Matchbox Films
Film Review: Zana
The Yugoslav wars were horrific and a damning indictment on the impotence of the (then) European Communities to take action. Less than fifty years after the Holocaust we let a genocide happen on our doorstep. The repercussions still reverberate widely today. It’s likely that the results of systematic ethnic cleansing, rape, torture and murder will …
Film Review: The Shepherd (El Pastor)
There’s something about rooting for the underdog which brings people together. Whilst traditionally cinema has reflected this in sport movies (such as Rocky, A League of Their Own or Cool Runnings), there’s been a more politicised shift of late. Whether that be Daniel Blake in Ken Loach’s Palme d’Or winner or Marion Cotillard’s Oscar-nominated performance …
Film Review: The Student
Since 9/11, the rise of religious fundamentalism has (if you believe the news) been spiralling out of control. Almost all the media attention has fallen on Islamic terrorism, whilst many of the atrocities perpetrated in the Western world are carried out by other forms of radicalisation. Russia is a country with many troubles, exacerbated by …
Film Review: The Black Hen
There are many casualties of war but it’s often civilians who withstand the worst of the hardships and atrocities. For children growing-up amidst conflict it can be scary, puzzling and (more worryingly) seem normal. Some of the greatest war films have conveyed the horrors through the eyes of a child. It has produced profoundly powerful …
DVD Review: Jeruzalem
Innovations in technology, significantly driving down costs and allowing the entire post-production process to be carried out in your living room, have opened the gates of film-making up to a whole new group of people who would be otherwise excluded. With handheld technology becoming smaller and cheaper, a whole new generation have access to the …
DVD Review: Grazing the Sky
Going to the circus is an entirely different prospect today than it was in Barnum’s day. Gone are the seedy reputations and the dubious animal and human rights records, replaced by tightly run multi-national businesses. The most well know, and one of the most popular live performance events around the world, is Cirque du Soleil. …
DVD Review: My Skinny Sister
The onset of puberty is never an easy time for a young girl. This confusion and growing pains can only be exacerbated when you have an attractive slim elder sister whose sporting ability takes over much of your parents’ attention. In My Skinny Sister, director Sanna Lenken tackles the subject of anorexia and the pressures …
DVD Review: The Great Museum
There’s something simply fascinating about being a fly on the wall. Especially when that wall belongs to a famous historic institution like the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. What is completely ordinary to those who work there, can be entirely fascinating to others. Director Johannes Holzhausen spent two years gathering material together for The Great Museum. …
DVD Review: The Circle
The time proceeding and during the Second World War was a particularly difficult period in history to be gay. With the rise of Nazi Germany and historical prejudices, homosexuality was illegal in much of Western Europe. Switzerland seemed like a safe haven in an increasingly dark world, where people could, to a certain extent, be …
Incoming: The Circle
Zürich in the mid-1950s: The young shy teacher Ernst Ostertag becomes a member of the gay organization Der Kreis. There he gets to know the transvestite star Röbi Rapp – and immediately falls head over heels in love with him. Röbi and Ernst live through the high point and the eventual decline of the organisation, …