Author: The Reviews Hub - Film

Writer and Director: Ragnhild Nøst Bergem Ragnhild Nøst Bergem’s short documentary, Being Ola, is a work of gentle charm. Ola is a friendly thirty-year old man who for four years has lived in rural Norway in Vidaråsen, a community of some 150 people, some of whom, like Ola, have developmental difficulties. But everyone lives on equal terms, sharing meals, work and leisure. The opportunities for meaningful work are many: outdoors you can help on the farm or work in the vegetable garden. Indoors there’s a dairy, a large kitchen and a bakery – indeed we sometimes see Ola busy preparing…

Writer and Director: Sandulela Asanda A lesbian St Trinian’s? Not really. A lesbian Clueless? Closer. Black Burns Fast is set in an elite girls’ school in South Africa, where Black student Luthando has won a scholarship to attend. The teachers never let her forget it. She studies hard and keeps her head down. However, when new girl Ayanda arrives, Luthando suddenly finds she has new priorities. Sandulela Asanda’s debut film, closing this new year’s BFI Flare, is a fun-packed look at teenage sexuality. Luthando (a vivacious Esihle Ndleleni) has only got one friend: the nerdy Jodie. Both of them keep…

Writers: Grzegorz Puda and Maciej Sobieszczanksi Director: Maciej Sobieszczanksi Closing this year’s impressive Kinoteka Polish Film Festival is Brother, Maciej Sobieszczanski’s colourful slice of social realism. With a striking palette of bright blues, reds and swashes of yellow, this tale of two brothers dealing with their father’s imprisonment grips like a vice and is helped enormously by the strong performances of the film’s two young leads. Dawid is no longer allowed to go and visit his father in jail, so instead he shouts to him over the prison walls before school. Dawid is 14, a promising Judo player, but is…

Writer and Director: Yasutomo Chikuma There aren’t many films about asexuality. Two years ago, Marija Kavtaradze’s Slow, about an asexual man, was one of the standout films at the Flare Festival. However, The Deepest Space in Us, taking its title from a line of poetry by Rilke, is less successful, almost pushing the subjects of asexuality and aromanticism aside. Kaori is successful in her work in a Japanese city; diligent and kind. Yet, her co-workers find her cold as she rarely joins them for after-work drinks, and when she does acquiesce, they quiz her about first loves and ask which…

Writer: Lisa Baker Director: Celyn Jones On paper, Madfabulous should be the most enjoyable film at this year’s BFI Flare Festival. Telling the true story of the lavishly overdressed 5th Marquis of Anglesey, the film also features a rare performance by Rupert Everett. The music is splendid and the costumes spectacular, but unfortunately, Celyn Jones’s film also feels a little empty and is undone by an ending that is too cosy for its own good. Coming across as a camp version of Downton Abbey, it’s unclear who this movie is aimed at. Never outrageous enough for a queer late-night audience…

Writer: Alice Douard and Laurette Polmanss Director: Alice Douard There is a touch of Nora Ephron in Alice Douard’s charming comedic drama Love Letters, particularly in its blend of warmth and wry observation. The film follows a bohemian, middle-class lesbian couple—DJ and sound technician Céline (Ella Rumpf) and dentist Nadia (Monia Chokri)—as they navigate the messy path to parenthood. Set in 2014, it opens against a bold red backdrop, underscored by archival audio from the 2013 French National Assembly vote that passed the “Taubira Law” legalising same-sex marriage. While this introduction suggests a weightier drama, Douard instead adopts a light,…

Writer and Director: Alex Burunova Satisfaction may be the most traumatic film screening at this year’s BFI Flare. Its striking colour palette of whites and dusty blues hides a dark secret at the heart of the relationship between two composers working on their new album on a Greek island.  Lola and Philip get little work done, and their love affair is reaching its end. It begins with Lola (an imposing, unyielding Emma Laird) refusing to eat the breakfast that Philip has brought her in bed. She looks sick, fatigued. However, she perks up when she later goes alone to the…

Writers: Julian Lautenbacher, Nadiia Khatymlianska and Sasha Ongley Director: Julian Lautenbacher Irving Berlin recognised that when there is any hint of trouble ahead, the only thing to do is dance, and Julian Lautenbacher’s new film, co-written with Nadiia Khatymlianska and Sasha Ongley premiering at BFI Flare 2026, puts that advice into practice as Ukrainian dancers Jay and Vol’demar, a couple, use dance as their own act of resistance. This 90-minute documentary filmed between 2022 and late 2025 blends lots of ideas and storytelling styles, themes and narrative strands that sometimes make its purpose – beyond celebrating artistic liberty – hard…