22 May 2026
A SPECIAL one- night cinematic EVENT!
TERRESTRIAL VERSES (Chroniques de Téhéran)
with French subtitles
Save the date! Thursday MAY 28th – at the Grütli Cinemas, 20.30h
Not to be missed: Ali Asghari and Alireza Khatami’s brilliant look at the decades of frustration endured by the citizens of Iran under the Islamic regime. Through a series of short segments, often in the form of interviews, they show us with both bitter and humorous intelligence the daily trials and tribulations of the ordinary people living in Tehran.
For instance, there’s a lovely young girl at a dubious job interview – with definite shades of sexual innuendos; a happy little girl shopping with her mother for a school uniform; or an exasperated film director at the censor’s office. These and more tales are expertly written, acted and edited by the directors to reveal the psyche of a nation.
All this tongue-in-cheek richness in only 1h 18m!
Though released in 2023, it is more than ever timely and essential viewing for anyone wanting to understand the soul of a suppressed people.
AMARGA NAVIDAD / BITTER CHRISTMAS (AUTOFICTION) **1/2 (vo Spanish, English subtitles)
Pedro Almodovar was back in Cannes this year, his home away from home. With his colourful, distinctive style of filming and storytelling, he has become Spain’s best-known and most beloved director and has created a solid filmography since 1980. His tales are especially about women, deep relationships and controversial themes as only he can render beautiful, tender and even acceptable.
This latest film is once again about himself, as its French title suggests, and his dilemma in writing a script that blurs fiction and reality. And how his creation can harm his closest friends and their relationships. It’s interesting, but difficult to follow with all the various characters and events, especially if you don’t speak Spanish. It’s a bit colder and maybe more intellectual than his usual passionate works.
His previous autobiographical film with Antonio Banderas and Penelope Cruz (“Pain and Glory”, 2019) was far richer and more moving as he looked back at his childhood and developing adulthood.
Strangely, Asghar Farhadi’s “Parallel Tales”, also at Cannes, had somewhat the same theme of mixing reality and imagination and its unexpected results. But then again, “great minds think alike”…
L’ÊTRE AIMÉ *1/2 (vo Spanish, English subtitles)
This next Spanish film, also present at Cannes, is a boring disappointment from Rodrigo Sorogoyen. It’s about a difficult father/daughter relationship in which the father casts his estranged daughter in his latest film – same theme but far less effective as the luminous “Sentimental Value”.
The usually outstanding Javier Bardem cannot save this claustrophobic film (the constant facial close-ups are exhausting) in which the characters are cold and unlikeable, and one ends up not caring much for the whole tedious affair.
MANDORIAN & GROGU *
I remember the original “Star Wars” (1977) as an incredibly exciting and innovative film that blew our minds. We could see the faces of the endearing characters and marvel at the grandeur of their futuristic quests. Remember “May the force be with you”…? There were rich sagas, wonderful protagonists with sparkling dialogue and charming, unforgettable robots.
Now we get a helmeted hero whose face one never sees (otherwise, like Samson losing his hair, he would lose his powers), Grogu, his silly little mascot who resembles a badly made baby Yoda (his felt outfit looks like it was made by a five year-old), plus a multitude of disgusting monsters, slimy and horrendous, battling through the whole dark, dull film. And the 3D glasses make everything even murkier.
In our MAGA world, this is what purports to be progress!
Superb **** Very Good *** Good ** Mediocre * Miserable – no stars
By Neptune
Neptune Ravar Ingwersen reviews film extensively for publications in Switzerland. She views 4 to 8 films a week and her aim is to sort the wheat from the chaff for readers.
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