Sawyer Avenue, Sunday Afternoon (in person: Bill Morrison

 

Bill Morrison: Sawyer Avenue, Sunday Afternoon (US 2026).

Telluride Film Festival (TFF) 2026

Viewed at Le Pierre, 6 Sep 2026

TFF 2026 Program Guide:

L/Sun 3:45PM Q&A

3 Stories of Resilience

TFF: "Three deeply intimate, human stories reveal the realities of authoritative state-control through history, and the enduring, integral resilience of family, neighbors, and community. Director Sarah Gavron’s A DANCE THROUGH TIME (U.K., 2026, 25m) brings her grandmother’s audio recordings—a memoir of her childhood—into a new focus, casting family members to enact, in shadow theater, a slow, painful family separation necessitated by the rise of Nazi Germany. In MAYBE TOMORROW, journalist and activist Wafa Mustafa refuses to let up her search for her father, one of more than 160,000 civilians disappeared during Assad’s regime (Wafa Mustafa and Waad Al-Kateab, U.K., 2026, 40m). With SAWYER AVENUE, SUNDAY AFTERNOON (U.S., 2026, 18m), Bill Morrison provides a startling composite of ICE body-cam footage and civilian cell phone recordings, creating a shocking account of an October 2025 incident in Chicago, in which a young man is detained in the street, prompting a neighborhood protest." –TFF In person: Sarah Gavron, David Katznelson, Waad Al-Kateab, [Wafa Mustafa was unable to come], Bill Morrison

AA: Bill Morrison in Sawyer Avenue, Sunday Afternoon documents fascism in action in the United States in 2026, based on legally accessed ICE body-cam footage and cell phone videos by six neighbours of the victims on Sawyer Avenue in Chicago. An electrifying reconstruction, often in four-way split screen, about paramilitary brutality in storm trooper mode, and, even more pointedly, about civil courage in a true American spirit. The one who fights has already won, at least his own dignity. The one who does not fight has already lost.

Screening the three films A Dance Through Time, Maybe Tomorrow and Sawyer Avenue Sunday Afternoon in a single show was an inspired piece of programming. Citizens rising against authoritarianism is an engrossing sight for today. The Q&A moderated by Mark Danner contributed to an understanding of how these films were made. All different, all united by a fighting spirit.

Maybe Tomorrow (in person: Waad Al-Kateab)

 

Wafa Mustafa and Waad Al-Kateab: Maybe Tomorrow (GB 2026).

Telluride Film Festival (TFF) 2026

Viewed at Le Pierre, 6 Sep 2026

TFF 2026 Program Guide:

L/Sun 3:45PM Q&A

3 Stories of Resilience

TFF: "Three deeply intimate, human stories reveal the realities of authoritative state-control through history, and the enduring, integral resilience of family, neighbors, and community. Director Sarah Gavron’s A DANCE THROUGH TIME (U.K., 2026, 25m) brings her grandmother’s audio recordings—a memoir of her childhood—into a new focus, casting family members to enact, in shadow theater, a slow, painful family separation necessitated by the rise of Nazi Germany. In MAYBE TOMORROW, journalist and activist Wafa Mustafa refuses to let up her search for her father, one of more than 160,000 civilians disappeared during Assad’s regime (Wafa Mustafa and Waad Al-Kateab, U.K., 2026, 40m). With SAWYER AVENUE, SUNDAY AFTERNOON (U.S., 2026, 18m), Bill Morrison provides a startling composite of ICE body-cam footage and civilian cell phone recordings, creating a shocking account of an October 2025 incident in Chicago, in which a young man is detained in the street, prompting a neighborhood protest." –TFF In person: Sarah Gavron, David Katznelson, Waad Al-Kateab, [Wafa Mustafa could not attend], Bill Morrison

AA: In Maybe Tomorrow, Wafa Mustafa tells about the search for her father, long lost in the prison system of the regime of Assad in Syria. Her single-minded search is connected to an epic pursuit of thousands of relatives tirelessly trying to track down their beloved ones in the brutal machinery of repression. Eloquent and powerful.

A Dance Through Time (in person: Sarah Gavron, David Katznelson)

Sarah Gavron: A Dance Through Time (GB 2026).

Telluride Film Festival (TFF) 2026

Viewed at Le Pierre, 6 Sep 2026

TFF 2026 Program Guide:

L/Sun 3:45PM Q&A

3 Stories of Resilience

TFF: "Three deeply intimate, human stories reveal the realities of authoritative state-control through history, and the enduring, integral resilience of family, neighbors, and community. Director Sarah Gavron’s A DANCE THROUGH TIME (U.K., 2026, 25m) brings her grandmother’s audio recordings—a memoir of her childhood—into a new focus, casting family members to enact, in shadow theater, a slow, painful family separation necessitated by the rise of Nazi Germany. In MAYBE TOMORROW, journalist and activist Wafa Mustafa refuses to let up her search for her father, one of more than 160,000 civilians disappeared during Assad’s regime (Wafa Mustafa and Waad Al-Kateab, U.K., 2026, 40m). With SAWYER AVENUE, SUNDAY AFTERNOON (U.S., 2026, 18m), Bill Morrison provides a startling composite of ICE body-cam footage and civilian cell phone recordings, creating a shocking account of an October 2025 incident in Chicago, in which a young man is detained in the street, prompting a neighborhood protest." –TFF In person: Sarah Gavron, David Katznelson, Waad Al-Kateab, [Wafa Mustafa could not come], Bill Morrison

AA: Sarah Gavron's A Dance Through Time is an enchantingly imaginative memory project in which from scattered remnants of a Jewish family history a continuum is crafted via dance - often in silhouettes in front of photographs in projection. An audiotape by the grandmother (1919-1997) evokes a Berlin of the 1920s, the rise of the Nazis, the destruction and burning of the family library, the exile to England where the first host finds that "Hitler is a wonderful man". The substance of Gavron's movie is a topical warning for today, and its artistic form - dancing through history - could prove an inspiration for others. 

Rehearsals for a Revolution, in person: Arash Ahtiani ( خاطرات ایران)

 

Pegah Ahangarani: Rehearsals for a Revolution ( خاطرات ایران) (CZ/ES 2026).

Telluride Film Festival (TFF) 2026

Viewed at Le Pierre, 6 Sep 2026

Larry Gross (TFF): "Pegah Ahangarani’s astonishing documentary, an award winner at Cannes, interweaves one woman’s autobiography with the tragic history of Iran during the past 40 years. Beginning with vibrant home movie images of her parents as romantic cinephiles and enthusiastic supporters of Ayatollah Khomeini’s revolution, Ahangarani’s portrait shifts as the fallout of the fanatical new regime arrives: an inspiring teacher loses her job for not wearing a hijab; her dad’s best friend is jailed and executed; a beloved uncle who has joined street protests commits suicide. Ahangarani, one of Iran’s leading actresses, is clearly inspired by the film diaries of Jonas Mekas, as she brilliantly juxtaposes the poetic language of memory with the harsh truth: searing cinéma vérite images of political violence. Her film, for all its anguish, achieves the heights of the greatest Iranian films. It is incandescent." –LG (Czech Republic/Spain, 2026, 98m) In person: (Pegah Ahangarani announced, was denied a visa).

M/Sat 4PM - L/Sun 1:15PM Q&A - MV/Mon 9:15AM

1  For My Father

2  For My Dearest Teacher

3  For My Uncle

4  For Amir and the Rebels of the Streets of 2004

5  For Life

AA: Pegah Ahangarani draws us in the turmoil of world history in her movie which is at once a chronicle of the continuing revolutions of Iran and a personal diary, inviting us to share a family history of defiance and bravery. It is a unique growing-up story based on home movie footage, sound recordings, photographs. It is epic in scope and intimate as well. A film which needs to be revisited. About a great story that keeps being written as we watch this movie. Words fail to convey the brutality of the military terror, the nadir of which was the January 2026 massacre, the biggest in contemporary Iran. And the heroism of the people of Iran, not least the liberation fighters of "Woman, Life, Freedom". Pegah Ahangari conveys the guilt of not being there. And the love to her daughter Lily. The love to the future.

The deeply moving Q&A with Arash Ahtiani, the editor of the movie, was conducted by Mark Danner.

Rose (2026) in person: Markus Schleinzer, Sandra Hüller

Markus Schleinzer: Rose (DE 2026) with Sandra Hüller in the title role as a veteran of the Thirty Years' War.

Telluride Film Festival (TFF) 2026

Chuck Jones' Cinema, Mountain Village, 6 Sep 2026

S/Sat 6:45PM - C/Sun 9AM - L/Sun 8:45PM Q&A

7a Rose

Larry Gross (TFF): "Markus Schleinzer opens his film with an evocative, black-and-white composition of the early 17th-century German countryside, ravaged by the fires of war, as a woman (Sandra Hüller), presenting as a man in soldier’s clothing, arrives in a village, holding documents that establish their homestead. Schleinzer’s script, co-written with Alexander Brom, is filled with brilliant twists and intriguing nuance, and his lucid-dream cinematography (by Gerald Kerkletz) evokes Carl Dreyer’s THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC. But this soldier is no saint: they are intransigent, mysterious, powerful, hard-working ... and determined and ready to seize their own freedom, whatever it takes. Hüller is magnificent (as is the entire supporting cast, with special notice to Caro Braun, as the maiden the soldier takes as his wife). Who is Rose? That question, presented brilliantly in this somber, thought-provoking, tense and provocative fairytale, is sure to be discussed by future generations." –LG (Austria/Germany, 2026, 94m) In person: Markus Schleinzer, Sandra Hüller

AA: "Who are you?" asks Suzanna (Caro Braun) from her husband Rose (Sandra Hüller). A sting from a bee has set in motion a chain of events which reveal that her man is not a man. Tragedy ensues.

