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Maria Duarte
round up
Cinema / 3 April 2025
3 April 2025
The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews Sebastian, Four Mothers, Restless, and The Most Precious of Cargoes
fotw
Film of the week / 3 April 2025
3 April 2025
The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE recommends a drama that explores the formative years of Richard Burton’s life
FOTW
Film of the week / 13 March 2025
13 March 2025
The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE recommends a deliciously dark thriller that explores the complex loyalties within a marriage
round up
Cinema / 13 February 2025
13 February 2025
The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE review Cottontail, Memoir of a Snail, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, and Captain America: Brave New World
home
Film of the Week: / 13 February 2025
13 February 2025
MARIA DUARTE recommends a tense thriller that uses Palestinian characters to explore the predicament of migrants in Europe
round up
Cinema / 7 February 2025
7 February 2025
The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews September 5, The Fire Inside, Bring Them Down, and Love Hurts
fig
Film of the Week: / 6 February 2025
6 February 2025
The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE is enthralled by a complex thriller, but advises caution in accepting its depiction of reality
round up
Cinema / 30 January 2025
30 January 2025
The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews Companion, Saturday Night, The Tasting, and The Colours Within
hard truths
Film of the week / 30 January 2025
30 January 2025
The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE is dazzled by an extraordinary performance in a classic Mike Leigh film
JL as TH
Film of the week / 19 December 2024
19 December 2024
The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE recommends an edge-of-your-seat film exposing uncomfortable truths
round up
Cinema / 12 December 2024
12 December 2024
Hallucinogenic homosexuality, a quantum thriller, airport shenanigans and feminist Tolkein: MARIA DUARTE reviews Queer, The Universal Theory, Carry On and Lord of the Rings: The War of The Rohirrim
round up
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
fotw
Film of the week / 5 December 2024
5 December 2024
The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE is moved by a real-life story of rescue at sea that upturns easy assumptions about political motivations in times of war
Round up
Cinema / 28 November 2024
28 November 2024
Papal tiffs, Reality TV torture, volleyball feminism and a monster in the closet; The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews Conclave, The Contestant, Power Alley and Your Monster
FOTW
Film of the week / 28 November 2024
28 November 2024
MARIA DUARTE recommends a documentary that reconstructs the part played by white activists in the struggle against apartheid
round up
Cinema / 14 November 2024
14 November 2024
Emotional repression in Hong Kong, emotional repression in the UK, swords and sandals and a forgettable family reunion: reviews of The Last Dance, Silent Men, Gladiator II and Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point
fotw
Film of the week / 7 November 2024
7 November 2024
The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE recommends an unlikely tale of friendship between an Israeli and a Palestinian in the midst of West Bank ethnic cleansing
film round up
Cinema / 17 October 2024
17 October 2024
Serial killer dating; courtroom charm; synaesthetic inspiration and jungle book robotics - The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews Woman of the Hour, The Crime is Mine, A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things and The Wild Robot
FOTW
Film of the week / 17 October 2024
17 October 2024
MARIA DUARTE recommends a biopic of the US presidential candidate that explores his relationship with gay communist-basher Roy Cohn
film
Cinema / 3 October 2024
3 October 2024
Healthcare evangelism; Rajneesh child-abuse; an unwanted musical; and an un-Elephant man: The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews Medicine Man: The Stan Brock Story, Children of the Cult, Joker: Folie A Deux, and A Different Man
fotw
Film of the Week: / 3 October 2024
3 October 2024
Racial injustice, British colonialism and the climate crisis intersect to create the perfect storm in a new documentary, says MARIA DUARTE
Film round up
Cinema / 26 September 2024
