Category Archives: International Cinema

‘Bouchra’ Directors Orian Barki & Meriem Bennani Spotlighted at NYFF and on New York Magazine Cover

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bouchraFilmmakers Orian Barki and Meriem Bennani are having a standout festival moment with their feature Bouchra, which continues to draw acclaim at the New York Film Festival (NYFF) following its U.S. premiere in the Currents section.

The film’s warm reception comes alongside the duo’s appearance on the print cover of New York Magazine’s Look Book, released October 1. The feature highlights their creative partnership behind Bouchra, an 85-minute narrative exploring memory, artistic paralysis, and identity through the story of a Moroccan filmmaker in New York.

Produced by 2 Lizards, the film was financed by Fondazione Prada and executive produced by Hi Production. It marks a new chapter for Barki and Bennani, whose acclaimed animated series 2 Lizards premiered on Instagram in 2020 and was later added to the MoMA and Whitney Museum collections.

Bouchra follows its titular character as a phone call with her mother in Casablanca stirs buried memories and creative renewal. Told across Moroccan Arabic, French, and English, the film examines the intersections of family, migration, and the creative process.

The production team includes Cécile Winckler, Octavia Peissel, Ella Bishop, Pau Suris, with John Michael Boling and Jason Coombs serving as creative producers.

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New Clip: Eugène Green’s The Tree of Knowledge Premieres Tonight at Fantastic Fest 2025

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The-Tree-of-KnowledgeIn biblical terms, the “Tree of Knowledge” represents the beginning of free will. For filmmaker Eugène Green, it serves as a metaphor for spiritual awakening in The Tree of Knowledge, which premieres tonight at Fantastic Fest 2025.

The story centers on Gaspard (Rui Pedro Silva), a teenager ensnared by the Ogre, a man who has made a pact with the Devil and uses him to attract tourists, transforming them into animals before killing them. Gaspard escapes with a donkey and a dog and encounters the spirit of Queen Maria I of Portugal, while the Ogre sets off in pursuit.

Green, born in New York and based in France, is known for Toutes les Nuits and a body of films often shown at major festivals including Cannes, Locarno, and Berlin.

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Japan Society to Spotlight Shiguéhiko Hasumi With October Film Series in New York

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japan-filmsJapan Society will present Shiguéhiko Hasumi: Another History of the Movie in America and Japan, a ten-day retrospective honoring Japan’s most influential living film scholar, running October 9–18, 2025.

Curated by Hasumi, a longtime critic, theorist, and mentor to directors including Kiyoshi Kurosawa and Shinji Aoyama, the program explores the intersections of American and Japanese cinema through a personal lens. Highlights include Michael Mann’s Collateral, Makoto Sato’s 1992 documentary Living on the River Agano, and a rare pairing of shorts by Kurosawa and Aoyama.

The series will also feature Richard Fleischer’s The Boston Strangler, Robert Aldrich’s …All the Marbles, and Mikio Naruse’s Tsuruhachi and Tsurujiro. Locarno winner Sho Miyake will attend the second weekend, presenting his 2022 boxing drama Small, Slow But Steady and participating in a closing-night discussion on Hasumi’s critical legacy.

Hasumi, celebrated for his groundbreaking writings on Yasujiro Ozu and John Ford, was President of the University of Tokyo from 1997 to 2001. His work has shaped generations of filmmakers and critics, influencing both Japanese and international cinema.

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Marion Cotillard Leads Hadžihalilović’s Surreal Drama The Ice Tower

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the-ice-towerAcclaimed French filmmaker Lucile Hadžihalilović (Innocence, Evolution, Earwig) returns with her fourth feature, The Ice Tower, which is set to open in theaters on October 3, 2025. The film stars Marion Cotillard, Clara Pacini, August Diehl, and Gaspar Noé.

Co-written with Geoff Cox, The Ice Tower premiered earlier this year at the Berlin Film Festival. The project reunites Hadžihalilović with Cotillard, who also starred in her 2004 debut feature Innocence. Known for her surreal and unsettling narratives, the director brings her distinctive style to another collaboration with long-time creative partner Noé, with whom she co-founded the production company Les Cinémas de la Zone in the early 1990s.

Hadžihalilović’s work has previously received recognition at international festivals including San Sebastián, Toronto, and Cannes. The Ice Tower continues her exploration of atmospheric, psychological storytelling, blending elements of fantasy and existential unease.

The film will be released in U.S. theaters on October 3.

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Tetsuya Mariko’s “Dear Stranger” Sets International Premiere at Busan Film Festival

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dear-strangerBusan International Film Festival has set the international premiere of Dear Stranger, the latest feature from Japanese director Tetsuya Mariko (Destruction Babies), for its 2025 edition in the “A Window on Asian Cinema” program.

Starring Hidetoshi Nishijima (Drive My Car) and Gwei Lun-Mei (Girlfriend, Boyfriend), the Japan-Taiwan-U.S. co-production was filmed entirely in New York and follows a couple whose lives fracture after the disappearance of their young son forces them to confront buried secrets.

The film reunites Mariko with top collaborators, including cinematographer Yasuyuki Sasaki (Asako I & II), editor Matthieu Laclau (A Touch of Sin), and Grammy-winning musician Jim O’Rourke. The project was shot with a multilingual cast and crew across English, Japanese, Chinese, Spanish, and sign language.

Mariko, who won Locarno’s Best Emerging Director Award for Destruction Babies, shifts his focus from violent social critiques to an intimate immigrant drama exploring identity, family, and loss.

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