Welcome to Donnieland, and our Jan. 6 Ride!

Irish students’ J1 plans in the Trump era: ‘We said we wouldn’t go ahead. It just isn’t safe’More than 5,500 J1 summer working visas were issued to Irish students last year -- Headline in the Irish Times Despite anything you may have heard, read, experienced, been told by a friend or seen in videos about…Read more Welcome to Donnieland, and our Jan. 6 Ride!

Germany’s far-right wants to downplay past, but centre holds

The election poster for Alice Weidel, the leader of Germany's far-right Alternativ für Deutschland party, seemed out of place at a bus stop a hundred metres (yards) from the House of the Wannsee Conference museum, the lakeside mansion where the Nazis plotted the extermination of the Jews. The museum is an integral part of Germany's…Read more Germany’s far-right wants to downplay past, but centre holds

Norwegian film “Drømmer” wins Golden Bear top prize at Berlinale

Drømmer producers Yngve Sæther, Hege Hauff Hvattum with director Dag Johan Haugerud (centre) The Norwegian film "Drømmer" (Dreams (Sex Love)), directed by Dag Johan Haugerud and starring Ella Øverbye as a 17-year-old schoolgirl who turns the tables on the adults in her world by writing a book about a lesbian affair with her teacher, won…Read more Norwegian film “Drømmer” wins Golden Bear top prize at Berlinale

Do-gooder can’t stop progress, or death, in Jude’s “Kontinental ’25” at Berlinale

A homeless man, dressed in tattered clothes and shouting out swear words at random, packs trash into a carryall as he lurches along the leaf-strewn paths of a forlorn amusement park, whose chief attraction is clunky, animatronic dinosaurs. When he leaves the park and walks into the city of Cluj, in northwestern Romania, he passes…Read more Do-gooder can’t stop progress, or death, in Jude’s “Kontinental ’25” at Berlinale

Dark rock-star celebrity worship film “Lurker” channels “Ripley”

Archie Madekwe and Théodore Pellerin in Alex Russell's "LurkerThe celebrity-worship culture of the Los Angeles rock scene runs up against the desperation of an insinuating outsider who will do anything to gain admission to a star's inner circle in “Lurker”, a dark but sometimes comic Sundance hit that had its international premiere at the Berlinale…Read more Dark rock-star celebrity worship film “Lurker” channels “Ripley”

Ukraine doc “Timestamp” is riveting study of schools in wartime

Cheers of “Slava Ukraini” (Glory to Ukraine) rang out in the Berlinale Palast on Thursday at the world premiere of the brilliant but heart-rending documentary “Strichka chasu” (Timestamp), about the superhuman efforts Ukraine has made to keep schools open during 10 years of war with Russia. Directed by Ukrainian documentary maker Kateryna Gornostai, the two-hour-long…Read more Ukraine doc “Timestamp” is riveting study of schools in wartime

Teens turn tables on adults in Berlinale competition films

Marielle (Laeni Geiseler) can overhear her parents in "What Marielle Knows" Two teenaged schoolgirls turn family dynamics on their head, one of them by developing telepathy that allows her to read her parents' minds, wherever they are, the other by writing a book about a lesbian affair she's had with her French teacher, in two…Read more Teens turn tables on adults in Berlinale competition films

Cinderella story with a meat cleaver, mother-and-baby issues from hell on Berlinale screens

Marie Leuenberger as new mother who is convinced her infant is not her own in "Mother's Baby" In “The Ugly Stepsister”, an uproarious Norwegian twist on the Cinderella fairytale screening at the Berlinale, Elvira (Norwegian actress Lea Myren) wants to win the prince but also loves eating cake. Her money-obsessed mother (Polish actress Agnieszka Zulewska)…Read more Cinderella story with a meat cleaver, mother-and-baby issues from hell on Berlinale screens

Lorenz Hart bio-pic “Blue Moon” captures falling star of a great American lyricist

American actor Ethan Hawke gives a powerful but disturbing performance as the alcoholic lyricist Lorenz Hart in director Richard Linklater's Berlinale competition entry “Blue Moon”, named for one of Hart's songs with his longtime collaborator Richard Rodgers, played by Irish actor Andrew Scott. Alternately witty, solicitous, hectoring and maddening in his barroom banter, Hawke chews…Read more Lorenz Hart bio-pic “Blue Moon” captures falling star of a great American lyricist