Festivals: IFFR
Rotterdam 2023 Review: INU-OH Is Magnificent Masaaki At His Best
Anime legend Yuasa Masaaki's newest film, the semi-historical musical drama Inu-Oh had its world premiere at the tail-end of 2021. As such, it was originally planned to arrive at the International Film Festival Rotterdam a year ago, together with its...
Rotterdam 2023 Review: Sokurov's Last FAIRYTALE
Russian director Alexander Sokurov makes weird films, or rather really special ones. Most famous of these is probably 2002's Russian Ark, an absolutely fantastic walk through 300 years of Russian history as displayed in the Hermitage museum, done in one...
Rotterdam 2023 Review: ORPHEA IN LOVE Steals Your Eyes And Ears
It must be fun to be an established, experienced director and be able to throw several of your loves into one project. Media Jack-of-all-trades Axel Ranisch got to do just that with his new film Orphea in Love. In it,...
Rotterdam 2023 Review: ENDLESS BORDERS Aims For Humanism
Directed by Abbas Amini, the drama from Iran blends social melodrama and refugee thriller in an audience-driven narrative depicting a flight for freedom.
Rotterdam 2023 Review: ONE LAST EVENING Ponders The Value Of Relationships
German director Lukas Nathrat had made several award-winning shorts in the past, but he made the jump to feature film during that most inopportune of times: the Summer of 2020, when Europe slid into a series of lockdowns. Then again,...
Rotterdam 2023 Review: In MUNCH, Four Faces of Notorious Norwegian Artist Rotate
Norwegian painter receives idiosyncratic biopic treatment in four episodes from his life written by different writers and played by different actors.
Rotterdam 2023 Review: I CAN'T STOP BITING YOU Is Remarkably Toothless
It would be an understatement to say I am a fan of Japanese director Mamoru Oshii's work. His 1995 anime adaptation of Ghost in the Shell is my most-owned film (even this article on my incurable double-dipping of that title...
Rotterdam 2023: What The Audiences Liked Best
It's been a week since the International Film Festival Rotterdam had its closing party. All awards have been given, all guests have returned home, and so have the audiences. It was the first time in three years that people were...
Rotterdam 2023 Review: CONVENIENCE STORY
Japanese director Miki Satoshi has a weird sense of humor, and it shows in the quirky movies he makes. Instant Swamp, Adrift in Tokyo and Turtles Are Surprisingly Fast Swimmers all bear his unmistakable signature. His newest, Convenience Story, divides...
Rotterdam 2023 Review: NO DOGS OR ITALIANS ALLOWED
The French filmmaker Alain Ughetto is not exactly a newcomer, as the man has been creating documentaries and animated stop-motion shorts for more than forty years already. His newest feature, No Dogs or Italians Allowed, is an intimate look at...
Rotterdam 2023 Review: JORAM, A Manhunt Thriller With A Message
Last Wednesday saw the world première of director Devashish Makhija's crime drama Joram at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, but audiences expecting a classic "cops and robbers" film were in for a surprise. For Makhija has a few things to...
Rotterdam 2023 Review: PLAYLAND, Queer History Made Uncanny
Queer history is something of a bricolage: it's only been in recent years that much of it has been discovered, or perhaps more accurately, made public, as so often queer lives and their infinite variety had to be kept hidden...
Rotterdam 2023 Review: DALVA, Fantastically Acted Gripping Drama
In Emmanuelle Nicot's debut feature film we follow a 12-year-old girl, the titular Dalva, who the authorities have forcefully taken away from her sexually abusive father Jacques. "Rescued" is what you would think, but Dalva is of another opinion, and...
Rotterdam 2023 Review: ONE WIN Is Exactly What You Predict It Is
An underdog sports team of ragtag losers needs to play an incredibly important game and against all odds manages to put up a decent fight, AND on top of that the journey solves the personal problems of several team members....
THE FIST OF THE CONDOR (El puño del cóndor) Trailer: Marko Zaror Pays Homage to Old School Martial Arts Flicks
Chilean director Ernesto Díaz Espinoza and international action star Marko Zaror are back together with what looks like a proper throwback to old school martial arts classics.
Rotterdam 2023 Review: VOYAGES EN ITALIE, A Non-Trippy Trip
The first thing which comes to mind to old film fans when they hear a title like Voyages en Italie will be: "Ah, the 1954 Rossellini film with Ingrid Bergman" and they'd be wrong. That film has many names but...
NEW STRAINS Trailer: Lo-fi Sci-fi Comedy Premiering at IFFR This Weekend
As a mysterious pandemic emerges, a squabbling couple in lockdown begin to act like children.
RESIDENCY Trailer: Winnie Cheung's Feverish Feature Debut to Premiere at IFFR
During a winter-long residency in Brooklyn, ten obsessive female artists succumb to the darkness of their creative fascinations.
Rotterdam 2022 Review: BATTLECRY, An Unfinished Animation Oddity
In the past, the International Film Festival Rotterdam was one of the few events in the Netherlands which allowed audiences to watch Japanese animation, and while that duty has now been taken over by a selection of other Dutch festivals,...
Rotterdam 2022 Review: THE MOLE SONG: FINAL
The International Film Festival Rotterdam wouldn't be itself without having at least one film by Miike Takashi in its catalog. Ever since the maverick filmmaker shocked everyone to the core with his horror thriller Audition, at the 1999 edition of...
