Ioncinema

Love Me If You Dare: Broe Explores Love in a Hopeless Place

Harlan Ellison’s publication Love Ain’t Nothing But Sex Misspelled might be a more fitting title for Sauna, the directorial debut of Danish filmmaker Mathias Broe, in essence a queer narrative reconfiguring a familiar formula but utilizing a trans angle to reflect an eternal disconnect hampering parity in the intersectionalities of the LGBTQ+ community. While the film may seem to assert something is indeed rotten in the state of Denmark, Broe touches upon a universality which remains a historical reality on the inherent difficulty in seeking an emotional connection through non consensual sex.… Read the rest

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All DJs, Great and Small: Unkovski’s Debut Can’t Stop the Music

While its location might feel inherently unique, the happenings in Georgi M. Unkovski’s narrative debut DJ Ahmet sing a familiar tune. A coming-of-age trajectory defined by the formidable temptation of forbidden love fostered through the life-changing possibilities of music, this tale of a teen torn between tradition and self-fulfillment in Northern Macedonia feels overtly accessible for those satisfied with the familiar and the formulaic. Dealing specifically with a young Yuruk boy, a Turkic ethnic subgroup spread across the Balkan Peninsula, a local community festival provides the dramatic zenith as an act of rebellion towards the rigid expectations imposed upon a youthful generation faced with following the proscribed designs of their parents.… Read the rest

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One of the only two films selected for the Spotlight section (films that have premiered elsewhere on the festival circuit), Georgian filmmaker Dea Kulumbegashvili continues to distinguish herself with international programmers and audiences – the Park City splash for April serves as a nice boost for the eventual April set release date by the Metrograph folks. Here was the Q&A at the Egyptian on Day 1…

…Later on we’d be venturing the the Eccles theatre for a cleverly convinced bromance American comedy in James Sweeney‘s Twinless which stars the filmmaker and Dylan O’Brien in double roles. This is one of the ten selections in the U.S… Read the rest

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A Poison Tree: Khatami Deconstructs the Psychoses of Patriarchy

For his third feature, Iranian American director Alireza Khatami formulates a powerful psychodrama unspooling through the microcosm of normalized patriarchal dysfunction in Turkey with The Things You Kill. Employing a surreal Lynchian visual flourish to examine the potent psychological trauma of a protagonist whose breaking point from a disastrous reality is literally and figuratively comprised through the metaphor of a sterile garden, it’s also an elusive Biblical allusion to the allegory of Isaac and Abraham, where patricide catalyzes a psychotic fracture. Dedicating the film to his sisters, Khatami dives into the toxic attachment styles fostered and reinforced through repressive gender roles in a traditionally heteropatriarchal culture, where the absorption of oppression cements endless intergenerational trauma.… Read the rest

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We’re just moments away from the 41st edition of the Sundance Film Festival. This marks our 18th time attending the iconic American indie supply chain event nestled in Park City, which has evolved from its wild, pioneering days during the condo wars to the less swag-city bruised but out-priced for the indie filmmakers it once embraced dwelling. While the move from the state of Utah is imminent, Robert Redford’s creation is still the hub for fresh voices in American indie cinema and still the ultimate place to premiere your documentary feature – just look at the year-end best lists and take an inventory.… Read the rest

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Nineteen features in competition, Artistic Director Tricia Tuttle loaded up on some mainstay auteurs with the likes of Richard Linklater, Michel Franco, Hong Sangsoo, Radu Jude, Lucile Hadžihalilović and Golden Bear winner Vivian Qu (2014’s Black Coal, Thin Ice) measuring up against Léonor Serraille (Cannes Camera d’Or winning Montparnasse Bienvenue), Gabriel Mascaro (Venice Special Jury Prize winning Boi Neon), Mary Bronstein (who will premiere her sophomore feature in Sundance this week) and first-time filmmaker / Ida scribe Rebecca Lenkiewicz. The 75th edition of the Berlin Film Festival beings of February 13th.

Of the selections, here are titles we’ve been keeping close tabs on.… Read the rest

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A pair of filmmakers who we thought struck gold with their Sundance shorts last year (read our top ten short film best of fest piece) in Diffan Sina Norman and Alexandra Qin are among the 11 fellows selected from 3,380 submissions for the upcoming 2025 January Screenwriters Lab. The most established name from the list is Sundance habitual Lana Wilson – who has populated the fest with docus After Tiller, Miss Americana, her two-parter Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields and her narrative debut Look into My Eyes. Her latest project is titled Back Seat.The projects selected for the 2025 January Screenwriters Lab and the artists attending are:

Verano (U.S.A./Mexico):… Read the rest

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After her break-out female empowerment portraits in the Cannes Un Certain Regard selected Papicha (2019) and Houria (2022), Franco-Algerian filmmaker Mounia Meddour is moving into WWII terrain with a currently untitled project loosely based on a play by Jean-Philippe Daguerre. Variety reports that Camille Razat, Elsa Zylberstein and Meddour muse Lyna Khoudri will topline the project (one top male lead will be announced prior to moving into production for May this year. Pablo Pauly (who add a bit part in The French Dispatch) also joins the project which is produced by Daï Daï Films’ Vanessa Djian. A Cannes 2026 showcase is not impossible.… Read the rest

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Days before we find out who’ll compete for the Golden Bear, we’ve got programmes such as Panorama and Berlinale Special that have been filled-up. Bong Joon Ho‘s Mickey 17 has been confirmed, Justin Kurzel‘s series The Narrow Road to the Deep North is included and Brazilian filmmaker Anna Muylaert returns to the fest with A melhor mãe do mundo (The Best Mother in the World) – which tells the story of an escape from an abusive relationship, Gal puts her two young children into the recycling cart she uses to collect trash on the city’s streets and runs away.… Read the rest

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Back in May we had learned that Ryusuke Hamaguchi was revisiting with a feature film project that would bring us to Paris and it looks like we can now pencil this in as his next feature. titled Our Apprenticeship, with producer Teruhisa Yamamoto steering it, according to World of Reel, production we are currently in pre-production mode on what could be a L’Auberge espagnole type film of young adults with an international language twist. Don’t be surprised if casting announcements are made during EFM for pre-sales. Here is the logline and plus long synopsis:

Once an idol, a Japanese girl studies abroad at a theatre school in Paris where she gains new values and energy for her future through meeting people from different backgrounds.… Read the rest

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