The founder and CEO of the popular encrypted messaging service Telegram was detained at a Paris airport, French media reported Sunday.
What You Need To Know
French broadcast media say the founder and CEO of the popular encrypted messaging service Telegram has been detained at a Paris airport
Pavel Durov, a dual French and Russian citizen, was arrested at Paris’ Le Bourget airport on Saturday evening after landing in France from Azerbaijan, according to broadcasters LCI and TF1
French prosecutors declined to comment on Durov’s arrest when contacted by The Associated Press Sunday, in line with regulations during an ongoing investigation
Durov was the subject of a French arrest warrant on allegations that his encrypted platform has been used for money laundering, drug trafficking and other offenses, French media reported
Pavel Durov was detained at the Paris Le Bourget airport on Saturday evening after landing in France from Azerbaijan, according to broadcasters LCI and TF1.
Investigators from the National Anti-Fraud Office, attached to the French customs department, notified Durov that he was being placed in police custody, the broadcasters said.
French prosecutors declined to comment on Durov’s arrest when contacted by The Associated Press on Sunday, in line with regulations during an ongoing investigation.
French media reported that Durov, 39, was the subject of an arrest warrant issued by France based on allegations that his encrypted platform has been used for money laundering, drug trafficking and allowing the sharing of content linked to sexual exploitation of minors.
Western governments have often criticized Telegram for lack of content moderating on the messaging service.
Russian government officials expressed outrage at Durov’s arrest, with some highlighting what they said was the West’s double standards on freedom of speech.
“In 2018, a group of 26 NGOs, including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Freedom House, Reporters Without Borders, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and others, condemned the Russian court’s decision to block Telegram,” said Maria Zakharova, spokesperson for Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“Do you think this time they’ll appeal to Paris and demand Durov’s release?” Zakharova said in a post on her personal Telegram account.
A 26-year-old man has turned himself into police, saying he was responsible for the Solingen knife attack that left three dead and eight wounded at a festival marking the city’s 650th anniversary, German authorities announced early Sunday.
What You Need To Know
German police say a 26-year-old man has turned himself in, saying he was responsible for the deadly Solingen knife attack that left three dead and eight wounded at a festival marking the city’s 650th anniversary
Duesseldorf police said in a joint statement with the prosecutor’s office Sunday that the man “stated that he was responsible for the attack”
It said his “involvement in the crime is currently being intensively investigated”
On Saturday the Islamic State militant group claimed responsibility for the attack, without providing evidence. The claim couldn’t independently be verified
Duesseldorf police said in a joint statement with the prosecutor’s office that the man “stated that he was responsible for the attack.”
“This person’s involvement in the crime is currently being intensively investigated,” the statement said.
Federal prosecutors said they were investigating on suspicion of murder, attempted murder and membership in a foreign terrorist organization. The suspect was to make a first appearance before a judge later Sunday.
The suspect is a Syrian citizen who had applied for asylum in Germany, police confirmed to The Associated Press. The dpa news agency reported, without citing a specific source, that his asylum claim had been denied and that he was to have been deported last year.
On Saturday, the Islamic State militant group claimed responsibility for the attack, without providing evidence. The extremist group said on its news site that the attacker targeted Christians and that the perpetrator carried out the assaults Friday night “to avenge Muslims in Palestine and everywhere.” The claim couldn’t be independently verified.
Friday’s attack plunged the city of Solingen into shock and grief. A city of about 160,000 residents near the bigger cities of Cologne and Duesseldorf, Solingen was holding a “Festival of Diversity” to celebrate its anniversary.
People alerted police shortly after 9:30 p.m. local time Friday that a man had assaulted several people with a knife on the city’s central square, the Fronhof. The three people killed were two men aged 67 and 56 and a 56-year-old woman, authorities said. Police said the attacker appeared to have deliberately aimed for his victims’ throats.
The festival, which was due to have run through Sunday, was canceled as police looked for clues in the cordoned-off square. Instead, residents gathered to mourn the dead and injured, placing flowers and notes near the scene of the attack.
“Warum?” asked one sign placed amid candles and teddy bears. Why?
Among those asking themselves the question was 62-year-old Cord Boetther, a merchant fron Solingen.
“Why does something like this have to be done? It’s incomprehensible and it hurts,” Boetther said.
Officials had earlier said a 15-year-old boy was arrested on suspicion he knew about the planned attack and failed to inform authorities, but that he was not the attacker. Two female witnesses told police they overheard the boy and an unknown person before the attack speaking about intentions that corresponded to the bloodshed, officials said.
The attack comes amid debate over immigration ahead of regional elections next Sunday in Germany’s Saxony and Thueringia regions where anti-immigration parties such as the populist Alternative for Germany are expected to do well. In June, Chancellor Olaf Scholz vowed that the country would start deporting criminals from Afghanistan and Syria again after a knife attack by an Afghan immigrant left one police officer dead and four more people injured.
The IS militant group declared its caliphate in large parts of Iraq and Syria about a decade ago, but now holds no control over any land and has lost many prominent leaders. The group is mostly out of global news headlines.
Still, it continues to recruit members and claim responsibility for deadly attacks around the world, including lethal operations in Iran and Russia earlier this year that killed dozens of people. Its sleeper cells in Syria and Iraq still carry out attacks on government forces in both countries as well as U.S.-backed Syrian fighters.
SOLINGEN, Germany (AP) — Special police units on Saturday joined the search for an unknown man who carried out a stabbing attack at a crowded festival in the western German city of Solingen, killing three people and wounding at least eight others, five of them seriously.
What You Need To Know
Police units are searching for an unknown man who carried out a stabbing attack at a festival in the German city of Solingen, killing three people and wounding at least eight others
Police did not indicate that they had yet established the identity of the attacker and warned people to stay vigilant
The attack took place in the crowd in front of one stage at the “Festival of Diversity,” which began Friday and was supposed to run through Sunday
There has been concern about increased knife violence in Germany, and there has been a proposal to toughen weapon laws to allow only knives with a blade measuring up to 6 centimeters (nearly 2.4 inches) to be carried in public, rather than the length of 12 centimeters (4.7 inches) that is currently allowed
“The police are currently conducting a large-scale search for the perpetrator,” police said in a statement. “Both victims and witnesses are currently being questioned,” they said.
Police did not indicate that they had yet established the identity of the attacker and warned people to stay vigilant even as wellwishers started to leave flowers at the scene. Police established an online portal where witnesses could upload footage and any other information relevant to the attack.
People alerted police shortly after 9:30 p.m. Friday to an unknown attacker having wounded several people with a knife on a central square, the Fronhof. Police said they believe the stabbings were carried out by a lone attacker and gave no information about the identities of the victims.
“Last night our hearts were torn apart. We in Solingen are full of horror and grief. What happened yesterday in our city has hardly let any of us sleep,” the mayor of Solingen, Tim Kurzbach, said, speaking to reporters on Saturday near the scene of the attack.
The “Festival of Diversity,” marking the city’s 650th anniversary, began Friday and was supposed to run through Sunday, with several stages in central streets offering attractions such as live music, cabaret and acrobatics.
The attack took place in the crowd in front of one stage. Hours after the attack, the stage lights were still on as police and forensic investigators looked for clues in the cordoned-off square.
One of the festival organizers, Philipp Müller, appeared on stage on Friday and asked festivalgoers to “go calmly; please keep your eyes open, because unfortunately the perpetrator hasn’t been caught.” Solingen has about 160,000 residents and is located near the bigger cities of Cologne and Duesseldorf.
The rest of the festival was canceled.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Saturday that the perpetrator of the attack must be caught quickly and punished with the full force of the law.
“The attack in Solingen is a terrible event that has shocked me greatly. An attacker has brutally killed several people. I have just spoken to Solingen’s mayor, Tim Kurzbach. We mourn the victims and stand by their families,” Scholz said on X.
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier also spoke to the mayor of Solingen on Saturday morning.
“The heinous act in Solingen shocks me and our country. We mourn those killed and worry about those injured and I wish them strength and a speedy recovery from all my heart,” Steinmeier said in a statement on Saturday.
“The perpetrator needs to be brought to justice. Let’s stand together — against hatred and violence.”
There has been concern about increased knife violence in Germany, and Interior Minister Nancy Faeser recently proposed toughening weapons laws to allow only knives with a blade measuring up to 6 centimeters (nearly 2.4 inches) to be carried in public, rather than the length of 12 centimeters (4.7 inches) that is currently allowed.
The revamped Berlin International Film Festival continues to take shape, with new festival director Tricia Tuttle on Thursday unveiling a new four-member selection committee and expanding the festival’s network of advisors and delegates.
The new selection committee consists of industry veterans, including festival programmer and producer Mathilde Henrot; film critic and programmer Jessica Kiang; festival and cultural consultant Jacqueline Nsiah; and Elad Samorzik, the former artistic director of the Jerusalem Film Festival.
They join Michael Stütz and Jacqueline Lyanga, appointed in June as the new co-directors of film programming ahead of the 75th anniversary Berlinale next year. This committee will work alongside Tuttle to pick films for the Competition, Berlinale Special, and the new Perspectives section.
To broaden its expertise, the Berlinale has also brought on board several advisors, including Jin Park for genre films; Rowan Woods for television and series programming; Ana David, Kate Taylor, Rabih El-Khoury, and Toby Ashraf for general preselection; and Jenni Zylka for German cinema programming, with a special focus on German new talent and film schools. Ashraf brings specialist experience in German and LGBTQIA+ programming. El-Khoury brings years of experience curating Arab cinema.
Tuttle has also appointed international delegates to scout for films and act as ambassadors in various regions, including Latin America, South Asia, the United States, and East Asia.
Tuttle, the former head of the London Film Festival, took over from Berlinale co-directors Carlo Chatrian and Mariëtte Rissenbeek and will kick off her reign with next year’s event, which runs Feb. 13-23.
MIAMI, FL – Achieve Miami’s Teacher Accelerator Program (TAP) is tackling South Florida’s teacher shortage head-on by creating a clear path to teaching for college seniors and career changers. Following its first year at the University of Miami in 2023, the education nonprofit expanded to Florida International University and Miami-Dade College, making TAP accessible to college seniors and graduates with a four-year degree. Now in its second year, TAP has more than tripled its impact: 151 participants have successfully graduated from this year’s program and are preparing to teach in public, private, and charter school classrooms across Miami-Dade County as full-time teachers for the 2024-25 school year – up from 43 participants during its first year.
“While Miami students are performing better than their peers in other major cities, learning gaps exist and the teacher shortage is exacerbating the problem. A strong education system is critical to ensuring the viability of South Florida’s economy over the long-term, and that begins with building a robust pipeline of teachers. TAP will be the single largest source of new teachers in Miami-Dade County this school year, and we’re eager to scale up our program in Florida and beyond,” said Leslie Miller Saiontz, Founder of Achieve Miami.
TAP is addressing a teacher shortage that is impacting communities in Florida and beyond. On the first day of school for the 2023-24 school year, there were more than 5,000 vacant teaching positions in Florida, and hundreds of thousands across the U.S. according to Florida Education Association’s (FEA) count of vacancies.