26 September 2024
Decline and fall of the US empire, rehab in Orkney, the younger self, and lone wolves
accuse
Film of the week / 19 September 2024
19 September 2024
MARIA DUARTE recommends a gripping courtroom drama
round up
Cinema / 5 September 2024
5 September 2024
Yorkshire chills, tangled in the dark web, pregnancy diaries and brackish juice: MARIA DUARTE reviews Starve Acre, Red Rooms, My First Film and Beetlejuice
sing sing
Cinema / 29 August 2024
29 August 2024
The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews Sing Sing, Mandoob (Night Courier), Close To You, and The Count of Monte Cristo
train
Film of the Week / 29 August 2024
29 August 2024
The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE recommends a moving 'Proustian' tale of a search for a lost past and a forsaken love
IRAP
Film of the week / 22 August 2024
22 August 2024
The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE salutes a frenetic and funny political comedy drama whose battleground is Belfast and where the weapons are words
film round up
Cinema / 18 July 2024
18 July 2024
US Gran-dram, Turkish Trans-dram, UK Band-dram, and predictable tornadoes: The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews Thelma, Crossing, Blur: to the end, and Twisters
fotw
Film of the week / 18 July 2024
18 July 2024
The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE recommends a quietly powerful drama that examines an Iranian mother and daughter who escape domestic abuse
war daddy
Film of the Week: / 11 July 2024
11 July 2024
MARIA DUARTE is chilled by a documentary that brings together the son of Rudolf Hoss with a Jewish Auschwitz survivor
Film round up
Cinema / 4 July 2024
4 July 2024
Trans perspectives, opposites attract, washed-out noir and white-knuckle fridging: the Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews Orlando, My Political Biography, The Nature of Love, What Remains, and Kill
fotw
Film of the week / 4 July 2024
4 July 2024
The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE recommends a refreshing perspective on sexual fluidity and the cultural pressures on Indian gay men
FOTW
Cinema / 13 June 2024
13 June 2024
Posh environmentalism, Moroccan lumpenproletariat, US survivalism and cartoon adolescence
FOTW
Film of the week / 6 June 2024
6 June 2024
The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE recommends a US documentary that shines a light on the ill effects of corporate profiteering in the food industry
round up
Cinema / 30 May 2024
30 May 2024
Channel swimming, forgetting the ex-bf, therapeutic cycling and scary spiders: The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews Young Woman and the Sea, The Beast, Hard Miles, and Sting
tripping
Film of the week / 9 May 2024
9 May 2024
The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE recommends a wild foray into magic realism 
round up
Cinema / 18 April 2024
18 April 2024
Vegan sermons, undercut snobs, fake messiahs and mash-up horror. The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews I Could Never Go Vegan, Jeanne Du Barry, The Book of Clarence, and Abigail
round up
Cinema / 29 February 2024
29 February 2024
Rebel messiahs, radicalised daughters, talking spiders, and troublesome mothers: The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews Dune: Part Two (★★★★), Four Daughters (★★★), Spaceman (★★★), and Driving Mum (★★★)
child soldier
Film of the week / 29 February 2024
29 February 2024
The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE is compelled by the moral complexity of the ICC case against a Ugandan child press-ganged by Joseph Kony
film round up
Cinema / 22 February 2024
22 February 2024
Cleaning toilets, troubled souls, Mexican gun-crime and women swearing badly: MARIA DUARTE reviews of Perfect Days (★★★★), Memory (★★★★), A Wolfpack Called Ernesto (★★★), and Wicked Little Letters (★★★)
mandatory
Film of the week / 22 February 2024
22 February 2024
MARIA DUARTE finds a contemporary resonance in a love story that explores the origins of zionist violence in British-occupied Palestine
round up
Cinema / 15 February 2024
15 February 2024
Hideous violence, food porn, funk legends and incomprehensible trips; MARIA DUARTE reviews The Promised Land, The Taste of Things, Getting it Back: the story of Cymande, and Eureka
Marley
Film of the week / 8 February 2024
8 February 2024
MARIA DUARTE salutes a new biopic of Bob Marley, but is this the ghetto kid who dreamed of Che Guevara and the Black Panthers?
