Skip to main content
Donate to the 95 years appeal
Nothing to write home about
RITA DI SANTO reels off her disappointment at Sundance 2022 Festival's tedious mediocrity
Khansa as Mohammad [IMDb]

THE just ended Sundance Film Festival (London edition) introduced 12 feature films from this year’s main festival held in Park City in Utah, US. Following its tradition of supporting emerging voices in filmmaking, the festival featured an equal number of male and female directors in this year’s selection, granting a range of British, Finnish, French, Indonesian, Canadian, Lebanese and US filmmakers to tell their authentic stories.

Winner of the audience awards was Brian and Charles, directed by Jim Archer – a story, set in rural Wales, about a lonely inventor who takes on his most ambitious project yet. By assembling a washing machine and a few odd pieces of junk, he invents Charles, an AI bot, who learns English from a dictionary and has an inexplicable obsession with cabbages.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
KV
Cinema / 18 July 2025
18 July 2025

RITA DI SANTO gives us a first look at some extraordinary new films that examine outsiders, migrants, belonging and social abuse

Once gaza
Cannes Film Festival 2025 / 6 June 2025
6 June 2025

RITA DI SANTO draws attention to an audacious and entertaining film that transplants Tarantino to the Gaza Strip

cannes
Cannes Film Festival 2025 / 30 May 2025
30 May 2025

RITA DI SANTO reports on the films from Iran, Spain, Belgium and Brazil that won the top awards

2 p
Interview / 20 May 2025
20 May 2025

RITA DI SANTO speaks to the exiled Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa about Two Prosecutors, his chilling study of the Stalinist purges

Similar stories
Maiwene Barthelemy and Clément Faveau in Holy Cow
Cinema / 10 April 2025
10 April 2025
The Star's critics ANDY HEDGECOCK, MARTIN HALL, MICHAL BONCZA, ANGUS REID reviews Holy Cow, One to One: John and Yoko, King of Kings, Panda Bear in Africa
HAUNTING: Lucy Liu in Presence
Cinema / 24 January 2025
24 January 2025
The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews Presence, Flight Risk, Emanuelle and Back in Action
(L) Nightbitch; (R) Porcelain War
Cinema / 5 December 2024
5 December 2024
Horror for young mothers and Western presidents, a one-legged wrestler and weaponised art; the Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews Nightbitch, Rumours, Unstoppable and Porcelain War
LAS VEGAS HERE WE COME: Mark Eidelshtein and Mikey Madison,
Cinema / 31 October 2024
31 October 2024
The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews Anora, Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story, Blitz, and Heretic