-
At Egypt-Gaza Border, Confusion and Frustration Reign
Told they could escape Gaza, scores of people with foreign passports gathered at the only border crossing into Egypt, only to find it still closed, as diplomatic efforts floundered.
-
Poland Begins to Look Beyond the Vote, to Unwinding an ‘Illiberal Democracy’
With most votes counted, the country is on the cusp of a significant change, but there will be much to do and undo.
-
A Father’s Desperate Search for His Son After Afghanistan’s Earthquake
Over a week since a major earthquake decimated his village in northwest Afghanistan, Noor Ahmad is on a harrowing hunt to find his 5-year-old.
-
2 Swedes Killed in Brussels Shooting Described as Act of Terrorism
The suspect was at large on Monday night as the threat level was raised. Prime Minister Alexander de Croo said the victims were Swedes.
-
CIFF 2023: All Happy Families, Bike Vessel, Departing Seniors, Memorial
A great part of any regional festival like the Chicago International Film Festival is the ability to see local talent. This dispatch highlights a few Chicago-set stories covering several genres and styles, from a family comedy to a father-son documentary, a teen slasher, and a short dedicated to communal grief. In “All Happy Families,” struggling…
-
NYFF 2023: AGGRO DR1FT, The Sweet East, Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus
The New York Film Festival has always held space for the unconventional. That includes more nontraditional offerings in their Currents program and extends into other sections like a restoration of Man Ray’s short films under Revivals or some of these more atypical films in their Spotlight section. For a movie that director Harmony Korine billed…
-
A Shocking Loss: Dariush Mehrjui (1939-2023)
On hearing the shocking news on October 14 that Iranian filmmaker Dariush Mehrjui and his wife had been stabbed to death in their home outside Tehran, my mind reeled back to a succession of memories of the master and his work. Among the many things I’ve written about him, I recalled a piece that previewed…
-
Fingernails
Love is pain in several ways in “Fingernails.” In the near future of Christos Nikou’s dystopian sci-fi film, they’ve gotten compatibility down to a science. To measure your affection, you and your partner can each have a fingernail pulled, which will then be put into a machine, testing whether either, neither, or both of you…
-
Spider-Man 2 Swings into Action with Incredible Gameplay and Clever Storytelling
It’s a really good time to be a Spider-Man fan. The two best superhero entertainment properties of the year, by quite a large margin, are “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” and now “Spider-Man 2,” the long-awaited Sony PlayStation exclusive that serves as both a sequel to 2018’s “Spider-Man” and 2020’s “Spider-Man: Miles Morales.” The developers at…
-
Fight Over Covid Lab Leak Stalls Virology Research
Scientists doing “gain-of-function” research said that heightened fears of lab leaks are stalling studies that could thwart the next pandemic virus.