Parsley
directed by José Marìa Cabral
Dominican Republic, 2022, ’85, Drama, VOS
1937, border between Haiti and Dominican Republic, Marie, a Haitian girl, pregnant by her Dominican husband Frank. Marriage between Haitian and Dominican is poorly seen by the Dominican side because of hatred and prejudice. In the middle of the night Marie and Frank are awakened by distant screams: it has been ordered the execution of all Haitians present on Dominican soil who aren’t able to say the word “perejil” (parsley). Marie is left alone, she must find a place to hide before being reached by the massacre. The Dominican film director José María Cabral recreates the massacre of the Haitians ordered in 1937 by the dictator Rafael Trujillo. A movie where we return to the dark, xenophobic, and racist past of the Dominican Republic. The movie had a world premiere at the Miami Film Festival, it brings back to our days the genocidal order to carry out the so-called “massacre of parsley” through Marie’s eyes, a young Haitian woman 9 months pregnant with a Dominican man. Parsley is a heartbreaking and unbridled experience that shows the brutality of the massacre.
The Last Sentinel
directed by Tanel Toomsalu
UK, 2023, ‘117, Science Fiction, VOS
A group of soldiers find themselves trapped in an isolated military base, which separates two continents. Awaiting emergency services, the soldiers wait patiently, but before they can arrive, enemies arrive to attack them. Weeks become years in this powerful feature film which focuses on the feeling of waiting and the passing of time which soon leads to paranoia. The relationships between the characters become even more complicated as the tension builds as they understand how much more time they’ll have to live in total uncertainty. This is a film about fearing emptiness, loneliness, and about the existential dread which is generated by every day being the same: The Last Sentinel is one of those films that you won’t easily forget, coming from a country – Estonia – which we rarely get to discover in the cinema.
Streets of Colours
directed by Ronnie Risalka
Australia, 2023, ’90 , Drama, VOS
After being accused of the killing his best friend in a street fight, young drug dealer Tez loses custody of his two-year-old son. He must fight his drug addiction and clean up his act quickly before he loses his child forever: it will be a race against the clock … and against himself.
This Australian debut is simply dazzling. By director Ronnie S. Riskalla, the feature film follows several shorts which exhibited internationally. Alongside the plot, which may remind the viewer of other films, and with dynamics similar to those of the gangster genre, Streets of Colors also includes other important elements, the theme of cultural identity – which the protagonist has a really unhealthy obsession with – and the representation of the grief process after the loss of his best friend. Riskalla is almost biting off more than he can chew, but he balances it all well and succeeds in giving life to a film noir with a strong political edge, which captures and captivates the audience from the first minute. Written by the director himself, the script not only explores the deep psychological layers of the characters, but also features several twists and turns which make the film even more captivating.
Rahel Romahn truly rises to the challenge of portraying the protagonist, but the whole cast performs marvellously well.
Blast
directed by Vanya Peirsni-Vignes
France, 2021, ’97, Thriller, VOS
In a parisian car park, Sonia finds herself trapped inside her car alongside the son and daughter of her boyfriend Fred, who is locked out of the vehicle, powerless in face of a drastic situation: a bomb has been placed under the car.
Opening with a series of ariel images which slowly bring us inside the car park, Blast is a film which begins in medias res: within a few minutes we find ourselves facing a 30-minute countdown, the exact time that Sonia and Fred have to avoid the worst and to understand which criminal mastermind is behind this diabolical plan. She is a bomb disposal expert who has just returned from a mission in Ukraine and is used to managing dangerous situations, but this time the stakes are higher and will be the most complicated mission of her life.
The first feature film of French director and screenwriter Vanya Peirani-Vignes, Blast (Original title: Déflagrations) is a tension-filled debut of remarkable expressive maturity. He has assisted Claude Lelouch, a master of cinema, many times (including for a short in the collaborative film 11’09”01 September 11), and it seems he’s learned a lot from the great French author. Peirani-Vignes now puts his signature on this adrenaline filled, fast-paced film which captivates from the first moment. A simply unmissable debut.
A Place Called Silence
directed by Sam Quah
Malaysia/Taiwan, 2022, ’105, Thriller, VOS
Following the success of “Sheep without a shepherd” the Sino-Malaysian director Sam Quah returns to the subjects he holds dear: blame, forgiveness, faith, and silence as a method to hear your own voice.
