To rescue Kahlo from the clutches of the corporate art market, we need to acknowledge the overt and covert political dimensions of the work, demands GAVIN O’TOOLE
Latest editorial
Film round-up: February 25, 2022
The Star's critics Van Connor and Maria Duarte review of La Mif, Gangubai Kathiawadi, Cyrano, Studio 666, F@ck This Job, and Rurangi
Fred Baillif's La Mif
If you can see past the relentless commodification you will be rewarded by enormously powerful work, suggests JENNY MITCHELL
CHRIS SEARLE revels in the one-off collaboration between an American polymath and a British Muslim, and detects the presence of their revolutionary forebear
GORDON PARSONS revels in an ebullient production of Shakespeare’s magical comedy
BRENT CUTLER welcomes a thoughtful analysis of the Erdogan regime, viewed through the evolving history of a neighbourhood in Istanbul
GORDON PARSONS regrets the price, but is dazzled by an outstandingly ambitious study of the way art restoration in particular, and culture in general was weaponised by the Nazis
La Mif (15)
Directed by Fred Baillif
★★★★
SOCIAL worker turned filmmaker Fred Baillif examines the shortcomings of an outdated social care system in this absolutely compelling film set in a Swiss residential care home for at-risk teenagers, which blurs the lines between drama and documentary.
La Mif (French slang for family) opens with a violent fight scene involving a group of teenage girls, later revisited from each of the participants’ points of view in a non-linear structure, as you glimpse life in this community of youngsters and social workers.
Developed over the course of two years through extensive improv workshops, the ensemble cast of impressive non-professional actors is made up of real-life residents and social workers of a children’s home.
Similar stories
LEO BOIX, ANGUS REID and MARIA DUARTE review Night Stage, Two Women, Kim Novak’s Vertigo, and Fuze
LEO BOIX, ANDY HEDGECOCK and MARIA DUARTE review Dreamers, It Was Just An Accident, Folktales, and Eternity
New releases from The Dreaming Spires, Bruce Springsteen, and Chet Baker
MARIA DUARTE and ANGUS REID review Friendship, Four Letters of Love, Tin Soldier and The Ballad of Suzanne Cesaire