STEVEN ANDREW is moved beyond words by a historical account of mining in Britain made from the words of the miners themselves
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Film round-up
Reviews of Young Ahmed, An American Pickle, Perfect, The Snow Queen: Mirrorlands and Flash Gordon
CAILEAN MCBRIDE welcomes a refreshing and timely study of the way officialdom creates structures that exclude LGBT+ rights and humanity
The bard mourns the loss of comrades and troubadours, and looks for consolation with Black Country Jess
CHRIS MOSS relishes the painting and the life story of a self-taught working-class artist from Warrington
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by a star-studded adaptation of Ibsen’s play that is devoid of believable humanity
GORDON PARSONS is fascinated by a unique dream journal collected by a Jewish journalist in Nazi Berlin
Borrowed Time: Lennon’s Last Decade, Parthenope, Where Dragons Live and Thunderbolts* reviewed by MICHAL BONCZA and MARIA DUARTE
Young Ahmed (NR)
Directed by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne
★★★
HOW does a studious, video game-loving Belgian teenage boy turn into a radicalised Muslim, hell-bent on killing his teacher? Can a blossoming friendship with a girl his own age who challenges his fanatical beliefs be enough to bring him around?
Those are the questions posed by this very powerful and slow-burning drama from writer-directors the Dardenne brothers.
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