Short of the WeekShort of the Week

When locals tell you to stay home at night and there are nails sticking out of their front door… it’s probably a good idea to listen. Yet Vivi and her group of Western eco-volunteers don’t want to hear it. In Taga, writer/director Jill Marie Sachs crafts a satirical, engaging horror story that blends folk horror with a critique of Western liberal racism. Through Vi...

How do you judge a great film? For me, longevity and memorability have to be among the key criteria: the ability of a story to stay with you long after you’ve watched it and to stand the test of time when revisited years later. Which brings me to today’s pick, Alien Culture, written and directed by Iesh Thapar. I first experienced the film on the big screen at a Fi...

From its opening 60-seconds, Flock announces itself as a film operating on its own terms. As archival footage of sheep plays beneath an eerie, tension-building score, an atmosphere is established that feels at once familiar and deeply unsettling. 90-seconds later, an extraordinary long take captures the unexplained disappearance of an entire flock and director Mac ...

To appreciate The Distance Between Us and the Sky, Vasilis Kekatos’ eight-minute Palme d’Or winner, it helps to know that its appeal lies less in what it is about than in how it goes about it. Also awarded the Queer Palm in 2019, this meet-cute between two Greek strangers at a remote gas station has an unremarkable setup, but is immediately absorbing thanks to its ...

Over the years, we’ve published various pieces of editorial – film reviews, playlists and more – as a way of marking Indigenous Peoples’ Day. However, with no one on the S/W team ideally positioned to take responsibility for these posts, we decided to do things a little differently this year and ask for help. That help comes from today’s featured director, Sisa Quispe (...