Best Premiere Viewings of March 2025

FEATURES:

1. Dreaming Is Not Sleeping (Rouzbeh Rashidi, 2025)

Read the review HERE.

2. David and Lisa (Frank Perry, 1962)

“Normal is not the norm, it’s just a uniform.”

(Delain, We Are the Others)

One of the sweetest love stories to ever grace the silver screen, David and Lisa marks the feature debut for a number of cast and crew members – the director and his screenwriter wife (first-time using her own name, and not a gender-bender moniker), actors Janet Margolin (radiant as the titular heroine), and Jaime Sánchez, the cinematographer Leonard Hirschfield, composer Mark Lawrence, and editor Irving Oshman. Their fresh energies combined make for an engaging film in which a sensitive topic such as mental disorders is treated with utmost care and respect. The setting is a boarding school for psychologically disturbed youngsters, and its newest protégé is an intelligent and sophisticated teenager, David (Keir Dullea, superb), whose haughty demeanor is a facade built due to a lackluster emotional upbringing, not to mention thanatophobia reflected in his severe fear of touch, and nightmares of decapitation. Gradually melting his icy aura is Lisa – a ‘pearl of a girl’ suffering dissociative identity disorder, speaking in rhymes, and – despite the limited screen time – acting as the story’s big, candid and gentle heart. Their romance blossoms in an unhurried pace, as Perry shows and elicits from the viewer great sympathy and understanding for his broken characters, without resorting to overly saccharine tactics, and finding a strong support in Hirschfield’s meticulous framing of the protagonists’ beautiful faces.

3. La chouette aveugle / The Blind Owl (Raúl Ruiz, 1987)

“Fatima, according to a curious superstition, believed she could capture images in her right hand and sound in her left hand. According to her, it was easy enough to trap them by leaving her hand open for a few moments in front of a projector... She was convinced that these images and sounds had a very high nutritional value.”

Borrowing elements from Sadegh Hedayat’s (nonlinear) novel of the same name, as well as from Tirso de Molina’s play Damned by Despair, The Blind Owl is the most delirious of Ruiz’s films I’ve seen so far. A meditation on cinema, death, identity, duality, and obsessive love, it is a mind-boggling, eye-pleasing, linguistically wily, and wryly witty tale of... well, it’s hard to determine exactly, but let’s say, madness as the intrinsic part of human condition. Metafilmic at its core, it plunges you into a volatile, fever dream-like world of Kafkaesque absurdities, Borgesian puzzles, and shifting perspectives, with its convoluted structure bolstered by shadow-infested cinematography from Patrice Cologne. The highly expressive lighting alone is the reason enough to see it.

4. Esquizo (Ricardo Bofill, 1970)

“I have the biggest patience and electricity in the world. God is the universe. I am the owner of the world. Therefore, I am God. Revolution is in progress and men will become demi-gods. Democracy doesn’t exist.”

A pseudo-documentary filtered through the prism of speculative fiction, and dubbed A Fictitious Report on the Architecture of the Brain, the only feature offering from acclaimed Catalan architect Ricardo Bofill portrays the mind of a schizophrenic woman as a piece of performance art. Intersected by the footage of real mentally disordered patients, naked boys playing in the sand, and animal carcasses in the slaughterhouse, it can be viewed as a simulacrum of life under a fascist regime, especially when the ‘omnipotent’ voice-over is taken into consideration. Miraculously surviving the Francoist censors (or was it too clever for them?), it has stood the test of time, and now – when the liberties are increasingly endangered all around the globe – its relevance couldn’t be more pronounced. A challenging experiment that may be dismissed as ‘pretentious’ by the mainstream audience, Esquizo also exposes “the lack of understanding, the lack of sympathy, the lack even of seeing or being incapable of visualizing how some people suffer, how incomprehensible their anguish is”. (Daniel Kasman, Rotterdam 2016. Acting Out)

5. Boof-e koor / The Blind Owl (Kioumars Derambakhsh, 1975)

“Only death never tells a lie.”

Faithfully adapting a part of Sadegh Hedayat’s masterful novella of the same name, Kioumars Derambakhsh (1945-2020) manages to capture the spirit, if not all the layers and ellipses of the source material in his first (and only?) fiction featurette. A cinematic equivalent of a nightmare, The Blind Owl clocks at around 55 minutes, playing out like a time-distorting rumination on death, with themes of desire, guilt and tradition (as a factor of torment) skillfully intertwined into the bleakly surrealistic tale. In the central role of an unreliable narrator, Parviz Fanizadeh delivers a superb performance, his expressions and the slightest of movements reflecting the disturbed inner state of his world-weary character. Desolate surroundings of withered grass, barren trees, cracked earth, and man-made structures of mud and stone – all arrestingly framed – also play an important role in the portrayal of the protagonist’s anguished psyche...

6. Dvoje / And Love Has Vanihed (Aleksandar Petrović, 1961)

Boy meets girl (in front of the cinema), they fall in love, but his affection for her gradually fades. A simple, yet timeless story that could’ve been set virtually anywhere in the world gets a modernist / Nouvelle Vague-ish treatment in the first solo feature from Aleksandar Petrović (of I Even Met Happy Gipsies fame). On par with the masters of European arthouse film of the period, this romantic drama is bolstered by strong performances from Beba Lončar (radiant in the role of a music student, Jovana) and Miha Baloh (charming as an architect, Mirko). The jazzy, quaintly inviting score by Ljiljana Popović, and Ivan Marinček’s taut framing of both the leading couple and Belgrade of the early 60’s, define a fascinating portrayal of Jovana and Mirko’s relationsip, capturing all of its nuances, from saccharine to bitter, and transcending most if not all narrative clichés.

