KATAYOUN SHAHANDEH surveys Iran’s cultural heritage and explains what has been damaged and what could be lost
Latest editorial
Berlin Film festival
Europe dominates the programme – and the awards
INTRIGUING: A Cop Movie
A dazzling novel, and autobiographical fiction, by Mexicans Brenda Navarro and Cristina Rivera Garza, and poetry by Brazilian Ricardo Domeneck
JONATHAN TAYLOR ponders the difference between autobiography and memoir - between life and story - in Margaret Atwood’s account of herself
Rereleases from Andrew Gold; John McFee, Stu Cook, Keith Knudsen; and The Outer Limits
Five years ago a flash crowd of Glaswegian activists defeated the Home Office and the police; MATT KERR urges you to savour that day in a cinema
SYLVIA HIKINS celebrates the chance that a new memoir offers to explore Frieda Brewster’s remarkable life story
THIS YEAR’S Berlin film festival, with a competition line-up including just three films made outside Europe and a jury consisting entirely of white people, all previous winners of the Golden Bear, offered no representation from Latin America or Africa. It was a markedly Eurocentric, if not incestuous, affair.
The Golden Bear prize went to Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn by Romanian director Radu Jude, a clumsy and chaotic social satire shot during the pandemic with actors wearing anti-viral masks.
In it, a schoolteacher finds her career and reputation on the line after a personal sex tape is leaked online and while this take on her plight might resonate nationally, it lacks universal appeal.
Similar stories
RITA DI SANTO gives us a first look at some extraordinary new films that examine outsiders, migrants, belonging and social abuse
RITA DI SANTO reports on the films from Iran, Spain, Belgium and Brazil that won the top awards
RITA DI SANTO surveys the smorgasbord of films on offer at this year’s festival
RITA DI SANTO speaks to Laura Carreira about her study of workers in an Amazon warehouse, On Falling