![Image](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BOTk5NjEzMGYtODY3Yy00ZDQxLWEzNGQtMTQyZGEwNmZlYjgzXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTE0MzQwMjgz._V1_QL75_UY281_CR5,0,500,281_.jpg)
Multi-dn alum filmmaker Adi Halfin makes a welcome return to our pages with the director’s cut of her Calia gym fashion short There’s Beauty in the Burn. It’s a kinetic, energising film that captures the grace and power found in the pain & gain of exercise culture. In just under a minute, we see women in tandem combine intense workouts with the beauty of dance, highlighting how the two aren’t diametrically opposed and are, instead, two sides of the same movement-driven coin. We’ve been fans of Halfin’s filmmaking for years now, so it’s fascinating to see how she adapts her expressive style to new territory. Halfin joined us for the conversation below where she explains the choreographic language she set out to achieve, the process of generating ideas during each step of a project’s creation, and the joy of adaptive commercial filmmaking.
How...
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- 5/8/2024
- by James Maitre
- Directors Notes
![John and the Hole (2021)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMDliZjJmZGYtMjk0NS00YzgyLWI2MGQtZTRmZWRhNWI3Yzg1XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTE1MzI2NzIz._V1_QL75_UX140_CR0,0,140,207_.jpg)
![John and the Hole (2021)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMDliZjJmZGYtMjk0NS00YzgyLWI2MGQtZTRmZWRhNWI3Yzg1XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTE1MzI2NzIz._V1_QL75_UX140_CR0,0,140,207_.jpg)
The expressionless face of a longhaired teenage boy stares at the unconscious body of his family’s gardener. He holds a heavy stick menacingly, and at that point we are not certain what he is going to do with it.
In “John and the Hole,” Spanish director Pascual Sisto toys with the viewer’s predisposition to think violence will ensue throughout his intriguing psychodrama about the threshold between childhood and adulthood.
That fear that things might go awry is not unfounded, as the calibrated plot of the screenplay by Argentine writer Nicolás Giacobone (“Birdman”) astutely conceives situations that constantly hint at the possibility of a gruesome turn. However, and surely intentionally on the artists’ part, that read of what’s on screen might depend partially on one’s jaded adult worldview.
While flying a high-tech drone, 13-year-old John (Charlie Shotwell), a hard-to-read adolescent, discovers a bunker, a hole in the ground,...
In “John and the Hole,” Spanish director Pascual Sisto toys with the viewer’s predisposition to think violence will ensue throughout his intriguing psychodrama about the threshold between childhood and adulthood.
That fear that things might go awry is not unfounded, as the calibrated plot of the screenplay by Argentine writer Nicolás Giacobone (“Birdman”) astutely conceives situations that constantly hint at the possibility of a gruesome turn. However, and surely intentionally on the artists’ part, that read of what’s on screen might depend partially on one’s jaded adult worldview.
While flying a high-tech drone, 13-year-old John (Charlie Shotwell), a hard-to-read adolescent, discovers a bunker, a hole in the ground,...
- 8/5/2021
- by Carlos Aguilar
- The Wrap
![Image](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BZTJlOTA0OGEtOWQxYS00NmU2LTg1OTAtNmZlNTk0ZDY1Mjc1XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTE0MzQwMjgz._V1_QL75_UX500_CR0,47,500,281_.jpg)
“John and the Hole” is based on a very short story by Argentine novelist and “Birdman” screenwriter Nicolás Giacobone, which doesn’t come as a surprise for a movie in which its succinct title covers the gist of the plot. The icy debut from installation artist Pascual Sisto unfolds with the sparsity of a drama begging for further elaboration.
At the same time, Sisto’s austere narrative , with the ominous and strange tale of a 13-year-old boy who holds his affluent family captive in an old bunker near their home. A scary, solipsistic variation on “Home Alone,” the movie turns on the twisted appeal of watching its young anti-hero attempt to steal his way into the adult realm and realize he’s trapped himself.
The John in question, a peculiar introvert played by “Captain Fantastic” breakout Charlie Shotwell, seems to possess all the signs of a juvenile psychopath in waiting.
