Breakwater review – troubled souls cross class and age barriers in nicely judged debut feature

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An Oxford theology student and a middle-aged fisher are drawn together despite their many differences in an ambitious first film from Max Morgan This evocative debut feature from Max Morgan is a film of many contrasts. One is the May-December attraction between Otto (Daniel McNamee), a theology student and aspiring violinist, and John (Shaun Paul McGrath), a middle-aged fisher with a shadowy past. The worlds that they inhabit seem poles apart. Compared with the storm-ravaged Suffolk coast that curves around John’s rugged village, the imposing halls of Otto’s college at Oxford are at once grand and isolating. Despite their differences in age, the two men are bound by shared trauma and turmoil: both struggle with their sexuality and the loss of a loved one. The highly textured cinematography renders these inner conflicts strikingly tactile. The camera at times stays uncomfortably close to the main characters, highlighting the gnawing anxiety of not belonging. From the demands of a frustr...
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The American Sector review US road trip to hunt down remnants of the Berlin Wall

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This film tells the story of concrete slabs that have been rehomed thousands of miles away in bizarre yet unremarkable locations

Tracking down various segments of the Berlin Wall scattered all over the US, this eccentric yet down-to-earth documentary from Courtney Stephens and Pacho Velez traces how a historic artefact can mutate and splinter into myriad meanings. Transformed by their surroundings as well as the film-makers’ gaze, these concrete slabs are more than a symbol of the cold war; they have come to represent something quintessentially American.

From the midwest to California, state department halls to roadside restaurants, chunks of the wall can be found in the most unlikely of places. Most often positioned as a commemoration of history – and that loaded concept of “freedom” – the fragments are occasionally entirely untethered from their context, re-erected decoratively inside a Microsoft office or in the home of a private collector.

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