Becoming a teacher through TAP is achievable in four attainable steps: participants take TAP’s one-semester course, followed by a six-week paid summer internship, earn their teaching certification, and are then hired by a Miami-Dade County public, private or charter school and placed in a classroom. This approach ensures that new teachers are well-prepared to make an immediate impact in the classroom. The streamlined process offers a clear path to becoming a teacher, opening the eyes of many to the benefits of a career in education.
“South Florida is full of talent, both at our local colleges and across the workforce, and we find that many qualified individuals are excited about a flexible and fulfilling career in education,” said Jasmine Calin-Micek, Senior Director of the Teacher Accelerator Program. “TAP’s success in Miami is proving that when you offer an onramp to teaching, there’s no shortage of demand.”
TAP is the first initiative of its kind in Florida, and Achieve Miami is currently in discussions with other universities interested in expanding the program nationally. The launch of TAP is entirely privately funded through funds raised by Achieve Miami, including a portion of the more than $2.6 million contributed by nearly 500 donors during the Miami Foundation’s 2023 Give Miami Day.
To learn more about the Teacher Accelerator Program, or to take the first step towards a fulfilling career in education, visit www.teacheraccelerator.org.
ABOUT THE TEACHER ACCELERATOR PROGRAM
Teacher Accelerator Program (TAP) is a non-profit organization creating a pipeline of talent for the teaching profession through recruiting, preparing, and mentoring aspiring educators. TAP’s comprehensive and streamlined program equips college students and career changers with the skills, knowledge, and certification necessary to excel in the classroom. TAP addresses the nationwide teacher shortage crisis by providing a built-in path to teaching, inspiring a new generation of educators.
TAP participants take a one-semester course, followed by a six-week paid summer internship, earn a certificate to teach, and begin instructing in a Miami-Dade County public, private, or charter school classroom. TAP is an initiative of Achieve Miami, supported by Teach for America Miami-Dade, and is offered by the University of Miami, Florida International University and Miami-Dade College. Learn more at www.teacheraccelerator.org.
eSchool Media staff cover education technology in all its aspects–from legislation and litigation, to best practices, to lessons learned and new products. First published in March of 1998 as a monthly print and digital newspaper, eSchool Media provides the news and information necessary to help K-20 decision-makers successfully use technology and innovation to transform schools and colleges and achieve their educational goals.
Meta has acquired Impulse: Playing With Reality, an interactive mixed-reality documentary exploring Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) voiced by Tilda Swinton. The project, from co-directors May Abdalla and Barry Gene Murphy, will premiere at the 2024 Venice Immersive program of the 81st Venice International Film Festival.
The project draws from more than 100 hours of interviews with individuals on the severe end of the ADHD spectrum, using the mixed reality format to give viewers a sense of what it feels like to live with the condition.
Impulse is the second installment in the “Playing With Reality” series from U.K. producer Anagram, co-produced by Floréal & France Télévisions, which aims to shed light on mental health conditions through immersive storytelling.
Swinton also narrated the first project in the series, Abdalla and Murphy’s 2021 VR work Goliath, an exploration of one man’s experience of schizophrenia, which went on to win the Grand Jury Prize for Best VR Immersive Work at the 78th Venice Festival and pick up an Emmy nomination in the outstanding interactive media innovation category.
Meta will present Impulse on its Meta Quest service. The documentary can be pre-ordered, for $4.99, ahead of its release next month. Meta also released Goliath.
Anagram dropped the first trailer for the film on Wednesday. You can it check out below:
The Palestinian filmmaker, who will receive the honorary Heart of Sarajevo award at the 2024 Sarajevo Film Festival, has spent his career chronicling the experiences of his people, and the politics of the troubled Middle East. His features: Chronicle of a Disappearance (1996), Divine Intervention (2002), The Time That Remains (2009) and It Must Be Heaven (2019), avoid polemics by using deadpan humor and minimal dialogue, with a focus on the everyday resistance of ordinary people.
That resistance is personified by Suleiman’s on-screen character “E.S.,” a silent, Buster Keaton-like figure who bears witness to the absurdities of life as experienced by Israeli Arabs (such as himself, he was born in Nazareth in 1960) and the citizens of Gaza as a window into the wider world.
Since the Oct.7 attacks by Hamas on Israel and the Israeli bombing and land invasion of Gaza, the wider world is again watching as violent men decide the fate of the region.
Being a Palestinian artist, says Suleiman, “puts you in a kind of an alienated position vis-à-vis the world, as you wonder about the horrors happening in Palestine and the governments that are supporting that horror.” But amid the darkness, the director remains surprisingly hopeful about the possibility for change, and of art as a form of resistance. “Art marches a lot slower than bullets,” he says. “We might not see change in our lifetime, [but] the accumulation of production of culture that inspires freer people might eventually have some kind of result.”
Congratulations on the honor at Sarajevo. You’ve been coming to the festival for many years, what is it that links you and Sarajevo?
I don’t really know what it is, but I think I’ve had it from the first time I was here. There’s something very familiar about this city. It’s not a political or intellectual connection — at least not consciously — it’s more an emotional one. I identify with the city, with the festival and with the people. I get invited every year and I’ve been the president of the jury, I’ve screened my films there, I’ve done a couple of master classes. I think I’ve been there once without any reason at all. It’s become like a family thing. Maybe the political story of the place has added something to the people and the festival, that they have a certain identification with a number of causes connected to films, but there is just something humane and nice about Sarajevo.
You are getting a career achievement award and I want to talk about your career, but the issue of Gaza looms large so I’d thought we should address it immediately. As a Palestinian, and a Palestinian filmmaker, what has changed for you since October 7 and since the start of the war in Gaza?
That is an interesting question because nothing’s changed. I was beginning on a new project, starting to jot down ideas, seeing which would linger, but when [Oct. 7] happened, everything stopped. I make very few films, with years in between, and I make them out of mostly personal experiences, so I need to experience a certain ambiance, and I need to sponge up the global ambiance. Since the start of the war, for the first months, I deserted the writing, because I found out that I don’t yet have anything to say. I just got back to it actually, even though the war is still going on. I don’t know why I’m calling it a war now: The genocide is going on and it’s getting worse. So I’ve started toying with ideas for my next film, started trying to put myself to work.
But I don’t think it’s really a question of being Palestinian. The fact that I’m Palestinian adds a certain layer of familiarity with the place, because I know people from all over Palestine. And being a Palestinian filmmaker puts you in a kind of an alienated position vis-à-vis the world, as you wonder about the horrors happening in Palestine and the governments that are supporting that horror. It makes you feel less hopeful about any possible change. But finally, it is about globalization — that there is power and money and multinationals with interests in militarization and fascism.
Israel is not the only place that is fascist, by the way. If you look around, half the countries in Europe are going that way. There is a right-wing, atmosphere that is truly frightening in Europe. In the States as well, of course. There are a lot of these people who support these kinds of regimes — this bloodthirsty, extreme conservatism, the extreme far-right, the Neo Nazis, are sprouting up everywhere. So [as a Palestinian] it puts you in a strange place. In order to keep going, you need to have a little hope and know that things can change. But of course, you start to wonder sometimes if it’s really hope or the illusion of hope.
I went back to reading [Jewish writer and Holocaust survivor] Primo Levi, who I used to be absolutely attached to for so long. I used to carry his books with me on my travels. When [Oct. 7] happened, I went back to his writings to see how people felt back then. If you [were] living, say, as a Jew in France at the time, you [were] basically worried about your neighbor turning you into the police. If you think about how people used to live in that moment, the ambiance is so horrifying. It makes you wonder about how people survived such extremities. And that makes me think people in Gaza now, with their daily routines of receiving one-ton bombs on top of their heads, and having their children buried under the ground. It is a weird, strange moment, in the history of humanity.
Have you seen a different reaction to you personally, as a Palestinian artist since Oct. 7?
Personally, no. I have witnessed other people being censored, galleries closing, artists being exiled and not allowed to work, people being fired. But, like you, I just read all of this stuff. I knew quite a few people who went to Berlin because it was supposedly such a free city, and really got trapped, because its suddenly wasn’t a free city, and found themselves controlled and interrogated. But personally, no, I haven’t experienced anything. Let’s wait until I have a script ready for my next film and see the reaction to that before we say if things have changed.
It Must Be Heaven
Le Pacte
All your films deal with darkness in the world but they usually end on a moment of hope. I have to think of the final dancing scene in the gay club in It Must Be Heaven. Do you see any hope in the situation for Palestinians in Gaza at the moment?
Again, it’s not only Palestinians, but I think we are living in a world where you see more and more younger people who are, less or even non-nationalistic. They are activists, and they want to live without having any ideologies stuck on them. They want to be free and they have their own definitions of how they can be so. In France, you have a lot of young people who are really fantastic, doing activism that is not just militant, it’s culture. Just like that last scene in It Must Be Heaven. You have similar people everywhere in the world. It’s very touching to see because they are trying to find ways to express themselves freely, even if, in certain countries, it has to be done cautiously, because Big Brother is always watching. That bar I filmed at is a real Palestinian gay and lesbian bar and those are the actual people who go to these kinds of bars — they weren’t extras I brought in. After filming, quite a few of them ended up in hospital with injuries caused by the Israeli police. It’s not easy to arrest people just for expressing joy, for dancing, for poetry, for jamming on guitars in the bars, for not doing anything against the law. But they pose a threat to the system, because they are free, willing people, and that is a menace to the system. That happens everywhere in the world. The second you have any kind of art or culture or poetry, it becomes suspicious for the ruling authorities.
Elia Suleiman at the 2022 European Film Awards
Photo by Sophia Groves/Getty Images
It’s just that art marches a lot slower than bullets. So change maybe won’t come right away, maybe not in our lifetime, but that accumulation of the production of culture, of freer people, might eventually have a result. I’m saying this because if you look at the past 200 years, let’s say we came from a place where there was slavery and things have shifted. There are still some forms of slavery around the world, but it’s no longer seen as legitimate for colonial powers to just go to Africa and ship 20 million people across the ocean, throwing quite a few of them into the sea. There were and are other horrors, from the First and Second World War, there are still a lot of humans damaging other humans’ lives. But the fact is, things do change. Maybe through this slow accumulation of art and freedom, we may find a way ahead to a better world. I think the production of art is important for the production of hope.
Is that your goal in making movies, the production of hope?
I think the minimum that I can do is to produce pleasure. Through cinema, to make moments of pleasure, that the spectators can share, and to give a sense of consolation that some of us are still there not looking to do evil. It’s about producing tenderness, which actually can produce that kind of hope. I think when people have pleasure in their lives, they get less anxious and maybe less violent towards themselves and others. I see a couple leaving a film of mine feeling hungry, that’s gratifying because that means they are going to enjoy their dinner. The point is not that they talk or don’t talk about the film. The point is the feeling or emotion they take out of the cinema that seeps through their different senses, and they want to extend that pleasure. I know that this is not solving the Palestinian issue, but I always have a feeling that it does add something.
