
THE OLD SCHOOL

Other movies

MODI - THREE DAYS ON THE WING OF MADNESS
Director: Johnny Depp
Amedeo Modigliani’s life is in a bohemian state of chaos. It is 1916 and Paris is suffering the deprivations of war; with no money, he and his decadent friends drink, take loads of drugs, make art and fail to sell it, then argue with the landladies who want to evict them. Modi, as his artist friends Utrillo and Soutine like to call him, is offered a lifeline by an American collector (a superb cameo from Al Pacino) but, as usual, he sabotages the opportunity. Sadly, his true status as a leading light of modern art would only be recognised after his premature death. Director Johnny Depp clearly revels in his hero’s excesses, invigorating his story with the spirit of punk rock.

RED PATH
Director: Lotfi Achour
Ashraf, a shepherd boy working with his teenage cousin in impoverished northern Tunisia faces the unimaginable when Islamic State terrorists set on them and behead his cousin Nizar in front of him. Ashraf has no choice but to take the head back to his family, who can do nothing: the terrorists are a constant threat, while the police are indifferent to the problems of poor herders. Nizar’s parents fixate on trying to recover his body for a proper burial, but Ashraf has no way of dealing with his trauma, clinging to the visions he has of Nizar during which he can talk to his cousin’s ghost. An extraordinary journey into the wounded psyche of a child in a war zone, heightened by Ali AlHleili’s captivating performance.

MOON
Director: Kurdwin Ayub
Sarah, a former mixed martial arts champion in Austria, knows she needs to make a new start. While her sister urges her to start a business, she jumps at an unexpected offer to go to Jordan to train three teenage daughters of a dazzlingly rich family living in an isolated, fiercely guarded mansion. Sarah soon sees that the girls don’t want to train, but have little else in their closeted lives: no internet allowed, no friends and only rare outings to the mall, where they are closely watched, for entertainment. The house, moreover, seems to hold its own secrets; why is Sarah forbidden to go upstairs? Director Ayub maintains the tension of a thriller in this story of life in a golden cage.