At the end of the Thirty Years' War, a former soldier arrives at a remote village and introduces himself as the sole inheritor of an abandoned plot which has fallen in a terrible condition. Against all advice he settles in, turns it into a successful farm and pays well to his help. In return to the access to the stream he needs to marry the owner's daughter. When offspring is expected, even that can be arranged. Nobody suspects anything until the bees sting.

When truth comes out, everybody turns against Rose except Suzanna who has grown to love her. "With trousers comes freedom". With the revelation comes imprisonment, trial and executions.

Markus Schleinzer directs with an assured pace, a sense of the lived world and authenticity in tools, buildings and clothing. This is a world of a brutal war and hard work. The stranger achieves everybody's respect first by the renovation of the farm and then by his bravery in killing a bear which threatens the sheep. He even teaches everybody to read and write - a true Lutheran calling, essential to the mission of the Thirty Years' War. 

"Leben. Betrug und Lüge." "Life. Betrayal and lie", says the stranger. What he achieves is real enough, even prophetic for the future. 

Central to the récit are the prosthetic devices of a flaccid penis and an erect one. Rose has learned their use in the war. The besieged is supposed to be taught by the victor who the master is. In prison, Rose is subjected to the same treatment to her jailers in a gang rape. Before she is executed, the baby is born.

Magnificent compositions in black and white, a sense of nature, often in early cinema style of the tableau in long take and long shot. The finale is in the great legacy of Carl Th. Dreyer (The Day of Wrath).

What a film!

Black and white. English subtitles n.c.

...

Rose brings to my mind another reality-based story, Sissinä lainavaatteissa ([A Guerrilla in Borrowed Clothes], 1958) by Usko Kemppi, taking place in the Great Northern War in Finland, a woman fighting in male disguise. I read it as a child.

In the cinema, I sense an affinity with Aleksander Askoldov's Komissar (1967).

A Tribute to Sandra Hüller (Telluride 2026)

 

Sandra Hüller. Telluride Film Festival.

Telluride Film Festival (TFF) 2026

Chuck Jones' Cinema, Mountain Village, 6 Sep 2026

TFF 2026 Program Guide:

Bilge Ebiri (TFF): "By any imaginable metric, Sandra Hüller is having an incredible year. February, she won Best Actress at Berlin for her remarkable turn in Markus Schleinzer’s ROSE. In March, we saw her scene-stealing supporting turn in the surprise sci-fi hit PROJECT HAIL MARY. May brought us her central performance in Paweł Pawlikowski’s masterful Cannes-winner FATHERLAND. And in October, she will star opposite Tom Cruise in Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s much-speculated-about DIGGER. One might be tempted to call Hüller’s flurry of activity and accomplishment a fluke. Still, the truth is that this level of excellence and engagement has become standard in Hüller’s career: Her previous annus mirabilis was just two years ago. In 2023, she starred in two of that year’s most acclaimed pictures, Justine Triet’s ANATOMY OF A FALL (which won the Palme d’Or and earned her an Oscar nomination) and Jonathan Glazer’s THE ZONE OF INTEREST, which won Cannes’ Grand Prix and Best International Feature at the Academy Awards. Even as her film career rises to new levels, the actress continues her acclaimed work on the German stage, where she has won several major awards. She recently had her directorial debut with Penthesile:a:s at the Neues Theater Halle in 2025."

"Theater acting requires projection to reach the audience in the back rows. Film acting, on the other hand, demands subtlety, as the camera magnifies the most minute gestures. Remarkably, Hüller has mastered both. Her characters, though they may vary wildly, are united in the fact that we love watching them think, perform, and be. In ROSE, Hüller plays a woman who poses as a male soldier during the Thirty Years’ War, shows up in a remote village and claims to be the male heir of a sizable plot of land. We know very little of her past, other than the scar that marks her face and the flattened bullet she chews on. The austerity of Schleinzer’s style and the story’s enigmatic quality ensure that the film’s drama and heartbreak are all contained within the tension on the soldier’s face. And when it finally breaks (as a Hüller performance almost always does, with each of her characters working their way towards catharsis), the results are astounding. “She’s able to evoke both this tremendous empathy and at the same time be incredibly cold,” Triet said to The Hollywood Reporter in 2023. “She can be incredibly tough and then just sort of melt.”"

"Both ROSE and FATHERLAND are tales of characters caught between realities. Pawlikowski’s film follows the author Thomas Mann (Hanns Zischler) and his daughter Erika (Hüller) as they return to post-war Germany, where he will receive honors from both the West and the East. Thomas and Erika are, in effect, people without a country, and their geographic, political, and personal journey embodies their alienation. Which brings us to another facet of many of Hüller’s performances: Even as she portrays specific people with seemingly real inner lives, she also allows something more cosmic to slip through. These characters speak to truths that feel eternal."

–Bilge Ebiri

The program includes a selection of clips, an on-stage interview and ROSE, shown in its entirety.

S/Sat 6:45PM - C/Sun 9AM

Introduced by Jason Silverman.

Interview in English with Scott Foundas 30 min.

CLIP REEL:

REQUIEM

TONI ERDMANN

SIBYL

THE ZONE OF INTEREST

SUSI & I

ANATOMY OF A FALL

I REFUSE TO ROT INSIDE

PROJECT HAIL MARY

AA: In tears, Sandra Hüller received a standing ovation. 2026 is another great year for her with Rose, Fatherland, Project Hail Mary and Digger (forthcoming). She told us that she "does not think much about the camera" and claims that she "doesn't know anything about the technical side such as framing". The mere mention of Toni Erdmann made her laugh. She "loves to sing and does it all the time". In Sibyl she was asked by Justine Triet to play her. In Anatomy of a Fall "we agreed we don't know the solution. It is not what the film is about". The Zone of Interest: "it is difficult for Germans to play Nazis". Rose and Fatherland are love letters to people who have to hide who they are.

A Song for the Snow Lion (in person: Pawo Choyning Dorji, hosted by Pico Iyer)

 

Pawo Choyning Dorji: A Song for the Snow Lion (BT/US 2026) with Yo-Yo Ma.

Telluride Film Festival (TFF) 2026

Viewed at Le Pierre, 5 Sep 2026

TFF 2026 Program Guide:

L/Sat 6:15PM Q&A - TP/Sun 8:45 

36 A Song for the Snow Lion 

TFF: "Among the most tangible climate disasters on the planet are the melting of Bhutan’s glaciers, which provide fresh water for more than 1.5 billion people—20% of the planet. The glaciers and their surrounding Himalayan peaks also serve as the spiritual center for the Bhutanese people, who look to the Snow Lion, the protector of the mountains, for meaning and inspiration. The folk singer Kelden Lhamo Gurung and famed cellist Yo-Yo Ma send offerings to the spirits of the mountains in this moving, thoughtful and exquisitely photographed short film by Pawo Choyning Dorji, who brought the Oscar-nominated THE MONK AND THE GUN to the Festival in 2023. His film asks us to consider all that we endanger as we forcefully alter the natural order." –TFF (Bhutan/U.S., 2026, 20m)

In person: Pawo Choyning Dorji

AA: Pawo Choyning Dorji promotes a spiritual awakening in A Song for the Snow Lion. We are still reeling from the images of 26 August 2026 of the Nepal flash floods due to the glacier collapse, images surpassing what we have seen in the history of catastrophe movies.

A probably much more extreme catastrophe is in the making in the Bhutan glaciers which provide fresh water for 20% of the population of the Earth. We know this but remain in denial and paralysis and escape to the virtual world of our mobile devices.

Within a single lifetime the glaciers may vanish entirely.

Pawo Choyning Dorji, teaming with maestro Yo-Yo Ma, wants to awaken our spirits with art. The ancient story of the Snow Lion is the anchor. To tell a story is to untie a knot. The Bhutanese wisdom is that we are at one with nature. Happiness is rooted in interdependence. In Bhutan, mountains are not conquered. If we try that, they conquer us. When glaciers melt, the Snow Lion dies, and we with it. 

In Bhutan, everything is very symbolic. We must slow down and return to a human pace. Care for the world.

In a movie like this, the message is everything. It could not be greater.

A Long Winter (in person: Andrew Haigh, Fred Hechinger) (world premiere)

 

Andrew Haigh: A Long Winter (GB 2026). Fred Hechinger as Mike.

Telluride Film Festival (TFF) 2026

Viewed at Chuck Jones' Cinema, Mountain Village, 5 Sep 2026

TFF 2026 Program Guide:

P/Fri 5:45PM - C/Sat 12:45PM - G/Sun 9:15PM - H/Mon 9AM Q&A

1a A Long Winter

Larry Gross (TFF): "Writer-director Andrew Haigh transposes Colm Tóibín’s acclaimed novella to the rugged landscape of the American Rocky Mountains in the 1950s. Lester (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) and Louise (Caitríona Balfe) and their two sons Tom (Kit Connor) and Mike (Fred Hechinger) scratch out a precarious living raising chickens and rabbits. When Tom departs for army service in Korea, and Louise abandons the home in an alcoholic fury, Lester and Mike begin a desperate search to find her while attempting to sort out their troubles with neighbors, family members and each other. Haigh’s previous films (ALL OF US STRANGERS, LEAN ON PETE, 45 YEARS) have explored, in visionary ways, the nuances of human connection. Here, aided by the breathtaking mountain cinematography by André Turpin, he suggests the ways in which we are simultaneously truly alone in the world and in desperate need of one another. The performances, as always in Haigh’s films, are superb." –LG (U.K., 2026, 114m) In person: Andrew Haigh, Fred Hechinger, Caitríona Balfe, Colm Tóibín

AA: It is a privileged opportunity to watch Andrew Haigh's new movie A Long Winter in Telluride, since Haigh has transposed the events of Colm Tóibín's novella from Spain to - Telluride. Although the film has been shot in Alberta, Canada, the magnificent landscapes look remarkably similar to what we have just witnessed on the gondola ride to Mountain Village. The difference is that our early autumn mountain air is so crisp and clear that we can see everything in incredibly sharp detail to the greatest distance. Whereas in the late autumn, winter and early spring circumstances of A Long Winter the views are hazier.