At the same time, Sisto’s austere narrative , with the ominous and strange tale of a 13-year-old boy who holds his affluent family captive in an old bunker near their home. A scary, solipsistic variation on “Home Alone,” the movie turns on the twisted appeal of watching its young anti-hero attempt to steal his way into the adult realm and realize he’s trapped himself.
The John in question, a peculiar introvert played by “Captain Fantastic” breakout Charlie Shotwell, seems to possess all the signs of a juvenile psychopath in waiting.
- 1/30/2021
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
![Centaur (2017)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNmZiNjkzMDUtM2Q0Mi00NGQ2LTk2NTgtOTU3ODViMzY0ZTM3L2ltYWdlXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMjMyOTAwMg@@._V1_QL75_UY207_CR3,0,140,207_.jpg)
![Centaur (2017)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNmZiNjkzMDUtM2Q0Mi00NGQ2LTk2NTgtOTU3ODViMzY0ZTM3L2ltYWdlXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMjMyOTAwMg@@._V1_QL75_UY207_CR3,0,140,207_.jpg)
Eight features and eight short films from the Netherlands or supported by the Dutch have been selected for the 67th Berlin International Film Festival that runs 9–19 Feb 2017.“The Wound”
“The Wound” is the only film ever to world premiere in Sundance, continue into Hivos Tiger Competition in Rotterdam and play Opening Night at the Berlinale Panorama. The movie is universal and potent exploraton of conflicting conceptions of what it means to be a man.
A lonely, young factory worker Xolani travels to a remote mountain camp in South Africa to tend teenage boys going through a traditional Xhola rite of passage. This year, Xolani is assigned to mentor Kwanda, a coddled Jo’burg boy who challenges the customs of the camp and is ostracized by other initiates. Kwanda, as observant as he is insolent, quickly notices the attraction between Xolani and his fellow caregiver, the volatile Vija. Heeding Kwanda’s exhortations,...
“The Wound” is the only film ever to world premiere in Sundance, continue into Hivos Tiger Competition in Rotterdam and play Opening Night at the Berlinale Panorama. The movie is universal and potent exploraton of conflicting conceptions of what it means to be a man.
A lonely, young factory worker Xolani travels to a remote mountain camp in South Africa to tend teenage boys going through a traditional Xhola rite of passage. This year, Xolani is assigned to mentor Kwanda, a coddled Jo’burg boy who challenges the customs of the camp and is ostracized by other initiates. Kwanda, as observant as he is insolent, quickly notices the attraction between Xolani and his fellow caregiver, the volatile Vija. Heeding Kwanda’s exhortations,...
- 2/7/2017
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
It Takes a Muscle: De Jong’s Debut a Vibrant Entry in Familiar Genre
So perhaps there is a room for a bit of inventiveness in the continual exploration of the bildungsroman, at least evidenced by Dutch director Sam de Jong’s directorial debut Prince. Heavily stylized with flourishes of impressive editing and an energetic soundtrack fluctuating between hypnotic electro beats, crooning vintage tracks, and a synthesized menace promising more detrimental events than the film actually delivers, this exploration of life in Amsterdam’s low income housing projects recalls the influences of works by Refn and Antonio Campos, at least as far its power for brooding male leads struggling through an increasingly apathetic universe. Ultimately, de Jong proves to be less interested in the provocations his tone would otherwise indicate, surprisingly crafting a sweet natured portrait of conflicted adolescence.
17 year old Ayoub (Ayoub Elasri) lives with his lonely single Dutch...
So perhaps there is a room for a bit of inventiveness in the continual exploration of the bildungsroman, at least evidenced by Dutch director Sam de Jong’s directorial debut Prince. Heavily stylized with flourishes of impressive editing and an energetic soundtrack fluctuating between hypnotic electro beats, crooning vintage tracks, and a synthesized menace promising more detrimental events than the film actually delivers, this exploration of life in Amsterdam’s low income housing projects recalls the influences of works by Refn and Antonio Campos, at least as far its power for brooding male leads struggling through an increasingly apathetic universe. Ultimately, de Jong proves to be less interested in the provocations his tone would otherwise indicate, surprisingly crafting a sweet natured portrait of conflicted adolescence.
17 year old Ayoub (Ayoub Elasri) lives with his lonely single Dutch...
- 8/13/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
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