7. Irati (Paul Urkijo Alijo, 2022)

Based on Jon Muñoz Otaegi’s graphic novel The Circle of Irati (originally, El ciclo de Irati) which draws inspiration from Basque legends, the sophomore feature from Paul Urkijo Alijo (of Errementari fame) is a beautifully realized medieval fantasy revitalizing the magic of the sword & sorcery subgenre. Set against the backdrop of the clash between the paganism and Christianity, the film takes the viewer into the Pyrenees forests rendered enchanted by cinematographer Gorka Gómez Andreu, labyrinthine caves guarded by beings of mythological yore, and stone castles where the power dynamics are incessantly shifting. In a story deeply rooted in local folklore, Alijo speaks of universal and “timeless human issues”, as Júlia Olmo notes in her review for Cineuropa, touching upon “the weight of roots, the idea of loyalty and honor, the meaning of identity, the struggle for a place and the value of that struggle, the meaning of faith, the classic concept of ‘the beautiful death’ (filling one’s life with deeds to achieve eternal glory, to be remembered and loved in eternity), the fear of forgetting, the presence of death in life, the search for your origins and the price of that search”. These themes are explored through both the titular heroine, a feisty pagan girl (Edurne Azkarate, stellar in her first big screen appearance), as well as a young Christian nobleman, Eneko (Eneko Sagardoy, excellent), learning to accept the mysterious ways of nature personalized by the goddess Mari (Itziar Ituño, a strong vocal presence bolstered by an intricate costume of red, intertwined threads). Speaking of nature, one can easily notice the ecological aspect of the proceedings, particularly in the scenes of bleeding tree stumps, and stones, with the overarching perspective being more feminine than masculine...

8. Le Feu sacré (Vladimir Forgency, 1971)

Very 70’s, and very French, Le Feu sacré (lit. The Sacred Fire) is (sadly!) the only feature helmed by Vladimir Forgency. It is a solidly crafted drama revolving around a young ballerina-in-training, Sonia, who shares her first name with the star – Paris-born dancer of Russian decent, Sonia Petrovna, epitomizing grace. At the very threshold of adulthood, the heroine is torn between her somewhat wavering passion for classical ballet and infatuation with Pierre (Pierre Fuger) – a handsome hippie who manages a modern-dance troupe. In other words, she is compelled to choose between the rigorous dedication, and the uncertainty of freedom; following in the traditional footsteps of her godmother teacher Lily (Lilian Arlen), or just letting herself go with the counterculture flow. The largely non-professional actors who’re most probably professional dancers deliver authentic performances, with the major characters built upon many exercise and rehearsal scenes, as well as a small part of Iphigenia staged. Forgency directs them with immediacy and spontaneity, his right-hand man being cinematographer Willy Kurant who previously collaborated with who’s who of La Nouvelle Vague – Godard (Masculin féminin), Varda (Les créatures), and Robbe-Grillet (Trans-Europ-Express). Also praiseworthy are Yves Trochel’s production and costume designs, often reflecting dichotomies explored, and Sonia’s contradictory emotional states.

9. Docteur Chance / Doctor Chance (F.J. Ossang, 1997)

“She’s dreaming. Blood colors the leaves. A smell of gasoline. The metal drenched with rain. Just a wall to lean on. A piece of glass in the throat till the blood stops flowing. We empty ourselves of the world and it’s good.”

More a (pulp) fever dream than a film, Doctor Chance appears like a vague reflection / afterthought of a gangster noir gradually turning into a road movie on a lost highway of crypto-poetic raving. Its fragmented narrative or rather, a dissolving illusion of it, exists only as a thread which holds a patchwork of cinematic references, from silent era to the French New Wave to postmodern psychological thrillers. As always with F.J. Ossang, the strongest is a Godardian influence, subtly filtered through the prism of punk nihilism into a freewheeling, stream-of-consciousness abandon. His brooding characters are but ciphers rooted in the crime genre archetypes, and confined within the images they desperately try to escape from – “disappear in flight to show that the sky exists”. A mother figure (the late and great Almodovar’s regular Marisa Paredes) and a lover (the author’s muse Elvire) may hold the keys of the exit... 

10. O corpo ardente / The Burning Body (Walter Hugo Khouri, 1966)

“I think I got old sooner than everyone else. And it was a life that passed in a blink. I couldn’t even see it.”

Even more Antonioniesque than its predecessor, ‘Noite Vazia’, ‘The Burning Body’ is a muffled scream for (absolute) freedom, also acting as a portrait of deeply suppressed desire, set against an alienating backdrop of upper-class society of intellectuals. Occupying the central role with brooding intensity, magnetic presence and an air of mystery surrounding her is Barbara Laage whose character, Marcia, is a woman on a desperate quest for a key to the shackles that bind her to her only, camera-wielding son, dead-end marriage, and boring lover. Her longing for a life unconstrained by duties manifests as a beautiful, untamable black stallion that she becomes fascinated with during a short trip to a remote desert cottage, the flashbacks of both the respite and extramarital affairs intertwined with the scenes of an ongoing party. The film’s fragmented structure – a mirror to Marcia’s emotional detachment – is well-paired with Khouri’s unwavering formal austerity which further emphasizes the atmosphere of existential ennui, making for a challenging viewing experience.

11. El Metafísico / The Metaphysician (Pablo Chavarría Gutiérrez, 2025)

The latest feature from self-taught filmmaker Pablo Chavarría Gutiérrez (Still the Earth Moves) is a strange, or rather, decidedly weird animal, one that doesn’t take itself too seriously in its tackling of the themes such as art, love, death, friendship, existential crisis, and the way our dreams (and nahuals) navigate us through life. Described as a ‘mystical comedy’, the film portrays everyday routine of a struggling writer (played with a tongue-in-cheek nonchalance by the director himself), infusing it with absurd (and bits of self-deprecating) humor, stoner wisdom, and folk magic that – combined serendipitously – often turn the banal into the surreal. It is a rough-around-the-edges concoction that doesn’t always work, but its immediacy, easygoing attitude, independent spirit, and naivete of non-professional cast aren’t without their charms, all beautifully captured in soft grays of Carlos Hernández’s B&W cinematography, and interspersed with cinematic references. 

