Tag: hometown

2000 Meters to Andriivka

Director – Mstyslav Chernov – 2025 – Ukraine – Cert. 15 – 107m

****

A small Ukrainian Army unit advances through a narrow strip of war-scarred forest to recapture a village from the occupying Russians – documentary from the makers of 20 Days in Mariupol is out in UK and Irish cinemas on Friday, August 1st

Set in the 2023 Ukrainain offensive to take back land occupied by the Russians in the East of Ukraine, this covers the advance of a small, Ukrainian army unit, the 3rd Assault Brigade, on the country’s Russian-occupied village of Adriivka, located on the outskirts of the town of Bahkmut. Given that the latter is two hours away from Kharkiv, the hometown of director Mstyslav Chernov (20 Days in Mariupol, 2023), the location has a clear personal significance for him. He and his Associated Press colleague Alex Babenko take their camera with the unit on their mission.

The soldiers are all equipped with helmet cams, giving the filmmakers additional material to play with. Such technology is unimaginable as recently as 25 years ago. One might argue that war has changed little, that it’s still much the same, horrible phenomenon it always has been. The advent of the cam, however, means that an audience can watch the viewpoint of a war participant up close and personal.… Read the rest

Tags 20 Days in Mariupol, 2000 Meters to Andriivka, 2023 Ukrainain offensive, 21st century, 3rd Assault Brigade, Adriivka, advance, Alex Babenko, Andriivka, army, army unit, Associated Press, Bahkmut, camera, children, civilian lives, colleague, crawling on all fours, dead, documentary, East Ukraine, fields, focus the mind, forest, geography, gothic horror, heads down, helmet cams, heroic, hometown, horror of war, human cost, human experience, impassable, injured, Kharkiv, land, march in honour, marchers, military, mines, mission, Mstyslav Chernov, objective, occupying, raise the flag, recapture, relax, Russians, senseless waste of human life, slow advance, soldiers, Spectre, stop moving, talk to camera, technology, terrain, Ukraine, uninhabitable, village, war, war dead, war up close and personal, war-scarred, warfare, why people fight to defend, wiped off the map, wives, women, young families

Features Live Action Movies

The Seed
of the Sacred Fig
(Dane-ye
Anjir-e Ma’abed,
دانه‌ی انجیر معابد)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 7 February 2025
No Comments on The Seed
of the Sacred Fig
(Dane-ye
Anjir-e Ma’abed,
دانه‌ی انجیر معابد)
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Director – Mohammad Rasoulof – 2024 – Iran, Germany, France – Cert. 15 – 167m

*****

An Iranian state functionary, married with two teenage daughters, is promoted to the position of judge at the same time as the Women, Life, Freedom protests erupt… And then, his gun goes missing at home… – out on Blu-ray and DVD from Monday, June 9th 2025

A film so extraordinarily brilliant that it is almost impossible to conceive.

An opening intertitle explains the remarkable life cycle of a tree which grows on one of the southern Iranian islands. Its seeds fall onto the branches of other trees through bird droppings. The seeds then germinate, and their roots move towards the ground. When the roots reach the ground, the sacred fig tree stands on its own feet and its branches strangle the host tree.

2022. The tireless and diligent work of state functionary Iman (Missagh Zareh) has finally been rewarded; he is to be appointed a judge. In a repressive regime like Iran, that’s not a job looked upon favourably by most of the population, so his work gives him a pistol just in case he should need to defend himself or his family. At home, in the Tehran apartment where he lives with his family, he keeps the weapon in a drawer.… Read the rest

Tags 2022, Amineh Arani, authorities, beaten, behave, best behaviour, bestie, career and promotion, case files, cat and mouse, cells, college, corridor, death sentence, drawer, family night out, family row, France, Germany, germination, home, hometown, husbands and wives, imprisonment, incarceration, interrogator city and country, Iran, Islam, Islamist, judge, keep women down, labyrinth, life cycle, Mahsa Rostami, Missagh Zareh, missing gun, Mohammad Rasoulof, mother, Niousha Akhshi, non-conformism, overwork, parents and children, parents and daughters, parents and teenagers, patriarchy, pistol, promotion, protests, radical and conservative, regime, repression, rooftop, roots, rubber stamp, scrupulous, Setareh Maleki, sisters, social climber, social divide, Soheila Golestani, state functionary, status quo, strangulation, strict Islamic dress codes, teenage angst, Tehran, The Seed of the Sacred Fig, totalitarian, tower, tree, Women Life Freedom, workload, wound

Features Live Action Movies

Mist
(Angae,
안개)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 30 October 2024
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(Angae,
안개)
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Director – Kim Soo-yong – 1967 – South Korea – 78m

****

A married man leaves Seoul to visit his dull hometown for a few days, where he embarks on a brief affair with a music teacher from the local school – plays in Echoes In Time | Korean Films of the Golden Age and New Cinema which runs from Monday, October 28th until the end of 2024 at BFI Southbank

Yun Gi-jun (Shin Seong-il from The Barefooted Young, Kim Ki-duk, 1964) is bored with his job. He sits at his desk in a huge office looking at the paperwork, seeing it crawling with insects. But when others enter the office, they don’t see any of that, so it’s clearly all in his head. In many ways, that sets the scene for the mood of this heavily introspective piece which makes much use of voice over and flashback, as Gi-jun takes time out in his hometown of Mujin, for which he claims not to feel much affection but which is nevertheless full of personal history and memories for him.

We see him at home with his wife as she straightens his tie, and later as she brings her rich father over to the house.… Read the rest