Monika’s Pensieve

I thought this was a rather interesting report. It says that Hugo Chavez is not a dictator as the international media suggests. The main argument here is that if he were a dictator then he would not allow media opposition as strong as what there is in Venezuela now. They even say that in the [...]

This sort of thing has happened before (SRK has spoken about being frisked and checked at US airports before), but unless the Indian media is misrepresenting what happened, it’s just been taken to new levels…
Apparently, Shahrukh Khan was detained for 2h at Newark airport yesterday. He was only released after the Indian embassy interfered. The [...]

Below is a long, but very interesting interview with Zainab Salbi, an activist who works with women in post-conflict areas. What I really loved about it was that she explains the situation so simply and practically. There are some issues there that I’ve never heard of before (for example I never knew that Saddam Hussain [...]

Just a short Al Jazeera news report on the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy and how Barack Obama has promised gay men equal rights to serve in the military, but still hasn’t delivered on it.

{FILM DIARY}
60 years of WFDiF (Poland, 1947-1958)
Production House: WFDiF
Plot: The festival programmed two sets of films commemorating 60 years of activity of Poland’s biggest production house. I watched the first set which included: Powódź (Poland, 1947), Błękitny Krzyż (Poland, 1955), Spacerek Staromiejski (Poland, 1958), Pamiątka z Kalwarii (Poland, 1958) and three shorts by Walerian Borowczyk [...]

{FILM DIARY}
Szegénylegények (Hungary, 1966)
Runtime: 90′
Director: Miklós Jancsó
Production House: MAFILM IV. Játékfilmstúdió
Plot: (from imdb)
In Hungary, the national movement led by Kossuth has been crushed and the Austrian hegemony re-established, but partisans carry on with violent actions. In order to root out the guerilla, the army rounds up suspects and jails them in an isolated fort. The [...]

{FILM DIARY}
I’ve got 4 days worth of film reviews from the ENH film festival in Wroclaw, but judging by the length of time it took me to write this one it’s going to be a while before I put them up *sigh*
Muukalainen (Finland/Estonia/Germany/UK, 2008)
Runtime: 105′
Director: J.-P. Valkeapää
Cast: Vitali Bobrov, Emilia Ikäheimo, Pavel Liska, Jorma Tommila
Production [...]

{FILM SPOTTING}
IMO August looks pretty hopeless… Only one film that I would even consider seeing and only if I have pleasant company I think :]
Easy Virtue (UK/Canada, 2008)
Polish Distributor: Best Film (28th August 2009)
Release Date (worldwide): 8th September 2008
Runtime: 97′
Director: Stephan Elliott
Cast: Jessica Biel, Ben Barnes, Kristin Scott Thomas, Colin Firth, Kimberley Nixon
Production House: Ealing [...]

…except that I haven’t posted the gazillions of publicity clips that appeared in the last month or so ;-P I won’t post all of them (far too many), so it’s more of a selection of what I thought were the best ones.
The Crazy Japanese Fan
If you only pick one clip to watch in this post [...]

This review is much too long - sorry for that *blush* I hope some of you bear with me anyway…
{FILM DIARY}
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (USA/UK, 2009)
Seen: Friday, 24th July 2009 (cinema)
Runtime: 153′
Director: David Yates
Cast: Daniel Radcliffe, Michael Gambon, Jim Broadbent, Bonnie Wright, Julie Walters, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Helena Bonham Carter, Helen McCrory, [...]