Category: Documentary

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Documentary Features Live Action Movies

The Tale of Silyan
(Приказната за Силјан)

Director – Tamara Kotseva – 2025 – North Macedonia – Cert. 12a – 81m

*****

A farmer, whose livelihood has collapsed thanks to economics and government policy, cares for a stork with a broken wing – in cinemas from Friday, December 12th

This begins with a simple voiceover story. Silyan, ostracised from the other storks because he was different, is noticed by a similarly lonely father who takes pity on the stork and invites it to live with him.

Then it swiftly switches to two parallel narratives within the same geographical area.

In one, a man’s extended family builds a new storey onto their house for the son and daughter in law. The act of building is very much a family affair, with even the man’s small granddaughter mucking in.

In the other, a flock of storks build their nests on the roof of an old farmhouse building nearby.

The man is a farmer (Nikola Conev); his extended family help him pick this year’s harvest of vegetables, then accompany him to a string of local farmer’s markets to sell his produce. At this point, the man hits a problem; the going rate has dropped. And he can’t get a decent price for his produce.… Read the rest

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Documentary Features Live Action Movies

Dark Star

Director – John Carpenter – 1974 – US – Cert. PG – 83m (71m Directors Cut)

*****

Let There Be Light: The Odyssey of Dark Star

Director – Daniel Griffith – 2010 – US – 118 mins

*****

A bored crew of astronauts travel through space blowing up unstable planets – out now as a 4K Ultra-HD and Blu-ray Box Set, and a standalone Blu-ray

Carpenter’s 71-minute cut of his extraordinary debut feature is a lean, if tacky, sci-fi comedy that succeeds because of clever characterisations in the script and exemplary use of minimal resources in its production. Begun as a student film at USC, it preceeds his more polished, widescreen thriller efforts of the 1970s starting with Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) and Halloween (1978) with their relentless, pounding scores which he also composed and which would enable him to reinvent himself as a performing musician much later in his career. With no driving beat, Dark Star’s keyboard tones merely hint at what is to come musically.

The spaceship interiors are deceptively simple. One is a small room with four seats crammed side to side alternately facing from which four crew members operate the ship. Or, rather, three – Lt.… Read the rest

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Documentary Features Live Action Movies

Prime Minister

Directors – Michelle Walshe, Lindsay Utz – 2025 – US, New Zealand – Cert. 12a – 102m

*****

A portrait of Rt Hon Dame Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand’s 40th Prime Minister – out in UK and Irish cinemas on Friday, December 5th

There has never been a documentary quite like this before, and perhaps there never will be again. For one thing, it turns out that Jacinda Ardern’s partner Clarke Gayford is an established TV producer who shot a wealth of home movie footage, albeit with professional equipment, throughout the period for which she served as New Zealand’s Prime Minister. For another, this home movie footage covers her pregnancy and the early years of her daughter Neve. For a third, as an MP she became involved with a project in which MPs would record their thoughts at various points during their tenure. When she agreed to this, no-one, including herself, had any idea that she would subsequently become Prime Minister. And that’s the fourth reason: this is a portrait of a PM in office who had no intention of being either a party leader or the Prime Minister of a country. And then who suddenly found herself the sole candidate for the post of leading New Zealand’s Labour Party weeks ahead of a General Election, in which she led the party to victory,

In this documentary, Jacinda (as I shall call her) describes being the leader of a country as “the worst job in politics”.… Read the rest

Categories
Documentary Features Live Action Movies Music

The Session Man

Director – Michael Treen – 2023 – UK – Cert. 12a – 90m

***

A look at legendary pianist Nicky Hopkins who played with numerous bands and on numerous records – out in UK cinemas on Friday, November 21st

Nicky Hopkins may not exactly be a household name, but anyone who paid attention to credits on rock music albums from the early 1960s through to the early 1990s is likely to have heard of him. Trained as a classical pianist at the Royal Academy of Music, he simultaneously discovered rock and roll and began playing in bands at the start of the sixties as a 16-year-old. The right place at the right time. Up and coming British bands of the early 1960s like The Beatles, The Kinks, The Rolling Stones, and The Who – essentially bands consisting of guitars and drums – got him playing piano on their albums to fill out the sound. He was playing with Jeff Beck around the time of the Truth album, which took him to the US, where he became based for the rest of his life, occasionally returning to the UK to work on specific albums.

Narrated by Bob Harris, formerly of BBC’s The Old Grey Whistle Test, this music documentary follows the obvious format of, film a lot of interviews with people who know the subject and intersperse footage of the musician concerned playing live or in recording sessions to break the interviews up a bit.… Read the rest

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Documentary Features Live Action Movies

Exhibition on Screen:
Caravaggio

Caravaggio – filming Christ at Emmaus (1601) at the National Gallery London © David Bickerstaff

Directors – David Bickerstaff, Phil Grabsky – 2025 – UK – Cert. 12a – 101m

***

A look at the turbulent life of sixteenth century Italian painter Caravaggio, his troubles, his forced travels, and his art – out in UK cinemas from Tuesday, November 11th

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571–1610), generally known as Caravaggio, is here, initially, curiously and somewhat confusingly referred to as Michelangelo only to be called Caravaggio throughout the remainder. The narrative of the artist’s life is built around talking head footage of actor Jack Bannell as Caravaggio himself speaking his own words – except that, they aren’t his own words since, as is pointed out later, this particular artist wrote very little himself and most of what is known about him today comes from police records of the time.

