Life Is A Film Fest

WE BELIEVE YOU from Belgian filmmakers Charlotte Devillers and Arnaud Dufeys is the most compelling legal drama I have seen since Anatomy of a Fall.  Myriem Akheddiou gives an earth-shattering performance as the mother of two fighting to retain custody of her kids after her ex-husband, who is accused of sexually assaulting his son, takes […]

Iván Fund’s Berlinale Silver Bear Jury Prize winner THE MESSAGE is a poetic magical realist road trip through rural Argentina in beautifully shot black and white.  Young actress Anika Bootz portraying a girl who can communicate with animals is a great find. Her character, also named Anika, travels the country with her guardians, who use […]

In Sarah Miro Fischer’s Berlinale drama THE GOOD SISTER, Rose (Marie Bloching) and her older brother Sam (Anton Weil) are inseparable. When a woman accuses him of rape and Rose is called to testify, her world is turned upside down. Fischer makes us uncomfortable by putting us in Rose’s shoes and asking the difficult questions.  There […]

In Frelle Petersen’s HOME SWEET HOME, divorced home care worker Sofie tries to balance her new job taking care of the elderly with parenting her 10-year-old daughter Clara. She starts the job enthusiastically, but the hectic nature of it and having to deal with difficult people soon take a toll on her.  Petersen could have […]

Mehmet Akif Büyükatalay’s thrilling whodunit HYSTERIA starts with a film shoot that unintentionally causes a scandal and becomes a layered mystery involving people’s prejudices towards one another.  We follow rookie crew member Elif, played convincingly by Devrim Lingnau, as she digs herself deeper into a hole by lying after losing the keys to the director’s […]

Florian Pochlatko’s How to be Normal and the Oddness of the Other World follows Pia as she gets out of psychiatric hospital and tries to adapt to life outside. With all the craziness going on around us at the moment, a film that questions the sanity of the world is certainly timely.  It starts out […]

Alexandra Makarová’s thrilling drama PERLA tells the story of a woman who fled the communist oppression in Czechoslovakia to raise her daughter in Vienna.  Rebeka Poláková’s delicate performance as Perla reflects her inner turmoil caused by not being able to let go of her past while trying to provide a better life for her daughter.  […]

Alireza Khatami nods to Buñuel and Lynch in the revenge thriller THE THINGS YOU KILL, one of my favorites among the films I have seen during Sundance 2025 and the first great WTF movie of the year.  It is dreamlike, puzzling, and features breathtaking cinematography and intricate camerawork including a mind-blowing mirror shot that might […]

Sierra Falconer’s SUNFISH (and Other Stories on Green Lake) is a comforting, summery anthology film where the lives of the characters in each segment briefly intertwine.  14-year old Lu learns how to sail a sunfish boat while staying with grandma and grandpa and takes care of a loonlet abandoned by its mother whose story parallels […]

After winning the Directing Award in U.S. Documentary section of Sundance 2022 with his self-portrait I Didn’t See You There, Reid Davenport is back at the festival with the eye-opening LIFE AFTER, which explores the right to die laws for people with disabilities in Canada and U.S.  Davenport starts the film with a suspenseful investigation […]