round up
Cinema / 8 February 2024
8 February 2024
The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews The Settlers, Occupied City, The Iron Claw and Gassed Up
hoss
Film of the Week: / 1 February 2024
1 February 2024
MARIA DUARTE recommends a chilling reconstruction of the Nazis' deceptive 'ordinariness'
intersex
Film of the Week: / 14 December 2023
14 December 2023
MARIA DUARTE welcomes a campaigning film that aims to raise awareness of intersex people
peasants
Film of the week / 7 December 2023
7 December 2023
MARIA DUARTE is captivated by an epic tale about the hardship of peasant life in Poland in the late 19th century
queendom
Film of the week / 30 November 2023
30 November 2023
MARIA DUARTE is impressed by the portrait of a radical queer activist in Putin’s Russia
girl
Film of the Week: / 23 November 2023
23 November 2023
Never mind the blockbusters says MARIA DUARTE, this unique and intimate study of  immigrant experience in the UK is the film to see
golda
Film of the week / 5 October 2023
5 October 2023
MARIA DUARTE respects an extraordinary performance by Helen Mirren in a highly partisan account of the Golda Meir premiership
film round up
Cinema / 28 September 2023
28 September 2023
The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews The Creator, Flora and Son, The Retirement Plan, and Where The Wind Blows
fotw
Film of the Week: / 21 September 2023
21 September 2023
MARIA DUARTE is left in high spirits by a film that charts an extraordinary case of the poor beating the rich at their own game
scrapper
Film of the Week: / 24 August 2023
24 August 2023
MARIA DUARTE is delighted by a coming of age story, that goes in reverse
lawand
Film of the Week / 6 July 2023
6 July 2023
MARIA DUARTE is inspired by a documentary that follows the blossoming of a young deaf Kurdish migrant
sunlight
Cinema / 15 June 2023
15 June 2023
MARIA DUARTE reviews of Sunlight, You Can Live Forever, Inland and Greatest Days
film of the week
Film of the Week / 1 June 2023
1 June 2023
MARIA DUARTE recommends a startling and original drama derived entirely from FBI transcripts
film
Cinema / 25 May 2023
25 May 2023
Maria Duarte reviews of Sisu, Master Gardener, Hypnotic and The Little Mermaid
film of the week
Film of the Week: / 25 May 2023
25 May 2023
MARIA DUARTE recommends a thought-provoking documentary about developing tourism and exploiting nature in socialist Vietnam
Alan Frank pic
Obituary / 23 May 2023
23 May 2023
MARIA DUARTE remembers Alan Frank, connoisseur of horror films and longtime Morning Star film critic
film round up
Culture / 27 April 2023
27 April 2023
MARIA DUARTE reviews Little Richard, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Rodeo and Polite Society
film of the week
Film of the Week / 27 April 2023
27 April 2023
MARIA DUARTE recommends the inside story of what happens when Roma people are rescued from discrimination
film round up
Cinema / 6 April 2023
6 April 2023
The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews Godland, Leonor Will Never Die, Ride On, and Lola
film of the week
Film of the Week: / 6 April 2023
6 April 2023
MARIA DUARTE is surprised to find herself swept up in the drama of marketing an over-priced shoe
film
Cinema / 30 March 2023
30 March 2023
MARIA DUARTE reviews of Riotsville USA, God’s Creatures, Law of Tehran and Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman
film
Film / 23 March 2023
23 March 2023
MARIA DUARTE is gripped by a complex thriller set amidst the rural beauties and resentments of Spanish Galicia
film
Cinema / 2 March 2023
2 March 2023
Reviews of Close, I'm fine (thanks for asking), Electric Malady and Creed III
film
Film of the week / 2 March 2023
2 March 2023
MARIA DUARTE is fascinated by a documentary that pulls back the curtain on how our clothes are made
AH
Film of the Week / 16 February 2023
16 February 2023
