Aline Kuppenheim.
★★★★☆
Kanaval, an immersive documentary by Leah Gordon and Eddie Hutton-Mills screened at the BFI London Film Festival reveals the traditional and cultural significance of carnival in Haiti with striking footage and in Haitians own words.
★★★★☆
A compelling woman-led re-imagining of the life of Empress Elisabeth of Austria in Corsage, directed by Marie Kreutzer and starring Vicky Krieps , screened in the BFI London Film Festival 2022.
★★★☆☆
Sparks fly when Mark meets Warren at the rugby club and soon the pair are embroiled in an illicit affair facing consequences on and off pitch in director Matt Carter’s In From The Side.
★★☆☆☆
Black Mail, written and directed by Obi Emelonye, is a slick, London-set plot-driven thriller with an appealing central character played by Nigerian star OC Ukeje.
★★★★☆
Faya Dayi, a poetic documentary by director, producer and cinematographer Jessica Beshir, paints a tapestry of haunting recollections and stories about khat that create a vivid picture of the socio-political landscape in Ethiopia.
★★★☆☆
Listen, Ana Rocha de Sousa’s powerful first film about forced adoption, is heart-rending and almost unbearable to watch at times.
★★★★☆
In Casablanca Beats, director Nabil Ayouch blurs the line between fiction and documentary in the exhilarating story of a charismatic group of young would-be rappers in Morocco.
★★★★☆
The Worst Person in the World is an enchanting but dark Nordic coming-of-age-rom-com by Joachim Trier, starring a luminous, award-winning central performance by Renate Reinsve.