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221. Bulgarian director Stephan Komandarev’s film “Posoki” (Directions)...
Directions could be described as Central Europe’s companion piece to the celebrated Argentine 2014 black comedy and film anthology Wild Tales. Both are portmanteau films that deal with contemporary...
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222. Russian director Andrei Konchalovsky’s US film “Shy People” (1987): An...
To appreciate the nuanced merits of Shy People, the viewer would be better advised to know a bit about its Russian director and story-writer Andrei Konchalovsky. First, Konchalovsky is equally renowned...
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223. Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda’s 12th feature film “Sandome no...
More than half a century ago the Japanese maestro Akira Kurosawa made a classic film Rashomon(1950) about a samurai’s death and the rape of the samurai’s wife. Different versions of what transpired...
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224. Indian director Rahul Jain’s debut, long-documentary film “Machines”...
India produces some of the world’s most attractive textiles that contribute to making lives in India and elsewhere colourful and comfortable-- whether it be the clothes one wears or the cloth-based...
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225. British director Peter Brook’s film “Meetings with Remarkable Men”...
“When I realized that (ancient wisdom)... had been handed down...from generation to generation for thousands of years, and yet had reached our day almost unchanged...I...regretted having begun too late...
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226. Italian/US director Andrea Pallaoro’s film “Hannah” (2017)...
Hannah is the second film of Italian director Andrea Pallaoro—and, according to him, it is the second film of a trilogy of films he is making which appear to be having a common thread of a woman...
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227. Italian director Valerio Zurlini’s last film “Il deserto dei tartari”...
“In life, everyone has to accept the role that was destined for him” –words spoken in the film The Desert of the Tartars, words that best describe the essence of the filmThe film Desert of the Tartars,...
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228. Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s film “Ahlat agaci” (The Wild Pear...
Director Nuri Bilge Ceylan is one of the most distinguished filmmakers alive and The Wild Pear Treeis arguably one of his best works to date, currently on show at the Denver Film Festival after its...
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229. The late Chinese director Bo Hu’s debut and final film “Da xiang xi die...
It is not easy to sit through any feature film that is nearly 4 hours long; more so if the characters in the film are dour, unexceptional, and behave like the dregs of society.An Elephant Sitting...
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230. Vietnamese director Ash Mayfair’s debut feature film “The Third Wife”...
Debut films of several directors worldwide have often been unforgettable, even when compared to their later works: Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane, Satyajit Ray’s Pather Panchali (Song of the Little Road),...
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231. Indian director Praveen Morchhale’s third feature film “Widow of...
There is always an unusual distinct flavour when a director makes a film on a tale that he or she has written from scratch. Praveen Morchhale’s three films are such films and have shown an ability to...
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232. Danish/Irish director David Noel Bourke’s third feature film “Bakerman”...
Bakerman is an award-winning Danish film that has surprisingly not been picked up for screening by international festivals beyond western Europe and the American east coast. Few critics seem to have...
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233. Lebanese director Nadine Labaki’s third feature film “Capernaum” (a.k.a....
“Why are you attacking your parents in court?”—Lebanese judge/magistrate to Zain, a 12-year-old Lebanese, already behind bars for a crime he has committed “For giving me life”—Zain’s responseThe year...
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234. Russian director Aleksei German, Jr.’s sixth feature film “Dovlatov”...
“Dovlatov was a sex symbol, an Elvis Presley, a legend (in Russia)”– director Aleksei German, Jr., on the writer Dovlatov, in an interview published in Sight and Sound“I saw Brezhnev in my dream. We...
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235. US director and scriptwriter Paul Schrader’s film “First Reformed”...
“Wisdom is holding two contradictory truths in our mind, simultaneously. Hope and despair. A life without despair is a life without hope. Holding these two ideas in our head is life itself.” “How...
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236. Japanese director Naomi Kawase’s film “Vision” (2018) (Japan/France):...
Most directors yearn to make one film at least that deals with science fiction in their careers; some succeed in making amazing products, most fail to make a lasting impact. Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: a...
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237. Italian maestro Ermanno Olmi’s feature film “La Leggenda del Santo...
Ermanno Olmi (1931-2018) is not often discussed on the same plane as Orson Welles or Andrei Tarkovsky. Yet they have certain similarities in their body of film output. Olmi made 20 feature films and...
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238. Italian maestro Roberto Rossellini’s film “Stromboli, terra di Dio”...
Many cineastes are aware of Roberto Rossellini’s famous work called Stromboli. But how many are aware of its complete title Stromboli, terra di Dio, which translates asStromboli, land of God? The full...
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239. US independent filmmaker Debra Granik’s third feature film “Leave No...
Director Debra Granik is an independent filmmaker in USA who works outside the Hollywood studio system. Leave No Trace is her third feature film as a director without support from the influential...
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240. French filmmaker and screenplay writer Stéphane Brizé’s French feature...
Those who fight might lose but those who don’t fight have already lost. -- Bertolt Brecht (opening quote of the film)At War will pale in comparison to Stéphane...
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