Author Anahit Behrooz

Any other year, it would have been difficult to reconcile the minutiae of archaeological excavation against the backdrop of one of the century’s greatest military upheavals, but if the long 2020 has taught...

This film was previously reviewed in October 2020 as part of our coverage for London Film Festival. Mogul Mowgli begins with a lightning bolt of energy, as up-and-coming rapper Zed (Riz Ahmed) explodes onto...

Editor note - While Little Women was released on the 26th December 2019 in the UK, due to time constraints our group of writers did not get the chance to vote for it in last year's Top 20. For that reason, we...

Midway through Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, the eponymous singer – played by Viola Davis – sits with one of her band members in their studio. She has, until now, been portrayed as a diva: refusing to sing...

This film was previously reviewed in October 2020 as part of our London Film Festival coverage. Farewell Amor’s opening scene, a man clutching flowers at an airport as his long-awaited family arrives from...

“There are civil trials and there are criminal trials. There’s no such thing as a political trial”. The Chicago 7’s lawyer is about to realise just how wrong he is. The second directorial feature from...

Step into any British university literature department and a debate on Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness will be in full force. Is it a thoughtful examination of European imperialism, or a racist relic that...

It is hard to shake a sense of disgust while watching Industry, HBO’s series about young investment bankers vying for a permanent position at a top London firm. One of the few female candidates is sent...

“You’re basically an anthropologist,” a disconsolate Lucy’s friends reassure her as she sits surrounded by the bric-a-brac of a recently fractured relationship. Played by rising star Geraldine...

No one conveys the surreal tragedy of disappointed love quite like Charlie Kaufman. Much like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which Kaufman penned, his new directorial feature I’m Thinking of Ending...

Atonement was the film that made me fall in love with cinema. There had been films before and innumerable films since, but nothing has ever approached that heart-stopping, locking-eyes-across-a-crowded-room...

Once upon a time, so my head canon goes, a drunk philosophy fresher told Christopher Nolan that time is a construct and Nolan has never looked back. The majority of his films are characterised by their focus...

Jeff Bezos’ sinister, late-capitalist empire has long cast a shadow over the book industry, yet in a year when independent bookshops and trade fairs have been forced to shut, its shadow looms larger than...