International: Middle East
Berlinale 2026 Interview: IN A WHISPER Director-Writer Leyla Bouzid on Queerness and Her Narrative Approach as a Tunisian Filmmaker
As a Tunisian queer filmmaker, one must exercise particular care when addressing an issue that remains deeply taboo in society to this day. Yet this does not prevent Leyla Bouzid from boldly portraying the increasingly precarious reality faced by homosexual...
Berlinale 2026 Review: IN A WHISPER (À VOIX BASSE) Unearths the Queer Stigma in a Tunisian Family and Beyond
Eya Bouteraa, Hiam Abbass, and Salma Baccar form a familial portrait across three generations confronted with an unspoken secret.
Berlinale 2026 Review: YELLOW LETTERS, Golden Bear Winner Traces an Artist Couple Caught in Political Turmoil
Özgü Namal and Tansu Biçer star in İlker Çatak's portrait of a pair ensnared in political turmoil in Turkey.
Sundance 2026 Review: BIRDS OF WAR, War Reporting and Love Collide
Directors Janay Boulos and Abd Alkader Habak are also the film's protagonists, following a 13-year collaboration that unfolds from professional exchange into personal involvement amid the realities of reporting on the Syrian war.
Sundance 2026 Review: TELL ME EVERYTHING Traces a Closeted Husband and Father Against His Family
Moshe Rosenthal's second feature probes a fractured father-son relationship set against the turbulent years of the AIDS crisis.
98th Academy Awards Nominations: International Films
Brazil, France, Norway, Spain, and Tunisia will be represented in this year's ceremony.
ALL THAT'S LEFT OF YOU Review: Epic but Tender Family Saga about Palestinian Multigenerational Trauma
Cherien Dabis directs and stars in the drama, alongside Saleh Bakri and Mohammad Bakri.
Now Streaming: TEHRAN S3, Spy Caught Between a Rock and a Hard Place
Niv Sultan reprises her starring role in the thriller series, alongside Shaun Toub and Shila Omni, joined by Hugh Laurie.
THE PLAGUE Review: Zero for Conduct Again
Joel Edgerton, Everett Blunck, Kayo Martin, and Kenny Rasmussen star in Charlie Poling's psychological thriller.
Opening This Week: THE VOICE OF HIND RAJAB Cries for Help, THE HOUSEMAID Gets Twisted
Plus: 'Is This Thing On?' and 'Avatar: Fire and Ash.'
EUROPE'S NEW FACES Review: Harrowing Migrant Experiences
Sam Abbas' documentary details a long journey built on hopes for a better life.
Tallinn 2025 Review: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Heartbreaking Story Tracks a Maid's Journey Through Egypt's Fractured Class Dynamics
Sarah Goher's film, submitted as Egypt's entry for the Academy Awards, offers an intimate, day-long portrait of a child's maid navigating shifting family and class dynamics.
IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT Review: Darkly Comic Social, Moral Examination
Jafar Panahi's new film.
Playback: Jafar Panahi, Cinema Under Pressure, from THE WHITE BALLOON to IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT
Jafar Panahi makes films under immense pressure. The Iranian filmmaker's conditions of censorship and surveillance have become the grammar of his storytelling. Out of those limits, he's built one of the most radical bodies of work, where love for one's...
Toronto 2025 Review: UNIDENTIFIED, Justice Is Not Easy to Find
True crime might be the cornerstone of the podcast industry, or so it would seem by the number of people who engaged in amateur detecting. Murder is an intriguing (and obviously horrific) crime; perhaps it's not surprising that an unintended...
Locarno 2025 Interview: IRKALLA: GILGAMESH'S DREAM Director Mohamed Al-Daradji on Casting Real Orphans, Filming Amidst Baghdad's Unrest
Mohamed Jabarah Al-Daradji reflects on the wounds that shape his cinema, the ethical complexities of working with traumatized children, and the quiet defiance of making films in a country where storytelling can still be an act of survival.
CAIRO STATION Blu-ray Review: An Egyptian Classic Gets the Proper Treatment
It's impossible for any one film to complete define a particular country at a specific moment in time. Countries and cultures are too vast, too multiple, too varied to be quantified in 90 minutes. But a film can capture a...
Locarno 2025 Review: IRKALLA: GILGAMESH'S DREAM Confronts Iraq's Haunted Present Through Myth, Memory and Children as Collateral Damage
Director Mohamed Jabarah Al-Daradji constructs a fragmented, myth-infused portrait of post-ISIS Baghdad, where the traumas of a lost generation unfold through the eyes of a silent child wandering between memory, violence, and ancient legend.
Karlovy Vary 2025 Review: IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT Takes Justice for a Ride
Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi delivers a political revenge thriller infused with absurdist comedy in his latest work, using the framework of post-authoritarian reckoning to examine the moral ambiguities of justice, memory, and collective trauma.
Criterion in August 2025: FIRES ON THE PLAIN, THE BURMESE HARP, CAIRO STATION Lead Summer Sizzlers
Plus: Vittorio De Sica's 'Shoeshine,' Edward Yang's 'A Confucian Confusion' and 'Mahjong,' Zeinabu irene Davis's 's 'Compensation,' and Alice Wu's 'Saving Face.'