12. The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim (Kenji Kamiyama, 2024)

“Fat and prosperous are when men are at their most dangerous. It fills them with false courage, and false courage breeds discontent.”

A beautifully animated fantasy in which a clever and headstrong girl who has never wanted to rule defeats a cowardly psychopath who thought he was the almighty king, sending his army of masked goons on unarmed people... Oh my, the film’s antagonist has all the traits of a certain, not-to-be-named tyrant of a Balkan country, though he’s far more handsome than the latter.

13. Oni Goroshi / Demon City (Seiji Tanaka, 2025)

More or less a formulaic revenge flick brimming with intense and stylish action, Demon City is somewhat intriguing for the parallels one could draw between its ‘demons’ and their real-life counterparts, if the latter had an ounce of ‘wicked coolness’. Alas, what we get, particularly in Serbia these days (or rather, decades), are pathetic, dehumanized excuses for ‘officials’ who embody the absolute worst of imaginable vices. These lying sacks of the smelliest, most toxic bullcrap – no, I’m not apologizing for the lack of euphemism – are so detestable that all the ‘poetic’, blood-spraying justice Tanaka serves here comes across as a mild punishment compared to what those monsters actually deserve. Matsuya Onoe as a grinning, thick-lipped, corrupted-to-the-bone mayor Sunohara evokes a certain ‘head of the state’ in both appearance and his character’s sect of loyalists, with his elitist project of Mahoroba resort (a phallic building, of course!) bringing to mind the gentrified raping of Belgrade. Confronting and disposing of Sunohara’s henchmen is one-man army Shūhei Sakata (the impressive, largely physical performance from Tōma Ikuta) – an ex-hitman who can survive a superhuman amount of metal pole blows, sword cuts and falls from height in a manga-inspired rampage. If only he had the purity of students and citizens who have been protesting for the past four months...

SHORTS:

1. A Placeless Place (Sibi Sekar, 2024)

A placeless place, a timeless time, an egoless ego... After jumping into the void, is it ‘voidlessness’ that follows? And can it be portrayed? Through a character of ‘outsider’ (Kamali), Sibi Sekar continues his quest across the innermost depths – an unknown realm where universal truth manifests itself in poignant absences. Obscure visions – of a forestless forest, a fieldless field, and a roomless room – pose as the verses of a calm-inducing poem, one in rhymeless rhymes, filling the air with melancholy that stems from existential longing. The film ceases to be a conscious hallucination, as its author strives to transfigure it into a dreamless dream of a dreamer hopelessly enamored of the mystery’s soul.

2. Silence Has No Wings (Zaur Mukhtarov, 2024)

Not to be confused with Kazuo Kuroki’s 1966 elliptical feature of the same name, Zaur Mukhtarov’s short is a captivating cinematic delight. Completely void of dialogue, as well as of music (apart from a party scene), it draws the viewer into a meditative state, as it reflects on loss, loneliness and death through the character of an unnamed young woman (Nurana Karimova, an embodiment of fragility). She lives with a caged dove – a figment of her imagination? – that quite possibly symbolizes her self-imposed imprisonment in memories, or rather, acts as a vessel for the soul of a beloved one who passed away. Transformed into a phantom romance, the protagonist’s refusal to let go permeates the profound stillness of her daily routine, almost ritualistic in its depiction, and the very air of her apartment – the fortress of melancholy. Her ‘ennui’ becomes delicate poetry in meticulously framed shots of cinematographer Matlab Mukhtarov, with the director maintaining a deliberate pace of his editing, harmoniously matched to the wingless, yet sublime silence.

3. Shaolin Avengers (Andy Le, Brian Le & Daniel Mah, 2025)

Arguably, one of the finest, most loving homages paid to Hong Kong martial arts cinema, its astonishing fighting choreography shot with clarity, and intertwined with some delightfully cheesy humor.

Dreaming Is Not Sleeping (Rouzbeh Rashidi, 2025)

“Oh, how splendid, how indescribably liberating it would be to plunge my hands into my own being,
traversing the layers of flesh and sentiment, and wrench out this heavy heart...” 

A natural continuation of the spiritually transformative path that started with Elpis in 2023, Dreaming Is Not Sleeping is arguably the most contemplative offering of Rouzbeh Rashidi’s oeuvre so far. Essayistic in its approach, and achingly lyrical at that, the film is a philosophically informed rumination on the very fabric of our existence, shaped by memories, suffering, love, death, and creation as the act of defiance against time. But, first and foremost, it is an ennobling experience, one that is in equal measure difficult to put into words, especially during its transcendental final chapter, set in what can be best described as the astral plane.

Shot amidst the derelict sites across Germany, Poland, Denmark, and Ireland, it transmutes physical places into the hiddenmost recesses of the collective unconscious, their stillness, and secrets engraved on decrepit walls erecting the labyrinths of innumerable selves. Through the hallways of “clairvoyance, impermanence, and shared human struggles”, as well as of perception, nostalgia and meaning, all in the context of cinema or, generally speaking, art, we are assigned a spectral guide (Meister Rumslant as the invisible narrator whose thick accent is irresistibly charming) to lead us into the light... or perhaps, the comforting darkness? It may be that he is but the echo of our own inner voices, as we are immersed into the perspective of an enigmatic entity possessing Rashidi’s steady camera.

By virtue of special lenses, a ripple-like effect is organically achieved, with every single, thought-provoking frame posing as an illuminated portal towards the essence of the image, symbiotic relationship with it, and ultimately, being. The silent, almost motionless tableaux vivants, void of conventional characters and veiled in a muffled aural manifestation of distances, allow for the whispers of the abandoned objects, deep shadows and deceptive reflections to tell of the obscure histories or rather, peculiar feelings that pervaded them. They are employed as the dream-clay in an elaborate process of soul-sculpting that elevates urbex and landscape photography, eliciting questions of our (in)significance in the grand scheme of cosmic things.

