A House That Is Not A Home: Yoon Sung-A’s ‘Overseas’ —Locarno
How can cinema show social reproduction? Yoon Sung-A’s documentary Overseas (2019), focuses on a training centre for overseas domestic workers…
2019
On Mourning and Paralysis: Anna Sofie Hartmann’s ‘Giraffe’ —Locarno
In Anna Sofie Hartmann’s debut feature Giraffe (2019), the underwater tunnel being built to connect Denmark with Germany is bestowed with a kind…
In The Name of The Mother: Maura Delpero’s ‘Maternal’ —Locarno
What is motherhood? Maura Delpero’s Maternal (Hogar, 2019) shows a world in which two paradigms of maternity – the single…
The Persistence of Fairy Tales: Choice and Desire in Sophie Hyde’s ‘Animals’
Andrea Dworkin calls fairy tales, “the first scenarios of women and men which mold our psyches”, teaching fundamental cultural lessons…
Aude Léa Rapin’s ‘Les héros ne meurent jamais’ (‘Heroes don’t die’) takes on the ethics of the documentary film – Cannes
Aude Léa Rapin’s Les héros ne meurent jamais (Heroes don’t die) begins with Joachim (Jonathan Couzinié), a thin, bearded young…
Rebecca Zlotowski’s ‘Une fille facile’ (‘An Easy Girl’) takes on the cliché of the woman of leisure – Cannes
Rebecca Zlotowski’s Une fille facile (An Easy Girl) opens with a contradiction. A quotation from 17th-century mathematician and philosopher Blaise…
Chaining Female Reproduction to Analogy: Kantemir Balagov’s ‘Beanpole’
“What would happen to a woman after the war, when there is a tectonic shift in her mind, her nature?”1…
Zabou Breitman and Eléa Gobbé Mévellec’s ‘The Swallows of Kabul’ (‘Les Hirondelles de Kaboul’) Takes a Rosy Look at Female Sacrifice – Cannes
In their adaption of Yasmina Kadra’s novel The Swallows of Kabul (2002), director/actress Zabou Breitman and animator Eléa Gobbé Mévellec…
On Well-Meaning White Women: Josephine Decker’s ‘Madeline’s Madeline’
“What you are experiencing is just a metaphor,” a nurse hovering above the camera says in the opening scene of…
Monia Chokri’s ‘La femme de mon frère’ (‘A Brother’s Love’) ventures beyond the hellscape of the self – Cannes
La femme de mon frère opens to a combative discussion between four philosophy professors about whether they should pass a…
Review: Hikari’s ’37 Seconds’ – Berlinale
A balancing act between dependence and self-determination characterises Yuma Takada’s (Mei Kayama) story as told in 37 Seconds, a film…
Macabre Dancing: ‘Die Kinder der Toten’ (‘The Children of the Dead’) – Berlinale
Elfriede Jelinek’s novel Die Kinder der Toten [The Children of the Dead,1995], which has yet to be translated into English, tends to be…
In Search of a ‘Feminist Sensibility’: Two Shorts By Deborah Stratman and Lynne Sachs
Vever (for Barbara) dir. Deborah Stratman, 2019 Carolee, Barbara & Gunvor dir. Lynne Sachs, 2018. When the Bay Area lesbian…
What goes up must come down: Marie Kreutzer’s ‘The Ground Beneath My Feet’ – Berlinale
“She’s not fit for this life,” says Lola to a doctor as they stand together beside her sister’s hospital bed….
On ‘Killing Eve’
Is it possible to tell when a television programme has been masterminded by a woman? And if so, what is…