The landscapes are what can be called sublime in the classical sense - overwhelming, transcending the limits of understanding. Eagles soaring in the sky add perspective. Vultures appear as an image of death. In these elevated surroundings takes place a family tragedy honestly and lovingly observed by Andrew Haigh with great performances by Caitriona Balfe as Louise, Ebon Moss-Bachrach as her husband Lester and Fred Hechinger and Kit Connor as her two sons Mike and Tom.

Louise leaves the mountain household just as the winter snow starts falling.When the snow arrives, it comes all at once and stays until spring, as Louise must know. When search parties are launched, everybody already suspects the worst. The mystery of Louise's disappearance is gradually unveiled. She is a city woman who has lived in the mountains against her wishes. In consolation, she has turned to the bottle and become an alcoholic. She loves her sons dearly but has a troubled relationship with Lester. Tom is fighting in the Korean War. A Long Winter becomes the story of Lester in search of the mystery of his mother and his own sexual identity.

Andrew Haigh combines powerfully the majestic sense of nature and the aching struggle in Lester's Bildungsroman. He achieves spiritual grandeur on a perfectly human scale. At times there is a shadow of lethargy, the signature ailment of post-Covid cinema.

...

The end credit song: The Carter Family: "Can The Circle Be Unbroken (By and By)" (1935). Ada R. Habershon and Charles H. Gabriel (1907), reworked by A. P. Carter.

A Tribute to Andrew Haigh (Telluride 2026) hosted by Pico Iyer, in person: Andrew Haigh and Fred Hechinger

Andrew Haigh. Telluride Film Festival.

Telluride Film Festival (TFF) 2026

Chuck Jones' Cinema, Mountain Village, 5 Sep 2026

TFF 2026 Program Guide:

Pico Iyer (TFF): "By now more and more of us have been enthralled—upended—by the quiet, emotionally intricate and ultimately devastating films of Andrew Haigh. They develop slowly, as a rule, and sometimes very little seems to happen—until we realize we’ve just experienced a near-silent detonation. One solitary, wordless scene reveals a love story to have been, all along, a heartbreaking portrait of loneliness. A couple has been married for almost half a century, but a letter arrives, and a woman realizes she may not know her lifelong partner at all. In his latest, A LONG WINTER, a young man watches his mother, with painful slowness, slip out of view."

"At the heart of Haigh’s achingly intimate portraits of vulnerability, no one knows where he stands in relation to anyone else. That’s the allure—the sorrow—of every exchange. Think of how the lonely protagonist in ALL OF US STRANGERS—the perfect title for all Haigh’s work—starts gazing at a man in a store. Some time after, the stranger comes up and says, “Let me take you home,” and we realize that this man the protagonist seemed to be cruising, is his dad."

"In that film, as in WEEKEND, Haigh was showing us how such uncertainties tremble with particular poignancy, traditionally, for gay men; there’s so much they can’t say—to parents, to colleagues, even to lovers. In both works, new loves check on the men they’re beginning to romance, with versions of “Are you queer?” Yet it’s reductive to cast him only as a groundbreaking explorer of the gay experience. In his unforgettable first film from the American West, LEAN ON PETE, you realize how many of us, in Haigh’s world, stand outside of family, looking in, and drift through brightly lit shadows in search of the smallest hope of connection."

"It seems almost inevitable that Haigh would be drawn to the contemporary novelist best known for his uncanny emotional intelligence, his fascination with secrecy and the intensity he builds without ever raising his voice, Colm Tóibín. His novella from twenty years ago, A Long Winter might almost have been an Andrew Haigh film the day it was composed, in part because both male artists inhabit female characters with uncanny, heart-stopping compassion."

"And no detail is accidental in a Haigh film: the shy man at the center of WEEKEND is a lifeguard surrounded by strangers taking long dives. Moments of astonishing beauty arrive, to be replaced by more anonymous tower blocks and convenience stores. In this land of the unspoken, almost everything is conveyed through eyes and the subtlest of movements. Long after the film ends, you’re trying to unriddle the relationships at their heart. Haigh’s movies are whispers you can’t get out of your head."

–Pico Iyer

The program includes a selection of clips, an on-stage interview and A LONG WINTER, shown in its entirety.

P/Fri 5:45PM - C/Sat 12:45PM

Interview with Pico Iyer 30 min.

CLIP REEL:

WEEKEND

45 YEARS

LEAN ON PETE

LOOKING

ALL OF US STRANGERS

Mark Cousins: The Story of Documentary Film (Part 3) Chapters 8-11 (four hours) in person: Mark Cousins, John Archer

Mark Cousins: The Story of Documentary Film (Scotland/GB 2026). Agnès Varda frames the image in Les Glaneurs et la glaneuse (FR 2000).

Telluride Film Festival (TFF) 2026

Viewed at the Marvin, Mountain Village, Village Market, 5 Sep 2026

TFF 2026 Program Guide:

Part 1 C/Fri 10AM - Part 2 C/Fri 2:15PM - Part 3 MV/Sat 8:30AM - Part 4 M/Mon 9AM Q&A

38 The Story of Documentary Film

Jason Silverman: "Mark Cousins, our most eloquent and prolific cinephile, has directed some 60+ hours of documentaries. His latest Herculean effort, a 16-hour film, exists in a class by itself, an encyclopedic yet poetic summary-analysis-celebration of non-fiction film that travels the globe and spans 130 years, from pre-Lumière experiments to today. He shares exquisite clips of city symphonies, ethnographic treasures, Fascist propaganda and personal essays in an endless, continually fascinating stream (the film would be a thrill to watch even as a silent reel). His narration alternates between astounding factoids, provocative musings, political insights and odd confluences (the film starts with shots of elephants, taken over the course of 100+ years). Cousins has gifted us more than the story of documentary: it’s a story of big ideas, of truth and truthiness, of history unfolding before our very eyes. Watching it, in part or in whole, will rewire you." –JS (Scotland/U.K., 2026, 960m, shown in four parts) In person: Mark Cousins, John Archer, Joslyn Barnes

AA: Today's stretch of the Mark Cousins marathon taken place in the farthest reach from the festival center. After the usual gondola ride to the Mountain Village I need yet another ride to the Market Plaza. The Marvin, a new festival cinema, was inaugurated here yesterday.

In their introduction, Mark Cousins and John Archer show us the oversize grid of their impossible 16-hour film monument, as well the movie's official t-shirt with the motto "documentaries kill fascism".

In Chapters 8 and 9 of The Story of Documentary Film we reach the 1980s. The signature event: The Fall of the Wall. A unifying theme: empathy. This while covering the decade of Margaret Thatcher: "society - there is no such thing". The world according to the Iron Lady is about competition, not cooperation.

The second wave of feminism is represented with movies like For Love or Money: A History of Women and Work in Australia which emerges as a major general survey on the subject. Electrifying samples are on display from La operación by Ana María García, about a clandestine sterilization programme pursued by the United States in Puerto Rico. The women submitted were not aware of the irreversible operation performed upon them. Atteyat Al-Abnoudy's Permissible Dreams tells about an undaunted woman farmer. "Human being is willpower". Mira Nair's Indian Cabaret brings empathy to its portrait of a stripper.

Empathy drives also Amos Gitai in Home (1980) about the reconstruction of a house in West Jerusalem, revealing tensions between the Palestinians and the Israelis. The Indian master Tapan Bose spent his life defending human rights in films such as Bhopal: Beyond Genocide (1986). Krzysztof Kieslowski enters the story with Talking Heads (1980) with the simple eloquent power of the human face. What matters most? Penny Woolcock in her debut film When the Dog Bites (1988) registers the situation of the people when a factory is closed. The contrast in conveying working people is marked in her film compared with Lindsay Anderson's condescension in O Dreamland.

The 1980s is also the decade of AIDS awareness. Rob Epstein brings us The Times of Harvey Milk (1984). In the same year, Robert Rosenberg and Greta Schiller draft the history of the gay and lesbian community in Before Stonewall. In Sweden, Jan Troell casts a critical look into the Swedish People's Home in Sagolandet (1988). In Poland, Solidarnosc is on the rise, covered in powerful documentaries. Anger grows in Eastern Europe. Is It Easy to Be Young? (1987) by the Latvian Juris Podnieks becomes a tremendous success. An infamous nuclear disaster in 1986 is covered in Vladimir Shevchenko's documentary Chernobyl (1987) including some of the earliest footage. The film itself suffered from radiation, as well as the director, who died the year after.

Chapter 9 has the subtitle "Detectives". Topics discussed include even MTV, music videos and music films, from Santiago Alvarez's Now! to Jonathan Demme's Talking Heads: Stop Making Sense. Less known documentary discoveries include Assia Djebar's La Zerda ou les chants de l'oubli (1983) and Mani Kaul's Siddheshwari (1989). To Mark Cousins, Mani Kaul's film is the most beautiful in this story so far. Included is also Maximilian Schell's Marlene (1984). "Was ist denn eigentlich echt hier?" in Marlene's inimitable voice reverberates through the entire series.