Rashidi’s poetic, stream-of-consciousness writing evokes the spirit of Marguerite Duras, whereas the subtle visual distortions bring to mind the finest works of Alexander Sokurov, and yet Dreaming Is Not Sleeping – clocking around one hour – never appears derivative, inspiring us with a myriad of candid absences...

(The review is based on a private screener provided by the author, and the feature is scheduled to premiere at Berlin’s Moviemento Kino on Sunday, April 20, 2025, at 18:00.)

Best Premiere Viewings of February 2025

FEATURES:

1. Pigen med nålen / The Girl with the Needle (Magnus van Horn, 2024)

Danish actress Vic Carmen Sonne delivers a career-defining performance in the starring role of Magnus van Horn’s harrowing period piece – a viscerally beautiful post-WWI drama that pulls no punches in its grimy and raggedy portrayal of maternal phobias thornily intertwined with existential dread. Playing out like the darkest of the Grimms’ fairy tales, with wraiths and witches disguised as ‘humans’, it is best experienced by knowing as little as possible about the (true case) story, particularly its nightmarish third act. Right from the impactful opening montage of distorted faces that wouldn’t feel out of place in a horror movie, this pitch-black drama plunges you into the muddy waters of pain, relieving it only through a few glimmers of hope, one of which is (mercifully!) saved for the epilogue. Directed with no prejudice or moralizing, and framed in brutalist, high-contrast B&W that – synergized to the ominously minimalist score – elevates the stunning recreation of the period, The Girl with the Needle is an instant modern classic that will haunt you long after the end.

2. The Illiac Passion (Gregory J. Markopoulos, 1967)

Led by Prometheus, the characters of the Greek mythology dream themselves into the NYC underground art scene of the time, bound to their cursed fates in a series of stilted rituals. Ancient stories are deconstructed beyond recognition in their becoming of tools for experimenting with the possibilities of cinema, as well as for externalizing the innermost thoughts and emotions of the author himself. And he acts as a hypnotist, his voice-over narration defining the rhythm through incessant repetitions – a Dadaesque recitation that robs the words of their meanings, letting the images speak or rather, wash over the viewer. Occasionally pierced by operatic interludes, they are dreamily captured on 35mm, with dense shadows veiling the naked bodies of increasingly homoerotic vignettes. The portrayals of love, passion, anguish, exploration, disorientation, and death are imbued with sensuality and esotericism; a dash of humor provided by Andy Warhol as Poseidon riding an exercise bike. 

3. The Monkey (Osgood Perkins, 2025)

An explosive mixture of over-the-top splatter and laugh-out-loud-through-tears black humor, The Monkey is Osgood Perkins’ most entertaining flick to date. Directed with tongue firmly planted in its author’s cheek, it effortlessly earns the ‘crowd-pleaser’ label, providing you with a highly enjoyable big-screen experience. It addresses the central theme of death with a big, nightmarish grin seen on the titular (and cursed) monkey toy that causes people to meet their maker in ‘insane, headline-making ways’, to quote the director’s exact words on his parents’ demise. Deliberately cartoonish, this playful horror comedy gives off some 80’s cult-movie vibes in a technically competent package enhanced by the velvety voice of Theo James in the lead.

4. Alice in Wonderland (Jonathan Miller, 1966)

One of the trippiest made-for-TV films, Jonathan Miller’s adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s famous book sports the looks of an offbeat Victorian period piece, with all the fantastical characters from the novel given human faces – belonging to who’s who of British theatre and comedy scene, from Michael Redgrave and Micheal Ghough to Peter Cook and Peter Sellers. Psychedelic heights are reached through hyper-histrionics, with the exception of Alice (Anne-Marie Mallik in her only screen appearance) whose sullen and bored expressions hint at her realizing that everything is but a loony dream. The 70-minute running-time is made the most of, as the rampant absurdity is ‘exotified’ by Ravi Shankar’s sitar-heavy score, and amplified by weird camera angles of Dick Bush who would later collaborate with Ken Russell (Mahler, Tommy, The Lair of the White Worm) and William Friedkin (Sorcerer), his beautiful B&W cinematography underscoring Miller’s peculiar treatment of the source material.

5. City Streets (Rouben Mamoulian, 1931)

In her first starring role, Sylvia Sydney brings both charm and range into the role of a sassy girl, Nan Cooley, whose beer racketeer stepfather (Guy Kibee, ominously smiling) gets her into some serious, behind-the-bars trouble. Partnering Sydney in his impressive height and handsome prime is Gary Cooper playing the most Western-ized of characters, The Kid – a dexterous if slightly naive shooting gallery showman who joins the gang in order to save his sweetheart. Between these two, there is a lovely chemistry, sparkling brightest in the prison visit scene, when they struggle to touch and kiss through the wired obstacle, and raunchiest during their date at the fair and beach, thanks to the suggestive pre-code dialogues. Of course, one can’t help but root for their romance to work out, as Mamoulian leads us through the ‘amor vincit omnia’ story at a brisk pace. His direction feels quite effortless, particularly during the suspenseful sequences, whereby his stylistic choices – the ‘ceramic’ portrayal of the catty scheme, for example – are always spot-on, and often ahead of their time, making this gangster-noir a highly recommended watch. 

6. Äratus / Awakening (Jüri Sillart, 1989)

The first directorial effort from cinematographer Jüri Sillart is a harrowing yet expertly framed story of 1949 March deportation of Estonian people to Siberia by Soviet Secret Police NKVD. One of the initial scenes depicts women and children – who comprised the great majority of victims – squeezed in cattle wagons, and it alone makes the viewing experience distressing. Dense shadows appear alive, threatening to swallow the silent faces, frozen in confusion and/or fear, and later on, close-ups become important means in portraying all participants in the aforementioned event, from drunken officers to cold-eyed collaborators of the Stalinist regime. Assisted by the dedicated cast, Sillart opts for a stylized, or rather desentimentalized representation, imbuing the proceedings with borderline absurdist vibes, and ensuring precise cuts in his dissection of post-WWII evil. The timelessness of Awakening is an unfortunate trait...

