a palette of arts & cultures
KINOCaviar
a window to world cinema
On the Screen
Wim Wenders’ Perfect Days The Writer-Director-Producer Shows How From Japan with humility, respect, and love, the prolific and esteemed German auteur gives us the beauty of his art and wisdom through his celebrated 2023 Cannes Best Actor Koji Yakusho. Retro songs, shimmering leaves, architectural wonders, and American literature build a strikingly tacit, noble, and unforgettable character more…
Nik and Mikk Are Back! Ventures in The Promised Land Race, class, gender, and tyranny all come to the fore in an 18th-century epic by writer-director Nikolaj Arcel and his protagonist Mads Mikkelsen. The country’s submission for the 96th Academy Awards, it’s a Danish highlight screening at the 2023 AFI FEST, then the 25th Scandinavian Film Festival LA. with BalticFilmExpo@SFFLA more...
The Shadow of the Sun An Homage to Venezuela Miguel Ángel Ferrer may wear a hat as big as screenwriter-director-editor-producer for his debut feature film, (La sombra del sol), but his two lead actors, Carlos Manuel Gonzalez and Anyelo Lopez, shine as well in Venezuela’s submission to the 96th Academy Awards more…
Cyril Schäublin’s Unrest Switzerland at the Center of the World In the 1870s, the village of Saint-Imier was at once the epicenter of global watchmaking and of the international anarchists’ movement. Technology, time, and money formed a new kind of discipline, and new uses of photography promoted it. Yet some aspects of life defied representation more…
Behind the Scenes
Adonis Florides on Africa Star A Tribute to Cyprus at the LAGFF Once again, the Los Angeles Greek Film Festival is showcasing the eloquent and potent work of Cypriot writer-director Adonis Florides, who this time offers a history of the island in three critical periods, all with a focus on three generations of women who uphold their honor despite imperialism and colonialism, poverty and patriarchy more…
The Monk and the Gun The East and the West With his 2nd feature film, it’s the 2nd time Pawo Choyning Dorji has represented his home country, Bhutan, in the competition for Best International Feature Film at the Oscars. His whip-smart satire shows the difference between innocence and ignorance as Bhutan began to modernize and democratize less than two decades ago more…
Lucky Chan-sil, Lucky Kim Cho-hee A First-time Filmmaker Recounts Her Steps One of 10 feature films showcased by the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in “A New Wave of K-Cinema: Korean Women Directors,” Kim Cho-hee’s quasi-autobiographical debut is even more so an ode to cinema. The one-time producer for Hong Sang-soo talks about taking the leap into the writer-director’s chair with a voice of her own more…
Close-Up on Festivals
In a Volatile World SEEfest Holds Its Ground The 19th Annual South East European Film Festival Los Angeles proudly boasted its timeliness and relevancy amidst worldwide strife by showing films that got right to the heart of the matter: the Cold War (Guardians of the Formula) between France and Yugoslavia and civil war (Libertate) in Ceaușescu’s Romania. Yet some of the strongest filmmaking was by women—Croatian (Only When I Laugh), Bosnian (Excursion), and Georgian (Blackbird, Blackbird, Blackberry). Featured here are the real-life triggers for the cinematic conflicts written and directed by Una Gunjak and Vanja Juranić whose heightened realism shows that context is everything. Basing their films on real-life scandals in headlines and social media that drew mass public protest, the filmmakers more…
Hlynur Pálmason’s Godland Heart of Arctic Darkness Celebrate the 25th Scandinavian Film Festival L.A., Jan. 13th, 14th, 20th, and 21st, with Iceland’s submission for the Best International Feature Film at the 96th Academy Awards. Songs and sagas battle the word of God as a Danish priest arrives amid glaciers and volcanos to build a church, photograph the land, and settle the island for the kingdom of Denmark more…
Magnetic Fields Los Angeles Greek Film Festival It’s often the case that big things come in small packages, and Yorgos Goussis proved it to be true at the 17th LAGFF with his debut feature, Magnetic Fields, a road movie you can’t describe but that you’ll never forget. With only two actors and their immense improvisational talents, the writer-director-producer takes us on a journey more…
Kino-Arts in Focus
A Grand String Quartet at The Wallis Compositions Classical and New On May 20th in the Bram Goldsmith Theater, The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills added to its fine reputation for programming music par excellence by presenting both the Miró Quartet and guest composer Kevin Puts to introduce his recent work, “Home” more…
Uma Kurt’s The Tie A Teen Who Knows Drama It’s one thing to know the issues that consume teenagers today, and it’s another thing to write, stage, and act the lead in a 65-minute play about them. Then again, how to do it in another country? From Sarajevo to Santa Monica, Uma Kurt, 17 years old, has done it all and has just begun more…
The Top Shelf
Eric Rohmer's “Six Moral Tales” An American Tribute Tucked away complacently in his Parisian home under the pseudonym “Eric Rohmer,” and noted for spending years without a phone, a car, or even a taxi ride from time to time, but with family, faith, and a firm devotion to nature, cinema, and its related arts, Eric Rohmer presented us with paradoxes more...
The Lady with the Dog Pure Cinema at the Black Sea In 1960 Iosif Heifitz knew that Anton Chekhov’s short stories were really films waiting to happen more…
Digital Releases
It's Winter The
Enigma of Rafi Pitts
It’s not every day that a screenwriter/director who
studied in London and lives in Paris
chooses to more...
Between the Covers
Life Comes to the Screen The Arts of Iran Anyone who has ever doubted that a country like Iran could develop its own film industry should be more...
