EWAN CAMERON picks out two fascinating music shows, fusing the Korean, and the Celtic, with the modern
Family matters
That’s the poignant theme of an excellent comedy drama as relatives attempt to hide the truth of her impending demise from a feisty matriarch, says MARIA DUARTE
BENJAMIN POTHIER suggests that Palaeolithic cave paintings in Spain point to the ceremonial use of hallucinogenic flora
The bard confirms that the right has a humour bypass, and replays the English Revolution on period instruments
MARIA DUARTE and ANDY HEDGECOCK review Sunny Dancer, Tony, Songs of Forgotten Trees, and The End of Oak Street
JOHN GREEN relishes a powerful and moving drama that explores the lived realities of west London’s Punjabi community
MARTIN HALL welcomes a plea for greater compassion between believer and non-believer via the framework of philosophical enquiry
The Farewell (PG)
Directed by Lulu Wang
LULU WANG’S The Farewell is a poignant film about the complexities of family dynamics, the clash of cultures and whether it is ever OK to withhold the truth from loved ones.
It centres on the Chinese-born but US-raised Billi (Awkwafina), who reluctantly returns to Changchun to see her grandmother and family matriarch Nai-Nai (Shuzhen Zhao).
She has been given just weeks to live but the rest of the family has agreed not to tell her and they all return home under the guise of a cousin’s impromptu wedding. It has been decades since they have all been together but Nai-Nai is none the wiser.
Similar stories
MARIA DUARTE and ANDY HEDGECOCK review Sunny Dancer, Tony, Songs of Forgotten Trees, and The End of Oak Street
ANDY HEDGECOCK, MARIA DUARTE and ANGUS REID review Synthetic Sincerity, Our Hero, Balthazar, Heartstopper Forever, and A Year In London
MARIA DUARTE, JAMES WALSH and ANDY HEDGECOCK review The Invite, My Father’s Island, Nirvanna: the Band, the Show, the Movie, and Oh My Goodness!
ANGUS REID recommends a very unusual documentary: a love story between two disillusioned journalists