The Mother of All Lies review – pursuing the truth of Morocco’s brutal dictatorship years

-
Asmae El Moudir employs a delicate mix of handmade replicas and oral testimony to brilliantly evoke personal and collective trauma Between those who refuse to remember and those who struggle to forget, a tumultuous clash of minds occupies the centre of Asmae El Moudir’s inventive documentary, a prize-winner at last year’s Cannes film festival. Through a constellation of clay figurines and dollhouse-style miniature sets, most of which were constructed by El Moudir’s father, the director recreates her oppressive childhood in the Sebata district of Casablanca. Under the watchful eyes of her domineering grandmother Zahra, all personal photos are banished from the house, save for a picture of King Hassan II. The delicate mix of handmade replicas and oral testimony brilliantly evokes the personal and collective trauma that stem from Morocco’s “Years of Lead” – a period of state brutality under Hassan II’s dictatorial rule. Lingering on the nimble fingers of El Moudir’s father as he puts t
Post a Comment

Cats of Malta review – purr-inducing documentary aims to encourage compassion

-

Interviewing the humans who help strays in their Maltese neighbourhood, this is a hazy but enjoyable slice of life with cats

Social media, for all its sins, has achieved at least one thing in this crazy, mixed-up world: it’s raised everyone’s game when it comes to cat videos. What artist Louis Wain did for cat illustration in the 19th century, YouTube, Instagram and TikTok have done for our feline friends in the 21st, celebrating their strangeness, comic absurdity, and capacity for grumpiness. Meanwhile, there’s a growing genre of documentary films about cats and their relationship with humans, some of which add to the cat-people Venn-diagram-overlap an extra subset concerned with specific places, such as the magnificent Kedi, which profiled the street cats of Istanbul and their human friends.

Cats of Malta, as its unambiguous title suggests, wants to do for Malta what Kedi did for Istanbul. It celebrates these very territorial creatures that share the streets of ancient neighbourhoods, with their history recounted by director Sarah Jayne’s voiceover. The cats are mostly unconcerned with the human residents except when they have needs to be met, such as hunger or medical emergencies. And so we get stories told straight to camera by kindly humans who had to help when, for example, an aggressive kick by a passing dog owner ended up costing one tom a front leg. Another person created a little cat village next to a historic stretch of wall built by the Knights Templar – a lovely conjunction of antiquity and super-tacky plastic cat shelters – but was forced to take it down by developers with plans for the site. Many of the humans, including the cat-village builder, English-Maltese actor Polly Marsh and 13-year-old natural comic Isaac Muscat, voluntarily spend huge chunks of their free time feeding the cats. They also, when possible, trap them so that they can be neutered or spayed, thus reducing the feral population.

Continue reading...

from Film | The Guardian https://ift.tt/WSs6GqO
via IFTTT

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Gasoline Rainbow review – a free-ranging coming-of-age ode to the curiosity of youth

-
Billed as a gen Z road trip film, the Ross brothers’ first fiction feature offers more than you’d expect from the genre, with a focus on human interaction over plot In the opening seconds of the Ross brothers’ new film, a teenager professes his hope to discover a place “weirdos” like him can call home. The opening raises doubts about the novelty of what might follow: the trope of the high school outsider has been endlessly revisited. Gasoline Rainbow – billed as a gen Z road trip movie – starts off by replaying familiar images. As new high school graduates Makai, Micah, Nathaly, Nichole and Tony hit the road across Oregon for one final adventure together, we see the usual trappings of the genre: sing-alongs, parties by the campfire, and leaning out of car windows to enjoy the breeze and sweet call of freedom. We move into welcome new territory when a mishap leaves their van out of action, and the group are left in the hot desert trying to scrounge a path forward, meeting strangers al
Read more

Elaha review – sex, patriarchy and second-generation identity

-
A sexually candid, seriously intentioned drama about a young Kurdish woman who feels she has to surgically ‘restore’ her virginity before her wedding There is a heartfelt and courageous performance from 28-year-old Syrian-born, German-based actor Bayan Layla in this drama about sex, patriarchy and second-generation immigrant identity. It is a drama which hits the buttons squarely and efficiently, but might perhaps have played better as a three-part TV drama. Layla plays Elaha, a young woman of Kurdish family background in a German town (director Milena Aboyan is herself German-based and Armenian-Kurdish). She has finished high school and is now attending classes on how to apply for jobs, picking up skills she uses mainly to help her dad find employment. There seems to be no discussion about university, despite her obvious intelligence. Her mum works hard minding Elaha’s younger sister and disabled kid brother, and Elaha has part-time work at a dry-cleaners; she is saving for her wedd
Read more

Shraddha Kapoor roped in as co-founder by demi fine jewellery start-up Palmonas

-
Palmonas, the demi-fine jewellery startup, has announced the addition of Bollywood actor Shraddha Kapoor as its co-founder. This collaboration marks a significant milestone in the industry, with Kapoor's involvement stemming from a serendipitous interaction on Instagram. Founded by Pallavi Mohadikar and Dr Amol Patwari, the demi-fine jewellery brand uses surgical-grade stainless steel elegantly plated with 18k gold tone and sterling silver plated with gold vermeil which is a 2.5-micron thick layer of 18K gold. This unique combination not only sets it apart in the industry but also establishes a standard of affordable luxury accessible to a diverse audience. Celebrated for its exquisite designs, superior craftsmanship, and affordable prices, PALMONAS has gained widespread acclaim for its contemporary and minimalistic jewellery collections made from sterling silver, stainless steel, and gold vermeil. Pallavi Mohadikar, Founder of Palmonas, shared the exciting journey of discovering
Read more