Michael Moore launches with tremendous success a new trend of confrontative, activist documentary in Roger & Me. In television, John Pilger starts a career of anti-colonialist activism in television documentary and becomes a pioneer in revealing the Cambodian genocide. Eduardo Coutinho's Twenty Years Later (1984) is a landmark exposé about the crimes of the Brazilian military dictatorship. Another celebrated documentary film detective, Errol Morris, argues in The Thin Blue Line (1988) that a man was wrongly convicted for murder. As a result of the movie, the innocent man is released. Judit Ember with her exposés holds the record of banned movies in Hungary. The image of a railway track carries the chapter. Inevitably we reach Shoah (1985) by Claude Lanzmann, a landmark in many ways, particularly in expressing the inexpressible. Kazuo Hara's The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On (1987) reveals shocking secrets about the Japanese army in WWII. Lanzmann could be intrusive in his interviews. Kazuo Hara even used violence.

In contrast, in gentle and tender interaction, Abbas Kiarostami enters the story with Homework (1989). Robert Kramer's Route One/USA (1989) grows to a length of over four hours, blurring the line of fiction and non-fiction. Completely new dimensions are found by the Buddhist monk Godfrey Reggio in Koyaanisqatsi (1982) and the montage genius Chris Marker in Sans soleil (1983). Their works rise to the level of a Weltanschauung.

To be continued.

The visual quality of the clips in episodes 1-7 was often mediocre, in episodes 8-9 much better. The clips are poetry, the framing contemporary footage is prose.

The experience of this series is shattering in many ways. 

It is too much for one man to digest in such a short time frame.

Mark Cousins: The Story of Documentary Film (Part 2) Chapters 5-7 (three hours) in person: Mark Cousins, John Archer, Joslyn Barnes (world premiere of the complete series)

 

Mark Cousins: The Story of Documentary Film (Scotland/GB 2026). Agnès Varda frames the image in Les Glaneurs et la glaneuse (FR 2000).

Telluride Film Festival (TFF) 2026

Viewed at Chuck Jones' Cinema, Mountain Village, 4 Sep 2026

TFF 2026 Program Guide:

Part 1 C/Fri 10AM - Part 2 C/Fri 2:15PM - Part 3 MV/Sat 8:30AM - Part 4 M/Mon 9AM Q&A

38 The Story of Documentary Film

Jason Silverman: "Mark Cousins, our most eloquent and prolific cinephile, has directed some 60+ hours of documentaries. His latest Herculean effort, a 16-hour film, exists in a class by itself, an encyclopedic yet poetic summary-analysis-celebration of non-fiction film that travels the globe and spans 130 years, from pre-Lumière experiments to today. He shares exquisite clips of city symphonies, ethnographic treasures, Fascist propaganda and personal essays in an endless, continually fascinating stream (the film would be a thrill to watch even as a silent reel). His narration alternates between astounding factoids, provocative musings, political insights and odd confluences (the film starts with shots of elephants, taken over the course of 100+ years). Cousins has gifted us more than the story of documentary: it’s a story of big ideas, of truth and truthiness, of history unfolding before our very eyes. Watching it, in part or in whole, will rewire you." –JS (Scotland/U.K., 2026, 960m, shown in four parts) In person: Mark Cousins, John Archer, Joslyn Barnes

AA: The second session of Mark Cousins' The Story of Documentary Film takes us 1960s Eastern Europe, including discoveries from Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and East Germany, with a case study of Heynowski and Scheumann and Der lachende Mann, the astounding interview of the mercenary and former Nazi known as "Congo Müller". Müller also evokes the issue of staging actual atrocities for movie exploitation in the mondo movies of Gualtiero Jacopetti. His insinuations were never confirmed, but watching Müller we know he would have been capable of anything. Cousins also highlights Piloten im Pyjama, interviews with US prisoners of war in a Vietnamese prison and reminds us of the possibility of torture in the context.

The global phenomenon of the cinema of liberation is covered with classics such as La hora de los hornos but also discoveries from Egypt and Algeria and the cinema of Africa. Ireland is not forgotten. Cousins discusses Peter Lennon's Rocky Road to Dublin, de facto banned in Ireland for 30 years. Feminist discoveries include Krystyna Gryczełowska's The 24 Hours of Jadwiga L., preceding the insights in Jeanne Dielman. Cuban revolutionary cinema is on the agenda.

Iran enters the picture in classics by Forough Farrkokhzad (The House is Black) and Kamran Shirdel (The Night It Rained), which leads us to the phenomenon of mockumentary and David Holzman's Diary. Further down on the road we reach Andy Warhol's Sleep, for Cousins "the ultimate 1960's film".

Chapter Six brings us to the Seventies. Ecological awareness is growing, and the Japanese Minamata disaster becomes a topic for seminal documentaries both about the disaster and the magnificent protest action movements demanding justice for the victims. Cousins' discussion of the entire Japanese protest movie phenomenon is engrossing. 

Feminist awareness is on the rise, evoked in movies such as Growing Up Female. Chantal Akerman becomes a major documentary film-maker (News from Home). Želimir Žilnik of the Yugoslavian Black Wave makes a classic study about unemployment (Nezaposleni ljudi). In Egypt, documentaries of social realism are on the rise (Ateyyat El Abnoudy: House of Mud). Likewise in Columbia (Marta Rodriguez: Chircales).

The giant Frederic Wiseman continues his work in Welfare. Barbara Kopple's Harlan County, USA, joins a great tradition including Cavalcanti's Coal Face. Ciro Durán's Gamín exposes the condition of street children in Colombia. 

Not forgotten is the subject of football in the movies. The intimacy of diary movies is represented by Ed Pincus Diaries. Music documentaries grow into a major subgenre. The playfulness of the film essay is represented by F for Fake and Hussain Shariffe's The Dislocation of Amber. Poetry can be combined with naturalism, for example in Abdel Rahman Al Abnoudy's The Sad Song  of Touha.

Sarah Maldoror and Patricio Guzman (La batalla de Chile I-III) bring a powerful personal approach to accounts of historical turbulence. Palestinian resistance and liberation fight is covered in films essential also as documentation in circumstances where all testimonies are in danger of being erased. The rights of the First Nations are covered in Australian films of social commitment.

China is almost impregnable. Michelangelo Antonioni in Chung Kuo Cina faces the impossibility but does what he can by focusing on the dignity of the people. "You can show people's faces but not their hearts". Masks hide, masks reveal.

In India, Ritwik Ghatak, known for his powerful fiction, turns out to be also a master of the documentary. Cousins's montage of Indian documentary films of the 1970s is fascinating and forces me to admit yet again how little I know.

Chris Marker in his grand essay movie Le Fond de l'air est rouge is in puzzlement about the legacy of the Sixties. A refrain in the series is Powers of Ten by Charles and Ray Eames. It is always a question of perspective. Sometimes you need to get closer. Sometimes you need to get the biggest perspective.

Bouleversant. Passionnant. To be continued.

Mark Cousins: The Story of Documentary Film (Part 1) Episodes 1-4 (four hours) in person: Mark Cousins, John Archer, Joslyn Barnes (world premiere of the complete series)

Mark Cousins: The Story of Documentary Film (Scotland/GB 2026). Agnès Varda frames the image in Les Glaneurs et la glaneuse (FR 2000).

Telluride Film Festival (TFF) 2026

Viewed at Chuck Jones' Cinema, Mountain Village, 4 Sep 2026

TFF 2026 Program Guide:

Part 1 C/Fri 10AM - Part 2 C/Fri 2:15PM - Part 3 MV/Sat 8:30AM - Part 4 M/Mon 9AM Q&A

38 The Story of Documentary Film

Jason Silverman: "Mark Cousins, our most eloquent and prolific cinephile, has directed some 60+ hours of documentaries. His latest Herculean effort, a 16-hour film, exists in a class by itself, an encyclopedic yet poetic summary-analysis-celebration of non-fiction film that travels the globe and spans 130 years, from pre-Lumière experiments to today. He shares exquisite clips of city symphonies, ethnographic treasures, Fascist propaganda and personal essays in an endless, continually fascinating stream (the film would be a thrill to watch even as a silent reel). His narration alternates between astounding factoids, provocative musings, political insights and odd confluences (the film starts with shots of elephants, taken over the course of 100+ years). Cousins has gifted us more than the story of documentary: it’s a story of big ideas, of truth and truthiness, of history unfolding before our very eyes. Watching it, in part or in whole, will rewire you." –JS (Scotland/U.K., 2026, 960m, shown in four parts) In person: Mark Cousins, John Archer, Joslyn Barnes

AA: Mark Cousins' 16-hour montage film is what the title announces: a history of the non-fiction film. Equally, it is a history of the world from the last 130 years - the film age. It is idiosyncratic but also a professional survey of the major periods, currents, trends, authors, continents and cultures of non-fiction. Cousins has a sober awareness of the difficulty of defining the "documentary". Ever since the one-minute actualities of the Lumière brothers, reality was staged for the camera. Robert Flaherty consciously recreated the past for his ethnographic classics, people enacting habits of their forefathers. It was never a matter of a simple record.

I enter Chuck Jones' Cinema fortified by a superb turkey club sandwich at the nearby Telluride Coffee Shop, not yet committed to a 16 hour marathon spread over four screenings. But as soon as the first hour-long chapter ends, I have no other choice, although that means sacrificing eight irresistible alternatives from the festival programme. I admire the encyclopedism, generalism and universalism of Cousins. He has changed our view about film history with achievements such as the inspirational 14-hour Women Make Film (in 40 chapters) which had a huge impact in film programming at film culture festivals and film archives. After Cousins's series, discoveries such as the work of the Bulgarian Binka Zhelyazkova even entered theatrical film distribution for the first time in Western Europe.

The Story of Documentary Film promises to be another stunning fount of inspiration. Chapters have already made the rounds at international film festivals. The first complete run takes place in Telluride.

53th Telluride Film Festival (4-7 Sep 2026) lineup

Poster design: Bella Freud. Colorado Avenue.

Data from the Telluride Film Festival (TFF) website.

