Film
Youssef Chebbi’s Ashkal
By Farah AbdessamadAshkal won the highest award at the Pan-African Fespaco Film Festival. It premiered at the 2022 Cannes festival Directors’ Fortnight. Screened at MoMA’s New Directors festival last April, it will be distributed in US cinemas this summer.
Amanda Kim’s Nam June Paik: Moon is the Oldest TV
By Maya HanAmanda Kim’s new documentary Nam June Paik: Moon is the Oldest TV is a corrective tour-de-force, a deeply moving portrait of Paik and, for new generations and old, a much-needed introduction to this towering artist and pioneering polymath.
Cristian Mungiu’s R.M.N.
By Nolan KellyTalk of ethno-nationalism pervades all corners of Mungiu’s film, though no one can seem to decide who exactly is Romanian enough for it.
“Anna” in Literature and Film
By Ana VidalIn fiction, the sincerity and forcefulness of those named Anna become a weapon that poses a threat to the status quo of society and to anyone who does not want to deal with brutal honesty.
Ari Aster’s Beau Is Afraid
By Payton McCarty-SimasAri Aster’s latest is about a mama’s boy caught up in a trippy maze of psychological anguish.
Giacomo Abbruzzese’s Disco Boy
By Anthony HawleyBoundaries, divisions, dualisms as well as themes of exile, identity, and empire’s orphaned territories—all pervade Disco Boy’s lean 90 minutes as it nimbly navigates the aftermath of far-reaching colonial enterprises. The narratives follow Belarusian Aleksei (Franz Rogowski) and Nigerian siblings Jomo (Morr Ndiaye) and Udoka (Laetitia Ky), all of whom are experiencing an acute crisis of nationhood and self.
