The last soviet

Ukrainian filmmaker Roman Liubyi is marking the first anniversary on Friday of Russia’s invasion of his country with a screening at the Berlin Film Festival of documentary Iron Butterflies in its Panorama section. The director was in London working on digital set design for the Belarus Free Theatre’s Dogs Of Europe production at the Barbican when Russia attacked on February 24, 2022. “My wife and daughter had been due to fly out that day to join me but obviously that didn’t happen,” he recalls. Instead, they fled their flat in Kyiv, which had come under heavy missile attack, for what they thought would be the relative safety of Liubyi’s parents’ home in Irpin. The commuter town northwest of Kyiv would become a hotspot in the early days of the invasion and the site of Russian atrocities. Liubyi raced back to Ukraine . Accompanied by This Rain Will Never Stop cinematographer and friend Slava Tsvetkov, he navigated checkpoints and blocked roads in a … [Read more...] about Ukrainian Directors Take Stock On First Anniversary Of Russian Invasion & Shift Gaze Away From Frontline

Paul Mescal has clocked his first Olivier Award nomination for his leading performance in Rebecca Frecknall’s buzzy stage adaptation of A Streetcar Named Desire . Scroll down for the full list of nominees. A Streetcar Named Desire netted six nominations overall, which also included first-time nods for Mescal’s co-stars Anjana Vasan and Patsy Ferran. In other high-profile nods, Jodie Comer is nominated for Best Actress for her West End debut in the well-received Prima Facie , which has five nominations overall, including Best New Play and Best Director. David Tennant is in Best Actor for his updated production of C.P. Taylor’s 1989 play Good , and Tom Hollander landed a nom for Patriots , Peter Morgan’s new play set during the fall of the Soviet Union, which is nominated in three categories. This year’s most nominated production is My Neighbour Totoro , the stage adaptation of Studio Ghibli’s cult 1988 animated film. The production received a total of … [Read more...] about Olivier Awards Nominations: Paul Mescal Scores Best Actor Nod, ‘My Neighbour Totoro’ Leads All Categories

Full disclosure: Sue me but not only have I never played the iconic ’80s video game Tetris , I had never heard of it before encountering this new film Tetris, which world premiered tonight at SXSW and comes from Apple Original Films. I realize that probably makes me a bit of an oddity to the gamer generation, but I can only say my lack of knowledge on this product did not hurt one bit in being wildly entertained by a movie that tells its origin story. In fact it seems to be part of an encouraging but unlikely new genre this young year: movies all about the backstory of well-known products. BlackBerry from IFC and Paramount, Flamin’ Hot from Searchlight, and now Tetris from Apple have been on display this week at SXSW ( BlackBerry actually premiered at Berlin), and if you think watching the emergence of a smartphone, a Cheetos brand and a single-player video game is, well, less than compelling, think again. Having reviewed the former two ( BlackBerry here … [Read more...] about ‘Tetris’ Review: Taron Egerton In Sensational Video Game Origin Story That Plays Like A Nail-Biting Cold War Spy Thriller – SXSW