THE WARRIOR QUEEN OF JHANSI IS ABOUT INDIA’S JOAN OF ARC The English East India Company (EEIC) began in 1600 to facilitate trade between the Indian subcontinent and Britain. But when the Mughal Empire (with a capital at Agra, the site of the Taj Mahal) fragmented from 1720, the company used the British army to […]

THE IRISHMAN TRIES TO EXPLAIN THE HOFFA MYSTERY AND MORE In 1975, Jimmy Hoffa of the Teamsters Union reportedly disappeared, leading to various conspiracy theories. The Irishman, directed by Martin Scorsese, provides one but spends more time as a biopic of his Teamsters successor, Frank Sheeran (played by Robert De Niro). Sheeran begins the film

OFFICIAL SECRETS CELEBRATES A BRITISH WHISTLEBLOWER Katherine Gun (played by Keira Knightley), employed at Government Communications Headquarters, watches Prime Minister Tony Blair make claims about Iraq on television in 2003 that have no factual basis. Blair is trying to build public support for the American push to go to war. The main claim is that

TEACHER DEALS WITH HOW SCHOOL BULLYING CANNOT BE SOLVED A high school student, Preston Walsh (played by Matthew Gerry), is being bullied by another student, Tim Cooper (Curtis Edward Jackson). The bullying is particularly evident in one of his classes, which is taught by James Lewis (David Dastmalchian), who is close to being awarded tenure

THEM THAT FOLLOW DEPICTS SHALLOW LIVES Why do those attending Trump’s rallies seem so eager to chant, cheer, and applaud whatever he says? That might not be the question posed by Them That Follow, but the portrayal provides the answer. Co-directed by Britt Poulton and Dan Madison Savage, much of the film, set in rural

MEMORIES HAUNT NEVER LOOK AWAY When children are inhumanely separated from their loved ones, their future can be very painful and normality may be impossible. Never Look Away (Werk ohne Autor) is a noir film that traces a German artist at several junctions of his life from age 6 to 36 (1937 to 1967), proving

WOMAN AT WAR INVOKES A HIGHER LAW Directed by Benedikt Erlingsson, Woman at War (Kona fer í stríð) focuses on a fictional Halla (played by Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir), who is determined to stop global warming in her native Iceland in the role as a Luddite. She does so by felling power lines, at first near a Chinese-operated aluminum smelter

TERRORIST VIEWS ARE REVEALED IN MY STRETCH OF TEXAS GROUND Director Erich Kemp wants filmviewers to know more about the aims and methods of jihadists. In a fictional account, Abdul Latif Hassan (played by Junes Zahdi) is recruited from Tunis by jihadists to assassinate Texas Senator Cruthers (Mike Gassaway) for a mere $10,000. The jihadists

MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS IS ANOTHER REMINDER OF SCOTLAND’S INDEPENDENCE The film The Outlaw King, released last month, ends in 1314, when Scotland secures sovereignty at the Battle of Bannockburn, with the monarch Robert I on the throne. England formally recognized Scotland’s independence in 1328. When Robert I died the following year, his 5-year-old son David II

55 STEPS FEATURE THE ASCENT OF THE RIGHTS OF MENTAL PATIENTS Patients are now accustomed to signing their name multiple times before their blood is drawn or other medical procedures are undertaken. But up to 1985, mental patients were deemed incompetent, so decisions were made for them without consultation, as the opening scene vividly demonstrates. Diagnosed