All articles by Dan Fainaru – Page 28
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Reviews
Good Man Dog
Dir: Singing Chen. Taiwan, 2007. 118 mins.Singing Chen's bleak but richly-detailed portrait of contemporary Taiwan has elicited praise for its artistic ambitions but will do well to move past the festival world and into art-house release.Her second feature boast four separate stories, each playing out separately with occasional overlap until ...
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Reviews
Guilty (Coupable)
Dir: Laetitia Masson. France , 2007. 107 mins.There is no better way to kill off a thriller than to leave the audience completely indifferent to its characters. In Guilty (Coupable), Laetitia Masson has written herself all the elements of a classic noir: a murder, two suspects, a plain-clothes policeman and ...
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Reviews
Julia
Dir: Erick Zonca. France , 2008. 138 mins.Overlong, overblown and underscripted, Erick Zonca's first theatrical feature in 10 years hangs together by a single thread: Tilda Swinton's breathless performance as an in-denial alcoholic who finds herself implicated, out of sheer drunken gullibility, in the kidnapping of a child for ransom.But ...
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Reviews
Lemon Tree
Dir: Eran Riklis. Israel/Germany/France, 2008. 106 minsIn Lemon Tree, director Eran Riklis once again looks at the Arab-Israeli conflict from a human perspective, showing how, in a climate of suspicion and mistrust, politics can crush all who get in the way. Penned by his Syrian Bride collaborator Suha Arraf, this ...
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Reviews
In Love We Trust (Zuo You)
Dir: Wang Xiaoshuai. China, 2008. 115 mins.With In Love We Trust, Sixth Generation director Wang Xiaoshuai presents what can only be described as natural tearjerker material - leukaemia, divorce, infidelity - in the milieu of the Chinese middle class and delivers an uneven picture which attempts the impossible and fails ...
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Reviews
Mermaid
Dir: Anna Melikyan. Russia, 2007. 118 mins.Azerbaijani director Anna Melkian's second feature opens Berlin' Panorama section with a World Cinema Director's award from Sundance and solid box office at home in Russia under its belt (her first, Mars, was also shown in Panorama at Berlin).A coming-of-age fairytale with dark undertones, ...
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Reviews
The Sun Street Boys
Dir: Gyorgy Szomjas. Hungary , 2008. 89minsFar superior to last year's Hungarian box-office champion Children of Glory, Gyorgy Szomjas' new film tells a very similar story, namely the 1956 uprising against the prevailing communist regime. But it has a different narrative accent and is less adroit at tugging the heartstrings ...
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Reviews
Wonderful Town
Dir: Aditya Assarat. Thailand, 2007. 92 minsAditya Assarat's first feature, a tragic, melancholy, minimalist love story taking place in what was once a Thai beach resort before the 2004 tsunami hit, offers a poignant portrait of a place grappling with the loss of its main source of income amid the ...
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Features
Turkey - Road movies
For the last 13 years Basak Emre and Ahmet Boyacioglu have been bringing world cinema to the farthest corners of Turkey. Their European Film Festival on Wheels, running since 1995, starts in late autumn in Ankara, then, for the following month, stages repeat performances of the programme in at least ...
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Reviews
Vasermil
Dir: Mushon Salmona. Israel. 2007. 95minsClosely related to the socially-engaged films of Ken Loach and Shane Meadows, Mushon Salmona's debut compensates for his lack of experience with a healthy dose of anger and frustration. Set in the provincial town Beer Sheba where he grew up, Salmona situates his three interwoven ...
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Reviews
El Greco
Dir. Yannis Smaragdis. Greece / Spain / Hungary, 2007. 107minsHaving picked up the Greek cinema State Award on top of the Audience Award at Thessaloniki, this is undisputedly this year's favourite Greek film, racking over 600,000 admissions and still going strong. An historical pageant adapted from a fictional biography by ...
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Reviews
The Photograph
Dir: Nan Triveni Achnas. Indonesia/France. 2007. 98min.Sentiment can be a good thing but laying it on as thick as Nan Triveni Achnas does in The Photograph risks exhausting the patience of even the staunchest soap opera fan. A weepie about the country girl in the big city who has to ...
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Reviews
Spare
Dir: Lee Seong Han. S Korea. 2007. 105min.Intermittently funny but always energetic, this spoof action film displays the kind of flair and attitude that will win fans at home and attract the interest of many film festivals especially for midnight screenings. Lee Seong Han, a fan of the Hong Kong ...
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Reviews
The Red Awn (Hongse Kangbaiyin)
Dir.Cai Shangjun. China. 2007. 108minsAlready established as a highly successful screenwriter whose work with Zhang Yang on Shower and Sunflower won international kudos, Cai Shangjun steps behind the camera for the first time with a film whose theme - a father-son relationship - has informed his previous work. A simple, ...
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Reviews
Epitaph
Dir. Jung Brothers. Korea, 2007. 98 min.The performance of Epitaphin Koreancinemas in August was relatively disappointing with just 600,000 admissions but much of the blame was put on the release date. However, the film itself must have something to do with it: this mystifying, often confused first filmlooks much better ...
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Reviews
Epitaph
Dir. Jung Brothers. Korea, 2007. 98 minsThe performance of Epitaph in Korean cinemas in August was relatively disappointing with just 600,000 admissions but much of the blame was put on the release date. However, the film itself must have something to do with it: this mystifying, often confused first film ...
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News
As Band's Visit is axed from Oscar race, Beaufort is putforward
The Israeli Film Academy is in an uproar over the 2008 Oscars, as the country's expected contender was disqualified and a replacement has now been submitted.Eran Kolirin's The Band's Visit, which has been voted hands down by the Academy as the best Israeli film of the year, has been disqualified ...
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Reviews
Evangelion 1.0: You Are (Not) Alone
Dir. Hideaki Anno, Kazuya Tsurumaki,Masayuki. Japan, 2007. 98 min.Pusan's closing night film is brash, loud, colourful but pretty confusing if you are not acquainted withthe ins and outs of the original 1995 anime TV series. It is already a hit in Japan where millions watched its final television episode. But ...
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Reviews
Tribe (Tribu)
Dir. Jim Meer Libiran. Philippines, 2007. 95 min.Winner of this year's Cinemalaya top award and bound for a solid festival career around the world, Jim Libiran's vibrant debut goes back to the Manila slums, which have become lately the favourite spot for cinema in the Philippines. Thispowerful but downbeat portrait ...
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Reviews
Tribe (Tribu)
Dir. Jim Meer Libiran. Philippines, 2007. 95minsWinner of this year's Cinemalaya top award and bound for a solid festival career around the world, Jim Libiran's vibrant debut goes back to the Manila slums, which have become lately the favourite spot for cinema in the Philippines. Thispowerful but downbeat portrait of ...