Sombre documentary shot over five years follows two healthcare workers as they deliver babies in a brutally divided societySnow Hnin Ei Hlaing’s documentary is about two midwives – one Buddhist, one Muslim – in Rakhine state in western Myanmar, on the …
Invisible Demons review – pollution nightmare in Delhi means apocalypse now
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…
My Sunny Maad review – culture shock animation for woman’s Afghan love
Despite its visual appeal, the characters in Czech animator Michaela Pavlátová’s clash-of-values family drama struggle to get past sorrowful stereotypesPost-Taliban Kabul is seen through the eyes of a Czech bride in this new film from acclaimed animati…
Less Bollywood, more Tollywood: how Indian cinema’s hit machine flopped
Big releases with usually bankable male stars criticised for formulaic storylines as audience taste evolvesThe opening of a new big-name Bollywood film was once a national event across India, greeted by weeks of fanfare, long queues outside cinemas and…
I never saw plays about people like me on Australian stages. Writing my own has shown me a good story connects with everyone | Saman Shad
Audiences appreciate seeing a difference slice of life and will lose themselves in the story – you just need to give them the chanceThere’s a moment in my play when one of the characters Bill is trying to convince the protagonist Nas to go away on a ho…
Chup: Revenge of the Artist review – a killer Bollywood horror to frighten film critics
A thriller that skewers the tense film-maker/reviewer relationship in this tale of a Mumbai serial killer out for revenge on careless journalists Director R Balki must have got a kick out of writing this very enjoyable poison-pen letter to film critici…
Post your questions for Freida Pinto
The actor will answer questions on Thursday on anything from her new film Mr Malcolm’s List to her career in movies such as Slumdog MillionaireMumbai-born actor Freida Pinto found fame after being cast in 2008’s Slumdog Millionaire: she had been worki…
My Childhood, My Country: 20 Years in Afghanistan review – desperately sad study of a boy’s life
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 …
‘A new way of life’: the Marxist, post-capitalist, green manifesto captivating Japan
Kohei Saito’s book Capital in the Anthropocene has become an unlikely hit among young people and is about to be translated into EnglishThe climate crisis will spiral out of control unless the world applies “emergency brakes” to capitalism and devises a…
Brahmastra Part One: Shiva review – peppy superhero franchise starter
Bollywood’s answer to the Marvel Cinematic Universe is a star-studded special effects extravaganza with Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt as convincing romantic leadsAmid a woeful 2022 so far, this almost feels like Hindi mainstream cinema’s last roll of th…
The cycle of life and death: the Hindu festival of Ganesh Chaturthi
After a couple of years of subdued celebrations, the Mumbai crowds are back out in force bringing more and bigger idols – but with a greater awareness of their environmental impact Text and photographs by Catherine DavisonThe orange shirts of hundreds …
Silence review – a potent and poetic telling of the partition of India
Donmar Warehouse, LondonThe stage adaptation of Kavita Puri’s extraordinary oral history project is at times superficial and blunt but also deeply movingFew English-language writers have catalogued the real, lived experience of partition, that bloody h…
K-everything: the rise and rise of Korean culture
From music to movies, technology to food, the world has fallen in love with everything South Korean. Ahead of a big London exhibition, Tim Adams visits Seoul in search of the origins of hallyu – the Korean waveOur critics on where to start with Korean …
South Korea considers survey on boyband BTS members’ military service
K-pop band’s oldest member, Jin, faces enlistment in December when he turns 30South Korea may conduct a public survey to help determine whether to grant exemption to the mandatory military service to members of the K-pop boy band BTS.The question of a…
‘To sing in Kashmiri is political’: Ali Saffudin, the singer-songwriter who smuggled his album to the world
Influenced by Led Zeppelin, the 29-year-old’s debut album almost didn’t get made because of a communications blackout. He talks about the blues, the Kashmiri spirit and the fight for freedom‘If someone like Neil Young or Bob Marley were born in Kashmir…