An insightful exploration of youth, ambition, romance, and meaning through the lens of a young woman you both identify with and love to hate.
El Gouna Film Festival
10/14/2021
Festival Reviews
White Building
Cambodia’s Oscar submission is a semi-autobiographical critique of how the country’s rampant capitalism frays the traditional social fabric, told with sympathy yet short on dynamism.
Invisible Demons
Rahul Jain follows up his festival mega-hit ‘Machines’ with an apocalyptic vision of Delhi’s life-threatening pollution that floods the screen with present-day disasters.
Clara Sola
Costa Rica dancer Wendy Chinchilla Araya gives an eerie, riveting perf but it only goes so far in this unstructured tale of magic realism and female power from debuting director Nathalie Alvarez Mesen.
Amira
A great deal of attention is about to accrue to Egyptian director Mohamed Diab, who’s just finished shooting on the Marvel franchise series Moon Knight, slated for release sometime in 2022. That’s a good thing, because it likely means his Venice premiered...
Compartment No. 6
You can’t say no to a relationship this mismatched in Juho Kuosmanen’s warm-hearted but melancholy voyage to nowhere, starring Russian actor of the moment Yuriy Borisov and Seidi Haarla as the Finnish tourist who stumbles across him.
Captains of Za’atari
Everything about Ali El Arabi’s Captains of Za’atari seems custom-made to appeal to a broad public. After all, who doesn’t love an underdog story, this one involving a couple of Syrian teens in a Jordanian refugee camp whose skills at football (European; soccer for...
El Gouna 2021: The Verdict
The town of El Gouna is a purpose-built gated community on Egypt's Red Sea coast just north of the popular resort city of Hurghada. It’s a place of privilege, where rolling green lawns and intensely colored bougainvillea grace pleasingly designed villas varied enough...
Life of Ivanna
Documaker Renato Borrayo Serrano offers eye-opening glimpses into the harrowing and chaotic life of a modern Nenets woman that overturn stereotypes about Arctic life.
Murina
‘Murina’, which won this year’s Camera d’Or in Cannes for first-time director Antoneta Alamat Kusijanovic, extols female rebellion but walks a dangerous tightrope connecting the male gaze with the body of a rebellious 17-year-old girl.
Once Upon a Time in Calcutta
Indian cineaste Aditya Vikram Sengupta delivers a slow-burning and delicate ensemble drama about the corrupted state of his hometown.
The Worst Person in the World
An insightful exploration of youth, ambition, romance, and meaning through the lens of a young woman you both identify with and love to hate.
White Building
Cambodia’s Oscar submission is a semi-autobiographical critique of how the country’s rampant capitalism frays the traditional social fabric, told with sympathy yet short on dynamism.
Invisible Demons
Rahul Jain follows up his festival mega-hit ‘Machines’ with an apocalyptic vision of Delhi’s life-threatening pollution that floods the screen with present-day disasters.
Clara Sola
Costa Rica dancer Wendy Chinchilla Araya gives an eerie, riveting perf but it only goes so far in this unstructured tale of magic realism and female power from debuting director Nathalie Alvarez Mesen.
Amira
A great deal of attention is about to accrue to Egyptian director Mohamed Diab, who’s just finished shooting on the Marvel franchise series Moon Knight, slated for release sometime in 2022. That’s a good thing, because it likely means his Venice premiered...
Compartment No. 6
You can’t say no to a relationship this mismatched in Juho Kuosmanen’s warm-hearted but melancholy voyage to nowhere, starring Russian actor of the moment Yuriy Borisov and Seidi Haarla as the Finnish tourist who stumbles across him.
Captains of Za’atari
Everything about Ali El Arabi’s Captains of Za’atari seems custom-made to appeal to a broad public. After all, who doesn’t love an underdog story, this one involving a couple of Syrian teens in a Jordanian refugee camp whose skills at football (European; soccer for...
El Gouna 2021: The Verdict
The town of El Gouna is a purpose-built gated community on Egypt's Red Sea coast just north of the popular resort city of Hurghada. It’s a place of privilege, where rolling green lawns and intensely colored bougainvillea grace pleasingly designed villas varied enough...
Life of Ivanna
Documaker Renato Borrayo Serrano offers eye-opening glimpses into the harrowing and chaotic life of a modern Nenets woman that overturn stereotypes about Arctic life.
Murina
‘Murina’, which won this year’s Camera d’Or in Cannes for first-time director Antoneta Alamat Kusijanovic, extols female rebellion but walks a dangerous tightrope connecting the male gaze with the body of a rebellious 17-year-old girl.
Awards Corner
El Gouna
- Golden Star for Narrative Film
The Blind Man Who Did Not Want to See the Titanic (Finland)
Director: Teemu Nikki - Silver Star for Narrative Film
Sundown (Mexico, France, Sweden)
Director: Michel Franco - Bronze Star for Narrative Film
Captain Volkonogov Escaped (Russia, France, Estonia)
Director: Natasha Merkulova, Aleksey Chupov - Best Arab Film for Narrative Film
Feathers (Egypt, Netherlands, Greece, France)
Director: Omar El Zohairy - Best Actor for
The Blind Man Who Did Not Want to See the Titanic (Finland)
Petri Poikolainen - Best Actress for
Playground (Belgium)
Maya Vanderbeque - Golden Star for Documentary
The Life of Ivanna (Russia, Norway, Finland, Estonia)
Director: Renato Borrayo Serrano - Silver Star for Documentary
Ostrov - Lost Island (Switzerland)
Director: Svetlana Rodina & Laurent Stoop - Bronze Star for Documentary
Sabaya (Sweden)
Director: Hogir Hirori