Review by Professor Robert Abrams, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York Review of The Truffle Hunters (directed by Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw, Italy, 2020), available from Amazon Prime The Truffle Hunters is a subtle, cinematically beautiful documentary, drawn from the personal stories of a group of aging Italian truffle hunters. Taken together, these stories celebrate […]
Category: Film and Media
Justice for Indigenous People
Film Review by Khalid Ali, Film and Media Correspondent Wednesday 9th August 2023 marks the International Day of the World’s Indigenous People celebrated by the United Nations (UN). The day commemorates the first meeting of the UN Working Group on Indigenous Populations held in Geneva in 1982. According to UN statistics, there is an estimated […]
Italian Nurses in Crisis, interview with Mattia Colombo and Gianluca Matarrese, co-directors of documentary film ‘Il Posto’ (Italy, 2023)
Interview by Khalid Ali ‘Il Posto’ is showing on Saturday 24 June at Bertha DocHouse, as part of the Cinecittà Italian Docs season, https://dochouse.org/event/italian-doc-season-a-steady-job/ The report ‘Sustain and Retain in 2022 and beyond’ showed how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted on the already fragile state of the global nursing workforce.1 The situation in Italy is […]
Doctors Learning Storytelling and Interpersonal Skills from TV
Series Review Khalid Ali, Film and Media Correspondent Reflections on Seventh Year Itch (TV series, directed by Karim El Shennawy, Egypt, 2023) available on Shahid MBC Integrating medical education with arts and humanities has provided great opportunities for medical students to hone their communication skills and desirable qualities such as respect and empathy.1 Combining the […]
Find Where Light in Darkness Lies (“Love’s Labour’s Lost”, William Shakespeare)
Film Review by Franco Ferrarini, gastroenterologist, and film reviewer ‘Empire of Light’, Sam Mendes, UK, 2022 Set in the early 80’s, Hilary (Olivia Colman) is a middle-aged woman working as a duty-manager at the “Empire”, a movie theatre in Margate, Kent. ‘’Find where light in darkness lies’’ is the caption from Shakespeare’s ‘Love’s Labour’s Lost’ […]
Listen to Me
Film Review by Robert Abrams Buzz (short film, Sudan 2022, directed by Mohamed Fawi, produced by Amjad Abu Alala, distributed by Mad Solutions), world Premiere at the 2022 Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF) Buzz, a new short film created by the visionary director Mohamed Fawi, presents, in just under 20 minutes, several different themes that […]
Giuseppe Tornatore, A Master of Italian Cinema Constantly Reflecting on the Past
Film Review by Franco Ferrarini, Gastroenterologist and Film Reviewer ‘Film Legends Among Us’ series There is no future, Salvatore: only the past exists. (Quote from “Cinema Paradiso”) Giuseppe Tornatore is an Italian film director and screenwriter who, after the Golden era from the ‘50s to the ‘70’s led by Federico Fellini and Luchino Visconti, restored […]
With or Without Antidepressants, An Ongoing Dilemma
Film Review by Khalid Ali, Film and Media Correspondent ‘Farah’ (Hassiba Freiha, Kenton Oxley, Lebanon, 2022), released in Lebanese cinemas on 24th November 2022, Winner of Jury Award at Chelsea Film Festival, New York A recent systematic review postulated that the serotonin theory as an underlying biochemical basis for depression is not substantiated by robust […]
How Condors Die
Film Review by Professor Robert Abrams, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York ‘Utama’ (Directed by Alejandro Loayza Grisi, produced by Alma Films/La Mayor Cine, Bolivia, 2022), Winner of the Grand Jury Prize, Sundance Film Festival, in general release in UK cinemas on 25th November 2022 Utama (“our home” in the Quechua language), written and directed by […]
Abuse of Trust: A Psychiatrist Eroding Professional Boundaries
Film Review by Khalid Ali, Film and Media Correspondent ‘The Shrink Next Door’ (TV miniseries directed by Michael Showalter and Jesse Peretz, USA, 2021, available on Apple TV). Caution: this review contains plot spoilers Psychiatrist-patient stories have been a prominent theme in American cinema; ‘Analyze This’ (Harold Ramis, USA, 1999), ‘Side Effects’ (Steven Soderbergh, USA, 2013), and ‘To the Bone’ (Marti […]