The story is that of a serial killer which terrorises a school of young girls. Jing Muh High School is an establishment with strict rules, where Angie, the daughter of the headteacher, alongside Mother Tong, entrenches herself in a silent prodrome of future disgraces: murder, kidnapping and torture. In “A place called silence” the pouring rain serves as a soundtrack, giving a sense of morality which pervades all of the characters, not only the most religious ones. Much like the great Carpenter (with “Prince of Darkness), the mechanisms of a film of this genre are only instruments for discussing other topics: blame and sin, forgiveness and judgement. Sam Quah is interested above all in the psychological versatility of his characters, the underlying ambiguity that they hide, the fact that the plot can go in a million different directions and that its not ever bridled by pre-conceived paths.
The film was presented in the “New currents” section at the Busan festival 2022 and was in competition at the Taipei festival in 2023.
Tiger Stripes
directed by Amanda Nell Eu
Malaysia, 2023, ’95, Horror, VOS
Alongside “Inside the yellow cocoon shell” from the Vietnamese director An Pham, the winner of the Camera d’or (‘Golden Camera’), “Tiger Stripes” by Amanda Nell Eu was one of the biggest surprises of the 2023 Cannes festival. A debut, winner of the Semaine de la critique (‘Critics’ week’), “Tiger Stripes” takes the life of Malaysian cinema into its own hands and validates the capabilities of the southeast Asian countries to build complex co-production schemes which captivate the countries in the area, and even European countries, with winning formulas which allow many emerging authors to make their way onto the international stage. In this unusual horror, which takes place in rural Malaysia, 12-year-old Zaffan realises that sudden, unexpected mutations are happening inside his body. Terrorized, many classmates ostracize him, but others try to understand what is happening. A self-proclaimed holy healer intervenes to remove the demons from his body, but in the end, Zaffan is obliged to leave the village. Within the parameters of horror film and this genre, the director looks to build a parable about accepting diversity of any type, form and genre. The special effects and the style are deliberately démodé and recall a certain independent spirit à la Roger Corman, with a focus, obviously, on the mystical and ancestral aspects of a magical land like Malaysia. “Tiger Stripes” is full of life, an unusual and restless debut, which is difficult to grasp and to catalogue, but for this exact reason, is of great charm and originality.
Carbide
directed by Josip Žuvan
Croatia, 2022, ’113, Drama, VOS
Presented at the San Sabastian Film Festival, “Carbide” is a debut feature of the film director Josip Žuvan. The main characters are Nikola and Antonio, two best friends living in a rural location of a coastal town in Croatia. Their favorite hobby is pyrotechnics, and they film their activities to try to depopulate on YouTube. However, the kids’ families are in a feud over a water and mud problem, even though the mutual hatred comes from Antonio’s grandfather and Nikola’s grandmother, conflicts that have also spread between the parents of the two boys. The hidden secrets of this feud will affect Nikola and Antonio’s friendship. The film reflects Croatian society and the contrast between the ancient traditions and mentality and the advent of modernity; technology and its impact on young people plays an important role in the film; with videos shot and shared by the two protagonists looking for fame online, but also with the constant presence of music from television, radio, and mobile phones. It is a film filmed by the dark photography, where the interpretations of all the actors stand out. The young Franko Floigl and Mauro Ercegović Gracin have an excellent alchemy and contribute to make the relationship of friendship between the two protagonists believable and authentic. The film director knows how to keep the audience’s tension high until the end, with a with an immersive, melancholy and frighteningly current work.
Booger
directed by Mary Dauterman
USA, 2023, ’78, Horror, VOS
Presented at the Fantasia Film Festival 2023, “Booger” is a debut feature of the film director Mary Dauterman. The main character of the movie is Anna, a girl facing the pain caused by the loss of her best friend Izzy. One day Anna gets bitten by Izzy’s black cat, which runs away from the window and disappears. While she’s trying to find the cat in every possible way, Anna starts to feel very weird, and her behavior is getting more and more feline: regurgitates furballs, emits purr and meows, begins to feed on mice and canned food for animals…as if she’s undergoing an actual transformation. The film is a body horror, genre through which the film director describes not only the physical transformation but also and above all the emotional transformation of the main character in a moment of great pain. Dauterman dwells on disgusting details and sequences but never excessive, staged elegantly and with a feminine eye. Anna’s metamorphosis is an excuse to let us into her mind, an expedient that talks about the difficulty of accepting the loss of a loved one and the of the temptation to cling to any memory tied to it to keep it alive. In time of darkness, we often find ourselves lost, wanderers animals, which is what Anna becomes in the movie. The main character Grace Glowicki is sensational, and she identifies perfectly with the character, giving life to disgusting, grotesque sequences, often veiled with an irresistible macabre irony.
