Inland Sea – Kazuhiro Soda (2018)
How can we understand slow films? What do they show, what do they tell us? At some point during my (previously academic) research, I came to the conclusion that every slow film deals with death….
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Spoon – Laila Pakalnina (2019)
Before I say a single word about Laila Pakalnina’s new film Spoon (2019), I need to thank Elina Reitere and the Latvian Film Institute, who allow me to discover the filmography of Pakalnina. It is…
Self-Portrait: Sphinx at 47km – Zhang Mengqi (2017)
Could it be that China currently has the single most promising output of contemporary Slow Cinema? I could, of course, be wrong. And yet it feels as though there are more and more slow films…
2019 – The Year in Review
Another year comes to an end and perhaps you’re as tired of “end of year” lists as I am. Every December (and increasingly every November), cinephiles and film critics rally to create a list of…
The Tree – André Gil Mata (2018)
Tarkovskian. Tarr-esque. Filmind. André Gil Mata’s The Tree had me thinking a lot, had me admire what I saw and had me marvel over the future of Slow Cinema. Mata is part of a growing…
The suspended step of the stork – Theo Angelopoulos (1991)
There is perhaps no better time for beginning to watch Theo Angelopoulos’ Border trilogy than now. On Saturday, we commemorated the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the visible, concrete border which…
Vitalina Varela – Pedro Costa (2019)
It is difficult, if not impossible, to think of a woman in film, who has such a magical, such an overpowering aura around her as does Pedro Costa’s Vitalina Varela. The minute she appears, stepping…
Ausma – Laila Pakalnina (2015)
How does one handle a film, which so strikingly resembles human memory, in particular traumatic memory? The Baltic states have had a tumultuous history, most of which isn’t known in the world, let alone in…
Your Face – Tsai Ming-liang (2018)
When have you last looked at someone? I mean, really looked at someone, took your time to study every detail. I remember this marvellous shot in Silence in Dreamland by Tito Molina in which one…
Heimat is a space in time – Thomas Heise (2019)
I’ve been thinking a lot about how to write something that would do justice to Thomas Heise’s Heimat is a space in time (2019). It speaks to me in so many ways, on so many…