Rotterdam - The Film Verdict

Wind, Talk to Me

Feb 4, 2025 | Festivals, Rotterdam, Rotterdam 2025

Stefan Djordjevic’s sensitive doc portrait of grief and nature’s endless capacity for renewal is a gem of small gestures and surreal moments.

Perla

Feb 3, 2025 | Festivals, Rotterdam, Rotterdam 2025, Spotlight

Alexandra Makarova’s elegant, psychologically complex Cold War drama plumbs the inner dislocation of exile, and the poisonous workings of tyranny.

Fiume o morte!

Feb 2, 2025 | Festivals, Rotterdam, Rotterdam 2025

Igor Bezinovic engages citizens of his Croatian hometown in a rigorously researched, irreverently punk re-enactment of its brief occupation by Italian poet and self-styled dictator Gabriele D’Annunzio.

Un gran casino

Feb 1, 2025 | Festivals, Rotterdam, Rotterdam 2025

Daniel Hoesl’s latest skewering of the excesses of the mega-rich is a mesmeric and doomy doc hybrid about the Casino di Campione, Europe’s largest casino.

Wondrous is the Silence of My Master

Jan 31, 2025 | Festivals, Rotterdam, Rotterdam 2025, Spotlight

Ivan Salatic’s magnificently moody, intelligent and doom-laden vision of Montenegrin freedom fighting and exile questions the formation and undoing of national myth.

The Assistant

Jan 31, 2025 | Festivals, Featured, Rotterdam, Rotterdam 2025

Wilhelm and Anka Sasnal channel the spirit of cult modernist Robert Walser in this strange, caustic “repainting” of his novel about a beleaguered assistant.

The Legends of Eternal Snow

Jan 29, 2025 | Festivals, Rotterdam, Rotterdam 2025

Sakha cinema pioneer Aleksei Romanov reworks an eerie Yakut tale for an intriguing mix of ethnographic detail, anti-imperial defiance and bone-deep chill.

TFV talks to Tiger Award winner Cyrielle Raingou

Feb 7, 2023 | Featured, Festivals, Rotterdam, Rotterdam 2023

Raingou’s first feature, ‘Le spectre de Boko Haram’, is a moving documentary that views the horrors of terrorism through the eyes of children.

International Film Festival Rotterdam 2023

Feb 6, 2023 | Festivals, Rotterdam, Rotterdam 2023, The Festival Verdict

As it finally returned from Covid-19 limbo under new artistic director Vanja Kaludjercic, the Dutch film festival reaffirmed its core mission to promote fresh, socially conscious, culturally rich cinema.

Playland

Feb 3, 2023 | Festivals, Rotterdam, Rotterdam 2023, Spotlight

The ghosts of Playland Cafe, Boston’s oldest gay bar pre-demolition, return in this heartfelt, multi-layered tribute to marginalised history, DIY spirit and queer performance.