Eureka
directed by Lisandro Alonso
France/Messico, 2023, ‘147 Drama, VOS
Murphy is searching for his daughter, who has been kidnapped by the outlaw Randall. Beginning as a western in black and white, Eureka, is the latest film from the great Argentinian director Lisandro Alonso, famous for films like La libertad, Liverpool and Jauja. The latter title has lots in common with Eureka, and not only because of the casting of Viggo Mortensen (Murphy), who is once again facing the search for a daughter.
The protagonist arrives in a decadent town, inhabited by drunks and prostitutes, which makes his search even more complicated.
Like in Jauja, Eureka also sees a sudden change, which brings us to modern day: the photography, the format, and the style changes. The film is disorienting and surprising, making it one of the more curious and original showings of the entire season.What is written above is in fact a sort of prologue for a film divided in three parts, layered and even metaphysical, which once again demonstrates how this Argentinian director is one of the great philosophers of contemporary cinema. The symbolism of reincarnation is highly suggestive, as is the entire construction of a film which questions possible ‘bridges’ to unite different worlds, spaces, times and dimensions. More than a film, this is a genuine viewing experience which demonstrates effectively how cinema can still be innovative and profound.
Tommy Guns
directed by Carlos Conceição
Portugal, 2022, ‘119, Drama, VOS
Angola, 1974. The Portuguese are slowly abandoning the territory which is gradually being reclaimed by the independence movement. As colonialisation reaches its conclusion, the path of a local girl crosses that of a Portuguese soldier, an event that brings about love, and death. Meanwhile, an entire platoon is barricaded inside a walled area it seems practically impossible to get out of. Fruit of mixing influences, from the novel ‘The Tartar Steppe’ by Dino Buzzati, to ‘The Village’ by M.Night Shyamalan, this feature film by Carlos Conceição manages to shock and surprise the whole way through. Incredibly ambitious and even more complex, “Tommy Guns” takes peculiar approaches to discussing the war and our reflection on it, underlining repeatedly how conflict is primarily a mental state in which the true enemy is ourselves. The director uses the political metaphor of zombies to reflect on history, tyranny and colonialisation, and touches on ideas of great relevance in our contemporaneity: the film proposes important reasoning on the cyclical nature of oppression and on the desire of many humans to maintain the power they wield over others at any cost. The photography, which shows magnificently all the horrors, allegorical or otherwise, which are explored in the film, is superb too, as it succeeds in being both realistic and metaphysical. This film will stick with you long after the credits roll.
Leio
directed by Chalit Kraileadmongkol
Thailand, 2022, ‘149, Action, VOS
After the great success of “the maid” and “the medium”, Thai arthouse cinema continues in its search to export itself further and keep up with countries like Malaysia and Indonesia who have conquered significant sectors of the market, not only in the far east. “Leio” straight from Chalit Kraileadmongkol, a special effect expert, looks to achieve the goal, optimizing the elements of the genre, from the mechanisms for building suspense, anticipation, and fear, to the use of a narrative plot with rather universal elements.
This is the story of Kao, who returns to his native village to participate in a contest to drill for water which the community desperately needs. After the first excavation, Kao realises that a strange creature lurks underneath the surface and that, once it surfaces, it will try to kill all of the inhabitants of the village.
The theme of the monster, not at all new in cinema, is introduced and developed while avoiding stereotypes, insisting more so on the shortage of water within the community as an element to face challenges which appear insurmountable.