You have all these movements, from the LGBT or African American movement in the States, that are saying the same thing: ‘We want to be free.’ They identify with Gaza, but they also want to better their own lives. So you can see that Gaza can become a catalyst for change in a lot of parts in the world, as people identify injustices there, they also see the injustices where they live and what they witness. It’s more complex than that, of course, but I think when you see injustice in one place, you start to connect it to injustice in your everyday life.
Divine Intervention
Pyramide Distribution
Humor has always been at the core of your films. People compare you to Jacques Tati or Buster Keaton, but you say they weren’t your inspiration. Where does your humor come from? Is it from your family?
Exactly! You nailed it. It comes from my family. I’m the youngest of five, and my parents were quite tender and funny and humorous. There was always laughter in the house. A lot of the stuff you see in my films, I nicked for my brothers. They would come to me and say: “I have a story for you. It’s got to be in the film” and I’d write it down and say, give me more. Growing up in a small town that gradually became a ghetto [Nazareth] produced the kinds of characters that I put in my film, who might despair, but they are also funny. Because in every ghetto there is despair and there’s humor.
Do you see humor as a form of political resistance?
Yes, but it isn’t just humor, it isn’t just my films. I think art is a form of resistance. Conducting your daily life can be a form of resistance. Being ecologically aware can be a form of resistance. Poetry is a form of resistance. Making life beautiful is a form of resistance. My films are just the way I see things. When I’m sitting in a cafe and see something that has potential, cinematic potential, I write it down. It’s just a sensation then it has to be developed, but there’s always [something] from daily life which is the point of departure into the cinematic world. It is a form of resistance, but it’s not a strategy. It’s what tickles me from within, and then I toy with it to make sure the humor is complex and layered, with social and political dimensions. That takes a long time in solitude to imagine, and to imagine how others will see it. Because you don’t make films for yourself, you make films to share. I want to make sure the people in Norway or Iceland can also watch these same moments and have their own connectedness with them. I don’t give history lessons, I don’t care for history lessons. Maybe my films can get people intrigued to go and learn more but that’s not what’s in the films themselves. But when it comes to humor, yes, it is essential. Looking at this cruel world we live in, if I didn’t have the humor, I think I would die.
It also seems to me it would be impossible to compete with the real horror, with the violent images, we see on TV and social media.
Yes. I don’t use violence in my films or only very rarely. Maybe one moment here, one moment there. I’ve turned my back on these horrific, polluting images that the television produces for the news. I have no social media whatsoever. I don’t want to live in that world. It’s too noisy for me. That’s the one thing that gets me anxious: The noise of the world. One has to really protect oneself. If we’re talking about resistance, if you want to create more art and more pleasure, about the need for tenderness or connectedness, you need to turn your back on the noise.
Filmmaker Alex Garland was joined by his long-time collaborator and producer Andrew Macdonald in Edinburgh to ponder their career-spanning relationship, favorite projects andupcoming 28 Days zombie trilogy.
The duo, who have teamed up on titles such as The Beach (2000), 28 Days Later (2002), Ex Machina(2014), and most recently, Civil War(2024), spoke at an Edinburgh International Film Festival event on Sunday to a jam-packed room of industry professionals (who were hanging onto every word).
Garland and Macdonald discussed how they came to work together, as well as a few rows they’ve had over the years. Garland, who began his career as a novelist with The Beach before pivoting into screenwriting and, eventually, directing, admitted that while he doesn’t particularly enjoy directing, there is one film – his debut directorial feature – that he considers his top pick from an impressive resume.
“I never wanted to be a director,” Garland says, before prompting audience laughter with: “I wanted to stop directors from changing things and the only way to do that was by occupying that position [of director].”
“I enjoyed Ex Machina very much… It was an easy film to make. It was logistically easy, and that helped. We had four weeks in [London studio] Pinewood on a sound stage, two weeks in Norway on location. We had a very small cast.”
Ex Machina stars Domnhall Gleeson as a young programmer who becomes part of a bizarre experiment at the house of a genius scientist (Oscar Isaac) where he forms a relationship with a female robot (Alicia Vikander).
“The cast were young and very hard-working and very committed,” Garland continued. “We had a very friendly crew that believed in the project and was working as hard as they could. There was a good vibe, and everyone was pulling together. It was friendly.”
Garland elaborated on some “toxic” movies he and Macdonald have worked on, drenched in “bitching” and “fallings out,” and why Ex Machina came at just the right time. “Speaking for myself, but I always speak for Andrew too,” he said, “we had just done a sequence of toxic movies and toxic film sets are extraordinarily unpleasant places to be. You cannot escape the bitching, the factionalization, the departments falling out with each other. They’re just terrible. And I think Ex Machina came as an antidote to that. It was the precise opposite.”
The iconic scene where Isaac and his robot break out into dance, memorialized in “gif” form, came about from his own critique of Never Let Me Go, Garland explained, where Garland had learned that a film requires a “disruption of tone.”
Garland and Macdonald also spoke about the upcoming trilogy of films following on from apocalyptic thrillers 28 Days Later and 28 WeeksLater. In 2025, 28 Years Later, with a budget of around $75 million, will mark the start of a set of three films from Boyle, Garland and Macdonald. “We’re making, hopefully three more 28 films with the first one called 28 Years Later that Alex has written, and Danny has directed, and has finished shooting,” Macdonald said. “Then we’re just about to start, tomorrow morning, actually, part two. And then we hope there’s gonna be a third part and it’s a trilogy.”
Macdonald said the films will be a British sci-fi trilogy with an all-British cast set in the north of England, specifically Northumberland and Yorkshire.
Garland and Macdonald separately touched on the difficulties of making the recently-released Civil War, set in a dystopian future America where a team of military-embedded journalists are attempting to reach Washington D.C. before rebel factions get to the White House.
“We literally couldn’t go to America,” Macdonald said of the COVID pandemic complications. “We had to wait and then we had to get special visas to go. And we made it just at the tail end of COVID. We made it with the backing of A24, who, from a producer point of view, were just amazing, because they backed what Alex wanted to do with one of the biggest budgets they had ever spent at that time.”
When asked about the political nature of the film and claims that Civil War “doesn’t pick a side,” Garland let loose. “I’m in my mid 50s and I’m a centrist,” he said. “That’s where I am politically. I’m a centrist. I’m left-wing centrist. So I write and I think and I talk and I move through the world in a centrist position. The idea that centrism is not a political position is idiotic. It is a political position. It is a political position against extremism. It’s actually specifically against the extreme right, I would say, because that’s the greatest danger that democracies tend to encounter, and they do encounter.”
He continued, “If you take that danger seriously, then centrism is a position you can take. It doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the right one. It’s my one. The idea that centrism is apolitical is just stupid.”
Civil War, written and directed by Garland, has grossed over $122 million worldwide.
Edinburgh International Film Festival runs until Aug. 21.
“King Khan” ruled the Piazza Grande, the iconic big square in the center of picturesque Swiss town Locarno, on Saturday night. Bollywood icon Shah Rukh Khan brought his global star power to the 77th edition of the Locarno Film Festival as he was honored with a lifetime achievement award, the so-called Pardo alla Carriera, or Career Leopard.
The fans, including those in the 8,000 seats on the square and more in various spots around it, gave the star of films like Panthaan,Don 2 and Om Shanti Om a rousing ovation and thunderous applause. Even when the big movie screen in the square first showed him arriving on the red carpet around 9:20 p.m. local time and shaking hands with Locarno artistic director Giona A. Nazzaro, a roar went through the crowd.
Just before 10 p.m., the screen showed a highlight video of many of Khan’s films, which drew constant cheers and other ecstatic reactions.
Just minutes later, the star took to the stage to be showered in cheers, applause and screams of “I love you!” He received his honorary Golden Leopard award from Nazarro and thanked him and the evening’s host, Sandy Altermatt, who is also known for her work as a Swiss TV host.
Khan shared with the audience how heavy the award was, drawing laughs. Sweating due to the hot weather, he also told the excited crowd that he was happy to be in Locarno in a square full of people, and he was honored to be in Locarno, a “very beautiful, very cultural, very artistic and extremely hot city with so many people stuffed up in a little square and so hot.” He then joked: “It’s just like being home in India.”
He also thanked the crowd, saying: “Ladies and gentlemen, I want to thank you all for welcoming me with such wide arms — wider than the ones I do onscreen.” He stretched out his arms to cheers. And he added: “I love you all.”
Khan kept showing his entertainer side onstage, promising to give a more serious speech. “It’s the Locarno Film Festival. We all need to sound intellectual,” he quipped before saying a few words in Italian for his fans in the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland. “The food has been nice. My Italian is improving — so has been my cooking,” he added before explaining. “For those who don’t understand Italian, it means I can cook pasta and pizza.”
On a more serious note, the mega-star said: “I truly believe cinema has been the most profound and influential artistic medium of our age. I’ve had the privilege of being part of this for many years, and this journey has taught me a few lessons I’d like to share with you.” Among them was, “that art is the act of affirming life above all.”
Khan later expressed his gratitude for his career and fans and drew more laughs, saying: “For 35 years, I’ve been working. I’ve been a villain. I’ve been a champ. I’ve been a superhero. I’ve been a zero. I’ve been a detective fan, and I’ve been a very, very resilient lover.”
After flashing a smile amid cheers, the actor concluded: “I normally don’t go out for occasions like this. I don’t know how to relate to people, how to talk to them. I just know how to act a little bit — not too much.”
As part of the Locarno tribute, the festival is also screening Khan’s 2002 hit Devdas from director Sanjay Leela Bhansali, in which the star plays an alcoholic.
The 58-year-old has been a box office draw and ambassador for Indian cinema since breakthrough performances in such movies as Baazigar (1993) and Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995). He also earned praise for his portrayal of a man with Asperger’s Syndrome in My Name Is Khan (2010), among others.
Last year, he starred in three blockbuster films — Pathaan, Jawan and Dunki. According to some estimates, action-thriller Jawan, directed by Atlee Kumar, became the highest-grossing Hindi film of all time with close to $140 million.
Locarno organizers said the award pays tribute “to his remarkable career in Indian cinema, consisting of more than 100 films in a breathtaking multitude of genres.”
Nazzaro previously told TheHollywood Reporter that “Shah Rukh Khan is the quintessential power of cinema.” He compared the star to the “popular glamor of a hero of the working class, like Marcello Mastroianni,” combined with “the arrogant elegance of someone like Alain Delo.” He concluded: “In Shah Ruhk Khan, I can see the trajectory from Rudolph Valentino to Tom Cruise, and it’s all there in one person.”
The presentation of the award to Khan was followed by the world premiere of Mexico 86, the new film from Guatemalan director César Díaz (Our Mothers). It stars Bérénice Béjo (The Artist) as a Guatemalan rebel fighting against the military dictatorship and having to leave her son behind.
During the first few minutes of the film, Khan’s fans, who were crowded around the far end of the red carpet away from the square, could still be heard chanting “Shah Rukh Khan!” and cheering.
The 77th Locarno Film Festival runs through Aug. 17.
The Toronto Film Festival has unveiled its Wavelengths program for artist-driven experimental work that includes films by avant garde directors Wang Bing, Roberto Minervini and Miguel Gomes.
