CON LOS OJOS ABIERTOS

By Roger Koza After some time spent experimenting (Five, 10 on Ten, Shirin), Abbas Kiarostami seems to have found a new way; leaving behind the Iranian villages and children of his cosmic and political fables he now seems to portray the universal way in which desire functions, first in Europe (Certified Copy) and this time […]

By Roger Koza L’aquarium et la nation, Jean-Marie Straub, Suiza-Francia, 2015 Straub insists to mitigate triviality, which is always near cinema, although never near this filmmaker that now shoots, unwillingly, alone. The gullible and the impatient are exasperated. They shouldn’t, because the power of this new film is relentless: an idea, a form, and perhaps […]

By Roger Koza Unlike in Marti, dupa Craciun, what is being explored in One Floor Below / Un etaj mai jos is the commitment to truth, and not adultery. The plot is as simple as a publicity phrase—a man who lives with his son and his wife is in his building staircase when he listens to […]

By Roger Koza What should we say in few words on Samuray-S, by Raúl Perrone? This film will make history. A filmmaker who lives in a humble Argentinean city conceived a film, divided in three chapters, within the jidaigeki genre. The three stories this film shows could very well be part of a flick about […]

By Roger Koza Set in the early 90s, this extraordinary collective portrait -whose subjectivity refers to certain past community experiences in a decadent key- is a modest prodigy of narrative economy supported by some perfect editing and a formidable cast. In his fifth film, Nathan Silver makes his style invisible by camouflaging with the characters, […]

By Roger Koza Favula is one of the most beautiful and singular movies of the last years. Who could have filmed something like this not having studied cinema nor in the Moon or in Jupiter? Ituzaingó, a town not too far away from the city of Buenos Aires, and obligatory reference in all the director’s […]

By Roger Koza Don’t forget this name: Isabelle Tollenaere. His debut, Battles, is an ostensible political film based on keen observations. Battles opens with a philosophical quote: «When the combat ceases, that which is does not disappear, but the world turns away.» It won’t be revealed, until the final credits, that the quoted philosopher is Martin […]

By Roger Koza The great Gilberto Pérez talked about the Straubs’ films in his magnificent book, The Material Ghost: “Every book, every film, every object that comes down to us from the distant or the near past may be regarded as a document of its own time. Straub and Huillet’s films are consciously made as […]

O Velho do Restelo / The Old Man of Belem, Manoel De Oliveira, Portugal 2014 By Roger Koza In his last public appearance, Serge Daney said: “Without a doubt, the greatest filmmaker in the present is Manoel de Oliveira… he is 85 years old. He will never be in the mainstream but he carries on […]

On Nepal Forever and The Incomplete By Roger Koza One of the most mysterious films in the last years, it is ideologically unstable, lovable at all times, and secretly defiant. What is Nepal Forever? The title can arouse a wrong expectative. Buddhist mysticism is conspicuously not present. The starting point is unexpected; this is a […]