Experienced director James Kent (Testament of Youth) brings Rhidian Brook’s well-received novel to the big screen in The Aftermath. And while fans of the book will notice some glaring differences, the film nonetheless goes to some interesting places. Brook himself headed the scriptwriting team, collaborating with Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse to beef up the…
“She doesn’t answer. Death is never banal. If someone can live for more than fifty years without realising that, then it is beneath her dignity to teach them any better. ‘The water’s boiling. I’m making tea,’ she says. ‘Let’s talk later.’” Outside of Norway, Kjell Ola Dahl is perhaps best known for the Oslo Detective…
Where Hands Touch sheds light on how Germans treated bi-racial people during WWII. The Nazis contempt for Jews is well known (and again features in this film) but the focus is on a bi-racial teen and her increasing victimisation. It’s 1944. In the Rhineland, Lenya (Amandla Stenberg) is coming of age. She’s the teenage daughter…
It’s one of history’s great rivalries. The intriguing story of Elizabeth I and her cousin Mary Stuart certainly has all the elements of a great movie – war, intrigue, family ties and treachery. But while Josie Rourke’s feminist retelling of the tale in Mary Queen of Scots hits the high points, it strays from the…
Journey’s End The true horrors of war feature in the somber WWI film, Journey’s End. The movies tells the story of a company led by the war-weary Captain Stanhope (Sam Claflin), waiting to take its turn in the front-line trenches in northern France. A German offensive is imminent and the officers (played by Paul Bettany,…
If you’re not familiar with Ukrainian politics, you’ll be at a decided disadvantage when you see Donbass. While you may get the gist of it, I dare say much of the nuance would be lost unless you have some knowledge of that part of the world. Corruption, violent and politics feature in this absurdist comedy-turned-tragedy….
This low budget drama is the sophomore feature film from Australian writer/director Benjamin Gilmour, and follows his 2007 drama Son of a Lion, set in post 9/11 Pakistan. Gilmour is familiar with the region and has chosen to set his new film in Afghanistan. Jirga deals with an Australian soldier who returns to the region…
The British Special Operations Executive (SOE) conducted espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance in occupied Europe during WWII. The Juliet Code focuses on the actions of the operations of the SOE to greater extent through the eyes of British agent and wireless operator Juliet (her story is told in real-time and reflection) as she is asked to…
Eleanor’s Secret by Caroline Beecham is part mystery, part love story, and proved just right for a couple nights’ winter reading. Here’s the blurb: London, 1942 When art school graduate, Eleanor Roy, is recruited by the War Artists Advisory Committee, she comes one step closer to realising her dream of becoming one of the few…
