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THE UNFORGIVABLE TRACKS UNPLEASANT POST-PRISON LIFE Many long-time prisoners have recently been freed because they were victims of police and prosecutorial rush to judgment. Just how they adjust to life after prison is the focus of The Unforgivable, directed by Nora Fingscheid. Based on a 2009 TV miniseries in Britain that has been redesigned for […]

HIVE DEPICTS HOW WIVES OF MIAS CAN BEST SURVIVE Directed by Blerta Bashollim, Hive reminds filmviewers that during 1999 Serbian forces slaughtered about 100 Albanian residents of the town of Krusha in Kosovo. Their remains are a mystery, especially to wives who were therefore impoverished. Two decades have passed, and the women stand in front

GIFT OF FIRE REVEALS THE KYOTO PROJECT The recent film Adventures of a Mathematician provides a window into the life of one researcher on the Manhattan Project, which sought to develop an atomic bomb before Nazi Germany. He was obviously unaware that Japan was trying to do the same. Gift of Fire, directed by Hiroshi

COMING-OF-AGE FILMS DURING CRISES Many young people grow up in times of civil strife. Two recent films deal with that issue: Beans, directed by Tracey Deer, focuses on a young teenager nicknamed Beans (played by Kiawentiio), who has a delicate appearance early in the story and grows into a much stronger person due to the

THE LAST FOREST PREDICTS AN END TO THE AMAZON FOREST The point of The Last Forest (Ostatnia Puszcza) appears in titles at the end, which point out that gold prospecting and ore mining are driving the Indigenous population from ancestral lands in Brazil near the border with Venezuela. Although their land was protected by the

THE LAST DUEL IS A REMINDER OF THE MISOGYNY OF THE MIDDLE AGES Soon after the beginning of The Last Duel, directed by Ridley Scott, Jean de Carrouges (played by Matt Damon) has just achieved another victory at the Battle of Limoges (1370), where he saves the life of Jacques Le Gris (Adam Driver). A

DE GAULLE RISES FROM COLONEL TO FRANCE’S MAIN DEFENDER Often understood as an arrogant leader who kept Britain out of the European Economic Community and later became the leader of the French Fifth Republic, the film De Gaulle, directed by Gabriel Le Bomin, is a biopic of his role from April to June 1940, when

OPERATION CURVEBALL EXPOSES DUPLICITY REGARDING IRAQ Most political observers know that the United States started the Iraq War based on a lie. Few, however, know where the lie originated. Operation Curveball, directed by Johannes Naber, puts the blame on the German government, though the role of the American government is also revealed. At the center

HELD FOR RANSOM IS LINKED TO GUANTÁNAMO As one grows up, a career is not always obvious. Daniel Rye (played by Esben Smed), growing up in a small town in Denmark, is unsure of himself but knows that he enjoys photography. One day he applies for a position as assistant to an established photographer, flies

DOCUDRAMAS SOMETIMES ARE SUSPENSFUL     Adventures of a Mathematician, directed by Thor Klein, is a biopic of Stan Ulam (played by Philippe Tlokinski), whose mathematics worked out the formula to produce the atomic bomb at Los Alamos during World War II. Although Klaus Fuchs, Robert Oppenheimer, and Edward Teller are better known members of the