With 11 features on offer, the Wavelengths section includes a 14-hour documentary, exergue – on documenta 14, from director Dimitris Athiridi set to be presented over three screenings.
The section will also feature North American premieres for the remaining chapters of Wang Bing’s Youth trilogy: Youth (Hard Times) and Youth (Homecoming); Miguel Gomes’ Grand Tour, which won best director at Cannes; The Damned by Roberto Minervini, an American Civil War drama that won best director in the Un Certain Regard section in Cannes; and Pepe, by director Nelson Carlo de los Santos Arias, about the life and death reflections of a hippo with connections to Pablo Escobar.
Wavelengths last year in Toronto screened Wang’s Youth (Spring), the Cannes competition title about Chinese garment workers.
Other North American premieres for the 2024 edition of Wavelengths include Jessica Sarah Rinland’s Collective Monologue, set in a community of zoos and animal rescue centers across Argentina; the queer romancer Viêt and Nam by filmmaker Trương Minh Quý, which bowed in Cannes; and Lázaro at Night by filmmaker Nicolás Pereda, a drama about a love triangle in Mexico City.
The Wavelengths strand also booked North American bows for the Venice title Perfumed With Mint, from director Muhammed Hamdy, about a doctor treating a patient with mint plants sprouting from his body; and The Ballad of Suzanne Césaire, a biopic by Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich about an anti-colonialist writer and Afro-surrealist pioneer.
There’s also a Wavelengths special presentation for Drama 1882, Wael Shawky’s opera for the Egyptian pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2024.
Short film highlights for TIFF‘s Wavelengths selection include world premieres of Archipelago of Earthen Bones — To Bunya, by Malena Szlam; A Black Screen Too, by director Rhayne Vermette; and the North American premiere of Lawrence Abu Hamdan’s The Diary of a Sky.
Toronto also announced Thursday that the TIFF Classics strand will feature restored 4K movies like Shahid Sohrab Saless’ Time of Maturity, Lino Brocka’s Bona, Atom Egoyan’s The Sweet Hereafter and Raj Kapoor’s Awāra, which he also starred in.
The Toronto Film Festival is set to run from Sept. 5 to 15.
The Locarno Film Festival, taking place in the picturesque town in the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland, always shines a light on arthouse voices, whether new or established. And it showcases Swiss films worth audiences’ attention.
That will be the case again during Locarno77, taking place Aug. 7-17, soon after Switzerland also took center stage at the 2024 Cannes Film Market where the Alpine nation was the country of honor.
Among the Swiss fare featured at Locarno this year are such Cannes hits as Laetitia Dosch’s Dog on Trial, and Swiss animator Claude Barras’ Savages, which are screening in the Piazza Grande lineup along with the world premiere of Swiss director Simon Jaquemet’s Electric Child, the international premiere of U.S.-Swiss filmmaker Freddy Macdonald’sSew Torn and the Swiss premiere of Swiss-Peruvian filmmaker Klaudia Reynicke’s Reinas.
Meanwhile, Locarno’s international competition includes the Swiss entry Der Spatz im Kamin (The Sparrow in the Chimney) from Ramon Zürcher. And there is more Swiss involvement to be found elsewhere in the program.
Importantly, Locarno is also again presenting “Panorama Suisse,” which, as the festival website explains, “presents 10 current Swiss films, such as festival successes, audience favorites and films that have not yet been released in theaters.” They are selected by a committee of representatives from the Solothurn Film Festival, the Swiss Film Academy, and Swiss Films.
Locarno organizers’ promise: “Film lovers from all over the world can thus find a taste of contemporary Swiss cinema at the Locarno Film Festival through a hand-picked section of significant titles.”
So if you want to avoid having Swiss cheese-like holes in your Locarno schedule and ensure at least a bit of Swiss bliss, check out THR‘s look at seven of the Swiss films screening at Locarno77 below.
Bergfahrt – Reise zu den Riesen (Mountain Ride), directed by Dominique Margot, Panorama Suisse section
What is more Swiss than snowy mountains? Well, in the age of climate change of peak tourism, this may have to be rephrased to “not always snowy mountains.”
The nature and environmental documentary already got distribution in Switzerland and Germany, with Maximage handling world sales. And it debuted at the Solothurner Filmtage in Switzerland in January before hitting DOK.fest München in Munich this May.
“After years of mass tourism in the Alps, a rethinking is slowly taking place,” highlights a description of the film. “Whether researchers, artists or philosophers: Many are trying to approach the nature of the mountains in new ways. They reflect the contrasting approaches at this critical time, when we need to redefine our learnt values and actively seek change.”
Margot has made a name for herself as a documentarian. Among her previous films are 2020’s Zoom on Circus (“With the COVID-19 pandemic, circus artists are unemployed, shows are canceled and many companies go bankrupt, including the famous Cirque du Soleil. By Zoom or by Skype, they share with us their daily life) and 2016’s Looking Like My Mother, which followed the filmmaker’s journey as the daughter of a mother who suffered from depression and confronts her fear of inheriting it.
Der Spatz im Kamin (The Sparrow in the Chimney), directed by Ramon Zürcher, international competition
The cast of the German-language feature, for which Cercamon is handling world sales, includes Maren Eggert (I’m Your Man) as Karen, Britta Hammelstein as Jule (The Baader Meinhof Complex), and Andreas Döhler (All Quiet on the Western Front) as Markus, among others.
Written, directed and edited by Zürcher (The Girl and the Spider, The Strange Little Cat), the filmmaker’s latest outing seems to follow a similarly contained formula as his previous features with brother Silvan, which were set in the confines of an apartment. It also continues his run of movie titles that include animals.
“Karen and Markus live with their kids in Karen’s childhood home, nestled in the countryside. On Markus’ birthday, Karen’s sister Jule arrives with her family,” according to the plot description. So far, so good, but here we go. “The sisters are complete opposites. Haunted by memories of their late mother, Jule feels driven to challenge Karen’s authority. As the house fills up, Karen’s tension grows until everything explodes into a fiery inferno. An inferno that destroys the old to make way for the new.”
It all sounds like the perfect set-up for the distinctive Zürcher storytelling language for which the filmmaker has earned a reputation. For his new film, he is also responsible for the sound design together with Peter Von Siebenthal.
Reinas (Queens), directed by Klaudia Reynicke, Piazza Grande program
If the title sounds familiar, you may have heard about the movie, the director’s third feature, when it premiered in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition at the Sundance Film Festival in January, followed in February by its inclusion in the Generation section of the Berlin International Film Festival. There, it won the Grand Prix for the best film in the Generation Kplus section.
The family drama, set in 1992 during a tumultuous time in Lima, Peru, centers on two teenage sisters who are about to leave their country forever when they unexpectedly reconnect with their absent father. THR‘s review called it “an understated portrait of a Peruvian family navigating political turmoil.”
Directed and co-written by Reynicke, the movie stars Jimena Lindo, Gonzalo Molina, Luana Vega,Abril Gjurinovic, and Susi Sánchez. The filmmaker has become a Locarno regular. Her debut feature Il Nido (2016) competed at Locarno where her follow-up Love Me Tender (2019) also screened.
The Landscape and the Fury, directed by Nicole Vögele, Panoroma Suisse section
If the enticing title of Vögele’s documentary doesn’t tempt you, maybe its topic, namely borderlands full of tension, does.
It is a deep dive into the border region between Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina where vast forests and small villages can be found along the 932-kilometer-long border. After all, Vögele spent years there observing how the past, including the wars in the former Yugoslavia (1991-2001) and the Bosnian War (1992–1995), still affects the present.
“A cinematographic essay that centers around the region of the Bosnian-Croatian border near Velika Kladuša, and explores questions of displacement, violence and also everyday life and coincidence,” a description of the film calls the result. “It is about scars that break open, war memories that are awakened, profound encounters between people. A kaleidoscope of landscape and fury.”
Taskovski Films is handling world sales rights for the latest from Vögele, who studied journalism and documentary filmmaking. Her debut feature doc from 2018, Closing Time, debuted at Locarno and won the special jury prize of the Cineasti del presente competition. “Mr. Kuo and his wife Mrs. Lin cook for the city’s sleepless. They work all night and sleep during the day, like many others in buzzing Taipei,” its description said. “Until one morning, riding back from the market, Mr. Kuo takes a different exit on the highway.”
Hanami, directed by Denise Fernandes, Concorso Cineasti del Presente section (which puts the spotlight on first and second features)
Fernandes is a writer and director who was born in Lisbon in 1990, the child of Cape Verdean parents, and raised in Switzerland.
Her debut feature, co-written with Telmo Churro, is a Switzerland-Portugal-Cape Verde co-production, with world sales being handled by Alina Film. The movie gets its world premiere at Locarno, with a cast including Yuta Nakano, Alice Da Luz, Sanaya Andrade, and Nha Nha Rodrigues.
‘Hanami’
Courtesy of Locarno Film Festival
The story is described this way: “On a remote volcanic island that everybody wants to leave, little Nana learns to stay. Her mother, Nia, went into exile right after she was born, and Nana grows up in the family of her father. One day, the family learns that Nia is ill … and is sent to the foot of a volcano for treatment. There she encounters a world steeped in magical realism, between dreams and reality. Later, when Nana is a teenager, her mother Nia finally returns to the island.”
Die Anhörung (The Hearing), directed by Lisa Gerig, Panorama Suisse section
The documentary, for which Rise and Shine World Sales handles world sales, has won awards at the Solothurner Filmtage early this year and the Swiss Film Awards, which honored it as the best documentary of 2024.
The film takes us inside the experiences of four rejected asylum seekers who “relive the hearing on their reasons for fleeing their home countries,” a description says, hinting at the emotional dimension of the doc. “Will the interviewees be able to describe their traumatic experiences in a way that satisfies the official criteria? For the first time, the film provides insight into this sensitive hearing, thus questioning the asylum procedure itself.”
The Hearing is the debut feature-length doc from Gerig, who studied film in Zurich and Geneva, majoring in editing. But its topic is not new to her. After all, Gerig’s thesis film is described as “a radically subjective look at the situation of people held in Zurich’s deportation detention center.”
Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry, directed by Elene Naveriani, Panorama Suisse section
Speaking of Swiss Film Awards winners… Naveriani, who was born in Georgia but now lives in Switzerland and also brought her previous feature, Wet Sand, to Locarno in 2021, had much success at the big Swiss film ceremony this year.
Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry, her drama about a single woman in her 40s who lives in a small town in Georgia and has an affair that triggers an existential awakening, won the best feature film, best screenplay, and best editing honors. It also won the top prize for best film at the 2023 Sarajevo International Film Festival. In addition, star Eka Chavleishvili won the best actress honor at that fest.
The Switzerland-Georgia co-production, which the director co-wrote with several others, has already sold to various European countries, with Totem Films handling world sales duties. But Locarno77 will give film fans another chance to see this movie and a few more Swiss standouts.
Documentary filmmakers will compete for a new honor at this fall’s 29th Busan International Film Festival. The influential South Korean festival said Monday that its upcoming edition will inaugurate an audience award for feature documentaries. The fest described the decision as an effort to cultivate deeper interest among the local audience for the documentary form.