The Show:

ACT 3 (d. Christine Molloy, Joe Lawlor, Ireland/U.K., 2026)

ALPHA GANG (d. David Zellner, Nathan Zellner, U.S., 2026)

AVEDON (d. Ron Howard, U.S., 2026)

BOLA NEGRA, LA / THE BLACK BALL (d. Javier Ambrossi, Javier Calvo, Spain/France, 2026)

BUCKING FASTARD (d. Werner Herzog, Ireland/U.S., 2026)

BURGUNDY (d. Michael Dweck, Gregory Kershaw, France, 2026)

CARL SAGAN: WE ARE MADE OF STAR STUFF (d. Nanette Burstein, U.S., 2026)

CLUB KID (d. Jordan Firstman, U.S., 2026)

DEBUT, THE  (d. Jesse Eisenberg, U.S., 2026)

DISCIPLE, THE (d. Joanna Natasegara, U.K./U.S./Morocco, 2026)

ELSINORE (d. Simon Stone, U.K., 2026)

EVEREST: THE OTHER SIDE (d. Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin, U.S./China/Nepal, 2026)

FATHERLAND (d. Paweł Pawlikowski, Poland/France/Germany/Italy, 2026)

FJORD (d. Cristian Mungiu, Romania/France/Norway/Sweden/ Denmark, 2026)

GENTLE MONSTER (d. Marie Kreutzer, Austria/Germany/France, 2026)

IDIOT(S), THE  (d. Małgorzata Szumowska, Michał Englert, Poland/Germany, 2026)

INCONNUE, L' / THE UNKNOWN  (d. Arthur Harari, France/Italy, 2026)

INK (d. Danny Boyle, U.K./U.S./France, 2026)

LIBERATION, THE  (d. Guy Nattiv, U.S., 2026)

LONG WINTER, A (d. Andrew Haigh, U.K., 2026)

MAKING MARIE ANTOINETTE (d. Eleanor Coppola, Italy/U.S., 2026)

MAN I LOVE, THE  (d. Ira Sachs, U.S., 2026)

MINOTAUR (d. Andrey Zvyagintsev, France/Germany/Latvia, 2026)

MY UNDESIRABLE FRIENDS: PART II – EXILE (d. Julia Loktev, U.S., 2026)

ONCE UPON A TIME IN HARLEM (d. David Greaves, Liani Greaves, U.S., 2026)

ONLY LIVING PICKPOCKET IN NEW YORK, THE  (d. Noah Segan, U.S., 2026)

PETE TOWNSHEND: BEHIND BLUE EYES (d. Frank Marshall, Nigel Sinclair, U.S./U.K., 2026)

REHEARSALS FOR A REVOLUTION (d. Pegah Ahangarani, Czech Republic/Spain, 2026)

ROSE (d. Markus Schleinzer, Austria/Germany, 2026)

ROW, THE  (d. Bryan Fogel, U.S./Australia/Ireland, 2026)

STORY OF DOCUMENTARY FILM, THE  (d. Mark Cousins, Scotland/U.K., 2026)

SUMO: SPIRIT WEIGHS NOTHING (d. Erik Shirai, U.S./Japan/U.K./ Denmark, 2026)

TENDER LOVING CARE (d. Mike Leigh, U.K., 2026)

TENZING (d. Jennifer Peedom, U.S./Australia, 2026)

WILD HORSE NINE (d. Martin McDonagh, Chile/U.S., 2026)

A TRIBUTE TO ANDREW HAIGH .

A TRIBUTE TO SANDRA HÜLLER .

A TRIBUTE TO JOHN MALKOVICH .

ROGER CORMAN AT 100 .

Also playing in the main program are two newly restored features: 

BEAU GESTE (d. Herbert Brenon, U.S., 1926)

BEGOTTEN (d. E. Elias Merhige, U.S., 1989/2026)

short films: 

SONG FOR THE SNOW LION, A (d. Pawo Choyning Dorji, Bhutan/ U.S., 2026), 

DANCE THROUGH TIME, A (d. Sarah Gavron, U.K., 2026), 

MAYBE TOMORROW (d. Wafa Mustafa, Waad Al-Kateab, U.K., 2026), 

SAWYER AVENUE, SUNDAY AFTERNOON (d. Bill Morrison, U.S., 2026), 

LOVE, RENDERED (d. Liz Garbus, U.S., 2026), 

REVOLUTION AGAINST DEATH, THE (d. Joshua Oppenheimer, Denmark/Sweden, 2026), 

and Ben Proudfoot’s 

BUFFALO MIRACLE, THE (U.S., 2026) and 

WITT V. AIR FORCE (U.S., 2026).

The 53rd Telluride Film Festival will honor three extraordinary artists whose work has made a significant contribution to the art of cinema. The 2026 Silver Medallions will be presented to acclaimed British writer-director Andrew Haigh, with A LONG WINTER; internationally celebrated German actor Sandra Hüller, with ROSE; and iconic actor, producer and director John Malkovich, with WILD HORSE NINE. Each Tribute program will include a compilation of clips, an on-stage interview and a screening of the recipient’s new work.

Telluride Film Festival is also pleased to welcome acclaimed actor, writer and director Rebecca Hall as this year’s Guest Director. A cherished Festival tradition, the Guest Director program invites a distinguished artist to curate a special selection of films, offering audiences a fresh lens through which to explore cinema history. Her curated program is presented in partnership with Turner Classic Movies, the Festival’s proud sponsor of the Guest Director section this year. Hall will present the following selections:

AKENFIELD (d. Peter Hall, U.K., 1974)

MARGARET (d. Kenneth Lonergan, U.S., 2011)

PORTRAIT OF JASON (d. Shirley Clarke, U.S., 1967)

SERVANT, THE (d. Joseph Losey, U.K., 1963)

SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK (d. Charlie Kaufman, U.S., 2008)

WHAT’S UP, DOC? (d. Peter Bogdanovich, U.S., 1972)

“This is what we look forward to all year—the chance to bring people together in Telluride and discover films, filmmakers and ideas that we may not have encountered otherwise,” said Festival Director Julie Huntsinger. “There are films in this year’s program that I know audiences will be talking about long after they leave the theater, and there are others that may completely surprise them. That sense of discovery is at the heart of the Festival, and we’re grateful to those who make the pilgrimage. We’re thrilled to welcome our Tribute artists, Guest Director Rebecca Hall, and so many extraordinary filmmakers and guests, but what makes the weekend special is the very simple act of sitting down together, turning off the lights and seeing what happens on the screen. We can’t wait to share this year’s Festival with everyone who makes the trip to Telluride.”

Telluride Film Festival’s Filmmakers of Tomorrow program, sponsored by Google, celebrates emerging voices in cinema through Student Prints, now in its 33rd year, curated by Gregory Nava, and Calling Cards, curated by Barry Jenkins. This year, the Festival also presents Great Expectations, a special program of three exceptional short films curated and introduced by Jenkins.

FILMMAKERS OF TOMORROW

STUDENT PRINTS

CRISIS ACTOR (d. Lily Platt, U.S., 2026, 12m, NYU)

FARMACIAS (d. Martín Montellano, Mexico, 2025, 25m, Centro de Capacitación Cinematográfica)

I WANT TO LIVE (d. Jason Elliott, U.S./U.K./Ecuador, 2026, 26m, The National Film and Television School)

COCONUT (d. Ravi Chand, Australia, 2025,12m, University of Melbourne)

STEM (d. Daeil Kim, U.S., 2026, 26m, USC)

CALLING CARDS

PARA LOS CONTRINCANTES (FOR THE OPPONENTS) (d. Federico Luis, Chile/Mexico/France, 2026, 14m)

HORA DE IRSE, LA (TIME TO GO) (d. Renzo Cozza, Argentina, 2026, 20m)

ACID CITY (d. Jack Wedge & Will Freudenheim, U.S., 2026, 13m)

CLASS PHOTO (d. Arnas Balčiūnas, Lithuania, 2026, 17m)

IT LIVES UNDER THE SNOW (d. Igor Smola, Azerbaijan/Singapore, 2025, 16m)

ROCK SPRINGS: 1885 (d. Vera Miao, Canada/U.S., 2026, 31m)

GREAT EXPECTATIONS

TRIANGLE (d. Anaël Dang, France, 2025, 30m)

IN SEARCH OF THE GREY BIRD WITH GREEN STRIPES (d. Saïd Hamich Benlarbi, France/Morocco, 2026, 45m)

YAWMAN MA WALAD (SOMEDAY, A CHILD) (d. Marie-Rose Osta, France/Romania/Lebanon, 2026, 27m)

Telluride Film Festival’s Education Programs, sponsored by WBD Access, present students with the opportunity to experience film as an art form and expand their worldviews through screenings and discussions with filmmakers and Festival guests, including: Student Symposium – a weekend-long immersion in cinema for 50 graduate and undergraduate students, with additional support from Golden Globe Foundation; City Lights Project – connecting 18 high school students and six teachers with Festival films and special guests, underwritten by the Artemis Rising Foundation; and FilmLAB – in partnership with the American Film Institute, providing exceptional AFI Fellows with opportunities to learn from world-class filmmakers in a masterclass setting.

