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
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
The Innocents (15)
Directed by Anne Fontaine
4/5
THE FRAGILITY of faith when faced with the worse of human actions is explored in this powerful and multi-layered drama, based on a remarkable yet little-known true event.
It’s set in the winter of 1945 in Poland, where we see French Red Cross doctor Mathilde Beaulieu (a luminous Lou de Laage) entreated to help a group of nuns at a nearby convent. There, she discovers one is about to give birth while several more are heavily pregnant. They are all frightened and deeply ashamed, having been systematically raped by Russian troops.
The fear, the shame, the trauma and a crisis of faith are examined poignantly and skilfully in director Anne Fontaine’s finest film to date.
It’s hard to comprehend the horrors these women faced, which they desperately tried to keep secret at all costs with the help of their Mother Superior (a magnificent Agata Kulesza).
A haunting drama.
Review by Maria Duarte
American Pastoral (15)
Directed by Ewan
McGregor
4/5
Similar stories
MARY CONWAY applauds the timely revival of Miller’s study of people fatally deformed by the economics of survival
DENNIS BROE finds much to praise in the new South African Netflix series, but wonders why it feels forced to sell out its heroine
MARIA DUARTE and ANGUS REID review Friendship, Four Letters of Love, Tin Soldier and The Ballad of Suzanne Cesaire
MARIA DUARTE recommends the ambitious portrait of an agricultural community confronted by the trauma of enclosure