The prize will be given to a single documentary feature competing within the festival’s long-established “Wide Angle – Documentary” section. It will be decided by a popular vote — “in recognition of popular and artistic appeal” — and comes with a 10 million Korean won cash prize.
Busan previously featured just two audience awards, one in the New Currents category and another in the Flash Forward section, which showcase the first or second features of filmmakers from Asian and non-Asian backgrounds, respectively.
“By bringing the audience closer to documentary films, this award hopes to promote and popularize documentary filmmaking and further support Korean and Asian filmmakers in pursuing their creative endeavors,” the Korean festival said in a statement.
The 29th Busan International Film Festival will take place Oct 2-11, with the industry-focussed 19th Asian Contents & Film Market running in parallel Oct. 5-8.
Long considered Asia‘s most influential film festival, the event is trying to turn the page on a prolonged period of behind-the-scenes turmoil. The past two years have seen a sweeping set of leadership changes, including the resignations of former festival chairman Lee Yong-kwan, festival director Huh Moonyoung and market boss Oh Seok-geun. But festival organizers have been hard at work assembling a new team to reclaim the confidence of the Korean industry. Influential filmmaker turned industry administrator Park Kwang-su will be the 2024 festival’s new chairman, while former senior programmer Pak Dosin and Kang Seung-ah are serving as co-deputy directors. In March, Busan said it would postpone the appointment of a permanent festival director until after this year’s edition, “allowing ample time to seek the most suitable candidate.”
U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer strongly condemned an attack Sunday on a hotel housing asylum seekers, describing it as “far-right thuggery” as more violence broke out in several towns and cities across the country in the wake of a stabbing rampage at a dance class that left three girls dead and many more wounded.
What You Need To Know
.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has condemned the attack on a hotel housing asylum seekers, describing it as “far-right thuggery”
In a statement Sunday afternoon, the prime minister vowed that “we will do whatever it takes to bring these thugs to justice” as he addressed the nation following ongoing unrest across parts of the country
Police in the north of England town of Rotherham struggled to hold back a mob of far-right rioters who were seeking to break into a hotel housing asylum-seekers
Police faced a barrage of missiles, as they sought to prevent the rioters, many of whom wore masks, from entering the Holiday Inn Express hotel
In a statement from 10 Downing Street on Sunday afternoon, the prime minister vowed that the authorities will “do whatever it takes to bring these thugs to justice.”
“I guarantee you will regret taking part in this disorder, whether directly or those whipping up this action online and then running away themselves,” he said. “This is not a protest, it is organized, violent thuggery and it has no place on our streets or online.”
Starmer was speaking after another day of far-right violence, which was particularly acute in the north of England town of Rotherham where police struggled to hold back a mob of rioters who sought to break into a Holiday Inn Express hotel being used as accommodation for asylum-seekers.
Before bringing the riot under some sort of control, police officers with shields had faced a barrage of missiles, including bits of wood, chairs and fire extinguishers. A small fire in a wheelie bin was also visible while windows in the hotel were smashed.
“Right now, there are attacks happening on a hotel in Rotherham,” Starmer said. “Marauding gangs intent on law-breaking, or worse. Windows smashed. Fires set ablaze. Residents and staff in absolute fear. There is no justification — none — for taking this action.”
Far-right agitators have sought to take advantage of last week’s stabbing attack by tapping into concerns about the scale of immigration in the U.K., in particular the tens of thousands of migrants arriving in small boats from France across the English Channel.
Tensions were running high Sunday in the northeastern town of Middlesbrough, where some protesters broke free of a police guard.
One group walked through a residential area smashing the windows of houses and cars. When asked by a resident why they were breaking windows, one man replied, “Because we’re English.” Hundreds of others squared up to police with shields at the town’s cenotaph, throwing bricks, cans and pots at officers.
On Saturday, far-right activists faced off with anti-racism protesters across the U.K., with violent scenes playing out in locations from Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland, to Liverpool in the northwest of England and Bristol in the west. Further arrests are likely as police scour CCTV, social media and body-worn camera footage.
Police have also warned that widespread security measures, with thousands of officers deployed, mean that other crimes may not be investigated fully.
The violence began after false rumors spread online that the suspect in the dance class stabbing attack was a Muslim and an immigrant, fueling anger among far-right supporters. Suspects under 18 are usually not named in the U.K., but Judge Andrew Menary ordered Axel Rudakubana, born in Wales to Rwandan parents, to be identified, in part to stop the spread of misinformation. Rudakubana has been charged with three counts of murder, and 10 counts of attempted murder.
Police said many of the weekend actions were organized online by shadowy far-right groups, who mobilize support with phrases like “enough is enough,” “save our kids” and “stop the boats.”
“To those who feel targeted because of the colour of your skin or your faith, I know how frightening this must be,” he said. “Other minority communities singled out, Nazi salutes in the street, attacks on the police, wanton violence alongside racist rhetoric, so no, I won’t shy away from calling it what it is: far-right thuggery.”
Rallying cries have come from a diffuse group of social media accounts, but a key player in amplifying them is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, a longtime far-right agitator who uses the name Tommy Robinson. He led the English Defense League, which Merseyside Police has linked to the violent protest in Southport on Tuesday, a day after the stabbing attack.
The group first appeared around 2009, leading a series of protests against what it described as militant Islam that often devolved into violence. Yaxley-Lennon was banned from Twitter in 2018 but allowed back after it was bought by Elon Musk and rebranded as X. He has more than 800,000 followers.
The group’s membership and impact declined after a few years, and Yaxley-Lennon, 41, has faced myriad legal issues. He has been jailed for assault, contempt of court and mortgage fraud and currently faces an arrest warrant after leaving the U.K. last week before a scheduled hearing in contempt-of-court proceedings against him.
Nigel Farage, who was elected to parliament in July for the first time as leader of Reform U.K., has also been blamed by many for encouraging — indirectly — the anti-immigration sentiment that has been evident over the past few days. While condemning the violence, he has criticized the government for blaming it on “a few far-right thugs” and saying “the far right is a reaction to fear … shared by tens of millions of people.”
Malnourished children in a famine-hit camp for war-displaced people in Sudan’s western region of Darfur are at risk of dying, an aid group said Sunday, because it was forced to ration malnutrition treatment due to a blockade imposed by a notorious paramilitary group.
What You Need To Know
An international aid group says it was forced to ration malnutrition treatment for children in a famine-hit area in Sudan’s Darfur region because of a blockade imposed by a notorious paramilitary group on the area
Doctors Without Borders says the Rapid Support Forces have blocked three trucks carrying lifesaving medical supplies, including therapeutic food, for al-Fasher city and the nearby Zamzam camp where famine was confirmed last week
The RSF besieged al-Fasher as part of its war against the Sudanese military
Sudan plunged into chaos when tensions between the military and the RSF developed into open fighting in April last year
International experts have confirmed that starvation at Zamzam camp has grown into full-fledged famine
Doctors Without Borders said the Rapid Support Forces, which have besieged al-Fasher city as part of its war against the Sudanese military, have blocked three trucks carrying lifesaving medical supplies, including therapeutic food, for the city and the nearby Zamzam camp where famine was confirmed last week.
Sudan plunged into chaos in April last year when simmering tensions between the military and the RSF developed into open fighting in the capital, Khartoum, before spreading across the northeastern African country. Darfur saw some of the worst and most devastating bouts of fighting in the war.
The conflict has killed thousands of people and pushed many into starvation. It created the world’s largest displacement crisis with more than 10 million people forced to flee their homes since April 2023, according to the U.N. migration agency. Over 2 million of those fled to neighboring countries.
International experts in the Famine Review Committee confirmed Thursday that starvation at Zamzam camp, where up to 600,000 people shelter, has grown into full famine.
International experts use set criteria to confirm the existence of famines. A famine is declared in an area when one in five people or households severely lack food and face starvation and destitution that would ultimately lead to critical levels of acute malnutrition and death.
In Zamzam camp, which has swelled with the arrival of new displaced people, many children are in critical condition, Doctors Without Borders said, adding that the malnutrition ward at its field hospital in the camp is overcrowded with a 126% bed occupancy rate.
The group said RSF fighters have blocked the trucks in the town of Kabkabiya for over a month, adding that it was forced to limit the number of children receiving therapeutic food in the overcrowded camp as its stock of medicine covers only two weeks.
“Deliberately obstructing or delaying humanitarian cargo is putting the lives of thousands of children at-risk as they are cut-off from receiving life-saving treatment,” it said on social media platform X.
There was no immediate comment from the RSF.
The RSF has imposed a siege on el-Fasher in its monthslong attempt to take it from the military and its allied rebel groups. The city, the provincial capital of North Darfur, is the last stronghold for the military in the war-torn Darfur region.
Scores on an international math test fell a record 15 points between 2018 and 2022 — the equivalent of students losing three-quarters of a school year of learning.
That finding may not be surprising considering the timing of the test. The world was still recovering from the disruptive effects of the global pandemic when the test, called the Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA, was administered.
But in many countries, the slide in math scores began years before Covid-19 and was even steeper than the international average. That includes some of the world’s largest and wealthiest countries, and others acclaimed for their education systems, such as Canada, France, Germany and Finland. Only a few school systems — Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong — have been able to maintain their top results for the long haul.
Some of the scores set off another “PISA shock” — a term first used in Germany in 2000 when scores there were much lower than expected — that may change how mathematics is taught around the world.
Although there’s no single culprit behind the decline, PISA is more than a math test: It also includes a wide-ranging survey of the students who take the test, most of whom are around 15 years old and coming to the end of compulsory schooling in their countries. From their responses, and analysis by PISA researchers, several themes stand out, including disconnection from school and teachers, a lack of motivation and a sense that math does not clearly connect to their real lives.
Why motivation matters
PISA uses a series of word problems that assess how well students can use the math they’ve learned throughout their lives to solve problems they might face in the real world. For example, one question in the most recent test gives students the dimensions of a moving truck and then asks them to figure out how many boxes of a certain size can fit.
Other problems require students to extract information from different types of data, such as a question that asks students to calculate which brand of car has the best value, taking into its price, fuel consumption, and resale value.
“Students need to have the confidence to try different things, and a level of persistence to do these kinds of problems,” said Joan Ferrini-Mundy, a mathematics educator and the president of the University of Maine. Ferrini-Mundy is also the co-chair of the PISA’s Mathematics Expert Group.
But nearly 1 in 4 students reported on the PISA survey that they gave up more than half the time when they were confronted with math that they didn’t understand. A little more than 40 percent said they never, or almost never, actively participated in group discussions in math class. And about 31 percent said they never or almost never asked questions when they didn’t understand the math they were being taught.
In Germany, where scores have dropped faster than those of many other PISA nations, researchers pointed to a collapsing interest in math as a subject that started around 2012, among other factors. Students reported less enjoyment, less interest and more anxiety around the topic, said Doris Lewalter, an educational researcher at the Technical University of Munich. They also were more likely to report that they saw fewer potential benefits from studying math.
