What to watch in cinemas this week | Nov. 14–20
No Other Land, Gladiator II, All We Imagine as Light, and The Fifth Element.
Each week I provide a somewhat-curated list of films to see in cinemas. Meant as more of a resource than weekly essay, you can refer to this series whenever you feel like going to the movies. Also, can check out previous weeks’ selections because those films might still be in theaters.
(Note: another noticeably slim release week as we’re shifting gears from Fall festival premieres to early Winter blockbusters and awards season campaigns. Be that as it may, the recommendation of the week is quite special and much more important compared to previous weeks!)
Recommendation of the week
No Other Land (Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham, and Rachel Szor)
is a documentary about a Palestinian, Basel Adra, resisting the Israeli government’s illegal seizure of southern West Bank land. It centers on his friendship with Israeli Yuval Abraham, who lives 30 minutes away across the border, enjoying full citizenship benefits and attempting to get Adra’s experience seen. This is one of the most amazing films dealing with occupation, nationalist bullies, and resistance, about a conflict happening right now, funded by a government you probably pay taxes to.
No Other Land caused an international controversy when it won two awards at the Berlinale in February. During the acceptance speech, Abraham called out Israel’s treatment of Palestinians, which showed the Berlin Mayor and German Culture Minister applauding. Right-wing online Germans pounced on the government officials, who then released statements throwing the filmmakers, whom were invited and won awards for their own hosted festival, under the bus. I wrote about this while it was happened and encourage you to read the full story.
Since this, Basel Adra has been living peacefully in the West Bank after exposing Israeli weakness and cowardice and embarrassing German officials. Just kidding, Adra’s father was illegally and without warning/justification detained. Adra, his friends, and his family are constantly under threats of arrest and intimidation, and potentially much much worse given Israel’s open record in detaining and torturing thousands of Palestinians without cause.
Anyway, I highly recommend all of you residing in Germany to go far out of your way to see No Other Land. Check out the trailer:
Plot bio: Made by a Palestinian-Israeli collective, this documentary shows the destruction of the West Bank’s Masafer Yatta by Israeli authorities and the unlikely friendship that blossoms between Palestinian activist Basel Adra and Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham.
No US distribution yet, I wonder why…
Check out the distribution page for more information and an amazingly detailed press kit outlining the history and context of the West Bank.
Also highly recommend reading David Ehrlich’s review of No Other Land.
German release
Gladiator II (Ridley Scott)
is coming out a week earlier in Germany! American audiences will finally have to wait, which is a novelty for this series. There isn’t too much to say for one of the biggest releases of the year. Denzel Washington, as always, gives one of the best performances, who will be eyeing a supporting actor nomination. Paul Mescal finally broke through to the mainstream, so it’ll be interesting to see if he can carry a non-indie feature. Pedro Pascal and Connie Nielsen are great by all accounts. The only problem I can see is that Hans Zimmer didn’t return, which was greatly aided the original.
Plot bio: Years after witnessing the death of the revered hero Maximus at the hands of his uncle, Lucius is forced to enter the Colosseum after his home is conquered by the tyrannical Emperors who now lead Rome with an iron fist. With rage in his heart and the future of the Empire at stake, Lucius must look to his past to find strength and honor to return the glory of Rome to its people.
US release next week and wide pretty much everywhere else.
US domestic releases
All We Imagine as Light (Payal Kapadia)
won the Grand Prix at Cannes but wasn’t selected as India’s foreign language feature Oscar submission. Like Anatomy of a Fall last year, a more light-hearted comedy was instead chosen for socio-political (nationalist) reasons. But this obviously just creates the Streisand effect. Go check it out at your local indie/foreign film cinema!
Plot bio: In Mumbai, Nurse Prabha’s routine is troubled when she receives an unexpected gift from her estranged husband. Her younger roommate, Anu, tries in vain to find a spot in the city to be intimate with her boyfriend. A trip to a beach town allows them to find a space for their desires to manifest.
Late December release in Germany.
Special re-release
The Fifth Element (Luc Besson)
is returning to cinemas for two days. I’m not sure why, since it isn’t a clean whole-number (27th year) anniversary, but it’ll be out there.
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