Film of the day: BEING IN A PLACE - A PORTRAIT OF MARGARET TAIT (dir Luke Fowler, 2022) Affecting, enveloping homage to a pioneering filmmaker who never got her due, done through an impressionistic assemblage of material shot by Tait over a number of years. #Berlinale73 #BerlinaleForum #IndieLisboa #documentary #impressionism #Scotland #OrkneyIslands #essay #photography #cinema #artcinema #art

Film of the day: SAMSARA (dir Lois Patiño, 2023) We're all in this together: sensory exploration of social ethnography and eastern spirituality through two loosely connected narratives set in Laos and Zanzibar, magnificently shot in an Weerasethakul-meets-Sensory Ethnography Lab format. #Berlinale73 #Encounters #IndieLisboa #drama #spirituality #Laos #Zanzibar #animal #ethnography #society #family #death #life #rebirth

Film of the day: A RAINHA DIABA (THE DEVIL QUEEN, dir Antônio Carlos Fontoura, 1973) Hell hath no fury like a queen scorned: trashploitation crime drama the Brazilian way, all outrageously heightened genre cliches whose very excess only makes it more revelatory, making it a queer classic in advance of its time. #drama #crime #camp #genre #trashploitation #lowbudget #queercinema #BrazilianCinema #seventies #restoration #Berlinale73 #IndieLisboa2023

Film of the day: 물안에서 (IN WATER, dir Hong Sang-soo, 2023) A filmmaker in search of a film, ie a typical Hong trope, is slyly subverted by bewilderingly, deliberately unfocused camerawork, opening new doors for his slight no-budget plotting. #Berlinale73 #HongSangSoo #drama #comedy #filmmaking #meal

Film of the day: LIMBO (dir Ivan Sen, 2023) Moody, noir-ish cold-case mystery strikingly set in the Australian outback; very well done, but a bit too stylish for its own good.
#Berlinale73 #thriller #outback #Australia #drama #coldcase #mystery #aboriginal #detective

Film of the day: VIVER MAL (LIVING BAD, dir João Canijo, 2022) Intense, emotionally violent triptych of family crisis loosely inspired by Strindberg and working as a superior companion piece to MAL VIVER.
#Berlinale73 #film #drama #family #Strindberg #PortugueseCinema #hotel #mothers #daughters

Film of the day: MAL VIVER (BAD LIVING, dir João Canijo, 2022) Mommie dearest: tightly wound tale of mothers and daughters trying to make sense of their lives, exquisitely framed and performed, building on its director’s usual portrayals of family dynamics.
#Berlinale73 #film #drama #family #PortugueseCinema #hotel #mothers #daughters

Film of the day: 20,000 ESPÉCIES DE ABEJAS (20.000 SPECIES OF BEES, dir Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren, 2023) Attentive tale of coming to terms with difference in a traditional dysfunctional family that belabours its point a bit too much yet is not entirely disagreeable; some trimming might help. #Berlinale73 #film #drama #family #LGBTQ #comingofage #art

Film of the day: MUSIC (dir Angela Schanelec, 2023) Love is all that matters: another elliptical moodpiece from a director known for her cerebral approach to filmmaking, constantly challenging the viewer to recalibrate its expectations.
#Berlinale73 #drama #Greece #music

Film of the day: EASTERN FRONT (dir Vitaly Mansky & Yevhen Titarenko, 2023) Tales of a Ukrainian unit of medical volunteers, interlacing first person dispatches from the front with after-the-fact, back-home thoughts; always interesting and occasionally brilliant, but the two parts aren’t as smooth a fit as you’d think.
#Berlinale73 #documentary #Ukraine #war #medicine