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Film round-up: March 30, 2023
MARIA DUARTE reviews of Riotsville USA, God’s Creatures, Law of Tehran and Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman
film

Riotsville, USA (12A)
Directed by Sierra Pettengill 
★★★★

SIX years in the making, Sierra Pettengill’s painstakingly researched documentary lifts the lid on the shocking fake towns — or “riotsvilles” — the US military built to militarise the police and train them to snuff out the uprisings and civil rights protest movements of the late 1960s. 

Set in 1967-68 and created entirely from archival footage shot by the US military or broadcast on television, the film shows a national psyche hell-bent on maintaining law and order no matter the cost. 


God’s Creatures (15)
Directed by Saela Davis and Anna Rose Holmer 
★★★


Law of Tehran (15)
Directed by Saeed Roustayi 
★★★★


Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman (15)
Directed by Pierre Földes 
★★★

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