Kurdish feud is warning to the world in Berlinale film Kurtuluş

(Caner Cindoruk as vision-possessed Mesut in Kurtuluş) By Michael Roddy Clan rivalries spiral fatally out of control in a farming and shepherding village in southeastern Turkey that could be any place where tensions between feuding groups end in violence in the Turkish-Kurdish film “Kurtuluş” (Salvation), which had its premiere at the Berlinale on Sunday. In…Read more Kurdish feud is warning to the world in Berlinale film Kurtuluş

Child of the Forest: “Nightborn” picks up where Polanski left off

By Michael Roddy First time Finnish mother Saga (Seidi Haarla) has a problem, and it's not just that her British husband Jon (Rupert Grint, of “Harry Potter” fame) is alien to the local culture or that her grandmother, whose wreck of a house deep in the Finnish woods they've renovated and moved into, warned before…Read more Child of the Forest: “Nightborn” picks up where Polanski left off

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!