Morning Patrol (1987)

“The stupidest question anyone on Earth could ask: where the hell has everybody gone?” All the woman (Michele Valley) says she has is a coat and a knife. The world has fallen into dystopia and no-one can remember why. The countryside is littered with abandoned vehicles and detritus. Scavengers ride around in motorcycles. In the […]

Murina (2021)

Deep down in the blue. A morning errand dive for teenager Juljia (Gracija Filipović) and her father Ante (Leon Lučev). The type of father whose moods cloud and control the household. Underneath the water, he can’t say anything, demean and insult. They both carry spearguns to catch eels. Underwater is also where Julijia finds escape […]

Automatic (1995)

“This guy is cool!” – security guard under his breath, watching a cyborg on a monitor wipe the floor with a crack team of mercenaries. Automatic (1995) is a sci-fi action flick Die Hard knock-off which is mostly shot in the shadowy interiors of a corporate building, the HQ for robot/manufacturing company RobGen. Some movies […]

El Planeta (2021)

A box of Ferrero Rocher chocolates in a display window. Filmed in digital black and white, a framed image that the camera lingers on and one of my favourite shots in the movie El Planeta (2021). In the Spanish town of Gijon, there are numerous shops boarded up, closed down on account of a recession. […]

White Material (2009)

The workers have reluctantly agreed to help. Five days at a coffee plantation as violent conflict happens. An unnamed African country. Rebel soldiers and the military fighting. The French colonialists have withdrawn, only Isabelle Huppert’s character stubbornly staying behind for a business that she married into. One more yield before they pack up and leave. […]