Ága

Milko Lazarov

If the characters of a movie forget themselves looking into the distance (an airplane flying over, a single reindeer on the horizon, a snowmobile drifting away), it shows that they have entrusted themselves to the environment for some reason. However, that does not mean resentment, but adapting one’s life with rhythms shaped by a changing climate, animal movement paths and life with different priorities for children leaving the house. Although, on the one hand, it may be asked to what extent a person can influence nature, on the other hand, it is often forgotten to ask how to remain human with all that. Ága is a visually interesting film with little dialogue that asks the latter. 3/5

Widows

Steve McQueen

Is there anyone out there who haven’t seen any crime films about criminals who, at some point, betray their companions for their own profit and declare themselves to be the sole owners of all that has been robbed? Or someone who is not familiar with the archetype that the work of the member of a criminal organization is taken over by their law-abiding family members after the death of the criminal? Barely, and thus the Widows may be considered as a rather predictable or even annoying film. Though the topics of race, crime, politics and money laundering create an opportunity for a much more interesting concept, this opportunity is played out indifferently and superficially. It is a movie that does not know what it wants to do. In case of genre film, this is something that can not easily be forgiven. 2/5

The next screening of Widows is on November 25 at 9.30 p.m. at Solaris Apollo Cinema.

The Image Book (Le livre d’image)

Jean-Luc Godard

Godard has always operated on the periphery of the film, asking not so much what a movie should be like but more what a movie could be like. Already the title Image Book gives a viewer a hint that Godard does not agree with the narrow definition of film as a medium. It is a desire to move away from any kind of predetermination, a desire to stick with mere drifting. Godard, whose works always refer to distancing, shows with The Image Book that, in addition to the fact that the actors and historical events in the movie are subjected to the narrative of the film, finally the viewer is also subjected to the totalizing machinery of film. Breaking down the sounds and colours of the existing films and cutting various films together, the big narratives are broken up to give us all a new chance. 3/5

The next screening of The Image Book is on November 25 at 8.15 p.m. at Solaris Apollo Cinema.