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 […]
Tag: film review
A Fantastic Voyage into the Human Body and Soul
Film Review by Khalid Ali, Film and Media Correspondent ‘De Humani Corporis Fabrica’ (Lucien Giles Castaing-Taylor, Verena Paravel, France, 2022), showing on 14th and 16th of October 2022 at the London Film Festival. The human body and soul have always been an enigma for creative artists to decode in their work. Lucien Giles Castaing-Taylor and […]
Dehumanising Old Age, Devaluing Care, and Dismantling the NHS
Film Review by Khalid Ali, Film and Media Correspondent ‘Allelujah’ (Richard Eyre, UK, 2022) showing at the London Film Festival on 9th and 11th October Alan Bennett’s 2018 play ‘Allelujah’ was an insightful reflection on the big challenges currently facing the UK: an expanding population of octo and nonagenarians, limited health and social care resources, […]
Elham Shahin’s Recipe for Women’s Welfare and Social Reform
Khalid Ali, Film and Media Correspondent ‘Film Legends Among Us’ series The Arts Council of England’s model for measuring the impact of creative people encompasses three fundamental principles: actions, themes, and outcomes. Applying this model to the artistic career of the eminent Egyptian actress and producer, Elham Shahin, one can appreciate her influential position in […]
The Impostor Nurse and the Charlatan Doctor
Film Review by Khalid Ali, Film and Media Correspondent ‘Face and Back’ (Weish wa Dhahr) TV mini-series (directed by Mariam Abou Ouf, Egypt, 2022) available on https://shahid.mbc.net/ar (Arabic with English subtitles) The health of any society is strongly influenced by the socioeconomic status, and cultural, and spiritual beliefs of its population. These factors inform the […]
Finding Hope in Dementia
Film Review by Professor Robert Abrams, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York Vortex is everything its title implies—a terrifying eddy of misfortune from which its victims are powerless to escape. It is all about the ravages of dementia, the destruction of the human mind and its effect on those who love the person so afflicted. The […]
Families in Crisis, Futures on the Fence
Film Review by Professor Robert Abrams, Professor of Psychiatry, Weill-Cornell Medicine, New York Life Suits Me Well, directed by Mohamed Ulad-Mohand (Morocco, France, 2021) The title of the Moroccan film Life Suits Me Well (a translation of the original French La Vie Me Va Bien) is heavily weighted with irony. Despite its hopeful-sounding title, the […]
Angels of Death: When Healthcare Professionals become Murderers
Film Review by Franco Ferrarini, Introduced by Khalid Ali Healthcare professionals, especially doctors and nurses, have public trust to do the best for their patients when these patients are most vulnerable. Saving lives, maintaining patients’ safety and dignity are core principles of the care profession. Unfortunately, widely publicized cases have shown that some doctors can […]
Straight Talk: Call It By Its Name
Film Review by Professor Robert Abrams, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York Review of ‘Tacheles—The Heart of the Matter’, directed by Jana Matthes and Andrea Schramm (Germany, 2020), screened at the London Human Rights Watch Film Festival. In ‘Tacheles—The Heart of the Matter’, Yaar Harell, the real-life twenty-something grandson of Holocaust survivors, is troubled by […]
Emerging From The Tunnel of Trauma: A Season of Short Films at the BFI Future Film Festival
Film Review by Khalid Ali, Film and Media Correspondent 17-20 February 2022 The British Film Institute (BFI) Future Film Festival is aimed at aspiring filmmakers aged 16-25 years to showcase and share with a public audience their talent and vision through a hybrid series of events and screenings online and at the BFI Southbank, […]