Stories

Recent reviews

The winner of Cannes’s Un Certain Regard award in 2021 is the visceral story of a young woman’s struggle to free herself from the grip of her father—and the patriarchy with it. With the intensity of a thriller, this stirring feminist portrait announces a tremendous talent in director Kira Kovalenko.

Now streaming exclusively here (almost) globally. A MUBI Release.

As sharp as a knife’s blade, Radu Jude’s latest short visually quotes Sergei Eisenstein’s Soviet classic Battleship Potemkin to dissect the paradoxes of the present. Holding no punches, darkly comic musings on cinema and memory expose the sheer absurdity of artmaking under bureaucratic authorities.

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The scars of war are laid bare in this piercing drama from writer-director Maksym Nakonechnyi. Stylistically inventive and featuring a compelling lead performance from newcomer Rita Burkovska, Butterfly Vision is a timely testament to the trauma and resilience of women on the Ukrainian frontlines.

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Wild with the elemental powers of water, fire, and air, Léa Mysius’s witchy second feature inventively folds a queer love story—featuring a magnetic Adèle Exarchopoulos—in a girl’s time-hopping coming-of-age fantasy. Magic is afoot in this genre-defying family tale of desire, prejudice, and revenge.

Now streaming exclusively here (almost) globally. A MUBI Release.

Liked reviews

Visionary director Djibril Diop Mambéty (Touki Bouki) makes a feisty assault on economic imperialism in this loose adaptation of Friedrich Durrenmatt’s play, The Visit. Relocated to a Senegalese town, Hyenas is a comic, cutting critique of globalization conveyed with playful, imaginative flourish.

Now streaming here.

Juxtaposing overwhelming sorrow with an underlying joy, Abderrahmane Sissako intertwines the cruel realities of occupation with buoyant, moving moments that overwhelmingly emphasize the strength of the human spirit. Timbuktu is a political film of defiance, resilience, and poetry.

Now streaming here.

Thirty years before Call Me By Your Name, this lavish period drama from Merchant Ivory encapsulated their uniquely tender and direct perspective on gay love. Featuring a young Hugh Grant in a passionate, heartbreaking performance, this visionary piece of queer cinema has left its mark.

Now streaming here.