World Cinema Saturday (5/2)      21:00    BBC4    Persian Lessons (2020). I find myself rather intrigued by this. It’s a Holocaust film, in German, about a young German Jew who pretends to be half-Persian to avoid being exterminated. He even gives Farsi lessons to the camp commandant, despite knowing no Farsi: the language… [continues]

World Cinema Monday (31/1)      01:55     Film4   Heal the Living (2016). This really looks rather good. A boy in a coma, a woman with a weak heart, doctors and nurses, organ donation. A thoughtful piece about illness and health, which could not be more topical. Directed by Katell Quillévéré, who made the underrated… [continues]

World Cinema Saturday (15/1)       22:00     BBC2                  Yuli (2018). Yuli (BBC2, 22.00, Sat 15th) is billed as a biopic of the Cuban ballet dancer Carlos Acosta, but as a film it is much more than that. It is directed by the renowned Spanish… [continues]

World Cinema Sunday (9/1)         00:10   BBC2    After the Storm (2016). Tremendous Hirokazu Koreeda family drama in which a dodgy private detective (Hiroshi Abe) tries to reconnect with his family after the death of his father. Weather plays a part. Subtle and moving. Koreeda is a master. Japanese with English subtitles. Monday… [continues]

World Cinema Wednesday (5/1)    01:50   Film4   Raw (2016). This is the Julia Ducournau shocker about a vegetarian veterinary student who is introduced to a decadent subculture and eats raw meat for the first time. Soon she can’t get enough. Sexy, violent, bloody, extreme. In French with English subtitles. Go for it. Stephen Ilott’s Picks… [continues]

World Cinema Tuesday (28/12)         01:20   Film4                  Wings of Desire (1987). Powerful and poetic Wim Wenders fantasy-romance about an angel (brilliant Bruno Ganz) who falls in love with a trapeze artist (Solveig Dommartin) and desires to become mortal. Haunted and haunting German classic.    … [continues]