A Vulnerable Portrait of Girlhood Between Two Cultures Is a Searing Indictment of the Commercialization of Budding Sexuality— ‘Cuties,’ dir. Maïmouna Doucouré, 2020September 24th, 2020|Country: France, Senegal|In a much-discussed coming-of-age comedy-drama, French filmmaker of Senegalese origin does not pull any punches while shedding light on the way cultural excesses harm those caught between them
A Searing, Claustrophobic Portrait of Family Homelessness in Ireland—’Rosie’, dir. Paddy Breathnach, 2018September 20th, 2020|Country: Ireland|Based on a screenplay by Roddy Doyle, this film is as relevant as ever in the times of COVID economy and focuses on the hidden homelessness where families with kids are left without shelter
One of the Greatest Queer Love Stories of the 21st Century Hiding In the Gritty Alleys of Genoa— ’The Mouth of the Wolf,’ dir. Pietro Marcello, 2009September 13th, 2020|Country: France, Italy|Pietro Marcello’s documentary about a career criminal and a transsexual sex-worker who fell in love in prison is the director’s lesser-known film, but it deserves all the accolades
One of the Country’s Most Exciting Filmmakers Experiments with a Collective Portrait of Iceland at Christmas Time—’Echo’, dir. Rúnar Rúnarsson, 2019September 7th, 2020|Country: France, Iceland, Switzerland|56 short scenes allow an unprecedented pleasure to peek into the different households and community gatherings in Iceland during the holiday season
The Transformations of Albania and Its Femininity in the Works of Hasan NallbaniAugust 30th, 2020|Country: Albania|Whether he’s depicting socialist worker heroines, women alienated by their fragility, or experiments with the Byzantine heritage, Hasan Nallbani is Albania’s foremost master of the female portrait
Land, Labor and Alienation in Gentrifying Istanbul—‘Saf’, dir. Ali Vatansever, 2018August 18th, 2020|Country: Germany, Romania, Turkey|Migrant and local workers compete for jobs, as the urban sprawl overtakes the neighborhoods: a searing second feature centered around a young couple, where the husband suddenly goes missing
A Burning Desire to Belong and Some Heartbreak On a Roadtrip Across Bosnia & Herzegovina—‘Take Me Somewhere Nice’, dir. Ena Sendijarević, 2019August 9th, 2020|Country: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Netherlands|A young woman’s absurdist journey across her estranged homeland in an intelligent candy-colored debut from a Bosnian-Dutch filmmaker with an exhilarating young cast
The Kids Aren’t Alright In Danish Artist Ole Tersløse’s Digital ArtAugust 2nd, 2020|Country: Denmark|Unsettling dystopias unravel in eerie sculptures and postapocalyptic scenes rendered in meticulous 3D, where nature, humanity and the neural networks converge and dissolve into each other
The Pragmatic, Wholesome Hip-Hop of Russia’s Musical Prodigy—Antoha MC, “Pro Menya”, 2019July 16th, 2020|Country: Russia|Antona MC dances like no one is watching, raps about healthy habits and routines, and his music is crystal-clear nostalgic futurism: see why there is no one else like him in the industry
The Breakaway State on the Cusp of Adulthood—‘Transnistra’, dir. Anna Eborn, 2019June 8th, 2020|Country: Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Transnistria|An intimate and haunting portrait of six teenagers in rural Transnistria shows the splintered prospects and the many limitations of growing up in a melancholy landscape
Balkan Beats and Battle Hymns—Dubioza Kolektiv, ‘#fakenews,’ 2020May 3rd, 2020|Country: Bosnia and Herzegovina|A Bosnian band with firm positions on civil rights and intellectual property and a fluid approach to genre has a song for every political issue you may care about
Money, Madness, and Mysteries of Outlaw Capitalism—‘My Father the Banker’, dir. Ieva Ozoliņa, 2015April 30th, 2020|Country: Latvia, Malaysia|A daughter’s search for her father who disappeared without a trace after enjoying a high roller life in the 90s becomes a window into the bizarre landscape of post-Soviet Latvia
