News

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Old superstitions and modern prejudices in Witch Hunt

What if witch trials happened in the 21st century, where magic was real?

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Heartbreaking road movie where time is the enemy film

How to say goodbye to your loved one after you’ve discovered your mind is to be ravaged by early onset dementia?

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On the frontline in Belarus

Aliaksei Paluyan’s documentary shot in Minsk during the anti government protests captures the horror of living a life under tyranny, writes Julia Ryder

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Sweet Tooth adds optimism to apocalyptic science fiction

In a crowded field, the lightness of this new Netflix series helps it to stand out. But themes of scapegoating mean it keeps its dark edge

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A Pandemic Poem rehashes a well-worn cliche

Where did the world go? asks poet Simon Armitage in a ponderous voice

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Internalised homophobia, sexism, and ‘sounding gay’

David Thorpe’s documentary Do I Sound Gay? follows his journey through speech therapy as he attempts to adjust his voice

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A city in revolt, seen through the eyes of its Labour mayor

This BBC documentary follows mayor Marvin Rees as he faces up to the Black Lives Matter movement. It’s interesting—and infuriating

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Time—a tense and claustrophobic prison drama

The BBC is making a big deal of this new three-part prison drama—and not just because of its big name actors

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After Love—a disturbing yet beautiful film about grief and identity

In After Love, recently bereaved Mary Hussain discovers her husband’s secret life—and what she has in common with his other family, writes Sophie Squire

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Mdou Moctar’s Afrique Victime is an exciting and psychedelic album of Desert Blues

From the virtuosic guitarist, singer, and songwriter Mdou Moctar comes this musical and political tour de force

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Exterminate All the Brutes—an uncompromising history of colonialism with a flaw

Raoul Peck takes an inventive approach to documentary-making with series Exterminate All the Brutes

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Rare Beasts—a chaotic film with a confused message

Billie Piper wanted her first film to say something about sexism, parenthood and relationships—but what that something is isn’t clear

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The High House is a vision of a dreadful future after climate catastrophe

It takes courage to write about climate catastrophe as it’s likely to unfold—steadily but also suddenly, and with a huge loss of life, in every sense of the word

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BBC documentary Extra Life explores the long history of racism and vaccines

Extra Life explores previous global pandemics to learn lessons in the fight against Covid-19

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The End of Men is a pandemic-era novel that cuts very close to the bone

This is a stunning book with an unfortunately horribly familiar theme—how to cope with a deadly pandemic

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The Bike Thief tells a story of precarity, poverty and survival

The family of a Romanian delivery driver teeters on the brink when his motorbike goes missing, in The Bike Thief

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Beast Beast—growing up and shattered innocence in a US suburb

Beast Beast brings together the lives of three young people in what feels like a long hazy summer, coming-of-age drama.

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Cowboys—a Western that’s also a coming out journey

A trans boy and his father go on the run in search of freedom, in this welcome exploration of the tensions that can accompany coming out

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Nomadland is a powerful—but drippy—austerity story

This film has won plaudits and awards because it resonates with life after a decade of loss—but it’s all just a bit too sentimental

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Alan Partridge returns in familiar blend of satire and slapstick

Norwich’s finest export is back for a second series where he is so desperate to belong—in front of a TV camera

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