Deconstructing Empathy in Saudi Film ‘The Night Courier’ (Mandoob)

‘Mandoob’ (The Night Courier), Ali Kalthami, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, 2023 In UK cinemas from Friday 30th August 2024 Review by Khalid Ali, Film and Media Correspondent Empathy is a desirable quality in all healthcare professionals. In a seminal article Decety argues that educationalists and learners should start by approaching the sometimes-amorphous concept of ‘empathy’ […]

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“How Much Would They Give for a Heart?”

Film Review by Robert Abrams, Emeritus Professor, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York ‘Dirty Difficult Dangerous’ (Wissam Charaf, Lebanon, 2023) Dirty Difficult Dangerous opens as Ahmed (Ziad Jallad), a young Syrian refugee, walks the streets of Beirut, calling out the Arabic refrain of “Iron! Copper! Batteries” in the hope of exchanging old metal parts for cash. […]

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Tears on Tears: A Career Built on the Tragedies of Others

Tár (Todd Field, USA, 2022) Review by Franco Ferrarini, gastroenterologist, and film reviewer Lydia Tár (Cate Blanchett) is a world-famous conductor. Her fame is not just due to her achieving the prestigious position of being the director of the Berlin Philharmonic, but also for being the first female chief conductor reaching this position. However, she […]

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The Paradox of Memory

Film Review of Memory (Michel Franco, USA, 2023) by Dr Khalid Ali, film, and media correspondent Film is on UK and Irish cinemas from Friday 23.2.2024,  https://memoryfilm.uk/ Michel Franco, award-winning Mexican film director (figure 1), is a keen observer of the nature and dynamics of relationships between ailing patients and their paid carers. In ‘Chronic’ […]

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Fifty Years of Scary Scanners: Time to Exorcise a Movie Cliché?

Blog by Michael Jackson, Chair British Society for the History of Radiology (BSHR), and Arpan K Banerjee, Chair International Society for the History of Radiology (ISHRAD) This year, 2023, saw the passing of acclaimed movie director William Friedkin, whose films include The French Connection (1971), and Sorcerer (1977), and To live and die in LA […]

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Saluting Our Sisters from Sudan and South Sudan

Film Review by Khalid Ali, film and media correspondent Goodbye Julia (Mohamed Kordofani, Sudan, 2023), screening on 14th and 15th October at the London Film Festival, https://whatson.bfi.org.uk/lff//online/default.asp?BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::permalink=goodbye-julia-lff23 Winner of the Freedom Prize, Un Certain Regard, Cannes Film Festival 2023. Alert: this review contains spoilers The riots, looting, and violence that erupted in Khartoum in 2005 […]

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Of Dogs and Men (and Aging)

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 […]

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