While she is mostly remembered for her groundbreaking work as a photographer, Diane Arbus was an exceptionally gifted social critic, and the commentary that surrounds her art is almost as intriguing as the photographs themselves. However, one of her most important statements on the nature of art comes in the form of the statement “a…

On nearly all occasions, I try my best to avoid hyperbole when writing about films. Rarely is anything said that isn’t entirely meant, and the act of speaking in absolutes is not a technique that I tend to use regularly unless it is necessary, which is increasingly sporadic considering the wealth of very good but…

There are two categories of war films – there are those that take place during the conflict, focusing either on the political machinations that lead two or more groups into battle or the soldiers themselves, while the second category involves films that are set in the direct aftermath of war, here usually focusing on both…

Home is where the heart is, the place in which we feel the most comfortable and secure, safe from the outside world that tries to invade the sanctuary we have constructed for ourselves, whether literal or metaphorical. This idea serves as the foundation for Costa Brava, Lebanon, the wildly ambitious and deeply meaningful solo directorial…

Coming home can either be a joyful event or a melancholic affair, depending on the circumstances that surround it. The concept of homecoming is a regular theme in films centred around soldiers, whether those that depict them fighting on the battlefields hoping to survive so that they can return home after the war has ended,…

For several decades, the story of June and Jennifer Gibbons has been the subject of a lot of conversation, with their mysterious lives being the source of an enormous amount of analysis as behavioural psychologists, linguists and a range of other investigators tried to determine the root of their condition that caused them to go…

There are few filmmakers who see the world in quite the same way as Xavier Dolan. A young artist who grew up enamoured with the world of cinema that quickly captivated him, it’s easy to see how he was impacted by the presence of certain genres during his formative years. Inspired by the melodramas of…

History was made with the creation of Sambizanga – not only was this one of the pioneering works by a female director working on the African continent, but it was the very first feature film produced by a Lusophone country in Africa, being a shared production between Cape Verde and Angola, the latter being the…

There is something very magical about seeing a work in progress, especially when it is an interpretation of a play by one of the most celebrated writers of any generation. If we’re not able to witness it firsthand, whatever material remains is often good enough in giving us insights into what made this such a…

It is an unimpeachable fact that Marilyn Monroe remains one of the most recognizable, iconic figures of 20th-century culture, a face that has adorned every conceivable kind of media across nearly every country around the world. Yet, did we ever truly know who she was? Her legacy is one that is unfortunately defined by the…