Backlot, Telluride’s intimate screening room featuring behind-the-scenes movies and portraits of artists, musicians and filmmakers, will present the following programs, all free and open to the public:

ÂGE D'OR, L' / THE GOLDEN AGE (d. Bérenger Thouin, France/Italy, 2026), preceded by 

STARS WATCH FROM LONG AGO, THE (d. Stacey Steers, U.S., 2026)

HOUSE OF CRITICISM (d. Alison Chernick, U.S., 2026)

ILLUSION OF AN EVERLASTING SUMMER, THE / LA ILUSIÓN DE UN VERANO SIN FIN (d. Alessandra Sanguinetti, Argentina/U.S., 2026)

INTO THE BREACH (d. Freddie Fox, U.K., 2026)

MAVERICK: THE EPIC ADVENTURES OF DAVID LEAN (d. Barnaby Thompson, U.K., 2026)

TO ESCAPE (d. David C. Roberts, U.S., 2026)

NATURAL STATE, THE (d. Matthew Dougherty, U.S., 2026)

ONE MORE TIME (d. Cindy Kleine and André Gregory, U.S., 2026)

ZERO INTENTION OF LIVING QUIETLY (d. Edward Lovelace, U.K., 2026)

Telluride Film Festival’s Talking Heads programs allow attendees to go behind the scenes with the Festival’s special guests. Noon Seminars, sponsored by Apple Original Films, bring Festival guests together to discuss cinema, art and life. Conversations, sponsored by Indian Paintbrush, offer audiences an opportunity to engage in in-depth dialogue with Festival guests. Acting!, a special panel this year, sponsored by Turner Classic Movies, will also be presented during the Festival.

Special Screenings and Festivities include:

2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (d. Stanley Kubrick, U.K./U.S., 1968)

ACROSS THE UNIVERSE (d. Julie Taymor, U.S./U.K., 2007)

BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI, THE (d. David Lean, U.K./U.S., 1957)

CHRISTINE (d. Antonio Campos, U.S., 2016)

MARIE ANTOINETTE (d. Sofia Coppola, U.S., 2006)

MOONLIGHT (d. Barry Jenkins, U.S., 2016), celebrating the 10th anniversary of its Telluride premiere

TEENAGE SEX AND DEATH AT CAMP MIASMA (d. Jane Schoenbrun, U.S./Canada, 2026)

Filmmaking and Technology With Empathy: AI For Societal Benefit, sponsored by Google

The Humanity Dilemma, a multi-media presentation

Marfa Stance Studio: A Groundbreaking Collaboration, including a Roundtable discussion with Women Directors

Roger Corman at 100 panel followed by 

INTRUDER, THE (U.S., 1962)

Amarga Navidad / Bitter Christmas

 

Pedro Almodóvar: Amarga Navidad / Bitter Christmas (ES 2026). Leonardo Sbaraglia (Raúl) and Quim Gutiérrez (Santi).

Pedro Almodóvar: Amarga Navidad / Bitter Christmas (ES 2026). Vexierbild (picture puzzle): Leonardo Sbaraglia (Raúl) / Bárbara Lennie (Elsa). Poster art design by Juan Gatti.

Autofiktio / Autofiktion.

    Un film de Almodóvar. 

    ES 2026. El Deseo S.A. P: Agustín Almodóvar. EX: Esther García.

    D+SC: Pedro Almodóvar. DP: Pau Esteve Birba - colour - Panavision anamorphic 2.39:1 - source format: Arriraw 4.6K - master format: digital intermediate 4K - release format: DCP. PD: Antxon Gómez. AD: Isabel Peinado. Cost: Paco Delgado. Makeup: Ana López-Puigcerver. Hair: Manolo García. SFX: César Abades / Reyes Abades Efectos Especiales. VFX: Tucho Lorenzo. Poster art: Juan Gatti. Graphic design: Gabriel del Boca, Manuel Romero, Juan Sánchez, Pablo Santa María / Studio Gatti. Art and design objects listing: see below. M: Alberto Iglesias. Soundtrack listing: see below. CH: Blanca Li. S: Sergio Bürmann. ED: Teresa Font.

    C: Bárbara Lennie (Elsa), Leonardo Sbaraglia (Raúl), Aitana Sánchez-Gijón (Mónica), Victoria Luengo (Patricia), Patrick Criado (Bonifacio), Milena Smit (Natalia), Quim Gutiérrez (Santi).

    With the collaboration of: Rossy de Palma (Gabriela), Carmen Machi (Doctor), Gloria Muñoz (Elsa's mother) and Amaia Romero.

    Loc: Madrid (including Aranjuez and La Mari Queen where Beau dances as a stripper), Lanzarote (Canary Islands).

    112 min

    Spanish premiere: 19 March 2026

    Festival premiere: 19 May 2026 - Cannes

    Finnish premiere: 28 Aug 2026 - Cinemanse - Finnish / Swedish subtitles by Sari Selander / Micaela Palmberg.

    Viewed at Finnkino Kinopalatsi 10, 29 Aug 2026

Official synopsis from the press notes: "Bitter Christmas tells two alternating stories, one starring Elsa, an advertising director, in 2004, during a long weekend in December. The second takes place in 2026 and stars Raúl, a screenwriter and director who is writing a script that we soon discover is the story of Elsa, her boyfriend Bonifacio, and her friends Patricia and Natalia. Mixed with fiction, Elsa is, in a way, Raúl's alter ego, who resorts to autofiction as a solution to a long period of creative drought. He looks inside himself, and he can't help but also look at the people who make up his most intimate universe: his partner and his assistant."

    "The film narrates the close relationship between reality and fiction, between inspiration and life, raising the debate about the limits of autofiction."

IMDb capsule: "In 2004, an ad director faces a turbulent Christmas weekend. In 2026, a filmmaker turns her story into a screenplay, blurring the lines between reality, fiction, and the people closest to him."

AA: The Finnish title differs from the original Amarga Navidad which means Bitter Christmas. The Finnish Autofiktio [Autofiction] is more indicative of the movie's essence, its elusive character as multiple metafiction. It is a mobile hall of mirrors, also relevant in the context of a recent exciting account of modern and contemporary narrative prose: Edwin Frank's Stranger Than Fiction.

Pedro Almodóvar's original title derives from a song made famous by Chavela Vargas (1919-2012), a Mexican singer-songwriter-actress famous for her "rough voice of tenderness" in the genre of the ranchera. The sequence where Elsa (Bárbara Lennie) and Patricia (Victoria Luenge) sit on a sofa listening to a stunning late recording of Vargas singing "La llorona" ["The Weeping Woman"], themselves turning into weeping women, is an emotional high water mark, one of the most unforgettable scenes of its kind in the history of the cinema, evoking Fyodor Chalyapin's "Dvenadtsat razboinikov" ["The Twelve Brigands"] (lyr. Nikolai Nekrasov, comp. Nikolai Manykin-Nevstruev) in Vasili Shukshin's Strange People. In both movies, the singer seems to interpret what the characters could not begin to articulate.

Autofiction draws from deep sources. One of them is Nordic, in the cinema most famously an obsession of Ingmar Bergman's in a cycle of autofictions of his own, inspired by August Strindberg. Fellini and Bergman are evoked in Almodóvar's film. Fellini called himself "a sincere liar" who draws from his life to tell stories. Bergman's approach in autofiction can be compared with Goethe's Dichtung und Wahrheit aus meinem Leben (in German, Dichtung means both "poetry" and "fiction"). You mine your life and transform it into poetry. Strindberg and Bergman were brutally honest and self-critical about the artist-vampire sucking the life blood of people nearest to him and transforming it into drama. This is also the great theme of Almodóvar in Amarga Navidad.

Visually, Bitter Christmas is sumptuous, a feast of colourism in a glorious scope frame. The cinematography, the interior design and the costume design are of the highest order. Presumably from his own art collection, Almodóvar highlights a painting from Asher Liftin's window series which brings new insight into the movie's reflection on reality and illusion. It is a window of illusion.

Visually the most stunning scene is the opening image at Lanzarote: an extreme high angle shot showing Elsa and Patricia on the black lava beach. In de luxe settings we follow Trauerarbeit among women - suffering from depression, panic disorder, loss of a child, separation and writer's block. On the other hand there are new emphases: the joy of the presence of a child, and the uninhibited female desire at the Polterabend spectacle of the strip-tease of the gorgeous firefighter Bonifacio (Patrick Criado).

Bitter Christmas is a film in search of its core, and the core is found in the finale. Raúl Rossetti (Leonardo Sbaraglia) is the male half of the protagonist-Doppelgänger. Both he and the imaginary phantom character Elsa fight a writer's block with autofiction. Raúl's indispensable assistant, his right-hand person, Mónica (Aitana Sánchez-Gijón), is also his most honest reader. This time Mónica says that Raúl is going too far with autofiction. It grows into the greatest crisis in their collaboration. The final lesson. The end or perhaps a new beginning.

The lesson is about friendship. A true friend tells you the truth you don't want to hear.

Bitter Christmas is engrossing from the beginning to the end. It is a feast in mise-en-scène and colour design. The composition is a joy to the eye. I love the warm and tender colour play on the women's faces. The movie is a secular passion play with a powerful life-affirming current underneath. It is full of the joy of the cinema.

The concept of "a minor work" is evoked in the protagonists' agonizing around their writers' blocks, and it is in this context that Fellini and Bergman are mentioned. Late in their careers the Italian and the Swede did minor work. Bitter Christmas? If this is minor work, I look forward for more.

...

SOUNDTRACK LISTING (from IMDb):

    "Las simples cosas" – written by Julio César Isella and Armando Tejada Gómez, performed by Amaia Romero

    "La llorona" – written by Luis Martínez Serrano, performed by Chavela Vargas

    "Amarga navidad" – written by José Alfredo Jiménez, performed by Chavela Vargas

    "I've Seen That Face Before (Libertango)" – written by Astor Piazzolla, performed by Grace Jones

    "Run Baby Run" – written by Amanda Lear and Anton Monn, performed by Amanda Lear

...

ART AND DESIGN (from Agnish Ray):

Curated by Pedro Almodóvar with Antxón Gómez and Isabel Peinado in an idiom of Pop Art modernism.

DESIGN

    Bubble Sofa designed by Sacha Lakic in Patricia's house. Part of the Cromática collection curated by Almodóvar for Roche Bobois in 2025.

    The Divided Headboard, a metaphor for the boundary between reality and fiction.

    Design lamps including pieces by Gae Aulenti.

