Flatpack Film Festival: probably the coolest film festival in the UK
Flatpack Film Festival; probably the coolest film festival in the UK - words Pilar R.Laguna Flatpack Film Festival took place last week in Birmingham. It was a genuine film festival created in order to satisfy not only film lovers, but art lovers in general- since it...
Museum Island Hombroich – Where Nature and Art Converge
From time to time we have all been overwhelmed by the number of paintings, sculptures and artifacts juxtaposed in an array of museum rooms - haven’t we? Step up Museum Island Hombroich, presenting nature and art as one. The aggregate of art pieces we are exposed to in...
Fickle Britain: Our love of foreign television dramas
Britain’s standpoint on the world beyond its Channel is riddled with contradictions. On the one hand, we are notoriously lazy-linguists, reluctant even to pick up a foreign language phrase-book for our holidays abroad. Yet, the other hand holds us up as a shining...
“Eating is a deadly sin” – A conversation with Jay Rayner
words Chris Zacharia “Eating is a visceral thing - it's mentioned in the deadly sins for a reason” - A conversation with Jay Rayner He’s the master of restaurant reviews. His appearances on The One Show make it almost bearable. And now he’s touring the country...
Interview with Jaco Van Dormael on his film Brand New Testament
Interview with Jaco Van Dormael by Paul Risker Jaco Van Dormael’s comedy Brand New Testament serves up the suggestion that God has a flexible persona that can feed the revisionist imagination. It is one that draws on the ruthlessness of the original Old Testament God...
Boyds Grill and Wine Bar has grown well into its new shoes
Boyds Grill and Wine Bar review by Lawrence Hunt Inhabiting the entrance to an exquisite hotel can be a blessing and a curse for a restaurant like Boyds Grill and Wine Bar. Coated in marble from floor to ceiling, this grand lobby looks like Caesar’s palace - in the...
Game of Thrones the story so far and what happens next?
The long wait is over. Forget the EU referendum this is really what most of us in the UK are waiting for with bated breath. To celebrate the upcoming release of season 6 of HBO’s hit TV series Game of Thrones, Into the Blue have created a handy season 5 recap map to...
Victoria film review – Intense, unique thriller set in Berlin
Victoria film review by Paul Risker Sebastian Schipper’s Victoria opens with the guise of the simplest of constructs. It is so much so that if its narrative was a city, then it would mirror the empty streets of Berlin during the early hours that is the stage for its...
Speed Sisters film – Meet the Middle Eastern all female racing team
To the international communities inward gaze, the familiar perspective of Palestine is one of political and social turmoil that has been forged through a prolonged and bloody tussle with Israel. Yet beneath this contentious veil, Amber Fares’ documentary Speed Sisters...
The Passing film – A tense claustrophobic tale
The Passing film review by Paul Risker A golden age has unfolded here in the UK for foreign language television drama and as with any such prosperous time it seems never-ending. Closer to home Welsh crime drama Hinterland has been the recipient of a cold shoulder,...
Anthropology by Mark Powell – Powerful & moving portraiture
Anthropology by Mark Powell - Powerful portraiture at the Hang-Up Gallery - written by Bojana Duric Artist Mark Powell has returned to Hang-Up gallery – located in the eclectic neighbourhood of Stoke Newington – for his new show entitled Anthropology. Known for his...
Ceviche Old St review – An impressive interplay between texture and flavour
A shadow announces Old St’s Ceviche. A metal logo, lit from above and projecting across the brickwork of the building, serves as a conveniently artistic introduction to a meal filled with cleverness, the interplay between texture and flavour mirroring the sign’s dance...
I am Belfast film – Self Portrait of a city still troubled
I Am Belfast film review by Paul Risker There are those actors that act with their eyes, and for this type of actor the eyes literally become the window to the soul of their performance. The poetic voice of Mark Cousins is one of cinema's distinctive voices that...
Classic to craft: cocktails at Drake & Morgan Kings Cross
Tuesday cocktails. That’s a thing, isn’t it? Everyone knows Tuesdays are terrible, and sometimes the only thing to get you through that not-even-halfway-through slump is the promise of something delicious and drinkable at the end of the day. That’s why I was so...
Couple in a Hole film review – Grieving couple seek refuge in the forest
Couple in a Hole film review by Paul Risker There is a process of eternal recurrence in cinema through the storyteller and the audiences combined interest in specific themes. And Tom Geens’ Couple In A Hole represents another point of recurrence with a tale centred...