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

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”