In 1952, acclaimed writer Dambudzo Marechera was born in rural Zimbabwe. In 1955, acclaimed Greek writer and social critic Nikos Kazantzakis wrote The Last Temptation of Christ, a highly-controversial account of the life of Jesus Christ, a subversion on what has come to be accepted as Christian truth through the Biblical Gospels. In 1988, Martin…

Despite usually finding something to like in almost every film I watch, it takes quite a bit for me to absolutely adore a film. There is a set of criteria that a film needs to meet for me to consider it an utter masterpiece, and something that can definitively be called a truly incredible, moving…

There are sad films, and then there are extremely sad films. Then there are films that can only be described as being “misery porn”, films that have the intention of creating complete and utter despair in the audience to the point where it is wholly uncomfortable. Then you get The Sea of Trees, a film…

“One day you’ll pay for your laughter and my tears” – these are words spoken by the main character in I, Olga Hepnarová (Czech: Já, Olga Hepnarová), a shocking and brilliant film hailing from Tomáš Weinreb and Petr Kazda, both making their feature-length film debut with this chillingly socially-relevant psychological thriller that is based on…

Being a parent is difficult – this is a sentiment shared by a great many films, and a subject explored countless times in various ways, across different genres throughout the years. One of the most profound meditations on this subject is Menashe, a small independent film that uses the concept of parenthood and its intersections…

Isn’t Isabelle Huppert just the greatest actress in the world? While this may seem unprofessionally hyperbolic, I absolutely adore her, and I believe her to be one of the most extraordinary performers to ever work in cinema, due to her relentless brilliance across genres. Many have debated her finest hour, with quite a bit of…

Here’s a statement I haven’t made abundantly clear several times before: I utterly admire David Lynch. I admire how he is one of the most important filmmakers to ever live, how he helped define both surrealism and independent cinema, and how he has been a cinematic iconoclast who has broken boundaries for what is possible…

Diane Arbus was an extraordinarily talented artist, and her legacy as one of the most profoundly meaningful photographers to ever live continues to influence artists interested in humanity to this day. I know I have been inspired by Arbus, and many others have been as well. Her relentless provocation of form and content in her…

I am not someone averse to elaborate and advanced filmmaking, with blindingly spectacular special effects and an unbelievably high budget, used over a lengthy and exhausting period of production. Laborious, time-consuming and expensive filmmaking was what Hollywood was built on and continues to thrive on. However, as I have never made it a secret before,…

Who doesn’t love a good Cold War-era espionage thriller? I must admit that I am quite a devotee of the period, and I always have been fascinated by works of fiction that locate themselves within that period. John le Carré has, for a very long time, been one of the foremost figures in Cold War…