Deborah Young - The Film Verdict

No Bears

Posted by Deborah Young | Sep 9, 2022 | Festivals, Spotlight, VENICE 2022 |

The world premiere of Jafar Panahi’s simple but militantly engrossing ‘No Bears’, which comes to grips with the thin line between art and reality, took place in Venice competition while the director remained in prison in Tehran after his second arrest on July 11.

Beyond the Wall

Posted by Deborah Young | Sep 8, 2022 | Featured, Festivals, VENICE 2022 |

A shattering drama that courageously portrays Iran as a violent Big Brother police state, Vahid Jalilvand’s third film is a shrill, breath-taking mind-trip driven by between two exceptional actors, Navid Mohammadzadeh and Diana Habibi.

Vera

Posted by Deborah Young | Sep 6, 2022 | Festivals, Spotlight, VENICE 2022 |

Award-winning documentary team Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel plunge deep into the heart of the adult daughter of spaghetti western star Giuliano Gemma in a wonderfully touching film portrait that tips its Stetson at the illusory side of documentaries.

Lord of the Ants

Posted by Deborah Young | Sep 6, 2022 | Featured, Festivals, VENICE 2022 |

Director Gianni Amelio recreates a dismaying but true story from 1960’s Italy, when a brilliant writer who does little to hide his love for young men is persecuted and put on trial by a laughably outmoded justice system.

Call of God

Posted by Deborah Young | Sep 6, 2022 | Festivals, VENICE 2022 |

A young woman’s first love turns out to be a bad dream in the final film of South Korean master Kim Ki-duk, a visually striking if (for Kim) restrained relationship film that was posthumously completed by Estonian producer and director Artur Veeber.

Author: Deborah Young

No Bears

Beyond the Wall

Vera

Lord of the Ants

Call of God