A lethal “Succession”-style family in Berlinale’s “Rosebush Pruning”

By Michael Roddy In the Berlinale competition film “Rosebush Pruning”, by Brazilian director Karim Aïnouz (The Invisible Life of Eurídice Gusmão), the first member we meet of a stinking rich and utterly loathesome American family, who've transplanted themselves to obscene levels of luxury in Spain, is son Edward (Callum Turner). He is on a busy…Read more A lethal “Succession”-style family in Berlinale’s “Rosebush Pruning”

Irish Bill Evans film plays the right tune in Berlin

By Michael Roddy One of the hardest tricks to pull off in moviemaking is a fictionalised film based on the career of someone whose music and discs everybody knows and loves, and whose performance by actors who are not musicians is at best hit or miss. “Everybody Digs Bill Evans” neatly avoids that bear trap…Read more Irish Bill Evans film plays the right tune in Berlin

Lesbian couple deal with Tunisian mores in Berlinale film

(Hiam Abbass as Wahida and Eya Bouteraa as her daughter Lilia in "A Voix Basse") By Michael Roddy The cast and director of a Tunisian film that deals with a lesbian love affair said at the Berlinale on Friday they hoped “A Voix Basse” (In a Whisper) would help shift Western stereotypes about the Middle…Read more Lesbian couple deal with Tunisian mores in Berlinale film

Berlinale opener combines romcom, Kabul’s downfall

(Qodrat (Anwar Hashimi), left, dining with Naru (Shahrbanoo Sadat) in Sadat's Kabul-based rom com at Berlinale) By Michael Roddy It's Valentine's Day in Kabul, in 2021, and ambitious news cameraperson Naru (Shahrbanoo Sadat) is hoping desperately to break through the glass ceiling of misogyny in Afghan society and get to cover some real news instead…Read more Berlinale opener combines romcom, Kabul’s downfall

Director Wenders says films won’t end conflicts

The Berlinale unleashed some of its traditional political intensity on the opening day on Thursday as a panel of international film jurors led by German director Wim Wenders rejected the idea that filmmakers should take a political position on the world's most trenchant conflicts. “We are the counterweight of politics,” Wenders said in response to…Read more Director Wenders says films won’t end conflicts

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