In the freezing, quiet city of Yanji, writer and director Anthony Chen creates a bleak universe for Nana, Haofeng, and Xiao – the film’s three main characters who, each facing feelings of isolation and displacement from the world, form a bond in an attempt to melt their hardened, icy exteriors. Chen’s camerawork is perceptive, feeling like a quiet observer happening … Read More
The Breaking Ice (2023) by Anthony Chen is a remarkable movie that can leave a deep impression and endless imagination for audiences. It’s hard for me to simply define it as a common romantic movie, instead, it skillfully illustrates the story of three independent, young, but also insignificant and confused individuals finding a new way out on the “border” of … Read More
At first glance, one would be tempted to call Kleber Mendonça Filho’s documentary Pictures of Ghosts the director’s love letter to his hometown Recife, Brazil’s fourth largest city and the home of the underappreciated Recife Carnaval. Midway through the film, one would be tempted to call it a love letter to cinema, but it would feel incomplete. The delicate potency … Read More
Pictures of Ghosts offers an exploration of the evolving urban landscape of Recife, Brazil, through the lens of Kleber Filho’s archival footage, personal narrative, and reflection on the transformation of his hometown. The narrative begins within the confines of Filho’s childhood apartment, where he ventured into the world of filmmaking, experimenting with various formats like VHS and Super-8. Notably, this … Read More
The archive is as much a site of invention and improvisation as of the preservation of time. In the documentary Pictures of Ghosts, Kleber Mendonça Filho undertakes an introspective archival exercise by engaging with a life-long repository of home videos, photographs, and footage from films he shot during his formative years. He structures a porous tripartite narrative reflecting his attachments … Read More
While the film has multiple “Best Documentary” wins at other film festivals this year, Pictures of Ghosts can best be described as a personal love letter that simultaneously spans numerous generations and remains timeless. Acclaimed director Kleber Mendonça Filho set out to tell the story of the Brazilian city he grew up in, Recife, by piecing together a 60+ year-old … Read More
I Do Not Come to You by Chance offers a compelling premise—examining the complexities and origins of Nigerian prince scams—a subject surprisingly underexplored in cinema. Directed by Ishaya Bako and adapted from Adaobi Nwaubani’s novel of the same name, I Do Not Come to You by Chance offers a profound exploration of poverty, attempting to balance humour and grim reality, … Read More
I Do Not Come to You by Chance delves into the world of scams, family dynamics, and the pursuit of a better life. Directed by Ishaya Bako, this gripping drama offers a unique perspective on a prevalent issue. Paul Nnadiekwe delivers a satisfactory performance as Kingsley, a young man reluctantly drawn into the world of email scams by his uncle … Read More
Structural problems underlining excruciating economic disparity, corruption, financial scams, and the lack of political accountability are as dreadful as absurdly comical. In the feature-length adaptation of Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani’s novel, I Do Not Come to You by Chance, Nigerian film director Ishaya Bako foregrounds this comicality garbed in an underplayed critique. The story follows Kingsley, a recent graduate who remains … Read More
I Do Not Come To You By Chance directed by Ishaya Bako is a heart-warming story about Kingsley Ibe’s moral struggle while determining how to financially support his family. Kingsley, played by Paul Nnadiekwe, is surrounded by beautifully distinct characters with strong moral compasses who believe they each know best. Kingsley struggles to decide if scamming people for money is … Read More