The framing device with the actor is supposed to be Caravaggio recalling his life on the boat trip back to Rome. Historically, he mysteriously disappeared after landing and was never seen again. Alas this latter fact – which might have made a great framing device – is only clarified at the end, at which point it plays merely as a less than satisfying conclusion.

Also included are a handful of art experts – historian Helen Langdon, artist Stephen Nelson, Caravaggio author Fabio Scalatti and Letizia Treves, Global Head of Research and Expertise, Christie’s – all of whom have a great deal to say about the various works of the artist which appear here.… Read the rest

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Documentary Features Live Action Movies

The Marbles

Director – David Nicholas Wilkinson – 2025 – UK – Cert. 12a – 114m
****

The Parthenon Marbles – were they stolen from Greece, and should they be sent back? – Opening Night Film (World Premiere) Central Scotland Documentary Festival in Stirling, Scotland on Thursday, October 30th; out in UK cinemas on Thursday, November 6th.

This starts with director Wilkinson, who previously made the excellent Getting Away With Murder(s) (2021), writing a letter to the Head of the British Museum asking him for an interview outlining the Museum’s position on the Parthenon Marbles. He never receives a reply.

The historical and legal background is helpfully unpacked by Alexander Herman, a historian and legal expert who has written and spoken widely on the Marbles controversy, and Mark Stephens, the UK’s foremost Art & Cultural Property lawyer.

The eponymous Marbles were Ancient Greek statues and artefacts removed from the Acropolis in Athens by Lord Elgin in the early part of the 19th Century and brought over to England to adorn his newly built stately home in Scotland. In 1816, following a Parliamentary debate on the matter, they were purchased from Elgin by the British Museum where they have resided ever since, on display to the public.… Read the rest

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Documentary Features Live Action Movies

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

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Documentary Features Live Action Movies

The Road to Patagonia

Director – Matty Hannon – 2022 – Australia – Cert. 15 – 90m

****

A keen surfer and former ecology student from Australia sets out on a motorbike journey from Alaska down the West coast of the Americas to Patagonia – out on digital on Monday, July 28th

The family of Australian moving picture diarist Matty Hannon moved around a lot during his childhood. He left home as soon as he could, and studied ecology at university, where he became fascinated by the book Shamans of Mentawai about tribes living in Indonesia’s Sumatran Islands. A keen surfer, he went out to one of the islands, rode the incredible waves, embraced a simple lifestyle and felt he’d arrived in a utopia where people lived in harmony with nature, assigning spirit gods to rivers and mountains. He began to wonder if by concentrating on data in his studies, he’d been missing something. He stayed five years, from age 21-26.

On his return to Melbourne, he was hit by culture shock. Everything was commodified. He sat at a computer for work. He was now in a culture that referred to its people as consumers, where national success was measured in terms of how much they bought.… Read the rest

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Documentary Features Live Action Movies

The Road to Patagonia

Directed by Matty Hannon
Certificate 15
90 minutes
Released 27 June

In his mid-20s, former ecology student and keen surfer Matty Hannon returns to Melbourne, Australia. For five years, from age 21 to 26, he has lived alongside one of Indonesia’s Sumatran Island tribes, a utopia where people live in harmony with nature, assigning spirit gods to rivers and mountains. And then there are the waves.

Melbourne hits him with culture shock; a culture that refers to its people as consumers, where national success is measured in terms of how much they buy. Depression is common. Hannon records his response in this documentary as he gets out, takes a tent to Alaska, then… on his motorbike… travels down the West Coast of the Americas to Patagonia… [read the rest in the Issue 4 – 2025 edition of Reform]

[Read my longer review for this site here.]

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Categories
Art Documentary Features Live Action Movies

Exhibition on Screen
Michelangelo
Love and Death

Director – David Bickerstaff – 2017 – UK – Cert. U – 91m

*****

Sixteenth Century Renaissance sculptor Michelangelo remains one of the greatest artists of all time, yet his overreaching ambition frequently proved his undoing – back out in UK cinemas to tie in with the 550th anniversary of Michelangelo’s birth from Tuesday, May 20th

“From a fountain of mercy… my suffering is born.” These words (voiced by James Faulkner as Michelangelo) accompany images of a present day sculptor (Marco Ambrosini) working away at a piece of marble in his studio. The writings of Vasari (voice: Lawrence Kennedy) take up the story. A boy was born to a noble family in 1475. Art Critic and Author Jonathan Jones places Michelangelo among the greats, like Leonardo da Vinci, Rembrandt, Picasso. He deals with the strangest, darkest and most difficult stuff. He is the original famous artist. He had two biographies written about him in his lifetime, and took great interest in them, helping bring them to fruition. He painted, sculpted, built architecture, wrote poetry, even built military fortifications. This was the time when artists started being regarded as creative geniuses, according to Art Historian Jennifer Sliwka. Vasari referred to Michelangelo and his art in terms of Divinity and then the Divine.… Read the rest