    Superleggera armchair by Gio Ponti.

    Cornaro sofa by Carlo Scarpa.

    A Lámina ceiling light by Antoni Arola for Santa & Cole.

    Angel Wing floor lamp by Alvar Aalto for Artek.

    Cassina sofa by Le Corbusier.

    Pierre Jeanneret and Charlotte Perriand.

    Explorer table and Multileg cabinet by Jaime Hayon for BD Barcelona.

ART

    Sigfrido Martín Begué: Santa Cecilia (1987).

    Miguel Ángel Campano.

    Inka Essenhigh.

    Asher Liftin: Studio Window IV (Hot Winter Sun).

HOMES

    The Madrid residence of the architect Francisco de Asís Cabrero (1962).

    The Lanzarote home La Cabaña designed by Yoann Le Mercier. Complete with the original Honoré armchair, a Blasco linen sofa and Roger Capron ceramic coffee tables. Additions: vases by César Manrique, Lanzarote's most defining architect.

    "It’s part of a wider chromatic shift across Almodóvar's career: while his earlier works celebrated red, apricot and albero tones, his recent creations lean towards more melancholic shades of blue, green and grey." (Agnish Ray)

Source: Agnish Ray: "How do you build a universe fit for a Pedro Almodóvar film?" (Wallpaper, August 2026)

Päivien lumo / Days of Wonder

Karin Pennanen: Päivien lumo / Days of Wonder (FI/DK/NO 2025). Featuring Markku Pennanen (1949-2021).

A portrait documentary of the life, works and legacy of the artist Markku Pennanen (1949-2021).

    Dagarnas skimmer.

    FI/DK/NO © 2025 Avanton Productions Oy, Good Company Pictures, Mechanix Film AS. Year of theatrical release: 2026. P: Sonja Lindén.

    D+SC: Karin Pennanen. Cin: Pietari Peltola, Ville Tanttu. M: Markku Pennanen. S: Ville Katajala. ED: Markus Leppälä.

    AN: WiredFly: producer Lars Amby, director Katrine Glenhammer, based on the rough cut by Markku Pennanen.

   Featuring: Markku Pennanen, Karin Pennanen, Jukka Pennanen, Agneta Hobin. Martti Suosalo (voice actor of Markku Pennanen in the final segment). Marja-Leena.

    Based on the Markku Pennanen archive.

    Yle arkisto sources / Eva Andberg: Kell’ onni on: Omenapuiden varjossa (1980), Norssi - 100-vuotias Helsingin normaalilyseo (1967), Hermoprässi (1963), Joukkotiedotus 2 (1973), Päivä Helsingin liikenteessä (1974), Lauantai Helsingissä (1966), Yhteinen koulutie (1957), Teatterissa tapahtuu (1965), Romantikon tunnustukset (1968), Jazzia vanhassa talossa (1961), Musiikkiykkönen (1973), Vinkkeli (1974), Levottomat palat 01 (1982), Kulttuuriraportti (1981), Kontakt (1994), Onko ulkoavaruudessa elämää? (1981), Myöhäisuutiset. Uutiset ja sää. (1965), A plus (2000).

    Soundtrack selections include: "Amarcord" (Nino Rota, 1973), "Apache" (Jerry Lordan, 1960), "Clair de lune" (Claude Debussy, 1890).

    Languages: Finnish and Swedish.

    88 min

    Award: Black Nights Film Festival, Tallinn 2025: best international documentary.

    Award: DocPoint, Helsinki 2026: best film in the national competition.

    Award: Tampere Film Festival 2026: special award in the national competition of films over 30 min.

    Theatrical release: 28 Aug 2026 - Pirkanmaan Elokuvakeskus - Swedish subtitles by Monica Ödahl Åminne

    Viewed at Finnkino Kino-Palatsi 9, Helsinki, 29 Aug 2026

Elonet: "A documentary portrait by Karin Pennanen, a personal study of the director's uncle Markku who lived the life of a hermit. After his death, an incredible artistic oeuvre was discovered at his home."

Official: "The director discovers the hidden world of his reclusive artist uncle and sets out to make a film about it - much to her own surprise, this takes place in collaboration with her uncle. A curious interchange ensues, opening a privileged view into a passionate artistic creation and a decidedly singular way of life. Days of Wonder tells about creativity as a way of life, complex family relationships, love and the touch of death. Equally it is a film about a journey towards one's own self and accepting one's choices. Perhaps attainable only via an acceptance of the unfinished in the world and the self."

Karin Pennanen: "I have always been interested in what happens in the margins. My uncle Markku's urge to live a life on his own terms has inspired me. Art and life are inseparable in his case. Instead of ambition, Markku was driven by passion. The process interested him more than the result. This attitude of Markku's stops me on my tracks to reflect the motives of my own work on a deep level. I believe that we all have much to learn from people like Markku. And invisible Markkus exist in every family. My movie also deals with the quintessentially Finnish characteristic of failure to connect. Who is authorized to define what a meaningful life is?" (translations are mine)

AA: At last I catch Karin Pennanen's acclaimed Days of Wonder, which has been garnering awards on both sides of the Baltic Sea since last year. It is a personal study of the director's eccentric uncle, beloved by the children of the family circle as a magician and a storyteller, now discussed by the grown-up Pennanen as a fellow artist.

Days of Wonder belongs to a documentary phenomenon in which the artist-protagonist is a passionate curator of a personal archive which becomes the source of his/her own biopic. Mika Taanila's The Future Is Not What It Used to Be (FI 2002) about Erkki Kurenniemi (1941-2017) comes to mind.

It belongs also to a fascinating phenomenon in which the artist is not interested in exhibiting his/her work. Recently discovered sensations include Hilma af Klint (1862-1944) and Iria Leino (1932-2022).

We live in such an exaggerated period of the attention economy that reclusiveness appears as an appealing act of resistance.

We are so used to thinking that art belongs to an exhibition that we forget that there has been since times immemorial a contrary practice. Cave paintings were often created in the deepest reaches where they were almost impossible to access. They were not meant to be seen but to exist, since they had magical powers. The same thinking extends to voodoo dolls and such indigenous cultures in which image taboos and bans are obeyed. With the image it is possible to control the depicted.

Markku Pennanen certainly did not subscribe to image magic. His art was solely for self-expression, and besides images he was talented in music and storytelling. He was a great raconteur and an engaging conversationalist. Because of his eccentricism he stayed outside regular family life. He liked women and was charming with them but did not pursue relationships.

Apparently Markku was exceptionally intelligent, Mensa class, but the blessing became a curse. He was bullied and sidelined. He was a high school drop-out, Sibelius Academy drop-out and Art Academy drop-out. He became a successful investor, but in the infamous 2000 Sonera crash he lost everything and survived as a newspaper deliveryman.

Public life disappointed and betrayed Markku, but he pursued private art worlds and created outsider art. His life was his art, archived in sound diaries, home movies, paintings, drawings and collages, now co-curated by Karin Pennanen. Markku was interested in animation and collages, and his rough edits have been brought to finish for this movie by WiredFly (produced by Lars Amby and directed by Katrine Glenhammer).

The movie ends in its most haunting sequence. Home movie footage of a lit tennis court in the evening brings back a lost childhood memory when Markku was three. Like in a trance he rises to a bird's-eye view with access to another reality, another home.

Eero Nelimarkka (2026 Ateneum exhibition)

 

Eero Nelimarkka. The Ateneum exhibition catalogue

Eero Nelimarkka: Vanhus ja portaat [An Old Lady at the Staircase], n.d. Oil on canvas, 67,5 x 66 cm. Nelimarkka-Rahasto sr., Nelimarkka-museo. My scan from the exhibition catalogue.

Eero Nelimarkka: Maisema Seinäjoelta [A Landscape at Seinäjoki], 1962. Oil on canvas, 149,5 x 230,5 cm. Nelimarkka-Rahasto sr., Nelimarkka-museo. My scan from the exhibition catalogue.

In Finnish art, Eero Nelimarkka is a household name, even bordering on the over-familiar, because he was in huge demand and able to create on a conveyor belt paintings of his beloved Pohjanmaa / Österbotten / Ostrobothnia landscapes. It was even joked that he must have had a wallpaper roll of Ostrobothnian oils from which he could sell pieces on demand. 

Myself, with an Ostrobothnian background, am moved by those landscapes, and today's exhibition has a room (3.9) full of them. I particularly prefer the "scope" / "double carré" format, at best with a low skyline, the plains unfolding under a magnificent sky. An inevitable point of comparison are the Westerns such as John Ford's landscapes / soulscapes. Nelimarkka's landscapes are eerie, because there are no people, although they are always cultivated with fields and barns.

Helene Schjerfbeck was an inspiration for Nelimarkka, not least in the commitment to self-portraits, and according to the exhibition information, Nelimarkka painted probably more self-portraits than any other Finnish painter (room 3.12). There is usually an expression of grim determination and a sideways glance, sometimes plain agony. Nelimarkka was a self-made man who rose to the top from conditions of grinding poverty. Hardship marked him. In a country which during his lifetime endured four wars, the Great Depression and the tough post-WWII reconstruction, people could identify with him.

Religion was a profound aspect in Nelimarkka's life. He painted explicitly religious works such as altarpieces, but a dimension of transcendence is ubiquitous in his entire oeuvre. It can be felt in the immense skies of his landscapes and the suffering in his auto-portraits.

His interiors have been singled out as special by critics such as Marja-Terttu Kivirinta, and today they are the big discovery for me. Nelimarkka's interiors can be can be compared with Vermeer, Schjerfbeck (The Door), Hammershøi and Hopper. The views are ordinary, but there is a presence of something extraordinary. The stairways, the doors and the windows seem to lead to the beyond.