7. The Brutalist (Brady Corbet, 2024)

Impressively shot, its VistaVision cinematography being nothing short of magical, and reinforced by strong performances, particularly from Adrien Brody in the leading role, and Guy Pearce as the capital antagonist, the third feature-length offering from actor-turned filmmaker Brady Corbet is also his finest directorial effort. Although somewhat hampered by the author’s heightened ambition (not to mention the unforgiving running time of almost three and a half hours), The Brutalist often comes close to greatness comparable with the 20th century epic-scope dramas that certainly served as sources of inspiration. A bleak, existentialist tale of an unflattering immigrant experience – portended by the protagonist’s skewed view of the Statue of Liberty upon his arrival to America – is so elaborate that one may be tricked into believing that a brilliant architect and Holocaust survivor, László Tóth, was a historical figure. The authenticity of his struggle – anchored in Brody’s becoming one with his character – is accentuated by a comprehensive recreation of the period that – it won’t hurt to repeat – looks stunning through the lens of Lol Crawley’s camera.

8. A Bear Named Winnie (John Kent Harrison, 2004)

A lovely made-for-TV tear-jerker bolstered by a pretty solid cast. In addition to being a great actor, Michael Fassbender knows his way with animals, particularly the sweet bear cub that the story revolves around, and that inspired the character of Winnie Pooh.

9. The Gorge (Scott Derickson, 2025)

Anya Taylor-Joy and Miles Teller spark some great chemistry from the very moment their characters start through-the-binoculars courtship. Stationed in Brutalist towers on the opposite sides of the mysterious gorge, both of them are skilled operatives on a mission of keeping whatever’s down there from reaching the surface. She’s from the East, he’s from the West, and the decades old secrets their higher-ups have been keeping are gradually revealed in a genre mashup that entertains even at its most ridiculous, largely thanks to the leading duo’s combined charisma and seriousness. (Personally, I enjoyed this flick more than, let’s say, Nosferatu, cursing whoever thought it was a good idea to release it directly to streaming services.) Sweet romancing clears the way for some shoot-em-up survival in a conspiratorial creature-feature setting that brings to mind Annihilation, Silent Hill and the Resident Evil series, with pretty cool monster designs heavily inspired by Zdzisław Beksiński’s artwork. Derickson directs with a decent sense of pacing and tonal shifts, assisted by propulsive score from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, as well as by handsome lensing provided by Dan Laustsen (Nightmare Alley). It goes without saying that an additional injection of suspended disbelief won’t hurt.

10. Luka (Jessica Woodworth, 2023)

Based on Dino Buzzati’s 1940 novel The Tartar Steppe (which I haven’t read), Luka is the most Brutalist feature since Jóhann Jóhannsson’s 2020 offering Last and First Men. Filmed around the Blufi dam – an unfinished yet imposing concrete edifice in Sicily, and gorgeously photographed in ashen B&W on Super 16 by DoP Virginie Surdej, it marks Jessica Woodworth’s first solo directorial effort, her partner Peter Brosens credited as one of the producers. Stylish, if dramatically frigid, the film features an international ensemble cast of largely male actors, with the veteran Geraldine Chaplin as the only woman jumping into the role of The General. The absurdity of authoritarianism rooted in blind ‘obedience, endurance, and sacrifice’ is the name of the gloomy, post-apocalyptic game, as a unit of soldiers wait for a mythical enemy in the Kairos fortress. Following the arrival of a young sniper, Luka (Jonas Smulders), the foundations of the stern micro-society are shaken in more ways than one. In-between their everyday chores (and nocturnal releases of feral energy through ritualistic mock-fights), our hero establishes a friendly relationship with a sprightly private, Geronimo (Django Schrevens), and a brooding communications expert, Konstantin (Samvel Tadevossian), the trio operating as the story’s well-hidden emotional core. Woodworth is more concerned with establishing a bleak atmosphere that would reflect the military-minded oppressiveness, rather than providing a traditional narrative, and to a certain degree, she succeeds in seducing you with the absorbing monochromatic imagery, if that’s your poison.

11. The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep (Kang Hei Chul, 2025)

The second animated feature of The Witcher universe – a follow-up to Nightmare of the Wolf (2021) – is an adaptation of Andrzej Sapkowski’s short story A Little Sacrifice that is a variation on H.C. Andersen’s The Little Mermaid. Beautifully animated by South Korean Studio Mir (Big Fish & Begonia), and founded in pretty solid voice-acting, the film takes some liberties with the source material, ‘Krakens’ things up, and subverts the ending that will surely polarize the viewers and critics alike. Personally, I found the twist to be refreshing, and the addition of a new antagonist befitting of the anti-establishment times we live in. Though it’s not a revelatory addition to the dark fantasy subgenre, ‘Sirens of the Deep’ is a fun little romp reminding us that the real monsters often have ‘human’ faces.

12. The Foreigner (Amos Poe, 1978)

“I’m useless to a society of useless. I feel out of place... I’m only driven by this eternal defeat. I have nothing to look ahead and nothing to regret. I only have the present.”

A solid chunk of No Wave Cinema, The Foreigner strikes me as the most unruly feature I’ve seen in a long while – think Godard meets Morrissey on heavy drugs. It plays as an improvisational riff on spy thrillers, its guerrilla immediacy, freewheeling direction, narrative ambiguities, strange frequencies, and off- to low-key to screen-munching performances glued together by the abrasive-yet-cohesive beauty of the 16mm imagery. Evocative of urban alienation, the film is pervaded by the eerily relatable feeling of existential dread, best summarized in a (partially quoted) monologue by its protagonist, Max Menace – a European secret agent who roams the streets of New York... and at one point encounters a mysterious woman with an echoing voice played by none other than Debbie Harry of Blondie fame. 