Miguel Castro, right, and Josue Andrate work on math problems in their Tulsa, Oklahoma classroom. The U.S. is among the countries with falling scores on international math tests, but the decline is not as steep compared to other nations. Credit: Shane Bevel for The Hechinger Report
The effects of screen time
Students who reported spending up to an hour on devices for learning purposes scored 14 points higher than students who said they spent no time on digital devices for learning. But too much use of digital devices was a distraction, even indirectly. Students who said they were distracted at least some of the time in school by their peers using devices scored 15 points lower than students who reported that they never, or almost never, were distracted.
Outside the classroom, digital device use also matters when it comes to math scores. Students who spent more than an hour on weekdays surfing the web or on social networks scored between 5 and 20 points lower than peers who spent less than an hour on devices.
Try some sample PISA questions yourself
Click through the slideshow to test your math skills
Lack of real-world connection
On student surveys, only about a quarter of PISA-takers said they were asked “to think of problems from everyday life that could be solved with new mathematics knowledge we learned” for more than half or almost every lesson.
William Schmidt, a professor at Michigan State University and the founder and director of the Center for the Study of Curriculum Policy, has studied the seeming disconnect between math as it is taught, and math as it is used outside of school.
Schmidt examined the math textbooks of 19 countries, and said that about 15 percent of the computational problems in those books are word problems. But of those, only a tiny percentage — just over one-quarter of 1 percent — ask students to use math reasoning to solve a problem, in his view. An example might be determining how many items you can buy at a store for $52, given certain discounts and taking into account sales tax, he said.
Schmidt, also a member of the PISA math experts group, believes students should grapple with problems like this, which have the benefit of being more interesting as well.
“What we should be doing is exposing our children to real exercises that are real in their world and that have applications they would care about,” Schmidt said.
In a 2014 file photo, Salma Bah, Jennifer Feliz and Paola Francisco work on a math problem in an Upward Bound program based in San Francisco. Some experts suggest students need more examples of math work that connects to real world situations. Credit: AP Photo/Seth Wenig
Good teachers are irreplaceable
Andreas Schleicher, who oversees PISA for the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, said the student surveys also showed the importance of teachers’ connection to their students. Math scores were 15 percentage points higher, on average, in places where students said they had good access to teacher help. Those students also felt more confident in their ability to learn on their own, and remotely.
“That was actually a surprise to me, that we see fewer students growing up with the notion that my teacher knows who I am, my teacher knows who I want to become, my teacher supports me,” Schleicher said. “Many students perceive education to be more transactional.”
The 2022 Program for International Student Assessment asked test takers about school and mathematics. Here are some selected comparisons between students in the United States and their international peers.
A call to action
Finland’s fall, from a top performer in 2006 to just slightly above the OECD average in 2022, has been the most dramatic among previous high achievers. In math, the proportion of low achievers rose to 25 percent in 2022, from about 7 percent in 2000.
Finnish students’ achievements have been dropping gradually for two decades, and the trend is reflected in national evaluations, said Jenna Hiltunen, a researcher in mathematical pedagogy at the University of Jyvaskyla, who was part of the team that implemented PISA in Finland. “I wouldn’t say that we were surprised by the decline, but we were a little bit surprised by how large the decline was.”
Finnish math education experts cited reduced motivation in students and a disconnect between their life goals and how young people feel about school. It plans to invest 146 million euros — about $158 million in U.S. dollars — over the next three years in schools in disadvantaged areas, and it is adding one hour per week of math lessons for students in grades three to six, which is planned to begin in August 2025. Local authorities will decide which of those grades will get the extra hour.
“We think it’s important to highlight the importance of basic skills, and learning the fundamentals,” said Tommi Karjalainen, a senior ministerial adviser to the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture and a former education researcher at the University of Helsinki.
In New Zealand, where math scores on international tests in the past decade have fallen steeply, a new government campaigned on bringing a “back to basics” approach to education. The government has mandated an hour of reading, writing and mathematics in school each day and has banned cellphones. A government-created advisory group has also suggested that the country move to a more traditional, explicit form of mathematics instruction, as opposed to inquiry methods that focus more on having students create their own mathematics learning, with teachers serving as guides.
And educators are looking to different countries to learn the keys to their success. The former Soviet republic of Estonia, as one example, achieved the highest mathematics scores on the PISA of any other country in Europe.
The country of 1.4 million people has not focused on international math scores as a goal in itself, said Peeter Mehisto, co-author of “Lessons from Estonia’s Education Success Story: Exploring Equity and High Performance Through PISA.”
Instead, it has stopped separating students into groups based on their academic performance, a practice called “streaming” or “tracking.” Mehisto, an honorary research associate at the University of London Institute of Education, said that research shows that “low-track” students often end up alienated from school.
In the United States, in comparison to other countries, no one is talking about widespread changes because of these math scores. No centralized government agency controls curriculum, and the U.S. actually moved up in comparison to other nations because those other nations did so poorly.
Unlike the belief in some other countries, the U.S. scores “are not cause for huge alarm,” said Ferrini-Mundy, one of the PISA experts. “We have to pay attention to this, but it’s not a catastrophe.”
Frieda Klotz contributed reporting and Sarah Butrymowicz contributed research to this story.
This story was produced with support from the Education Writers Association Reporting Fellowship program.
This story about dropping math scores was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter.
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Russia may deploy new strike weapons in response to the planned U.S. stationing of longer-range and hypersonic missiles in Germany, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Sunday.
What You Need To Know
Russia may deploy new strike weapons in response to the planned U.S. stationing of longer-range and hypersonic missiles in Germany, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Sunday
Speaking at a naval parade in St Petersburg, Putin vowed “mirror measures” after the U.S. earlier this month announced that it will start deploying the missiles in 2026
Both the U.S. and Russia this month signaled their readiness to deploy intermediate-range ground-based weapons that were banned for decades under a Cold War-era treat
Most of Russia’s missile systems are capable of carrying either conventional or nuclear warheads
Speaking at a naval parade in St Petersburg, Putin vowed “mirror measures” after the U.S. earlier this month announced that it will start deploying the weapons in 2026, to affirm its commitment to NATO and European defense following Moscow’s all-out invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
“If the U.S. implements such plans, we will consider ourselves free from the previously imposed unilateral moratorium on the deployment of intermediate and shorter-range strike weapons, including increasing the capability of the coastal forces of our navy,” Putin said. He added that Moscow’s development of suitable systems is “in its final stage.”
Both Washington and Moscow have in recent weeks signaled readiness to deploy intermediate-range ground-based weapons that were banned for decades under a 1987 U.S.-Soviet treaty. The U.S. pulled out of the agreement in 2019, accusing Moscow of conducting missile tests that violated it.
The allegations, which Russia denied, came as tensions mounted between Moscow and the West in the wake of the downing of a Malaysian airliner carrying 298 people over war-torn eastern Ukraine. Two Russians and a pro-Moscow Ukrainian were ultimately convicted over their role in the attack.
Washington and Berlin said in a joint statement this month that the U.S. weapons to be placed in Germany would ultimately include SM-6 missiles, Tomahawk cruise missiles, and “developmental hypersonic weapons”, including those with a significantly longer range than the ones currently deployed across Europe.
Most of Russia’s missile systems are capable of carrying either conventional or nuclear warheads. Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, said last week that the Kremlin did not rule out new deployments of nuclear missiles in response to the U.S. move.
Ryabkov added that defending Kaliningrad, Russia’s heavily militarized exclave wedged between NATO members Poland and Lithuania, was of particular concern.
Putin has for years cast U.S. deployment of missile infrastructure in Europe as an aggressive move aimed at hamstringing Moscow’s capabilities. The news about the planned stationing of new weapons in Germany came at a NATO summit in Washington earlier this month. At the same event, allies announced that a new U.S. base in Poland, Ukraine’s western neighbor, is ready to enter operation and will be capable of intercepting ballistic missiles.
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli airstrikes hit a school being used by displaced Palestinians in central Gaza on Saturday, killing at least 30 people including several children, as the country’s negotiators prepared to meet international mediators to discuss a proposed cease-fire.
What You Need To Know
At least seven children and seven women were among the dead after Israeli airstrikes hit a school being used by displaced Palestinians in central Gaza on Saturday, killing at least 30 people
Civil defense workers in Gaza said thousands had been sheltering in the school, which also contained a medical site
Israel’s military said it targeted a Hamas command center used to direct attacks against Israeli troops and develop and store “large quantities of weapons.” Hamas in a statement called the military’s claim false
Officials from the U.S., Egypt, Qatar and Israel are scheduled to meet in Italy on Sunday to discuss ongoing cease-fire negotiations.
At least seven children and seven women were among the dead taken from the girls’ school in Deir al-Balah to Al Aqsa Hospital. Israel’s military said it targeted a Hamas command center used to direct attacks against Israeli troops and develop and store “large quantities of weapons.” Hamas in a statement called the military’s claim false.
Civil defense workers in Gaza said thousands had been sheltering in the school, which also contained a medical site.
Associated Press journalists saw a dead toddler in an ambulance and bodies covered with blankets. Inside the school, shattered walls gaped and classrooms were in ruins. People searched for victims in rubble strewn with pillows and other signs of habitation.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said at least 12 people were killed in other strikes on Saturday.
Officials from the U.S., Egypt, Qatar and Israel are scheduled to meet in Italy on Sunday to discuss ongoing cease-fire negotiations. CIA Director Bill Burns is expected to meet Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed Bin Abdul Rahman al-Thani, Mossad director David Barnea and Egyptian spy chief Abbas Kamel, according to officials from the U.S. and Egypt who spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to discuss the plans.
U.S. officials on Friday said Israel and Hamas agree on the basic framework of the three-phase deal under consideration. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his speech to the U.S. Congress vowed to press ahead with the war until Israel achieves “total victory.”
After the Israeli strike on the school, Palestinian officials condemned the speech. Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesperson for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, said in a statement that Netanyahu’s reception from supporters in the U.S. constituted a “green light” to continue Israel’s offensive.
“Every time the occupation bombs a school that shelters displaced persons, we see only some condemnations and denunciations that will not force the occupation to stop its bloody aggression,” he said.
New evacuation order for part of humanitarian zone
Israel’s military ordered a new evacuation of part of a designated humanitarian zone in Gaza ahead of a planned strike on Khan Younis on Saturday. The order was in response to rocket fire that Israel said came from the area.
The military said it planned an operation against Hamas militants in the city, including parts of Muwasi, the crowded tent camp in an area where Israel has told thousands of Palestinians to seek refuge.
It’s the second evacuation order issued in a week that has included striking part of the humanitarian zone, a 60-square-kilometer (roughly 20-square-mile) area blanketed with tent camps that lack sanitation and medical facilities and have limited access to aid. Israel expanded the zone in May to take in people fleeing the southernmost city of Rafah, where more than half of Gaza’s population at the time had crowded.
Gaza Health Ministry officials said the evacuation orders had forced at least three health centers to stop providing care and compounded issues such as piled-up waste and shortages of supplies.