Like Caspar David Friedrich, Nelimarkka often portrays people in Rückenfigur, with their back turned to us. Nelimarkka's group portraits are severe and solemn, but I imagine a smile lurking behind the serious pose. A loving glow radiates from the portraits of his wife Saima. His portraits of babies are sensitive and tender. His nudes are warm and sensual, self-confident women happy about their beauty as God intended, not objects of male gaze.

Nelimarkka was a well-travelled man whose favourite city was Paris. The avid visitor of Le Louvre found his direction in the mighty continuity of world art. Awareness of contemporary and international trends did not tempt him to follow them. Instead Paris encouraged him to find a world of his own and portray it in a way of his own.

Nainen joka katosi / The Girl Who Disappeared

Simo Halinen: Nainen joka katosi / The Girl Who Disappeared 1–4 (FI 2026). Top: Saga Sarkola as Maura. Below: Johannes Holopainen (Aaro), Pekka Strang (Erkka), Oona Airola (Linda).

L'Écho du silence / La noia desapareguda [Catalan title].

    FI © Reelmedia 2024. Year of Polar+/Canal+ release 2025. Year of Finnish release 2026. MTV original series. P: Pauliina Teirikari. EX: Johanna Enäsuo, Marko Röhr, Janne Vakio (MTV Finland), Marjukka Laurila (MTV Finland)

    D+SC+original story: Simo Halinen - based on his novel (2022). Chat dialogue: Jemina Juuti. DP: Päivi Kettunen. Underwater cinematography: Teemu Liakka. Post: James Post. PD: Otto Lume. Cost: Anna Vilppunen. Makeup: Minna Pilvinen. VFX: Sami Haartemo. Graphic design: Tuukka Tujula, Sami Haartemo. M: Timo Hietala. S: Zacharias Kullman. ED: Joona Louhivuori. Casting: Vera Melleri.

    C: Saga Sarkola (Maura), Johannes Holopainen (Aaro), Pekka Strang (Erkka), Oona Airola (Linda), Senja Poikonen (Ronja).

    Tuomas Rinta-Panttila (Makkonen), Konsta Laakso (Otso), Leea Klemola (Aaro's mother), Linda Hämäläinen (Malla), Stefan Karlsson (theatre actor), Markus Ilkka Uolevi (theatre actor), Kimmo Rasila (theatre actor), Miska Kaukonen (therapist), Mika Kujala (psychologist), Mari Lehtonen (hospital ward manager), Kati Uhlgren (patient in rehabilitation), Janne Mattila (police officer), Jonne Karttula (police officer), Gabriela Rodriguez (police officer), Jukka Pietilä (cantor).

    The dog: Bono, a white shepherd dog.

    Loc: Turku, Helsinki, Ruissalo, Raisio, Vepsä, Pohjankulma, Munstenpellonkatu, Ruoholahti.

    Four episodes of 41 min. Total duration 164 min

    Released by Polar+-/Canal+ in April 2025 in France and Poland.

    Released at MTV Katsomo+ streaming service 20 Aug 2026.

    Vimeo link viewed at home, 23 Aug 2026.

MTV Katsomo official promotion: "MTV's taut new series The Girl Who Disappeared weaves together a story about a crime from the past from three different viewpoints. Based on an eponymous novel by Simo Halinen, the four-part series stars Saga Sarkola, Johannes Holopainen, Oona Airola and Pekka Strang. The series has been written and directed by Simo Halinen."

"The Girl Who Disappeared is a thriller series about a sinister crime whose shadow falls upon four people. In the summer night, Aaro meets the sympathetic and enigmatic Maura with whom he falls in love, leading to a passionate relationship of a kind that Aaro had never even dared to dream about. Suddenly Maura disappears, and Aaro finds out that nothing Maura told about herself is true - did the woman even exist? As an insurance lawyer Aaro is able to track Maura down. It turns out that a crime in the past has left a permanent mark on Maura."

""The Girl Who Disappeared unfolds in a style of which I have always been very fond. It is not a straightforward thriller but a fabric growing denser from episode to episode, demanding attention from the viewer. It is driven by subtle performances. A long time I had wanted to work with Saga, Johannes, Pekka and Oona. The fact that I succeeded to engage them all made the shooting process in Turku exceptionally rewarding, which I hope is also reflected in the end result", Halinen says." (my translation)

Simo Halinen: Nainen joka katosi / The Girl Who Disappeared (FI 2026). Episode 1: Katoaminen saarella / [Disappearance on an Island]. Saga Sarkola as Maura.

Jakso 1: Katoaminen saarella / [Disappearance on an Island].

    "Aaro meets Maura on a summer night in Helsinki. A relationship is ignited, and Maura tempts Aaro to a boat trip. During the trip, Maura's behaviour turns strange, and in the morning Aaro discovers that Maura has disappeared."

Simo Halinen: Nainen joka katosi / The Girl Who Disappeared (FI 2026). Episode 2: Isän tyttö / [Daddy's Girl]. Oona Airola as Linda. Pekka Strang as Erkka.

Jakso 2: Isän tyttö / [Daddy's Girl]

    "Erkka receives a message insisting him to leave Linda and Ronja (Senja Poikonen) alone. He learns from Linda that Ronja's real mother is Maura. Erkka has a premonition and demands an explanation. Is he Ronja's father?"

Simo Halinen: Nainen joka katosi / The Girl Who Disappeared (FI 2026). Episode 3: Kuka on Erik Halme? / [Who Is Erik Halme?]. Pekka Strang as Erkka. 

Jakso 3: Kuka on Erik Halme? / [Who Is Erik Halme?]

    "Erkka threatens to tell Linda that he is Ronja's father. Maura remembers the events of the past differently and accuses Erkka of rape. Finally Maura realizes that the only one who can help her is Aaro."

Simo Halinen: Nainen joka katosi / The Girl Who Disappeared (FI 2026). Episode 4: Mauran demonit / [Maura's Demons]. Johannes Holopainen as Aaro.

Jakso 4: Mauran demonit / [Maura's Demons]

    "Maura receives a phone call from Ronja who seems frightened. Erkka has moved in with them, and Ronja feels uncomfortable about Erkka. Maura realizes that Ronja is in danger. She must save her." (Synopsis translations by me).

AA: Simo Halinen's The Girl Who Disappeared is a haunting contemporary crime series about a dangerous love affair between Aaro (Johannes Holopainen), an insurance lawyer, and Maura (Saga Sarkola), a mystery woman. Their paths cross in summertime Helsinki, and a passionate relationship emerges. 

A shared background in dysfunctional families may be an unconscious denominator which brings them together. Much is unresolved and unexplored in their lives. Both are awkward in relationships. Theirs is not a casual affair.

When Maura disappears and Aaro starts making inquiries, the authorities merely state that Aaro has been dumped. But Aaro senses that this would be out of character. He is not naive, but he is deeply disturbed when he discovers that nothing Maura had told him was true. Nothing, that is, of the external facts, starting with a real name and occupation. But the passion is real and all-important.

Gradually Aaro begins to discover the shocking truth about Maura. Her life has been broken by sexual abuse and blackmail as a teenager, and she has become a teenage mother, her daughter Ronja officially adopted by her big sister Linda. Maura's personality has been severely disturbed, and she entertains suicidal thoughts. In the final settling of accounts with the predator, bloody manslaughter cannot be avoided.

The Girl Who Disappeared is a moody thriller about broken lives. The voice of life-affirmation is quiet but irrepressible. The silent resolve of Johannes Holopainen as Aaro is convincing. Saga Sarkola conveys the psychological complexity of Maura memorably.

The novel on which the tv series is based has two first person narrators: M (man) and N (nainen = woman). The tv series is not a double narrative, but it is non-linear and follows separate stories in jumbled timelines.

The Girl Who Disappeared, a psychological thriller, is character-driven, and the cast is great. Saga Sarkola (Maura), Johannes Holopainen (Aaro), Pekka Strang (Erkka) and Oona Airola (Linda) carry the main roles. The story is also landscape-driven. Essential locations are found in summertime nature. Water and the sea offer powerful imagery with timeless poetic dimensions.

The Girl Who Disappeared belongs to films with Vertigo affinities. These include some imagery and some main themes such as woman as an illusion and a history of sexual abuse. Unlike Hitchcock, Halonen does not pursue the transcendental and the metaphysical. His story is firmly set in reality. The issues are about commitments and responsibility, unflinching in matters of fatal consequences such as rape, teenage pregnancy and murder.

I have always followed Simo Halinen with interest, including the most recent movies Kerron sinulle kaiken / Open Up to Me (2013, its lead actress Leea Klemola striking also in The Girl Who Disappeared) and Kääntöpiste / East of Sweden (2018). I was converted by his first feature films Minerva (1997, which I included in my annual list of favourite films) and Cyclomania (2001, one of my favourite Helsinki movies), and even before them I had registered his name in student works such as Variksenpelätti ([Scarecrow], 1989).

The Girl Who Disappeared is a new experiment in non-linear narrative. As in William Faulkner's Requiem for a Nun, "The past is never dead. It's not even past". We keep returning to key situations from new angles and added pieces of information which change the meaning of what we thought we knew, but: "How little we know", as Lauren Bacall sang in To Have and Have Not. 

Halonen avoids melodrama and romantic splendour. He favours understatement and subtlety. Since this is a suspense thriller, I would have welcomed more intensity. Maura and Aaro are sleepwalkers in their own lives. Their chance meeting is a wake-up call. A great love story is supposed to be electrifying. I would not mind seeing more sparks fly.

Simo Halinen: Nainen joka katosi (2022). Novel published by CrimeTime / Docendo / WSOY. Hard cover. 208 pages. Suomen dekkariseuran Vuoden esikoisdekkari -palkinto / Annual award for the best debut in the detective novel, in February 2023. Book cover design: Jussi Karjalainen.