Ring Wandering
directed by Masazaku Kaneko
Japan, 2021, ‘104, Drama, VOS
Tokyo. Young Sosuke dreams of becoming a mangaka. The comic he’s working on tells the tale of a battle between a hunter and a Japanese wolf. Unfortunately, Sosuke struggles to draw this specific extinct species of wolf the way he wants and therefore he is unable to continue the story. One winter’s day, he finds the skull of an animal while he’s digging the foundation of a worksite, where he works by day to earn a living. Sosuke brings home a skull without permission and that night sneaks back into the worksite to look for other bones that could help him draw the Japanese wolf but doesn’t find any. Disappointed, he leaves the site and bumps into a mysterious woman, Midori, who’s looking for her dog which has been missing for a week. Sosuke decides to help her look for her pet. The film, directed by Masazaku Kaneko, student of Takaisha Zeza, examines the relationship between man and nature. He touches upon this almost unexaminable theme, which is often elusive, mysterious, and hostile, but at the same time fascinating to those who come close to it. “Ring wandering” uses half tones, making the tradition of Japanese manga and the Kurosawa’s “Dersu Uzala” its own.
Double Thomas
directed by Yang Tianshuo
China, 2022, ’80, Drama, VOS
During the Covid 19 pandemic a Chinese student is in lockdown in Bristol, England. She meets a fellow Chinese boy, who has lost his mother and with him begins a long and unorthodox journey into another dimension. This debut by Uang Tianshuo does a spectacular job of exposing the paranoia that was created by the pandemic and the lockdown, in particular for the younger generations. A risky decision for a first work, he chooses to face the subject with an avant-guard style which creates a perpetual effect of estrangement and daze in his characters, who are locked in their enclosures, as well as on the viewer. Many of the plot points remain deliberately suspended and unresolved, as everyone is searching for a way out that that they cannot find. It’s a trip.
Growing Apart
directed by Long Lingyun
China, 2022, ’89, Drama, VOS
In China, the one child policy which began in 1980 and ended in 2015 in order to clamp down on the population boom, has created psychological distance, broken families and emotional gaps which are difficult to fill. Cheng Fei is 18 years old and doesn’t know anything about her biological mother. She acts out, always out and about with her skateboard. One day in an online post, she reads about a missing girl. This will bring her back to her roots and reveal the truth about her childhood. A tense and dark debut, it is not only a coming of age and a portrait of adolescence, but also a form of social exposé. “Growing apart” is a harsh portrait of a lost generation, of a generation which is disoriented and angry, in eternal conflict, too used to living in the shadows and unable to escape and free itself. Tones of anger, sombreness and nocturnality, are accompanied by a growing tension and unresolved familial relationships.
Hungry Ghost Diner
directed by We Jun Cho
Malaysia, 2023, ‘116, Fantasy, VOS
“Hungry ghost diner” is the dazzling debut by We Jun Cho, already known to international critics for a series of prize-winning shorts. Forced to run a small street stall during the Hungry Ghost Festival because of the Covid 19 lockdown in the rural area of Berhang, young rebel Stesen suddenly finds himself targeted by ghosts of long dead relatives. From the statements of the director, we understand that the story is largely autobiographical. The director, in fact, recalls how in 2017, upon losing his grandmother, he became closer to his own family and roots, and the traditions that he grew up with (the Hakka funeral rite for example, which is rich with symbolism and magic). The film manages to unite all these elements admirably: Stesen is an elusive character, anti-conformist and rebellious, reluctant to being held down, even in a period of restrictions like those under covid. Fantasy is an element which comes out almost inevitably, joining with the most playful and fun part. “Hungry ghost diner” has a freshness, a richness of ideas, and a clear desire to not overdo it and be over-ambitious, an error which many filmmakers commit in their first work.
Deadland
directed by Lance Larson
USA/Venezuela, 2023, ’92, Thriller/Western, VOS
El Paso, Texas. Angel Waters works as a police officer and is charged with watching over the border zone which separates Mexico from the United States. During a normal routine check, he encounters a man who is about to drown and manages to save him. This meeting will have a permeant impact on Angel’s mind, waking in him memories long buried. After having directed many shorts, director Lance Larson brings to life his first feature film. What is immediately dazzling about his debut is the visual beauty and aesthetic of the images: the wild and endless landscapes of Texas are captured in all their majesty. In this dry and barren wilderness unrolls the story of a man who must look inside himself, come to terms with his own origins and his own past. A past which reemerges in an abrupt and violent way. After having initially donned the typical style of a western, “Deadland” then assumes more and more the appearance of a soulful thriller, in which the inner suffering of the protagonist plays a fundamental role. Dreamlike sequences with strong shades of horror accompany Angel in his search of his origins; his identity crisis goes back goes all the way back to the identity of the United States and to the many ethnic groups which populate the nation (and in this way the city of El Paso is an emblematic example). The events in the life of one man is a microcosm of the history of America, and thus it’s nice to think that it’s not random that Larson has opted exactly for some of the stylistic choices of the western, an archetype genre of American cinema, to recount one of the sides of the country.
