Set in Gaza in 2007, Once Upon a Time in Gaza is a complex genre-bending drama from the Nasser brothers that blurs the line between reality and cinema. Mixing noir, Western, and political satire, it follows the lives of Palestinians lived under the zionist blockade, where love and loyalty coexist with occupation and concept of martyrdom.
Tag Archives: Portugal
Visions du Réel 2025 Review: “Afternoons of Solitude”
Albert Serra’s Afternoons of Solitude is a provocative, and unsettling documentary that explores the ‘art’ of bullfighting. While the ethicality of bullfighting hovers constantly over the film, Serra resists direct moralizing. He offers a raw, sensorial exploration of masculinity, performance, and spectacle, letting the audience sit with their own judgments. It becomes a strange, gorgeous character study of one man, bullfighter Andrés Roca Rey, and the hypermasculine, flamboyant culture that celebrates and consumes him.
Locarno 2023 Review: “Essential Truths of the Lake”
Essential Truths of the Lake, the latest work from acclaimed Philippine director Lav Diaz, arrives at the Locarno Film Festival as a fascinating prequel to last year’s When the Waves Are Gone. It is a film of contradiction, complexity, and deep resonance, weaving political commentary, existential pondering, and a grounded police procedural into a textured and innovative work.
Locarno 2023 Review: “Manga D’Terra”
“Manga D’Terra,” directed by the Swiss-Portuguese filmmaker Basil da Cunha, takes its audience into the heart of a struggle that is both poignant and profoundly moving. It narrates the story of Rosinha, a character played with astounding authenticity by Elina Rosa in her acting debut. Her narrative, set in a strife-torn neighborhood of Portugal, marries social realism with elements of musical genre, culminating in a film that speaks on multiple levels about pain, desperation, dreams, and ultimately, resilience.
Cannes 2023 Review: ´The Buriti Flower´
Renée Nader Messora and João Salaviza´s ‘The Buriti Flower’ is an engrossing cinematic experience that had its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. It weaves a naturalistic narrative around an Indigenous community of the Krahô people in Brazil. While the film occasionally blurs the line between fiction and documentary, it ultimately serves to drive home the poignant realities faced by the Indigenous community and their fight for justice.
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