The sad later life of French painter Paul Gauguin is brought into sharp focus in this slow-moving biopic. The year is 1891. Gauguin (Vincent Cassel) is already well known in Parisian artistic circles. But he’s tired of the so-called civilised world and its conventions. Leaving his wife Mette and five children behind, he ventures alone…
A sensitively woven tale of love and loss, The Cakemaker leaves an indelible impression. Thomas (Tim Kalkhof), a young German baker, is having an affair with Oren (Roy Miller), an married Israeli man who frequently visits Berlin on business. When tragedy befalls Oren in Israel, Thomas travels to Jerusalem seeking answers regarding his death. Under…
The highly political German drama In Times of Fading Light concerns the end of an era and personal tragedies associated with it. It’s 1989, and the days of the GDR are numbered. The structures of East Germany are giving in to the pressures of the West. But in the living room of the Powileits, time…
Aurore is an unobtrusive little charmer of a French comedy. Aurore (Agnes Jaoui) is a middle-aged woman with two adult children. She muddles through life as best she can. She’s a fighter, not a victim, although she experiences discrimination. Then she unexpectedly bumps into an old high school flame, Totoche (Thibault De Montalembert). She hasn’t…
Love in the slaughterhouse? On Body and Soul is a quirky drama about an unlikely romance between two lonely employees in a Budapest abattoir. The film won the prestigious Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival; but it’s an art-house film that will have limited interest to a broader audience. Endre (Géza Morcsányi) is the…
then Loveless is a slow moving, atmospheric Russian drama that features harsh characters. It won of the Jury Prize at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for a Best Foreign Language Oscar. Zhenya (Maryana Spivak) and Boris (Aleksey Rozin) have a deep disdain for one another; and for their 12 year-old son, Alyosha…
Both these films are in very limited release. 1945 On a summer day in 1945, an Orthodox Jewish man and his grown son return to a village in Hungary. The villagers are preparing for the wedding of the town clerk’s son. The townspeople expect the worst and behave accordingly. The town clerk fears the men…
The latest from Finnish auteur Aki Karismaki, The Other Side of Hope was the opening night film at the 2017 Scandinavian Film Festival. This comedy is full of his usual droll humour, deadpan style and absurdist touches. Karismaki often pokes fun at the Finnish working class and their daily struggles. The Other Side of Hope…
The Divine Order is a crowd-pleasing light drama from Switzerland. A bit like Pride and Made in Dagenham, it explores how a social movement can bring about change and alter entrenched attitudes. In 1971, women in Switzerland were still denied the right to vote – one of the last countries in the industrialised world to…
Director Fatih Akin breaks a compelling storyline into three chapters in the crime drama In the Fade. Out of nowhere, Katja’s (Diane Kruger) life falls apart when her husband Nuri (Numan Acar) and little son Rocco are killed in a bomb attack. Her friends and family try to give her the support she needs. Katja somehow…