According to Israeli estimates, about 1.8 million Palestinians shelter in the zone after being uprooted multiple times during Israel’s punishing air and ground campaign. In November, the military said the area could still be struck and that it was “not a safe zone, but it is a safer place than any other” in Gaza.
The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, said it was difficult to know how many people would be affected by the evacuation order.
“These are forced displacement orders,” said Juliette Touma, the agency’s director of communications. “What happens is when people have these orders, they have very little time to move.”
Farther north, Palestinians mourned seven killed by Israeli airstrikes overnight on Zawaida, in central Gaza. Parents and their two children and a mother and her two children were wrapped in white burial shrouds as friends and neighbors wept.
Al Aqsa Hospital confirmed the count and AP journalists saw the bodies.
A death in the West Bank
In the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Health Ministry said a 17-year-old was killed and nine other people wounded after an Israeli drone strike in Balata camp in Nablus. The Israeli military said one of its aircraft attacked from the air as part of its activity in Nablus.
The war in Gaza has killed more than 39,200 Palestinians, according to the Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count. The U.N. estimated in February that some 17,000 children in the territory are now unaccompanied, and the number is likely to have grown since.
The war began with an assault by Hamas militants on southern Israel on Oct. 7 that killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took about 250 hostages. About 115 are still in Gaza, about a third of them believed to be dead, according to Israeli authorities.
Designed by Japanese architects Nikken and nestled in the forest, Pola Museum of Art achieves a full symbiosis between Hakone’s natural beauty and art. Pola Museum of Art
The Pola Museum of Art might not yet be as well-known an art destination in Japan as the art islands Naoshima and Teshima but nevertheless, this private museum up in the mountains—just a two-hour train ride from Tokyo—offers the perfect combination of art and nature. All it takes to get there is the Romancecar limited express train up to Hakone-Yumoto Station. From there, you’ll transfer to a little old-style train that will take you on a 40-minute ride through rustically beautiful scenery, all the way up to the town of Hakone, where a shuttle (or the regular bus) can transport you to the museum. It’s a bit of a hike, but I can assure you it’s worth the trek.
Designed by Japanese architecture firm Nikken Sekkei, the Pola Museum of Art’s stunning glass and concrete architecture perfectly integrates with the surrounding landscape of Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park. A large installation by Welsh artist and sculptor Cerith Wyn Evans occupies the extensive transitional space between exterior and interior, where bronze sculptures welcome you, including some by Henry Moore. Inside, the museum is a treasure chest of some of the most iconic masterpieces of Impressionist art.
The museum’s collection of approximately 10,000 items was assembled over some 40 years by the late Tsuneshi Suzuki, the second-generation head of the Pola Corporation, who established the museum and opened it to the public in 2002. The current show, “From Impressionism to Richter,” pairs the work of German contemporary artists with Monet’s Nyphees and Moules, as well as some of the finest works by Renoir, Cézanne and Picasso plus two enigmatic portraits by Amedeo Modigliani.
A view of the museum’s striking architecture in conversation with Cerith Wyn Evans’s neon sculpture. Photo by Elisa Carollo
In this unique setting, the museum is currently presenting the largest survey of Philippe Parreno’s work in Japan in the thought-provoking exhibition, “Places and Spaces,” making the trip even more of a must.
Since the ’90s, the acclaimed French artist has been challenging and investigating cinema as a medium of narration, blurring the lines between fiction and reality, artificial and natural, and unveiling its mechanisms and dynamics. His works, as well as his exhibitions, often consist of an ever-changing open field, which exposes the viewer to different technological simulations aimed at suspending the sense and perception of reality.
At Pola Museum of Art, Parreno has created a large-scale theatrical set divided into distinctive chapters or rooms, where mysterious presences, voices, lights, darkness and hidden messages come together in a dramatic sequence. Transforming the museum space into a labyrinth of symbols, the exhibition immerses the visitor in experiences of both wonder and confusion, not knowing what will be next or if one is already involved as a performer.
The journey starts in one of his aquarium rooms, where the sense of reality and materiality is subverted by a series of mylar floating fish that make you feel like you are inside water. Slowly drifting, these colorful fishes evoke a sense of familiarity, a hint of melancholy and nostalgia for a childhood left behind. Notably, in this latest work from Parreno’s fish balloon series, the artist meticulously crafted each of the fish eyes that convey irrepressible curiosity and joy, as they seem to be lost in contemplation in an imaginary ocean of the outdoor forest.
Philippe Parreno, My Room Is Another Fish Bowl. Photo by Elisa Carollo
In the next room, in his well-known installation Marilyn (2012), the actress’s deep loneliness resonates in her voice (here is generated by an algorithm) and in her writing (here recreated by a robot). Meanwhile, the camera pans silently around her hotel suite at New York’s opulent Waldorf Astoria Hotel, recording personal effects the diva left behind while trying to give her point of view. In this complex choreography and continuous interplay between fiction and reality, between artificial and automatic, the actress is continuously embodied and disembodied, resulting in what the artist has described as “a portrait of a ghost embodied in an image.” Questioning the power of the camera’s eye to shape our sense of reality while obscuring or emphasizing specific aspects in relation to what is shown or not shown, Parreno unveils the other side of the celebrity: there’s insecurity, fragility and deep discomfort lurking under the glamor and perfection shown on the screen.
The artifice behind this complex installation, and also the genius of the artist’s mind, is revealed downstairs in another room showcasing a series of rarely shown drawings created for three films: Marilyn, C.H.Z. and those currently in production (100 Questions, 50 Lies) along with a standalone drawing series, Lucioles.
Presented inside vitrines, these images dramatically appear and disappear with the interplay of light and darkness as some sudden epiphanies emerge from the subconscious. Parreno’s drawings are more like prophetic dreams. Made in preparation for the movies more than mental maps or storyboards, they appear as free annotations of symbols, situations and feelings. As precious witnesses to the inner workings of Parreno’s creative process, these seemingly random constellations of images envision sporadic moments then coming together in the flow of the cinematic life.
The following room is occupied by orange and uncannily shaped balloons floating but also hanging as parasites. They’re part of Speech Bubbles, a series that Philippe Parreno conceived around the end of the ‘90s as a mass of cartoonish 3D speech bubbles of different colors, trapped against and suspended in their noise, without a way to convey their messages. The first batch of Speech Bubbles was produced in 1997 for a labor union demonstration—participants were meant to write messages on them. Today, with their playful but somehow disturbing and invasive presence, they stand as a critique of the transient culture of online chatting and of the futility of a public debate becoming increasingly empty of solid arguments and positions, but they can also represent the suppressed, silent protestations of countless voiceless individuals
Parreno’s Balloons are accompanied here by an article published in 1975 by Italian writer Pier Paolo Pasolini, “Disappearance of the Fireflies,” in which he mourned the vanishing of fireflies due to rapidly worsening environmental pollution, drawing parallels to the decline in postwar Italy’s culture and inner wealth as a result of insensible consumerism and authoritarianism. Inspired by this famous text and the powerful poetic metaphors made by the writer, in 1993, Parreno created an installation featuring electric lights that imitated fireflies: turned on only at night and so never encountered by visitors during museum hours, they powerfully evoked this idea of rebirth and loss, of renewal and the fragility of the flame of hope, to stay alive also in dark and discouraging geopolitical times.
Philippe Parreno, Speech Bubbles (Transparent Orange). Photo by Elisa Carollo
This experience of suspension between light and darkness, hope and despair, deception and simulation, continues in the next room, where a haunting robotic creature made of light bulbs stands, illuminating only intermittently. As an epiphanic presence emerging from the black void, it could be an angel from the hyper-technological age or a mermaid trapped in the relics of the electronic industry. A bench in the darkness invites you to sit in front of an LCD display that intricately replicates a future landscape imagined by generative A.I., the direction of light changing in alignment with the real-time position of the sun. On the other side, another luminous machine connected to numerous cables blinks in an organic yet irregular rhythm, as an alien creature that has been captured and imprisoned into a machine to study it.
All these tech-animated creatures in the room appear to have lives of their own, out of any functionality humans could have created them for. Still, everything in this sci-fi or post-human imaginative-yet-real space is carefully choreographed and manipulated by Parreno to deliver an uncannily nonsensical yet cohesive organic experience as if everything was in a code, in a language and rationale that goes beyond human comprehension.
Oscillating between chaos and order, between playful and unsettling and disorientating experiences, Parreno suspends any ordinary sense of reality, triggering a more conscious interrogation of what reality is once this is constantly integrated, shaped and manipulated by new everyday technologies, even beyond cinematic fiction.
In a moment when A.I. is supposed to “Ignite the Consciousness Revolution,” Philippe Parreno once again created an open field for a critical investigation of the complex interplay between technology, human experience, human cognition and the nature of reality itself. Repeatedly forcing the visitor into a series of experiences where boundaries between the virtual and physical world continuously blur, the artist proves to us how differentiating between “real” and “authentic” becomes more challenging if we don’t start to question what we perceive and what produced the data and input we absorbed.
Welcome to Reality Park echos eerily in the darkness of the last room, inviting us into an ambiguous unreality or possibly a portal to another reality. Parreno’s work appears as a “reality check,” unraveling the various potential levels of reality, many of which already seem to escape common understanding due to the intricate interplay between digital manipulation, A.I. and emerging technologies that have already infiltrated our daily lives.
As one exits Pola Museum of Art, out of this technological hyper-exposure, a nature trail leads one into the woods, where stunning works of contemporary art and sound art coexist with the very real landscape. In the forest’s silence, you can contemplate the gentle ripples in the water caused by the wind on Roni Horn’s cast glass Air Burial, listen to a music piece echoing softly across the trees and concentrate on your breath as you walk through the world and its beauty. Here, in this serene setting, perhaps, there’s still a chance to achieve a moment of higher consciousness out of our primordial human perception of the reality surrounding us.
One of the finest Japanese independent films of the past few years is finally landing in U.S. cinemas this weekend. Second-time director Kei Chika-ura’s Great Absence, which debuted to strong reviews at the 2023 Toronto Film Festival and later won the best actor prize in San Sebastian for its star, Japanese screen icon Tatsuya Fuji (In the Realm of the Senses), opens in New York on Friday and Los Angeles on July 26, with a nationwide rollout to follow.
Great Absence centers on Takashi (Mirai Moriyama), an ambitious stage and screen actor, who is drawn back into the orbit of his estranged father (Fuji) by a jarring phone call from the police. His father’s second wife is missing and the old man, once an esteemed physics professor, appears to be suffering from the latter stages of acute dementia. Takashi, with his new wife (Yoko Maki) by his side, swiftly decamps to his father’s home on Japan’s southern island of Kyushu, and there the film transitions into the mode of a beguiling and heartbreaking mystery, as the young man gradually grasps what has become of his long-absent father’s wife and life.
As the film’s official summary elegantly puts it: “At a certain point in life we often have to deal with a past that was thought to be forgotten, lost forever, and which instead resurfaces, with all the emotional awkwardness generated by unwanted absences, memory lapses, and the missing pieces of the puzzle of our existence.”