MARIA DUARTE applauds the ambition of a film that contributes an unpopular voice to the climate debate
protest
Cinema / 26 January 2023
26 January 2023
The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews All The Beauty and The Bloodshed, The Fabelmans, January, Unwelcome
earth
Film of the Week / 26 January 2023
26 January 2023
MARIA DUARTE recommends that you catch this action-packed, high octane eco-armageddon on the the big screen
bab
Film of the Week / 19 January 2023
19 January 2023
MARIA DUARTE endures three hours of overblown Hollywood narcissism and, strangely, recommends it
suplente
Cinema / 19 January 2023
19 January 2023
MARIA DUARTE reviews Holy Spider, Alice, Darling, The Substitute, More Than Ever
TH
Cinema / 5 January 2023
5 January 2023
MARIA DUARTE reviews of A Man Called Otto, Piggy and The Enforcer
CS
Film of the Week / 8 December 2022
8 December 2022
MARIA DUARTE recommends a superb but heartbreaking animation, telling the story of groundbreaking artist Charlotte Salomon, who embarked on a race against time to complete her masterpiece
She Said
Film of the Week / 24 November 2022
24 November 2022
MARIA DUARTE recommends a powerful and moving dramatisation of two journalists’ efforts to uncover the predatory truth about Harvey Weinstein, which kickstarted the Me Too movement
Bardo
Film of the Week: / 17 November 2022
17 November 2022
MARIA DUARTE recommends a visually arresting and intimate portrayal of one man’s return to his roots
Emily
Cinema / 13 October 2022
13 October 2022
Maria Duarte reviews of Emily, Rosaline, All Is Vanity, and Halloween Ends
All That Breathes
Film of the Week / 13 October 2022
13 October 2022
MARIA DUARTE recommends a film about two brothers from New Delhi, who have devoted their lives to rescuing the black kites that fall daily from the skies
The Cordillera of Dreams
Film of the Week / 6 October 2022
6 October 2022
MARIA DUARTE recommends a powerful documentary about the crimes of Pinochet’s Chile, and the contemplative power of the country’s snow-covered peaks
Sidney Poitier
Film of the Week / 22 September 2022
22 September 2022
MARIA DUARTE recommends a powerful film exploring the life and work of Sidney Poitier, the first ever black man to win an Oscar for best actor
Saoirse Ronan plays Constable Stalker in See How They Run
Cinema / 8 September 2022
8 September 2022
The Star's critic Maria Duarte reviews See How They Run, Both Sides of the Blade, The Score and Bodies Bodies Bodies
Viggo Mortensen
Film Of The Week: / 8 September 2022
8 September 2022
MARIA DUARTE braces herself for a bizarre and graphic sci-fi about human evolution, organs and plastic waste
amazon
Film of the Week: / 1 September 2022
1 September 2022
MARIA DUARTE recommends a documentary feature that vividly portrays the horror of Amazon forest's destruction under the Bolsonaro government
Official Competition
Film Reviews / 25 August 2022
25 August 2022
Reviews of Official Competition, Black Mail, Mr Malcolm's List and Beast
MOS
Cinema / 18 August 2022
18 August 2022
The Star's critic Maria Duarte reviews My Old School, Fisherman’s Friends: One and All, Anais in Love, and The Feast
interview
Film Of The Week: / 18 August 2022
18 August 2022
MARIA DUARTE recommends a documentary that exposes moral corruption within the US (in)justice system
Brian and Charles
Cinema / 7 July 2022
7 July 2022
MARIA DUARTE reviews Brian and Charles, Thor: Love and Thunder, Rubikon and How to please a Woman
Daryl McCormack and Emma Thompson
Film Of The Week / 16 June 2022
16 June 2022
MARIA DUARTE recommends a much overdue film about a middle-aged woman who learns to love her body and herself, with the help of a sex worker
Lucia Moniz and Maisie Sly in Listen
Film of the Week: / 9 June 2022
9 June 2022
MARIA DUARTE recommends a harrowing film exploring the traumatic world of forced adoptions
Benediction
Culture / 19 May 2022
19 May 2022
