Review of Wrath of Silence directed by Xin Yukun, China 2017 Screened at London Film Festival 2017, seeking UK distribution in 2018 Review by Professor Robert Abrams, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York Wrath of Silence, an ‘indie’ film from China tells a painful story. It is filled with starkly incompatible ideas and images, juxtaposing […]
Category: Film and Media
Cinema, Memory and Wellbeing in Brazil
This blog post comes from Dr Lisa Shaw, Reader in Brazilian Studies at the University of Liverpool. She is author of Popular Cinema in Brazil (Manchester UP, 2004) and Brazilian National Cinema (Routledge, 2007), both with Stephanie Dennison, and The Social History of Brazilian Samba (Ashgate, 1999) and Carmen Miranda (BFI-Palgrave Macmillan). She appears in the BBC4 […]
Sex, Lies and Razor-Blades
Review of The Wound (Inxeba), directed by John Trengove, South Africa Winner of the best first feature film award, London Film Festival 2017 Opening film for Film Africa Festival, London, 27th October, Recently Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) issues have been the subject of heated debate in South Africa. While South Africa remains […]
Dangerous Liaisons: Egyptian Style
Our film and media correspondent, Khalid Ali, reviews Sheikh Jackson (Egypt 2017), directed by Amr Salama Showing at the London Film Festival (LFF), 5, 7, and 12th October 2017 Amr Salama is no stranger to the LFF; his films Asmaa, and Excuse My French showed at the LFF in 2011 and 2014 respectively to great […]
Exploring Disability in Film
Our film and media correspondent, Dr Khalid Ali, reports on the London Film Festival which takes place from the 4th to the 15th of October 2017. Andrei Tarkovsky, the Russian director, once said that ‘art portrays the desire of human beings to achieve a balance between their materialistic needs and moral standards’. The attitudes of […]
Fleeing a Spider’s Web
Enemy, directed by Denis Villeneuve, Canada-Spain, 2013 Reviewed by Dr Franco Ferrarini, Gastroenterologist and Film Reviewer Adapted from Josè Saramago’s novel The Double, Enemy is an intriguing film directed by Denis Villeneuve. The film narrative employs multiple metaphors, embedded in a dream-like environment, which may be difficult to notice or fully understand at first […]
Beautiful/ Dutiful Anhedonia
Film review: ‘My Father’, directed by Mohammed Adel, Egypt 2015 Reviewed by Professor Robert Abrams, Weill Cornell University, New York ‘My Father’ is a subtly crafted short film of unusual finesse that portrays the reality of caregiving for the elderly, particularly its emotional burdens and costs. An older man, wheelchair-bound and with a below-knee amputation, […]
Mohammed Adel on his short film, ‘My Father’
Egyptian director, Mohammed Adel, writes about his short film, ‘My Father’, which shows the difficulties of caring for his father in the weeks before his death. Writing about my short documentary film ‘My Father’ is not an easy task, just like when I started thinking of making the film itself. This is not because ‘writing’ […]
Film Activism: Science, Art and Social Reform
Our Screening Room editor, Khalid Ali (Khalid.ali@bsuh.nhs.uk), interviews film director and producer James Redford. Activism is defined as ‘efforts to promote or direct social, political, economic and/or environmental reform to make improvements in society’. James Redford, documentary filmmaker, producer, and humanitarian uses documentary filmmaking to truly earn the title of a ‘film activist’. I met […]
After the Storm: Liberation and Hope in Later Life
After the Storm (Kore-eda Hirokazu, Japan 2016), in UK Cinemas from 2nd June 2017 Reviewed by Khalid Ali, Screening Room editor Japan is well known for its relatively traditional social structures, a predetermined life course that heavily influences career choices. Kore-eda Hirokazu’s latest film After the Storm explores those paradigms through the story of Ryota […]