The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE recommends an impressive impersonation of Bob Dylan
Film round-up: August 15, 2024
Inside Afghanistan, Chinese crime thriller, entertaining pants and Alien deja vu: the Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews Hollywoodgate, Only The River Flows, Jackpot! and Alien Romulus
The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews Here, Vermiglio, William Tell and Wolf Man
New releases from Thorpe and Morrison, Daria Kulesh, and Will Finn and Rosie Calvert
RINA ARYA confronts the brutal operation of Francis Bacon’s approach to portraiture
Emphasising his continuous engagement in labour movement struggles, ALISTAIR FINDLAY salutes John Foster’s contribution as activist, strategist, intellectual and defender of the Morning Star
ANDY MIAH advocates the use of AI to assist people by expanding access to global literature and culture
EWAN KOTZ relishes a veteran Glasgow band that have lost none of their verve for live performance
Hollywoodgate (12A)
Directed by Ibrahim Nash’at
★★★★
“WHY is he filming? asks a member of the Taliban. “He is making a documentary… Documenting our everyday lives both civilian and military for a year. If his intentions are bad he will die soon.” Chilling words from a Taliban commander about Egyptian film-maker Ibrahim Nash’at.
The Taliban agreed to let him film Mawlawi Mansour, the new head of Afghanistan’s air force whose father was killed by US forces, and MJ Mukhtar, a former Taliban fighter now with dreams of an illustrious military career, from the moment US troops left Kabul and Taliban forces took the city on August 31 2021.
He captures Mansour and his team entering Hollywood Gate, a secret CIA base, and checking what the US left behind.
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