In his <Pulitzer-winning treatise on The Denial of Death (1984), Ernest Becker> argued that the human psyche, regardless of place of birth or skin colour, operates with a deep rooted impulse to deny mortality. Each of us arrives at a world where institutionalized religions and hero-mythologies offer us ready-made and passed-through-the-generations means to deal with

INCH’ALLAH (2012, Canadá, 82 min, de Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette ) é um filme tremendo – e assisti-lo novamente hoje, em outubro de 2023, enquanto a crise humanitária e os crimes de guerra disparam nos territórios da Palestina e de Israel, é um must. A gente sai da exibição como se tivesse acabado de sobreviver a um terremoto. Dizer que Chlöe e

INCH’ALLAH (2012, Canada, 82 min, by Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette) is a tremendous film – and to re-watch it nowadays, in October 2023, as the humanitarian crisis and war crimes skyrockets in Palestine and Israel territories, it’s a must. One leaves the screening as if he just survived an earthquake. To say that Chlöe and her (mis)adventures,

Um filme deve ser julgado não apenas pela experiência estética e intelectual que proporciona durante a exibição, mas também pela sua ressonância posterior: desaparece rapidamente da memória ou permanece na mente, continuando a estimulá-la? Isto parece implicar que um crítico de cinema não deve apressar-se a publicar um texto depois de ter visto o filme,

A film should be judged not only by the aesthetic and intellectual experience it provides during the screening, but also by its resonance afterwards: does it evanesce quickly from memory, or does it linger on the mind, continuing to stimulate it? This seems to entail that a film critic shouldn’t rush to publish a text

This is one of those historical moments where tragedy unfolds in massive scale and bloodshed spills into our feeds, filling up our waking hours and intruding in our nightmares. When my friends and flatmates Saliem and Wael told me about a massive demonstration in Amsterdam in solidarity with Gaza’s 2.3 million inhabitants (53% of which

The <AFFR> film festival 2023 – which took place in Rotterdam (NL) from October 4th until 8th – was quite a feast for this cinephile and researcher. It fed me so much food for thought that I’m still trying to digest it. Some dozens of pages of notes in my manuscripts still await to be

OUR FOSSIL FOOLISHNESS The climate catastrophe we’re immersed in has become “an existential crisis for manking” (Naomi Klein) and yet products made from oil are frighteningly everywhere. We’re addicted to many of them, junkies of gadgets made from fossil fuel extraction. We’re entangled inside this Oil Machine like <Chaplin caught in the cogs of the

Sobre “Triângulo da tristeza”  – Dir. Ruben Ostlund e “Por um Destino Insólito” – Dir: Lina Wertmüller (Itália, 1974) No <filme de Wertmüller>, o azul paradisíaco murmura junto das acaloradas discussões sobre capitalismo e comunismo. A satisfação de um grupinho de super ricos (deitados) é motor para que os serviçais (em pé, ajoelhados) desse iate

O PROMETEU ATÔMICO A epígrafe do 12º filme do <cineasta inglês Christopher Nolan> é uma evocação do <mito de Prometeu>, o Titã que “stole fire from the gods and gave it to man. For this he was chained to a rock and tortured for eternity.” A alusão ao roubo do fogo mítico, que antes era