MARIA DUARTE, LEO BOIX and ANGUS REID review Brides, Dead of Winter, A Night Like This, and The Librarians
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Pedagogy vs brainwashing
MICHAL BONCZA recommends a compact volume that charts the art of propagating ideas across the 20th century
(L to R) the book cover; Labour Party election poster 1945; A Black Panthers poster ‘Warning to America,’ 1970 designed by Emory Douglas; How the Church Sowed its Religion in Spain, a Civil War (1936-39) poster by the General Union of Workers (UGT) denouncing the Catholic priests collaboration with fascism
![REBELS: Ebada Hassan and Safiyya Ingar in Nadia Fall’s powerful debut feature Brides [Pic: IMDb]](https://msd11.gn.apc.org/sites/default/files/styles/desktop/public/2025-09/round%20up%20web_0.jpg.webp?itok=41xI6jhN)
MARY CONWAY recommends an early Shakespearean tragedy that feels so contemporary that it mirrors our daily news
A ghost story by Mexican Ave Barrera, a Surrealist poetry collection by Peruvian Cesar Moro, and a manifesto-poem on women’s labour and capitalist havoc by Peruvian Valeria Roman Marroquin
DAVID NICHOLSON recommends a dazzling production of Bernstein’s opera set in a world where chaos and violence are greeted by equanimity
MARY CONWAY is frustrated by a new play that loses its drama amid the moral dilemma of re-settling children in the aftermath of WWII
Acclaimed as a masterpiece when it premiered, this study of story-telling in an Irish pub more than lives up to expectations, says MARY CONWAY
SYLVIA HIKINS relishes a comedy that dives deep into Liverpool’s divided loyalties
Propagandopolis
Bradley Davis, Fuel, £24.95
WERE you to start a conversation about propaganda you’ll probably never hear the end of it with all parties “propagating” ad nauseam their take on it.
Its etymology is in the Catholic Church’s doctrine Congregatio de Propaganda Fide (Congregation for Propagating the Faith) made public in 1622 which was essentially a blueprint for dealing with the Reformation — to put it simply: to delay, at all costs, the political advance of the ideas of nascent capitalism.
During and after the advent of the French revolution in 1789 the term was extended to secular activities. In the English language it acquired a derogatory meaning in the 19th century, while in other languages it retains neutral or positive connotations.
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MICHAL BONCZA highly recommends a revelatory exhibition of work by the doyen of indigenous Australians’ art, Emily Kam Kngwarray
Despite an over-sentimental narrative, MICHAL BONCZA applauds an ambitious drama about the Chinese rescue of British POWs in WWII
Strip cartoons used to be the bread and butter of newspapers and they have been around for centuries. MICHAL BONCZA asks our own Paul Tanner about which bees are in his bonnet
New releases from Hannah Rose Platt, Kemp Harris, and Spear Of Destiny