Acclaimed Japanese cinematographer Yutaka Yamazaki (best known for his work with arthouse favorites Hirokazu Kore-eda and Naomi Kawase) shot Great Absence on 35mm film stock with mostly classic, fixed camera set-ups, lending the story’s elegant transitions from flashbacks to the present day all of the richness and gravitas of jumbled but vivid memory.
Ahead of Great Absence‘s U.S. premiere, The Hollywood Reporter connected with Chika-ura via Zoom to discuss the film’s deeply personal roots and its implicit commentary on the changing nature of marriage roles in Japan.
Tell me about the creative genesis of Great Absence.
Well, I have to go back to my debut feature, Complicity. It premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2018, but since it was an independent film, I had some difficulty finding a distributor in Japan, so it didn’t release in my country until 2020. By that time, I had already written an entire script for my second feature and I was all ready to go into production. But then the world stopped because of COVID-19, and around the same time I received a phone call from the police in Fukuoka telling me that my father was being “protected.” They didn’t say he had been arrested; they said he was under protection. I was shocked and didn’t understand what this meant. What actually happened was that my father had placed a distress call, saying that he and his wife were being held hostage by a man with a gun. Of course, this wasn’t true. My father had begun to suffer from acute dementia — and I had no idea. I was totally surprised, because my father was a retired university professor, and although I didn’t like him so much, by all appearances he was a very reliable member of society. Everyone who lived around his house was really upset because a huge number of armed police officers had stormed the neighborhood in response to his emergency call. It was a big incident. I immediately boarded a bullet train and traveled from Tokyo to Fukuoka [on Japan’s southern island of Kyushu], and I then started making monthly trips to spend time with him. Reflecting on all of the paralyzing experiences of the pandemic, as well as my personal crisis with my father, I decided to abandon the project I was ready to shoot. I needed to write something that resonated with my current mindset as well as what the whole world was going through. It’s a fictional film, but it was very much inspired by my own experience with my father.
Was the film you abandoned something totally different? What was it like?
Yeah, it was very different. It was a genre film, a mystery movie. But Great Absence also has some mystery movie elements, so maybe I carried some of that over.
Aside from that inciting incident, in what ways did you draw on your own experience during the writing and creation of Great Absence?
One thing is the protagonist’s personality. He’s a very restrained person and doesn’t like to express his feelings — and that’s basically the way I am. When I first discussed the role of Takuya with Mirai Moriyama, he said he didn’t really understand what was going on in the film, because the character expresses no clear motivation and there’s no clear emotional movement. He wasn’t really sure how he would play the character. I told him that Takuya is basically based on my personality — and Moriyama started to observe and study me, and I think this helped him figured out how to inhabit the protagonist. Moriyama is a very unique actor in Japan. Aside from the many films he’s been in, he’s very well known as a stage actor and a contemporary dancer. But due to his extraordinary physicality, he’s often asked to play eccentric roles in Japanese films. So I was really excited to see him act in a very controlled, restrained way, and I think he gave an excellent performance.
In Japan and other countries with aging populations, coping with dementia, either firsthand or via a loved one, is becoming an increasingly universal experience. But as I watched the film, I wondered whether you might be striving towards a more general form of universality as well. The circumstances your character finds himself in are quite extreme (he’s been estranged from his dad for 20 years), but I found myself relating to the film’s central mystery nonetheless — that somewhat uncanny question of who your parents really are, or were, as people, and being forced to reassess the whole sweep of their lives as they approach the final chapter.
That’s a very interesting perspective. It calls to mind a scene in the film for me — the third confrontation between the father and son in the care facility. This is the scene where the father pleads with the son to forgive him. The son doesn’t want to, but eventually he gives in and says, “Okay, I forgive you.” Some viewers interpreted this as their reconciliation. For me, it wasn’t a reconciliation; it was an inversion of their relationship — of protector and protected. Shortly after this, in a very symbolic moment, the son gives his father his belt and helps him put it on. So, this film is a mystery — and it’s also about the roles of husbands and wives in Japan — but on an important level, it’s a story about a man becoming a grownup and growing beyond his father.
Was making this film part of that process for you?
Well, the reason I love cinema is all about my father. My father took me to the theater every weekend of my childhood. I grew up in West Berlin, before the fall of the wall in 1989, because that’s where my father was working. As I was growing up, my father always told me that the very first film I saw in the theater was Every Man for Himself by Jean Luc Godard.
Wow, that is not a kids’ movie…
(Laughs.) Yeah, I was just four or five years old, so I don’t remember it at all. But these were the kinds of films he would take me to, and he always reminded me that this was the first one I ever saw in a cinema. So this became a very important fact for me. But it was not a memory in my mind or heart. It only really existed in his mind — and by 2020 his mind was fading. So amidst this crisis, I thought that I needed to take the true meaning of this memory over — into my body. That’s a very abstract thought, but it’s the real reason I felt I had to make this film before I could go on to other projects.
Japanese screen icon Tatsuya Fuji in his award-winning performance as the deteriorating patriarch in ‘Great Absence.’
You mentioned that Great Absence is also a story about the changing nature of marriage in Japanese society.
Well, with the relationship between the father and his wife, Naomi, I’m portraying the older generation, where the woman stepped behind the man and her life was all about supporting her husband. My parents were exactly like that. With this story, I tried to free Naomi — to let her find her own way for the remainder of her life. But it’s not only about her personal journey, I also wanted to express my hope for a more ideal situation between Japanese men and women. The younger couple reflects the current situation for Japanese men and women. It’s flat, there’s no hierarchy, and they see and support each other.
So, I have to ask you about casting and collaborating with Tatsuya Fuji. He’s had such an amazing career. Why did want him for this part and how would you describe the nature of your collaboration?
Fuji is undoubtedly one of Japan’s legendary actors and I have a deep admiration for his work — especially the films he made with Nagisa Oshima in 1970s. Ever since I began making my first short films, I had the dream of creating a feature that could be considered one of Fuji’s signature works. And you know, for this film, he won the best actor award at the San Sebastian Film Festival last year. So I’m glad that I can say that I achieved one of my biggest dreams as a filmmaker. I didn’t cast him for this film. Rather, I made this entire film simply in order to work with him. I wanted to be a part of his history. And what’s it like to work with him? He’s always great. I don’t direct him on set at all. I do nothing. He’s just there. He shows up and he delivers — as you saw in the film. That’s our relationship. It’s all about mutual trust.
Marking nine months since the war in Gaza started, Israeli protesters blocked highways across the country Sunday, calling on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to step down and pushing for a cease-fire that could bring back the hostages held by Hamas.
The demonstrations come as international mediators have renewed efforts to broker a deal. Hamas over the weekend appeared to have dropped a key demand for an Israeli commitment to end the war, according to Egyptian and Hamas officials who spoke to The Associated Press.
What You Need To Know
Marking nine months since the war in Gaza started, Israeli protesters blocked highways across the country calling on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to step down and pushing for a cease-fire that could bring back hostages held by Hamas
Sunday’s “Day of Disruption” started at 6:29 AM, the moment that Hamas militants launched the first rockets toward Israel on Oct. 7
Meanwhile, fighting continued in Gaza with at least nine Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes
Israel and Hamas inched closer to a possible cease-fire deal after Hamas appeared to drop their demand that any deal include a complete end to the war, though both sides said significant gaps remain
The war, triggered by the Palestinian militant group following a cross-border attack on Oct. 7, saw 1,200 people killed and 250 others taken hostage. A retaliatory Israeli air and ground offensive has killed over 38,000 Palestinians, according to the territory’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count.
Sunday’s “Day of Disruption” started at 6:29 AM, the moment that Hamas militants launched the first rockets toward Israel in October. Protesters blocked main roads and demonstrated outside of the homes of members of Israel’s parliament.
Near the border with Gaza, Israeli protestors released 1,500 black and yellow balloons to symbolize those who were killed and abducted.
Hannah Golan said she came to protest the “devastating abandonment of our communities by our government.” She added: “It’s nine months today, to this black day, and still nobody in our government takes responsibility.”
About 120 hostages remain captive after more than 100 hostages were released as part of a November cease-fire deal. Israel has already concluded that more than 40 of the remaining hostages are dead, and fears spread the number may grow as the war drags on.
The Israeli prime minister had previously said while he was open to pausing the war as part of a hostage deal, Israel would press on until it reached its goals of destroying Hamas’ military and governing capabilities and bringing home all those held captive by Hamas.
Meanwhile, fighting in Gaza continued, with nine Palestinians reported dead from Israeli strikes overnight and into the early hours of Sunday.
Six Palestinians were killed in central Gaza after a strike hit a house in the town of Zawaida, according to the al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. Another Israeli airstrike early Sunday hit a house west of Gaza City, killing another 3 people, the strip’s Hamas-linked civil defense said.
The Gaza Health Ministry said Saturday an Israeli airstrike killed at least 16 people and wounded at least 50 others in a school-turned-shelter in the Nuseirat refugee camp. The Israeli military said they were targeting Hamas militants and had taken “numerous steps” to reduce civilian casualties.
Also Sunday morning, the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah said it launched dozens of projectiles toward northern Israel in the north, targeting areas more than 20 miles from the border, deeper than most launches.
A 28-year-old Israeli man was seriously wounded in Kfar Zeitim, a small town near the city of Tiberias, Israel’s national rescue service reported.
The barrage came after the Israeli military said in a statement an airstrike targeted a car and killed an engineer in Hezbollah’s air defense unit Saturday. Hezbollah confirmed al-Attar’s death but did not give information on his position.
Near-daily clashes between Hezbollah and Israeli forces over the past nine months have threatened to turn into an all-out regional war and have catastrophic consequences for people on both sides of the border.
Mediators from the United States, Egypt and Qatar have intensified their efforts in the past week to reach an agreement.
The compromise on Saturday by Hamas could deliver the first pause in fighting since November and set the stage for further talks, though all sides still warned that a deal is not yet guaranteed.
Washington’s phased deal would start with a “full and complete” six-week cease-fire during which older, sick and female hostages would be released in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. During those 42 days, Israeli forces would withdraw from densely populated areas of Gaza and allow the return of displaced people to their homes in northern Gaza, the officials said.
War-weary Palestinians in the Gaza Strip appeared pessimistic about the possibility of reaching a cease-fire as the Israel-Hamas war marked nine months on Sunday.
“We have lived nine months of suffering,” Heba Radi, a displaced Palestinian woman, told the AP. “The cease-fire has become a distant dream,”
The mother of six children spoke from her tent in the central city of Deir al-Balah where she sheltered after they fled their home in Gaza City.
“Every day, we tell ourselves tomorrow (there will be a cease-fire),” she said, “and tomorrow will be better. And when tomorrow comes, they say (the negotiations) were postponed.”
Zakia Hasanein is an 80-year-old Palestinian woman, who also sheltered in Deir al-Balah, appealed to Netanyahu and Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh to agree on a cease-fire, saying they “lived like the dead.”
The Israel-Hamas war has caused widespread damage in Gaza. Israeli restrictions, ongoing fighting and the breakdown of law and order have curtailed humanitarian aid efforts, causing widespread hunger and sparking fears of famine. The top U.N. court has concluded there is a “plausible risk of genocide” in Gaza — a charge Israel strongly denies.
