MICHAL BONCZA highly recommends a revelatory exhibition of work by the doyen of indigenous Australians’ art, Emily Kam Kngwarray
Disappearing up its own black hole
MARIA DUARTE sees an initially intriguing space drama disintegrate into cliche
The Bard commutes to work for the first time in 45 years
GORDON PARSONS is riveted by a translation of Shakespeare’s tragedy into joyous comedy set in a southern black homestead
GEORGE FOGARTY relishes the music of black British artists that channels Carribbean, Latin and club sounds, along with contemporary west African radicalism
CHRIS SEARLE hears the ordeal of the Palestinian people in the improvised musicianship of a UK jazz trio
DAVID RENTON is puzzled by an ambitious attempt to look back on world culture from the future without engaging with or understanding it
High Life (18)
Directed by Claire Denis
A FATHER and his baby daughter battle to survive in complete isolation in this twisted space saga, which promises more than it delivers.
As the flashbacks slowly but surely unfold, you learn how Monte (Robert Pattinson) and the baby (an adorable Scarlett Lindsey) come to be on board a now empty spacecraft. He was a member of a crew of death-row inmates led by Dr Dibs (Juliette Binoche), who have agreed to go on a one-way trip to a black hole in exchange for their lives.
Evoking Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey and Tarkovsky’s Solaris, Claire Denis’s space drama is more space porn as the characters are violently attacked by their crew mates and defiled by the good doctor, all in the name of science and creation. Dr Dibs relieves her sexual tension in a special “play room” worthy of Fifty Shades of Grey, which makes disturbing viewing.
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