Film Review: Red Snow
Given the antics of someone like Vlad the Impaler, it seems strange that vampires have become sexy. Indeed, it’s hard to pin an exact date when these blood-thirsty abominable creatures morphed into tall brooding member of the aristocracy. However, it’s likely that Byron, as usual, was at least partly to blame. Today, there are millions …
Film Review: Celts
When considering the human cost of war, most of the emphasis is normally placed on those soldiers fighting in, or civilians directly affected by, them. Whilst these impacts might be much more evident and easier to quantify, conflict takes a toll in many less obvious ways. During the Yugoslav Wars, for instance, even those geographically …
Film Review: There is No Evil
The use of the death penalty remains controversial, to say the least. While in most developed countries, but tellingly not all of the United States of America, it has been phased out, there are over fifty countries where it’s still actively used. Even Iran’s fairly dreadful COVID record didn’t stop the Islamic republic using it …
IDFA Review: Children of the Mist
In the developed world, we live in extremely privileged and (relatively) stable times. Despite the events of the last couple of years, we’re still experiencing the best standards of living mankind has ever seen. One of the major benefits of this has been the sanctity of childhood. While many may decry the impact of online …
Blu-ray Review: Mill of the Stone Women
When you see programmes charting the history of horror cinema, all too often they concentrate almost exclusively on films emanating from the English-speaking world. Take Italy, for instance. A country which has been responsible for some of the most iconic and memorable moments in genre cinema. The likes of Dario Argento’s Supsiria, Lucio Fulci’s The …
Blu-Ray Review: Free Hand for a Tough Cop
Taking their influences from both France and the United States, Italian Poliziotteschi films of the 1960s and 1970s mix hard-boiled crime-fighting with a lot of running and chasing. Reacting to a soaring crime rate and a period of political turmoil within the country, more often than not they featured a vigilante in some shape of …
IDFA Review: The One Who Runs Away Is the Ghost
It’s remarkable how young minds work. Whilst adults spend their time concentrating on the important business of daily life, moving from one mundane, yet important, task to another, the imagination of children knows no bounds. In the modern West, children are exposed to myriad electronic stimuli, but in poorer regions they often (still) have to …
Film Review: Dying for Divorce
Domestic violence is a major issue in every corner of the world but in more traditional cultures it’s almost endemic. In Turkey, for example, more than one-in-three women (and girls) has been a victim. As with almost all Muslim countries, women are treated as second-class citizens. Men often see their wives, partners or daughters as …
Tallinn Black Night Review: A PLace Called Dignity
After the end of World War II, many Nazis fled to safe havens abroad, often ending up in South America where they (generally) received a warm welcome. It’s estimated that almost 10,000 Nazi officers and collaborators forged a new life in Argentina, Brazil or Chile. The latter played host to Colonia Dignidad, an isolated commune …
Blu-Ray Review: The Thin Red Line
While the end of World War II in Europe officially came on VE Day, 7 May 1945, fighting continued in the Pacific arena. Japan eventually surrendered to America at the beginning of September, but the conflict didn’t simply stop overnight in a war which encompasses much of the globe. There have been countless films about …