BFI
LFF Review: Happy as Lazzaro
The caricature of a Holy Fool has been one of the most enthralling and iconic religious notions throughout history. However, the treatment of these figures has oscillated between demonization, victimisation and hatred to deification, adulation and worship; depending on the prevailing notions of the time. Today, despite medical diagnosis and awareness, a stigma still remains. …
LFF Review: Utøya – July 22
On 22 July 2011, Norway experienced the deadliest attacks on its own soil since World War II. In the middle of the afternoon, a car bomb exploded outside the offices of the Prime Minister, killing 8 people. Less than 2 hours later, a 32-year-old man, dressed in a police uniform, bordered a ferry to Utøya …
LFF Review: Evelyn
800,000 people take their own lives every year around the world. In the UK, over 5,000 suicides were registered in 2017. Whilst there have been great steps forward in publicly addressing issues around mental health, suicide and depression, they are still subjects which aren’t generally openly discussed and remain stigmatised. Even between friends and family. …
LFF Review: Young and Alive
It has become de rigueur within the popular media and modern journalism to castigate Millennials as stupid, fickle or vacuous (seemingly intent on ignoring the fact that it’s not the young who have caused this mess the world finds itself in today). What was noticeable after the horrendous attacks in Paris in 2015 was the …
LFF Review: Bisbee ’17
As the saying goes, history is written by the victors. When it comes to remembering the past, some events are more readily forgotten than others. Guilt and embarrassment can lead to atrocities being buried or approached from the standpoint of denial. Whilst there’s often a call to ‘move on’ or ‘forget the past’, this normally …
DVD Review: Eye of the Needle
As well as being very personable and rather charming, Donald Sutherland is a consistently impressive actor. He’s now 83 and has been going strong since the 1960s. It’s mind-blowing to think that he’s never even been nominated for an Oscar (although the Academy have awarded him an honorary gong). Given his performances in films such …
Blu-Ray Review: The Magic Flute
2018 marks the centenary of the birth of one of the greatest film directors of all time. Very few film-makers can claim to have had such a profound influence on cinema as Ingmar Bergman. There’s no film student in the world who won’t be familiar with his work. No cinephile who doesn’t consider him a …
LFF Review: Cargo
To say the European fishing industry had been decimated over the past few decades, is a huge understatement. Fisherman, whose families have been eking-out a living from the sea for decades, have been almost completely wiped out by large industrial operations. However, the sea isn’t simply a way of making money for many, it’s more …
LFF Review: Wajib
There are few places in the world where ancient traditions are still so prevalent as Israel. On both sides of the conflict, young people struggle to escape severe religious prescripts of their parents and grandparents and enjoy the same freedoms they see in the Western world. In the shadow of oppression and infringements on personal …
LFF Review: The Nile Hilton Incident
To put it lightly, Egypt as a country is a complete and utter mess. There’s repression of free speech, media witch-hunts and the complete eradication of certain civil liberties. It’s not quite the paradise many hoped for after the uprising against Hosni Mubarak in 2011. Indeed, many are questioning whether they’re really better off now. …