MARIA DUARTE recommends a touching biopic of poet Siegfried Sassoon, whose life was forever changed by the horrors of the first world war
The Quiet Girl
Cinema / 12 May 2022
12 May 2022
MARIA DUARTE reviews The Quiet Girl, Father Stu, The Drover’s Wife: The Legend of Molly Johnson and Vortex
Everything Everywhere All At Once
Film of the Week: / 12 May 2022
12 May 2022
MARIA DUARTE is awestruck by a psychedelic sci-fi adventure about a Chinese-American immigrant trying to keep body and soul together as she goes about saving the world
Film poster MSCSL
Film of the Week: / 5 May 2022
5 May 2022
MARIA DUARTE recommends a timely exploration of the pressures faced by women who choose not to have children
We’re All Going to the World’s Fair
Cinema / 28 April 2022
28 April 2022
MARIA DUARTE of Downton Abbey: A New Era, We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, and Your Mum and Dad: A Devastating Truth
Nicolas Cage in The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent
Cinema / 21 April 2022
21 April 2022
Maria Duarte reviews Ennio, Happening, Firebird and The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent
A screenshot from Laura Wandel's film, Playground
Film of the Week: / 21 April 2022
21 April 2022
MARIA DUARTE recommends a challenging but honest portrayal of school life and the cruelties of children
Film round-up: April 19, 2022
Culture / 14 April 2022
14 April 2022
Maria Duarte reviews The Northman, The Lost City, Benedetta, and The Great Movement
Ruth Wilson
Cinema / 31 March 2022
31 March 2022
The Star's critic Maria Duarte reviews True Things, The Novice, Coppelia, and Morbius
BBC Extinction Rebellion
Film Of The Week / 31 March 2022
31 March 2022
MARIA DUARTE recommends a compelling behind-the-scenes documentary about the founding of Extinction Rebellion and its summer of mass protests in 2019
A scene from Young Plato
Cinema / 10 March 2022
10 March 2022
The Star's critic Maria Duarte review Great Freedom, Young Plato, Turning Red, The Adam Project and Sideshow
Red Rocket
Film Of The Week: / 10 March 2022
10 March 2022
MARIA DUARTE recommends a dark comedy set in a blue collar US town on the cusp of the Trump era
Jim Broadbent
Film of the Week / 24 February 2022
24 February 2022
MARIA DUARTE recommends a film celebrating the man who stole a masterpiece from the National Gallery in his campaign for free TV licences for the elderly
Charlie Chaplin
Film of the Week / 17 February 2022
17 February 2022
MARIA DUARTE recommends a documentary exploring the rags-to-riches transformation of Charlie Chaplin into a global superstar — a brilliant but troubled performer, with a dark side.
Eyes of Tammy Faye
Film Of The Week: / 3 February 2022
3 February 2022
MARIA DUARTE recommends a biopic charting the extraordinary rise and fall of televangelists Tammy Faye Bakker and her husband Jim, who championed tolerance and had a devoted following
Parallel Mothers
Film of the Week / 27 January 2022
27 January 2022
MARIA DUARTE recommends a subtle and compelling drama about motherhood and the missing thousands executed by Franco’s forces, buried in unmarked graves
belfast
BFI London Film Festival 2021 / 20 October 2021
20 October 2021
Away from the awards razzmatazz The Tragedy of Macbeth, Belfast, The Hand of Dog, The French Dispatch and Benediction deliver beyond expectations, days MARIA DUARTE
Eating Our Way To Extinction
Film Of The Week: / 16 September 2021
16 September 2021
MARIA DUARTE recommends a shocking documentary about the ecological devastation caused by the intensive agriculture which feeds our desire for meat and dairy products
Herself
FILM OF THE WEEK: / 9 September 2021
9 September 2021
MARIA DUARTE recommends a shocking and turbulent film about a mother’s struggle to escape her abusive husband and build a new home for her family
Souad
Film of the Week / 26 August 2021
26 August 2021
