投稿者: Cath Clarke
Tibetan directors, who all live outside Tibet, deliver a quartet of films that explore the pain of separation and migrationThe wrench of exile is the theme of this quartet of short films from Tibetan directors, who themselves all live outside Tibet. Th…
Pakistani animator Usman Riaz’s dazzling debut owes much to Hayao Miyazaki, founder of Japan’s legendary studio, even if the magic and wonder falls a little short of his heroGoing by the poster, it looks like Hayao Miyazaki, the founder of Japan’s lege…
Preeti Panigrahi is excellent as Mira, a prefect dealing with first love and, unusually, sex, as she navigates the patriarchy in 90s north India ‘Some teachers thought a girl wasn’t up to it,” says a veteran female teacher with a weary roll of the eye….
Two assessors ask questions but it’s the detail and nuance that is so compelling in this gently absorbing documentaryIn Bhutan, they measure progress not just by GDP, but also Gross National Happiness. This quiet, gently absorbing documentary follows t…
Two brave women stand up for human rights as hordes of Uzbeks are dragged from their workplaces to pick state cotton, in this compelling documentary exposing farming practices only just outlawedAs a child growing up in Uzbekistan, film-maker Michael Bo…
A tense, state-of-the-nation drama set in Covid-era India successfully exposes how the caste system underpins much of the country’s division and strife ‘No one ever plans for the poor,” says a young police officer in this tense, painful pandemic drama …
Entertaining new version of Pakistan cult movie follows a young noble boy spirited away to a poor village when a rival clan slaughters his parentsImagine Game of Thrones crossed with Gladiator and you’ll have something like this entertainingly old fash…
A despairing handwring of a film shows the effects of environmental crisis on India’s capital – with images as nightmarish as sci-fiEnvironmental doom is coming: as the planet heats up, it’s all going to get much worse. Nothing new there – but, terrify…
Phil Grabsky and Shoaib Sharifi have followed Mir for two decades in what is almost a brutal companion piece to Richard Linklater’s BoyhoodThis documentary following one boy’s life in Afghanistan feels like a brutal, desperately sad companion piece to …
Akshay Kumar is the noble-souled hero charged with marrying off his four sisters, while they are left mostly as figures of funIndian film-maker Aanand L Rai gives his very mediocre melodrama a campaigning message about the culture of dowry-paying, thou…
Eliza Kubarska’s documentary follows the plight of the Nepalis expected to take huge risks to aid western leisure pursuitsLike Jennifer Peedom’s 2015 film, Sherpa, this climbing documentary is more interested in the Nepali ethnic group than the western…
Kazakhstani caper sends Dastan off for one last fishing weekend with his mates before the baby arrives, but horror descends in more ways than oneDeliverance meets The Hangover in this wacky-but-slapdash horror-comedy from Kazakhstan. It’s juvenile, cra…
Éléonore Weber’s documentary, air-strike footage of pilots on night missions, could work well in a galleryThis hypnotic meditation on modern warfare from Éléonore Weber is an experimental cine-essay that feels closer to a gallery installation than a do…
Michal Sulima follows piano tuner Desmond O’Keeffe’s expedition to transport a piano to a village school high in the HimalayasThe lesson to be learned from Michal Sulima’s documentary is that if you’re planning to transport a piano to a village school …
An elderly English couple take a 5,000-mile road trip across India and Bangladesh in their Rolls-Royce in this gentle travel documentaryHere’s a gentle, low-stakes travel documentary about a couple’s 5,000-mile road trip across India and Bangladesh in …