Polish director Małgorzata Szumowska has described her film Twarz/Mug (2018) as a ‘fairy tale for adults’, a provocatively beguiling definition of the Jury Grand Prix winner at Berlin this year. Irrespective of whether the audience might agree with that description of the film they watched, it was apposite on the closing night of the 2019…

It was a wet and blustery afternoon in Chester on Sunday. Despite the weather, a good crowd made their way to the fantastic Storyhouse in the town centre for a screening of Dogman (2018). Included as part of the Chester International Film Festival screening programme, I was delighted to be invited by the festival curator,…

It was a pleasure to be invited to speak at the 2019 Chester International Film Festival hosted at the impressive Storyhouse arts venue, and it was a particular honour to be able to introduce important examples of contemporary Aotearoa New Zealand cinema. The opening film was the imaginative and beautifully animated short Trap. It focuses…