Category Archives: movies

literature as the inner fortress against evil (film: Reading Lolita in Tehran – Eran Riklis, 2024)

Can art in general and literature, specifically, save the world? Or at least make it better? Or at least create for those who love them – creators and consumers – an inner fortress where they can take refuge in times … Continue reading

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the legend that changed tennis (film: Nasty – Tudor Giurgiu & Cristian Pascariu & Tudor D. Popescu, 2024)

Ilie Nastase was one of the idols of my youth. First of all, thanks to him, tennis found its place for a while in the dull programs of Romanian television during the communist era. Together with his partner and mentor … Continue reading

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when prejudice turns to horror (film: Săptămâna mare – Andrei Cohn, 2024)

One of the most interesting movies of the good year that was 2024 for Romanian cinema, a film that I had been waiting to see for over a year, is ‘Săptămâna mare‘ (‘The Holy Week‘). The film is written and … Continue reading

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beyond the edge of the society (film: Life Without Credit – Tom Shuval, 2025)

‘Life Without Credit‘, the film written and directed by Tom Shoval, is powerful and uncomfortable, and it is precisely this refusal to offer any refuge, even momentary, in ‘feel good’ that makes it a unique film in the landscape of … Continue reading

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the comrade writer (film: Moromeții 3 – Stere Gulea, 2024)

‘Moromeții 3‘ (the title of the international distribution is ‘The Moromete Family 3: Father and Son‘) is the third film in the series inspired by Marin Preda‘s novels. It is again directed by Stere Gulea and was filmed in 2022-23 … Continue reading

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isolation and prejudice (film: Trei kilometri până la capătul lumii – Emanuel Pârvu, 2024)

With ‘Three Kilometers to the End of the World‘ (the original Romania title is ‘Trei kilometri până la capătul lumii‘, director and co-writer Emanuel Pârvu continues one of the main themes of his previous film ‘Marocco’ (or ‘Mikado’) – the … Continue reading

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Italian neorealism ends with a big laugh (film: I soliti ignoti – Mario Monicelli, 1958)

‘I soliti ignoti‘, Mario Monicelli‘s 1958 film, can be considered the healthy laugh with which the period of Italian neorealism ends. In fact, Monicelli had directed almost 15 comedies in the decade preceding this film, more than one per year, … Continue reading

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a love story on the stormy ocean (film: Remorques – Jean Grémillon, 1941)

There are films whose production could be a good subject for a film script. One of these cases seems to me to be ‘Remorques‘ (the English distribution title was ‘Stormy Waters‘). The director of this film was Jean Grémillon, a … Continue reading

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the voice of the diva (film: Maria – Pablo Larraín, 2024)

I was quite skeptical about ‘Maria‘, the biopic (or kind of biopic) that Steven Steven Knight wrote and Pablo Larraín directed for Netflix, released at the end of 2024. It is the third film, perhaps the final film, in a … Continue reading

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the singer of the people (film: Stelios – Yorgos Tsemberopoulos, 2024)

‘Stelios‘ is a biographical film about Stelios Kazantzidis, one of the most popular Greek singers of the second half of the 20th century. He is also very well known and extremely popular in Israel, where his songs are often broadcast … Continue reading

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