MARIA DUARTE recommends a fascinating insight into the private and public lives of teenage Egyptian girls 
sabaya
FILM OF THE WEEK / 18 August 2021
18 August 2021
MARIA DUARTE is shattered by a documentary that exposes the repugnant inhumanity of Isis
Riders of Justice
FILM OF THE WEEK / 21 July 2021
21 July 2021
MARIA DUARTE recommends a decidedly offbeat revenge thriller
Black Widow
FILM OF THE WEEK / 8 July 2021
8 July 2021
MARIA DUARTE welcomes the first solo film for Marvel's Black Widow
Jon M Chu's In the Heights
FILM OF THE WEEK / 17 June 2021
17 June 2021
MARIA DUARTE is inspired by an uplifting musical about Hispanic immigrants making a home for themselves in New York City
SENDING A MESSAGE: Dan Edelstyn and Hilary Powell
FILM OF THE WEEK / 26 May 2021
26 May 2021
MARIA DUARTE recommends a timely exposé of the insidious financial practice of buying and selling debts
ALL ABOUT HISTORY: From left: Israel’s then prime minister
FILM OF THE WEEK / 20 May 2021
20 May 2021
MARIA DUARTE recommends a behind-the-scenes look at the decades-long involvement of US diplomats in the Middle East
OUTSTANDING: Ivan Trojan in Charlatan
FILM OF THE WEEK / 6 May 2021
6 May 2021
MARIA DUARTE is intrigued by the fascinating tale of a Czech herbal healer who diagnosed his patients by examining their urine
ggjgj
FILM OF THE WEEK / 29 April 2021
29 April 2021
MARIA DUARTE recommends an understated drama about a woman who loses everything and becomes a van-dwelling nomad in the American West
AFFECTING: Sequin in a Blue Room
FILM OF THE WEEK / 8 April 2021
8 April 2021
MARIA DUARTE is mesmerised by an arresting, queer coming-of-age story from Down Under
Ammonite
Film Of The Week: / 25 March 2021
25 March 2021
MARIA DUARTE is intrigued by the life of Mary Anning, a palaeontologist and fossil collector, whose discoveries were either overlooked or appropriated by her male peers
Mio Corpo (12A), directed by Michele Pennetta
Film of the Week / 10 December 2020
10 December 2020
A poignant docudrama about two young Sicilians leading parallel, impoverished lives
Overseas Directed by Sung-A Yoon
Film of the Week / 26 November 2020
26 November 2020
Maria Duarte is moved by a harrowing documentary about Filipino overseas domestic workers, far from home and their families, who face appalling treatment at the hands of their employers
Film Of The Week / 12 November 2020
12 November 2020
Maria Duarte recommends a touching portrayal of a troubled Appalachian childhood
BFI
FILM FESTIVAL / 12 October 2020
12 October 2020
MARIA DUARTE samples some hard-hitting offerings at this year's 64th BFI London Film Festival
Film round-up: September 10, 2020
CINEMA / 9 September 2020
9 September 2020
Reviews of Real, Savage, The Broken Hearts Gallery, Max Richter’s Sleep, The Painted Bird, Memories of Murder and The Unfamiliar
Film round-up: September 3, 2020
CINEMA / 3 September 2020
3 September 2020
Reviews of Les Miserables, I'm Thinking of Ending Things, Mulan and Koko-di, Koko-da
Film round-up: August 27, 2020
CINEMA / 26 August 2020
26 August 2020
Reviews of Tenet, The Lost Prince, Centigrade, Love You Forever and Get Duked!
Film round-up: August 21, 2020
CINEMA / 19 August 2020
19 August 2020
Reviews of Perfumes, Yes God Yes, Chemical Hearts, The One and Only Ivan and Chemical Hearts
Film round-up: August 6, 2020
CINEMA / 5 August 2020
5 August 2020
Reviews of Young Ahmed, An American Pickle, Perfect, The Snow Queen: Mirrorlands and Flash Gordon
Film The Fight
FILM OF THE WEEK / 29 July 2020
29 July 2020
MARIA DUARTE recommends a documentary on the disintegration of civil liberties during the Trump administration
azaza
CINEMA / 29 July 2020
29 July 2020
Reviews of Infamous, The Vigil, Make Up, Summerland and Proxima
Film round-up: July 23, 2020
CINEMA / 22 July 2020
22 July 2020
Reviews of Saint Frances, Stage Mother, The Traitor, American Fighter and CoinCoin and the Extra-Humans