The Fishbowl
directed by Glorimar Marrero-Sánchez
Puertorico, 2023, ’92, Drama, VOS
40-year-old Noelia discovers that the cancer she is suffering from, after years in which it seemed to have stabilised, is spreading. Upon hearing this terrible news, the woman decides to interrupt her treatments and return to Vieqes, the Caribbean Island of Peurto Rico where she was born. There, she has the chance to spend time with her mother and with old friends whom she hasn’t seen in years, and the chance to say goodbye to her native land. The debut from Puerto Rican director Glorimar Marrero-Sánchez is a high intensity drama. The filmmaker has produced a film about pain, and his work which does not spare the viewer the raw, messy scenes which transmit the mental and physical suffering of the protagonist. “The Fishbowl” faces difficult themes of illness, pain and loneliness with courage, and without ever faulting to an overdone rhetoric which often ruins films of this genre.
El Agua
directed by Elena López
Swiss/Spain/France, 2022, ‘104, Drama, VOS
In a small and unknown Spanish village, a worrying popular belief is held: some women are destined to disappear every time it floods, when a storm causes the river which passes through the land to overflow. In the summer, while the teenagers of the village look for ways to entertain themselves in a place where there’s little to do, a love story unrolls between two young people. With her first feature film, the Spanish director Elena López Riera has created a work which succeeds in telling a love story delicately and with grace, and which includes some lyrical and poetic moments which are particularly captivating. “El Agua” embraces first and foremost many stylistic features of the classic romance and subsequently inserts the relationship of the two protagonists in a scenario which becomes, little by little, more post-apocalyptic.
Aliens Abducted My Parents and Now I Kinda Feel Left Out
directed by Jake Van Wagoner
USA, 2023, ’87, Science Fiction, VOS
Presented at this year’s Sundance Film festival, “Aliens Abducted My Parents and Now I Kinda Feel Left Out” is the second work by director Jake Van Wagoner. This is the story of Itsy, a teenager with dreams of becoming a journalist who moves with his family to the small town of Pebble Falls in Utah. Itsy isn’t excited by this new life and struggles to find his footing until at school he meets Calvin, a quirky boy who is convinced that his parents were abducted by aliens 10 years ago. With the intention of writing an article for the school paper, Itsy decides to befriend Calvin, who is preparing for the arrival of the next comet: according to him, the event will in fact be the moment in which he can reunite with his mother and father. Despite the domineering sci-fi title, the work of Van Wagoner is actually a sweet and intimate coming of age tale, a story of friendship between two social outcasts which recalls teen films of the 80’s. After a beautiful Spielbergian prologue, the film becomes a coming of age about learning to embrace one’s own weirdness and uniqueness, the process of divorce, and the importance of having someone in our lives who is willing to accept us as we are. The beating heart of the story is the tender chemistry between the characters of Emma Tremblay and Jacob Buster, who both perform excellently. The film is suited to all audiences: from children, to teens, and even adults who are nostalgic for this type of story. It’s a fun and touching film, which manages to create a good dose of mystery and a magical atmosphere thanks to the beautiful landscapes of Utah, the old-style photography and the special effects, which are used little but to a great effect.
Infinity Pool
directed by Brandon Cronenberg
Canada, 2023, ‘117, SCI- FI/Horror, VOS
Previewed at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, “Infinity Pool” is the third feature film by Brandon Cronenberg, son of David Cronenberg, who continues to follow in the footsteps of his father but with a poetry and vision of his own. The film follows protagonist James, the author of a scantly successful book, and his wife Em, as they head to a luxurious resort in the imaginary country Li Tolga. Unsatisfied with his last book and with his life, James’s goal is to find inspiration to draft a new book. Everything will change when James and Em meet Gabi and her husband Alban, who convince the couple to head down to a beach outside of the resort. On the way back from the outing, James, who is intoxicated, accidentally runs over a boy, and the day after, him and his wife are arrested. The police however offer James a way out: in exchange for a warning, they will clone him, and he can witness the execution of his doppelgänger. The film sweeps the viewer up in a spiral of horror, violence, and psychological perversion, as we witness the slow deterioration of James. The overarching theme of the story is that of identity: here, man loses everything which makes him human, a depersonalisation which permits Cronenberg to reflect on death, on disparity between social hierarchies and on the loss of moral values in the digital era and in this new era of social hedonism. This is a nail-biting, visually disturbing work, with psychedelic elements and visceral and profound carnal sequences. A descent into madness in which pain, pleasure, horror, and obsession intertwine. The leading duo are exceptional: Alexander Skarsgård embodies perfectly the human “metamorphosis” of our century, while Mia Goth knows how to be sensual, enigmatic and terribly frightening at the same time.