The Great Black British Artist and the Fruit of Her Toils—Lubaina HimidMarch 24th, 2020|Country: Comoros, Tanzania, United Kingdom|A tireless scholar of the intersection of black identity and labor, visual artist Lubaina Himid creates work that has a lot to teach us about separating the self from production in the current moment
Fuzzy Fur and Fuzzier Ethics of Taxidermy: ‘Animus Animalis’, dir. Aistė Žegulytė, 2018 & ‘Stuffed,’ dir. Erin Derham, 2019March 19th, 2020|Country: Canada, Lithuania, Netherlands, South Africa, Switzerland, USA, Zimbabwe|Two woman-made documentaries about people’s relationships with dead animals offer looks on the matter from various parts of the world and across the moral spectrum
An Intriguing Look Into France’s Labor Dynamics in Winemaking Documentary—‘Vas-y Coupe!’, dir. Laura Naylor, 2019March 12th, 2020|Country: France, USA|A winemaking family, seasonal laborers and grapes blighted by a fungus in this rigorous documentary that offers an outsider's exploration of the grind that goes into each glass of wine
The Dark, Brainy and Radiant Rap of an Ex-Offender From Belarus—Sirop, ‘Strashila,’ 2020March 11th, 2020|Country: Belarus|Once an aspiring musician, Sirop (Сiроп) became addicted to heroin and spent two decades in and out of detention. Now in his late forties, he is the rising star of Belarusian hip-hop.
Film: Return to Bollène, dir. Saïd Hamich, 2017May 28th, 2019|Country: France|Upon his return to his hometown in the South of France, a young proffesional Muslim man has revelatory encounters with the ultra-right politics, his family and himself
Film: Fugue, dir. Agnieszka Smoczyńska, 2018May 20th, 2019|Country: Poland|When memory loss is not the plot for a romantic comedy, it gets pretty dark, as shown in this dark thriller
Film: Year of the Monkey, dir. Vladimir Blazevski, 2018May 16th, 2019|Country: Macedonia|An escaped monkey becomes the symbol of a country’s suffrage
Film: Limestone Cowboy, dir. Abigail Malia, 2017May 15th, 2019|Country: Malta|What to do when your parent is delusional and the whole country is watching?
Film: A Regular Woman, dir. Sherry Hormann, 2019May 5th, 2019|Country: Germany, Kurdistan, Turkey|Seeking to give voice to the German-Kurdish victim of an honor killing
Film: Flesh Out, dir. Michela Occhipinti, 2019April 30th, 2019|Country: Italy, Mauritania|A Mauritanian woman's experience with gauvage: mandatory fattening of the bride before marriage
Music: Deben Bhattacharya, Zingari, 2011April 25th, 2019|Country: Bulgaria, France, Greece, Hungary, Roma, Romania, Spain|Following the routes of Roma migration across Europe via music
Music: Širom, I Can Be a Clay Snapper, 2017April 19th, 2019|Country: Slovenia|Imaginative, experimental take on multi-instrumental folk music
Film: Wild Boys, dir. Bertrand Mandico, 2017April 18th, 2019|Country: France|Avant-garde queering of "Lord of the flies" by Bertrand Mandico
Art: Cathedrale Notre-Dame de Paris, 1163April 16th, 2019|Country: France|A fire in the medieval icon causes a necessary discussion about appreciating and possessing
Book: Herve Bourhis and Rudy Spiessert, Alas, 2010April 15th, 2019|Country: France|What would our world look like if humans were not at the top of the food pyramid?
Book: Jean-Philippe Stassen, The Children, 2004April 12th, 2019|Country: Belgium|An unsettling graphic novel about children growing up amid postcolonial madness
Film: It All Starts Today, dir. Bertrand Tavernier, 1999April 12th, 2019|Country: France|Bertrand Tavernier’s social drama about a school principal in a poor mining town
Book: Raule and Philippe Berthet, The Art of Dying, 2018April 8th, 2019|Country: France, Spain|A noir graphic novel set in Barcelona about a bone-weary detective trying to save his fake daughter’s murder
Book: Honey Meconi, Hildegard of Bingen, 2018April 8th, 2019|Country: Germany, USA|A biography of Medieval Europe’s visionaire and marketing genius, and one of the earliest known women composers