There is a bitter irony at the heart of Abdulaziz Alshlahei’s dynamic third feature “Hobal,” which follows a family that has long sought safety in the desert, led by Liyam (Ibrahim Al-Hasawi), a patriarch carrying on a Bedouin tradition by living at a remove from civilization. While the nomadic clan has picked up and moved […]

There’s an unexpected implication when Antonella Sudasassi Furniss exposes the parameters of her film set at the start of “Memories of a Burning Body,” following lead Sol Carabello into one room to have her makeup done and a gaffer in another arranging the lights for a scene. It isn’t to accept the artifice of the […]

Looking back seems to offer a prescient look ahead in “The Hungarian Dressmaker,” Iveta Grófová’s compelling adaptation of Peter Krištúfek’s novella “Emma and the Death’s Head,” set in Slovakia during World War II. At the time, locals had to navigate the uncharted territory of authoritarianism, when the far-right Hlinka Slovak People’s Party rose to power […]