Phuong Le

1 month ago | theguardian.com | Phuong Le

Living in the remote, mountainous Daikundi province in central Afghanistan, the Khawari family is part of the Hazara community, one of the most persecuted ethnic groups in the region. The family’s day-to-day life is coloured by tragedy: while enrolled at Kabul University, Zahra, the eldest daughter, killed herself after her thesis was repeatedly rejected by her supervisors.

1 month ago | theguardian.com | Phuong Le

There’s a woozy and seductive quality to Yashaddai Owens’s impressionistic narrative debut. Shot in evocative black and white on textured 16mm stock, this almost dialogue-free feature evokes the freewheeling spirit of 1920s city symphony films. The propulsive opening alights at Istanbul, a metropolis gradually rousing from slumber.

1 month ago | theguardian.com | Phuong Le

Before Russia’s invasion in 2022, the eastern region of Donbas in Ukraine had already experienced some of the bloodshed that was soon to come on a much larger scale. Shot in 2019, Alisa Kovalenko’s moving documentary captures the restlessness and dread that hung over the small towns in then Ukrainian-controlled territory. At the same time, despite the misery of war, a group of friends dare to dream of faraway horizons.

1 month ago | theguardian.com | Phuong Le

‘Johatsu” means evaporation in Japanese, and is used to refer to those people who choose to disappear, severing all ties with their past lives and their families. It became a phenomenon in Japan in the 1960s, and intensified during the 1990s as the country struggled with a debt crisis. While some plot their departures on their own, others call on the services of “night movers”: companies that help people vanish without trace.

2 months ago | theguardian.com | Phuong Le

Formally inventive and emotionally resonant, Olga Chernykh’s documentary feature debut highlights the power of cinema as a guardian of memories. Using a wealth of archival footage to act as a bridge between the past and the present, the film views the war in Ukraine through a family lens. Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022 is contextualised, not as a lone event, but within a history of aggression and generational loss.