SHORTS:

1. История одной провокации (Сергей Винокуров & Андрей Черных, 1990) / The Story of One Provocation (Sergey Vinokurov & Andrey Chernykh, 1990)

During the 60’s, a young teacher’s delusion of persecution alters her reality, and plays with the viewer’s perception in a Kafkaesque, paranoia-fueled neo-noir / psychological thriller that perfectly fits in the drawer labeled ‘obscure late-Soviet gems’. A fragmented, labyrinthine narrative is brilliantly framed on 35mm, with virtually every camera angle knowingly employed to mirror the protagonist’s deeply troubled state of mind. The foreboding music accentuates the transformation of her fears into KGB phantoms who speak in her own echoing voice. The Story of One Provocation marks my first encounter with Vinokurov who makes his debut here, and the second one with Chernykh whose 1991 feature Austrian Field blew my mind last year. 

2. Cygne II (Absis, 1976)

The second part of a cine-diptych – the sole directorial credit for journalist turned filmmaker Absis – opens with a voice-over narration by Michael Lonsdale succeeding Marguerite Duras from Cygne I. Composed as a living painting, the single-shot short depicts a woman in a white dress (Colette Fellous), a smiling girl in black, probably representing Grim Reaper (the author herself), and a wounded man (Jean-Baptiste Malartre), in a sensual interplay of ‘light, voice, music and movements’. Extremely elegant, the chiaroscuro ‘tableau vivant’ reflects the closing words of Duras’ monologue from the first part: “Pleasure of creating oneself, of creating, through the force of one's own desire.” Beautiful.

3. Cigarette Burn (Amy Halpern, 1978)

4. A Dream of Dolls Dancing (Christiane Cegavske, 2017)

Best Premiere Viewings of January 2025 + A Tribute to David Lynch

1. Rapture (John Guillermin, 1965)

“The law is meaningless unless it is compassionate.”

My, oh, my, what a gorgeous film! Rapture marks my third and most enthralling encounter with British director John Guillermin who creates something quite ahead of its time here (in fact, his heroine’s premature discovery of sexuality would raise some eyebrows even these days). A 15-yo woman-child, Agnes (Patricia Gozzi, giving a heartbreakingly stunning performance), falls for an escaped convict, Joseph (Dean Stockwell in his dashingly handsome prime) believing him to be her scarecrow brought to life, much to the disapproval of her retired judge father, Frederick (Melvyn Douglas, brilliant), and contending against their maid, Karen (the stellar Gunnel Lindblom, well-known to Bergman’s aficionados). Her troubled state of mind (isolation, repressive parent, no mother figure) or rather, slightly distorted perception of reality act as a prism through which the story is told, and it is breathtakingly captured through Marcel Grignon’s sweeping camerawork and clever choices of angles. Ravishing in equal measures is Georges Delerue’s music score, at turns eerily haunting and deeply affective, intertwining with the howling of the winds and later, urban noise which add more nuances to Agnes’s complex persona. What further fortifies Guillermin’s vision is the way he renders his characters relatable or at least sympathetic, despite their lousy decisions, murky morality and unhealthy relationships, pulling the viewer into a darkly romantic whirlpool.

2. Gekijōban Mononoke: Karakasa / Mononoke the Movie: The Phantom in the Rain (Kenji Nakamura, 2024)

Mindblowing doesn’t even begin to describe the dazzling, hyper-stylized extravagance at display – the most unexpected confluences and clashes of shapes and colors, the whirling, bubbling and swirling patterns, twisted angles and snappy, jumpcutty editing, with all the pizzazz overlaid on a washi-like surface. Virtually every frame is a vibrant, mesmerizing piece of art compelling you to pause in order to wonder at the richness of details. Perfectly matched to the jaw-dropping imagery of the Edo-set psychedelia are rustling streams of dialogue fast-flowing through the labyrinthine interior of Ōoku quarters, all the while intertwining with the eclectic score, its solemn passages reflecting the strictness of the palace protocols. Almost as picturesque as the artwork (did I mention that the aromas and odors are visualized as well?) are the characters facing a supernatural threat that an enigmatic ‘medicine seller’ – the returning hero of the 2007 series – is self-invited to exorcize. Once the titular phantom Karakasa materializes, the film’s eye-grabbing qualities grow stronger and wilder, enhancing the phantasmagorical mystery that the story revolves around. Nakamura once again occupies the director’s chair, but opts for a significant tonal shift that may surprise the fans of the original anime, delivering the information – aural, visual and verbal – at the breakneck pace.

3. Kaidan yukijorō / The Snow Woman (Tokuzō Tanaka, 1968)

Shiho Fujimura embodies both otherworldly beauty and uncanniness as the titular (anti)heroine whose evil melts into compassion, as she experiences love in an expertly rendered blend of folk horror and doomed romance, previously adapted into a winter segment of Masaki Kobayashi’s 1964 masterpiece Kaidan. The feature-length version of the tale allows for nuances and subplots to be added, playing out like a poignant (melo)drama with a supernatural twist and some genuinely eerie moments, its atmosphere thickening each time Yuki reveals her true nature. Directed with confidence and clarity, The Snow Woman impresses with its era-authentic costume and production designs, as well as with the expressive interplay between light and shadows in Chikashi Makiura’s meticulously framed shots.

4. Paris, Texas (Wim Wenders, 1984)

I have always admired frequently shared stills of Paris, Texas, and it is, indeed, one of the most stunningly photographed road-movies, great many of its breathtaking shots reflecting or rather, emanating the relatable melancholy of its (anti)hero, Travis (a poignant performance from Harry Dean Stanton), in the same way the elegiac, acoustic score captures his sorrow over the loss of beloved ones and self. The first act – so subtly (and silently!) laced with mystery – and the final one which provides some of the answers, while raising new questions, work seamlessly, with bits of the mid-section family drama putting your patience to test unless you’re an avid Wenders fan. Joining Stanton on the odyssey of his deeply flawed, yet sympathetic character is a mighty fine cast, namely Hunter Carson in his big-screen debut, Aurore Clément, Nastassja Kinski, and Dean Stockwell, each with a role tailor-made for them, in a story of almost mythical nature...