New Life
directed by Josh Rosman
USA, 2023, ’85, Horror, VOS
The movie begins with the image of a young girl covered in blood, she’s running away constantly looking over her shoulders. The girl, Jessica, is chased by beloved people. Her only chance of escape is to go north and do everything possible to stay hidden until she crosses Canada’s border to start a new life. While Jessica is on the run, Elsa receives the order to chase her. Time is of the essence, Elsa was recently diagnosed with ALS and her body is slowly ceasing to respond to her will. Elsa hides her condition from her colleagues and hopes to prove she can still do her job by catching Jessica. Debut movie for the screenwriter and director Josh Rosman, New Life had a world premiere at the Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal. Rosman gives the viewer the cat and mouse’s scenery strongly based on the tension, choosing to spread very few details here and there. Firstly, New Life doesn’t explain why Jessica is running away, neither reveals who is Elsa working for: everything we know is that the lives of two women who had never crossed paths before are connected by this chase. This narrative allows the audience to explore the internal struggle of the two characters.
Sira
directed by Apolline Traorè
Burkina Faso, 2023, ‘122, Drama, VOS
The young Sira crosses the desert, followed by several camels and by his parents, in accordance with the Fulani tradition, to reach her betrothed. When they stop for a break, they are attacked by Islamic extremists who raid their nomadic village and kill all of the men. After being brutalised, she is abandoned and undergoes a long journey through the desert. The road she takes, however, will bring her to her attackers’ camp. Determined to not give up, she lives off the fruits of the earth, camped out in a cave near her enemies’ camp, as she patiently awaits the right moment to hit back. Among the most intense African films of the year, Sira is a brilliant film which combines a social reflection about the female condition and about the courage of a protagonist you will not forget. This film is centred around the difficult integration of the characters in their surrounding environment, which gives life to a series of extremely brutal images that help the viewer to reason with what they’re seeing. This revenge movie combines typical elements of the genre with a fresh and innovative point of view, bringing surprises.
My Tribe
directed by Milo Chiarini
France, 2023, ‘120, Thriller, VOS
Nico has spent 20 years in prison. Now that he’s out, he must face the difficulties that come from having been long absent from his family. The strong relationship with his old friends, who have all become gangsters, will clash with his desire to live a normal life, far from the criminal world. The plot at the centre of My Tribe recalls the police genre and the transalpine cinema of the twentieth century, like the famous dark crime films created by the high calibre author Jean-Pierre Melville. In this film also however engages the gangster genre, in a game of genres with a postmodern flavour which is capable of fully capturing some aspects of modern times. In this tender and melancholy drama, the audience is engaged from the beginning until the end, and they participate in Nico’s choices from the first to the last sequence.
Inland
directed by Fridtjof Ryder
UK, 2022, ’82, Drama, VOS
A first work with an unsettling atmosphere, the film is from the point of view of a young protagonist without a name. As if we were living through the point of view of this boy, we witness ever more private events, distorted by memories, desires and traumas which are just as mysterious as they are frightening. We meet him for the first time when he is released from a psychiatric hospital, one of the few concrete signs of the real world that we see in the film: then when he establishes his routine, working in a garage with his father figure Dunleavy, that concrete reality will soon be obscured by the workings of his own imagination. This is an unforgettable debut by Fridtjof Ryder, young British director who dares to play with form and experimentation, going beyond the classic conventions of traditional dramaturgical rules. The rhythm of the montage and the suggestive photography make this film even more fascinating and thrusts us into the mind of the protagonist. In the cast, an actor like Mark Rylance – as the father – is a great addition to this work with great expressive power.
