Lyuda Kalinichenko: “I represented Britain at the Balkan Textile Biennale in Serbia”
I wouldn’t call it fate, but in London it was almost impossible for me not to meet the artist Lyuda Kalinichenko,. In 2023 I was working on a piece about…
Director is Dissatisfied: When a Narcotrafficker Becomes a Diva
A trans-musical-TV drama laced with elements of crime? While a combination may initially seem as jarring as the very image of a narcobarón,adorned with facial tattoos, grappling with the intricacies…
MusicSavesTheWorld: London Music Marathon featuring SBP4, Alexey Aigui, Palina, and more
The events of 2022 not only brought profound sorrow to the world but also intensified the polarization of Russian society, exacerbating existing divisions. Culture, traditionally serving—if we agree with this…
The Director is Dissatisfied: Crafting the Monster Known as Trump, Ali Abbasi’s version
Fixation on power, money, and gain, intertwined with cynicism and disdain for conventions—a potent cocktail for the realization of the American dream. This complex dynamic succeeds, in its own warped…
Refracting the Familiar: Vladimir Chernyshev’s “Heavy Water” and the Aesthetics of Impermanence
Heavy water, or deuterium dioxide, is a compound chemically identical to regular water, save for the substitution of hydrogen’s lighter isotope with its denser progenitor. Traceable in minuscule quantities across…
Director Frightens: Trick-or-treating of “Bramayugam”
Within Indian tradition, the veil between the natural and the supernatural—like that between the individual and the absolute—hangsprecariously thin, allowing spirits and demons to drift between realms, bending mortals to…
Director is Satisfied: “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” takes root in darkness
Ficus Religiosa—a plant with an unusual life cycle. Its seeds, dispersed by birds, fall ontoother trees and, as they germinate, extend their aerial roots earthward. The new branches entwinearound the…
Director is Dissatisfied: “Substance” – Sometimes My Arms Bend Back
First and foremost, “Substance” is an exceptionally unique work, distinguished by its technical execution, dramaturgy, and narrative rhythm. It may well be the year’s most potentfilm, given its immence potential…
The World’s Most Expensive Work of Art—Frieze
If you were to listen to 160 disparate compositions played simultaneously and try to imagine each instrument—with its distinct volume, dynamics, timbre, and tuning—as a work of art, this might…
Director is Satisfied: Dario Argento’s “Dark Glasses” – Did You Want Some Evil?
The foundation of a successful giallo—a genre born from the fusion of horror, detective, and kitsch—is erotica and gore. Both elements are somewhat lacking in the latest film by Dario…
Lights, Camera, London: The BFI London Film Festival
A documentary exploring the world of witchcraft, rare footage from John Lennon’s personal archive featuring his first and only full-scale concert with Yoko Ono in New York, and a restored…
Director Dissatisfied: A duck is in an egg, “Second Act” is Quentin Dupieux’s New Film
Fiction is reality, and reality is fiction. Cinema mirrors truth more closely, while reality unfolds like a staged film. Or is it all inverted once again? The eternal idée fixe…