5. Images (Robert Altman, 1972)

The boundaries between reality and illusion are blurred right from the first phone call received by a troubled heroine – an author of children fiction, Cathryn, portrayed by Susannah York who brings a potent mixture of inner turmoil, bruised intensity, untamed imagination and brazen sensuality to the central role. An unreliable narrator, she pulls us ever deeper into a rabbit hole or rather, unicorn’s cave of her own creation, quoting the passages from York’s real-life book which adds a meta-dimension to the proceedings. This aspect is further emphasized by actors’ first names lent to the characters played by their colleagues in a psychologically fickle identity play that also involves the appearance of Cathryn’s doppelgänger. Enhancing both the viewer and protagonist’s befuddlement – marvelously captured in the autumnal gloom of the fairy tale-like setting (Irish countryside) and Vilmos Zsigmond’s grainy cinematography – is Graeme Clifford’s deft editing, and John Williams’s experimental score, its eerie dissonance thickening the paranoid atmosphere. Repulsion and Persona are brought to one’s mind as possible influences, with Altman’s own 1977 feature 3 Women coming across as a spiritual successor to Images.

6. TVO (Tatsuya Ohta, 1991)

Love couldn’t be more irrational in a story of an artistically inclined girl with a heartbeat-reading power who comes to Tokyo, and falls for her older sister’s killer, an aspiring nightclub singer. However, the reality of Tatsuya Ohta’s debut (or rather, the first of only two features he has helmed) is so off that murder could be but a metaphor, and the perpetrator only a victim of a society in which everyone operates contrary to their motivations. Part neo-noir deconstruction and part mood experiment / tone poem with a road movie coda, TVO (aka TV Obsession) appears like a missing link between Gregg Araki at his most melancholic and David Lynch in his Twin Peaks element. It is highly likely that Ohta has seen the cult series, considering the more-or-less direct references, and yet his film comes across as quite refreshing in its brooding, post-punk-like ruminations. An out-of-the-box exploration of grief, past traumas, addiction, and longing for a genuine human connection in an alienating environment, it unfolds at a deliberate pace reflecting the media-controlled apathy that chains two central characters, Satsuki (actress and songstress Yukako Hayase in her last role) and Ko (Atsushi Okuno in his first screen appearance). Their suppressed energies collide and intertwine in a way that is both liberating and confounding, the all-pervasive vagueness and non-conformity captured in smoky cinematography by Norimichi Kasamatsu who would later collaborate with Sōgo (aka Gakuryū) Ishii on Labyrinth of Dreams and Electric Dragon 80.000 V.

7. Yo y Las Bestias / Me & The Beasts (Nico Manzano, 2021)

If you’re interested in indie, DIY music and/or quirky fantasies permeated with deadpan humor (and socio-political tension), Me & The Beasts may be just what you’ve been looking for. Enter a singer-guitarist, Andrés (a cool, low-key performance from Jesús Nunes), who leaves his band Los Pijamistas, because all the other members agreed to play at a propaganda festival organized by the regime. What follows is a simple, yet effective story or rather, meditation on his creative struggle tinged with the elements of magical realism embodied in two silent, burka-clad entities seen only by our hero. The music leans towards dreamy/ambient pop, and the visuals are crispy clean, with yellow frequently dominating the screen and softening the formal austerity of framing, somewhat evocative of Susanne Heinrich’s 2019 dramedy Aren’t You Happy?. Venezuelan filmmaker Nico Manzano directs with composure and taut economy, celebrating art against all odds (read: corruption personified by policemen), and demonstrating a knowing sense of artifice through his imagery.

8. Eadweard (Kyle Rideout, 2015)

It is only natural for a film about an inventive photographer such as Eadweard Muybridge (1830 – 1904) to be beautifully shot, and DoP Tony Mirza does a truly admirable job, taking some recognizable cues from the great Emmanuel Lubezki by way of The Tree of Life. Whether the biopic is historically accurate or not (are they ever?) does not matter all that much, because what we get here is a finely nuanced characters study – a multifaceted portrait of an eccentric artist whose imposing legacy may owe a lot to a stagecoach accident that left him prematurely gray. Kyle Rideout helms his first feature with an assured hand, also excelling as a production designer, and though he doesn’t take many risks – apart from the naturalist locomotion we’re all well-aware of – Eadweard is a solid piece of cinema, as well as a stellar vehicle for Michael Eklund in the starring role.

9. Юность Бемби (Наталья Бондарчук, 1986) / Bambi’s Youth (Natalya Bondarchuk, 1986)

I have seen neither Disney-produced animation, nor Ms. Bondarchuk’s own take on Bambi’s childhood, yet I found the 1986 sequel to be quite a peculiar experience. Compared to the great majority of Soviet fantasies, Bambi’s Youth comes across as non-conformist / avant-garde in its effective simplicity – actors dressed in modest costumes act as animal characters’ counterparts against the stunning landscapes, their movements at times choreographed as if in a ballet performance. Natalya Bondarchuk – probably best known for her role in Tarkovsky’s Solaris – directs with poise and lyrical abandon, employing superimposition and in-camera trickery to achieve a dreamlike atmosphere, with Aleksandr Filatov’s unaffected cinematography attuned to themes of love and ecology. Boris Petrov’s off-kilter mélange of synth-electronica and ethereal vocalizations imbues the proceedings with some postmodern vibes.