Muoi- The curse returns
directed by Hang Trinh
Vietnam, 2022, ’95, Horror, VOS
Linh goes to visit Hang, a longtime friend, in an ancient house in a nearby town, During the visit, Linh discovers the cursed portrait of Muoi and the mysterious hex that his face brings. Years of anger and torment are at the centre of this worrying tale, in which the protagonist must make a life-or-death choice in order to save his friend from this powerful curse. Initially, she knows very little, as do the audience, but little by little we become involved in the unrolling events which are more and more exciting and captivating with the passing of time. As Linh goes even deeper and digs up the mystery of this horrifying trap, we too will feel what she does, in this horror film of ever-growing climax which is full of suspense from the beginning to the end. This high tension feature film from Vietnam will not let down fans of the genre.
Ripple
directed by Joey Moe
Denmark/USA, 2023, ’90, Crime, VOS
A woman with a hood over her head is tortured on a live stream, an investigation into a missing girl and a talk show: Ripple is a psychological thriller inspired by real events, which confronts the reason why people are so obsessed by macabre true crime stories. The investigation led by the true crime podcast “Die” on the murder of a young woman has unimaginable consequences for the protagonists of the film, people who seemingly have no connection between them: a custodian, a talk show host and a sound engineer. The debut of director Joey Moe combines social fervour for true crime with a damning point of view of the consequences of this obsession. Ulrich Thomsen, Rasmus Hammerich and Ida Marie Nielsen perform marvellously.
The film explores the reason why as humans we are so obsessed by macabre real life murder cases and follows a series of ordinary people, whose lives will intertwine with an unexpected result. The first feature film by the Danish pop star, Ripple had its world preview at Beyond Fest. In 2021 Moe created the short film “Fugleflugten“, which previewed at the Odense Film Festival and was nominated for the Ekko Shortlist Awards 2022.
Lockdown Tower
directed by Guillame Nicoloux
France, 2022, ’89, Fantasy/Horror, VOS
“Lockdown Tower” is the new movie of the French film director Guillame Nicoloux. The plot has a high suburban palace accommodating many people of different ethnicities, who strive to cohabit avoiding conflicts. An evening, the palace’s residents notice that a mass of impenetrable darkness has surrounded the building, sabotaging communication networks and isolating them from the rest of the world. But there’s more: you will also discover that this dark cloud is sharp and deadly, therefore impossible to cross. The protagonists will find themselves putting aside their disagreements and to organize in order to survive a similar situation. But it won’t be easy, and hostilities and violence will soon take over the community, between acts of extreme violence and struggles for dominance. “Lockdown Tower” starts as a classic horror movie in which a mysterious cataclysmic event forces people to remain isolated in a place, creating situations of discomfort and danger. It can be ascribed to the classic strand known as “home invasion”. But Nicoloux’s film is a spokesperson for a very strong and current political and social significance: this cataclysmic event is a pretext to stage hostility between diametrically opposed cultures, create factions and rivalries. The atmosphere is dark and uncomfortable, and some sequences are extreme, but preparatory to tell the impotence of the human being, his warlike nature and the tendency to create walls and borders in dangerous situations. A strong and disturbing film, which tells the current events with a fierce and visceral eye.
The integrity of Joseph Chambers
directed by Robert Machoian
USA, 2022, ’96, Drama, VOS
Presented at the Tribeca Film Festival 2022, “The Integrity of Joseph Chambers” marks the return to the direction of Robert Machoian, as well as his second collaboration with the actor Clayne Crawford since “The Killing Of Two Lovers”. The plot has Joseph as the protagonist, family man and insurer, who lives with the wife Tess and their two children in a house in the woods. One morning, Joseph gets up and decides to go hunting deer, despite Tess discouraging him several times given his inexperience. However, John doesn’t listen to her borrows a rifle from his friend, and he ventures into the woods. Here emerges all the arrogance and incompetence of man, determined to prove his manhood although he can barely handle the gun. In attempt to shoot a deer, Joseph inadvertently shoots a man; this will cause in him an emotional and mental breakdown, which will put him in front of his true nature. Through a simple and linear story, Machoian tells the parable of an ordinary man who tries to prove to his family and himself that he has all the qualities to get by on his own in the middle of the forest. Joseph’s character tries to Joseph tries to impose and show off a “machismo” of which he is obviously not provided, and this excessive self-confidence will lead him to make tragic mistakes, among the grotesque and the dramatic. It’s a movie who criticizes the impositions of society on the average man, but also the improper use of weapons in America. A very detailed photograph and sound department, that allow the viewer to fully immerse in the wooded environment in which the story is set.