'Dear Comrades!' ('Dorogie Tovarischi!'): Film Review | Venice 2020

Caroline Framke Chief TV CriticConnecting the seemingly infinite threads of online trolling, Russian subterfuge and the astonishing evolution of American politics has become a favorite past-time of impassioned intellectuals raging against the Trump administration. In trying to pinpoint all the significant factors that led to Trump’s 2016 presidential election victory, some have identified Russia’s interest in American affairs as the key to understanding how we got to where we are today.

Sony Pictures Classics has acquired Pathé's Venice-bowing comedy-drama The Duke for a range of territories worldwide, including the U.S. The distributor also picked up the film —starring Oscar winners Jim Broadbent and Helen Mirren —for Latin America, Scandinavia, Eastern Europe (excluding Poland, the Czech Republic and the former Yugoslavia), Russia/CIS, Greece, Turkey, Portugal, South Africa, India and Southeast Asia (excluding Japan and China).

Holdover local war epic The Eight Hundred dominated Mulan over the weekend in China, as the Disney tentpole continued its precipitous decline in its most important theatrical market. The Eight Hundred, which has been in cinemas for a month, earned $17.7 million, lifting its total gross to $423.2 million, according to data from local box office tracker Artisan Gateway.

“Agents of Chaos,” a timely yet dispiriting look at how a whole bunch of Russian dirty tricks helped Donald Trump into the White House — just in time for a possible replay.“I am interested in figuring out this Trump-Russia thing. What was that all about?” asks Gibney, who has previously made documentaries on Steve Jobs and Scientology.

Every four years at the Winter Olympics, everybody pretends that they're experts in figure skating, befouling Twitter with gripes that a skater who did a clean routine (usually an American, if we're being honest) lost to somebody who fell down twice — ignoring that said skater (usually a Russian) did like 17 quadruple jumps or something.

Set entirely in Wuhan, China during the 76-day COVID lockdown in early 2020, “76 Days” is a tight, tense, and, at times, unrelentingly emotional account of front-line pandemic medical combat. As a piece of high-impact experiential movie journalism, it feels close to the style of a standalone “Frontline” episode, missing only Will Lyman’s low and drama-heightening narration.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentVenice’s Special Jury Prize-winning “Dear Comrades!,” a Russian historical drama directed by Andrei Konchalovsky, has been sold by Films Boutique to Southern Europe.“Dear Comrades!” was acquired for Italy by Paolo Del Brocco at Rai Cinema and for Spain by the Barcelona-based distributor Vercine.The film, which sheds light on the Novocherkassk massacre, was produced, co-written (with Elena Kiseleva) and directed by Konchalovsky, a revered and now veteran

Jessica Kiang From “All the President’s Men” to “Spotlight,” American films that valorize those ethically uncompromising reporters who have gone above and beyond, often at significant personal cost, in pursuit of stories of intense public interest, are not uncommon.

There are still idealistic young writers out there aiming to transform the world, at least in China, and the newsroom drama The Best Is Yet to Come (Bu zhi bu xiu) catches the viewer up in the fast-paced story of an untutored youth from the provinces who breaks a scoop on hepatitis B.

By Hanna RantalaVENICE (Reuters) - "Nomadland", a U.S.

Guy Lodge Film CriticOne day after premiering and receiving the most rapturous reviews of any film in competition, U.S.-based Chinese director Chloé Zhao has won the Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival for her film “Nomadland,” a documentary-influenced road movie starring Frances McDormand as an itinerant widow traveling across America.

Guy Lodge Film CriticBefore this year’s Venice Film Festival comes to a close with Saturday’s announcement of the official selection awards, the fest’s autonomous sections got the ball rolling Friday with their own prizes.Coming out on top in the Venice Days program was Russian director Philipp Yuryev’s debut feature “The Whaler Boy,” an offbeat story of a teenage whale hunter on the Bering Strait, who sets out to meet the webcam model with whom he’s become obsessed.The film received the

“Holler” is not the first film to chronicle the human toll of the flight of industry from the American Rust Belt to China and other countries abroad, but it might be the most direct. “Holler” makes the subtext text by focusing on an Ohio group of scrappers, crews illegally stripping abandoned old factories and institutional buildings for raw metal that can be sold to Asian buyers.

Also Read: 'David Byrne's American Utopia' Film Review: Byrne and Spike Lee Burn Down the House With StyleHis parents Paul and Leann — both veterans themselves — rally to their son’s defense, and the next few years involve attempted defections to Russia and Venezuela, an application for asylum in Canada, a car accident on a snowy highway, allegations of government torture and interrogation using the drug Thorazine, and activists and journalists seeking to help out Matt, particularly in the wake

Ben Croll At a panel hosted by the Venice Production Bridge – the industry section of the Venice Film Festival – earlier this week, delegates from the Italian, American, and Chinese industries shared the virtual stage with European regulators as they enumerated the challenges facing the global film business in the post-pandemic era.Jointly organized by Italy’s cultural heritage ministry (MiBACT) and motion picture association (ANICA) for the second year in a row, the panel brought together

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaThe 2020 Horton Foote Prize has been awarded to Lloyd Suh for his play “The Chinese Lady,” a penetrating drama that looks at racism and the immigrant experience.

A young Chinese journalist battles corruption, state power, and his own conscience in The Best is Yet to Come, the debut feature from Chinese director Jing Wang. The drama, which premieres in the Orizzonti section of the Venice Film Festival on Wednesday, before moving on to Toronto's Discovery sidebar, is set in 2003 in the aftermath of the SARS epidemic in China.

The early-2000s was an interesting time in the world of journalism. With the internet becoming more and more ubiquitous by the day, that era saw the beginning of the shift from traditional newspaper/magazine journalism to a younger generation of hungry writers looking to use technology to their advantage.