10. San shao nü / The Umbrella Fairy (Jie Shen, 2024)

A sensory overload, the first directorial effort from animator Jie Shen boasts absolutely stunning artwork – a combination of traditional watercolor and modern, anime-like designs, most fluid animation, and sumptuous, melodramatic score. Both a blessing and a curse, the film’s rapturous style is so overwhelming that you find yourself absorbed by images and music so much that you often forget to read the subtitles. Less captivating is the story – told through the prism of objects’ spirits – of finding one’s own purpose, and (dis)respecting the rules on your quest, with the beats of emotional core muffled by either pseudo-philosophy or sweeping melodies. Despite its drawbacks, The Umbrella Fairy is solid starting point for Shen, so if you are ever given the opportunity to see it in the cinema, don’t miss it!

A RE-WATCH TRIBUTE TO DAVID LYNCH (January 20, 1946 - January 16, 2025)

Inland Empire (2006)

I could swear that the labyrinths of Inland Empire are reconfigured each time I revisit them, only to get lost in their long, dimly lit passageways, often coming across a plethora of dead ends that are – strangely enough – never discouraging. A ‘brutal fucking masterpiece’, to rephrase Grace Zabriskie’s line from an awkwardly creepy ‘courtesy call’ (and my personal favorite) scene, this feature appears like Mulholland Drive on hard drugs previously soaked in garmonbozia of self-referentiality and Twin Peaks: The Return anticipation. A puzzling meta-film of starkly introspective proportions, it effortlessly reaches the most hidden recesses of one’s subconscious mind, as its heroine, Nikki/Susan – a tour de force performance from Laura Dern – faces the identity crisis, following her fall through the rabbit hole. However, the film doesn’t stop there – oh no, it burrows even deeper, tearing the fabric of reality (or rather, realities), and revealing that which cannot be seen, heard, or easily put into words, existing and resisting beyond our dichotomies – ugly / beautiful, good / evil, inward / outward, curse / blessing... Thickening the mystery (of creativity, inter alia), and solidifying the illusion, all the while trying to shatter it, is the ‘cheap’ camcorder imagery captured by Lynch himself, at once down-to-earth and sublime.

Lost Highway (1997)
(the mini-review written on Lynch’s birthday)

David Lynch is dead, and yet he lives through his impressive legacy, just like many great filmmakers who left us before him. Today, he would’ve turned 79, and I decided to honor him with yet another re-watch of his criminally underrated neo-noir. Seriously, just reading those Metacritic blurbs makes me sick, because Lost Highway is one of the most fascinating dives into the darkest pits of the human mind. And you don’t need a psychology degree to have a field day trip with the stylish portrait of tenor-sax player Fred’s split which boldly breaks the time-space continuum, and pulls you ever deeper into his meticulously constructed (and simultaneously de-constructed) nightmare. The masterful use of shadows, mirrored shots and situations, as well as of the killer soundtrack is perfectly matched to Lynch’s unwavering direction.

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992)

“We live inside a dream.”

One of the finest – and doubtlessly, most surreal – prequels ever made, this playful expansion of the mind-opening Twin Peaks universe is always a pleasure to return to. It is also a rare example of a film whose deeply and sadly flawed protagonist elicits sympathies, as one strives to decipher the codes of both darkness and light that surround (and clash within) her. Its delightfully weird genre-bending structure, and masterful navigation of tonal shifts are in pitch-perfect harmony with Angelo Badalamenti’s prodigious jazz score, in turns smoky, sultry, ominous, nostalgic and brooding. The same goes for the highly memorable images that blur or completely erase the boundaries between dreams and reality, banal and outré, provincial Americana and phantasmal Beyond.

Eraserhead (1977)

David Lynch’s singular (not to mention influential) debut is a lullaby for the ‘deranged’, at once deliberately harrowing and darkly funny, grotesquely surreal yet immensely beautiful. On the surface, it is a disquieting look into a man’s fears of attachment and parenthood, but as you sink through its nightmarish, metaphysical and psychosexual layers, you realize that it can (and must!) be much more than that. Whatever meanings may lay there, every time you return to it, the film injects the seed of fruitful dirt and evocative gloom into the very meat of one’s subconscious mind, leaving you profoundly mystified. Brimming with the late artist’s obsessions, from the zigzag floor patterns to ominous aural stimuli to characters emerging from shadows, that would mark his subsequent offerings, Eraserhead is an awe-inspiring field trip through the Lynchverse at its rawest.

Blue Velvet (1986)

With each viewing, Blue Velvet grows more on me. A spiritual predecessor to Twin Peaks and an offbeat ode to curiosity, it peels back the skin of ‘white picket fence’ idealism to reveal its rotten underbelly, so brilliantly metaphorized in one of the most iconic openings in the history of cinema. As its central mystery is explored, the film turns weirder and freakier, pulling you closer to the heart of darkness that beats stronger than its protagonists and viewers could’ve ever imagined. It boldly borders surrealism without bringing any supernatural tidbits into play, seducing you with the self-confident direction, exemplary synergy between the visual and aural elements, as well as the stellar performances, particularly from (unhinged!) Dennis Hopper as the embodiment of remorseless evil. Most, if not all of Lynch’s obsessions are present, from the moody interiors to industrial locales to a character’s recounting of a dream.

Wild at Heart (1990)

“If you’re truly wild at heart, you’ll fight for your dreams.”

Arguably the most accessible of Lynch’s eccentricities, Wild at Heart acts as a link between Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks, presenting a gallery of hyper-bizarre characters who – in the incessant scenery-gnawing – inhabit the American South existing somewhere on the wrong end of the rainbow. As if created on a whim, just to be imbued with a plethora of references to The Wizard of Oz – one of the author’s all-time favorites, it anticipates Natural Born Killers, as well as the powerful (or rather powermad) use of metal music (i.e. Rammstein) in Lost Highway. Its two central characters, Lula and Sailor, may not be the most sympathetic of lovers to hit the screen, yet their inflammable romance feels like the single truth in the demi-monde of mostly dangerous weirdos. Quite tongue-in-cheek, this genre-bending road-movie is anchored in its strong audio-visual language, playful direction and offbeat performances.