The Exile of the Gaze
Nyla Matuk
In 'Leila & Khaled', Nyla Matuk tells not only of a return to Palestine, but also of the impossibility of escaping the images shaped by her own Western socialisation
Between the lines
Neue Visionen
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Erika Mann (Sandra Hüller) & Thomas Mann (Hanns Zischler)
With 'Fatherland', Paweł Pawlikowski responds to Colm Tóibín’s Thomas Mann novel with radical minimalism: a film of glances, pauses and empty spaces – overwhelmingly beautiful, though at times too ascetic
You can't talk about oil
Private
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Nastaran Makaremi
Refineries, a curse, and black gold. Workers, legends, petroleum. Nastaran Makaremi’s novel "Total" revolves around oil. And then becomes part of its next transformation.
The Hippie by the Lake
Private
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Heike Behrend
Ethnologist Heike Behrend is researching a German provincial prophet who ran a commercial "Garden of Paradise" in the Altmark region in the early 20th century
The fish rots from the head down
Pete Marovich
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Evan Osnos
Today’s financial elite are ultra-rich. The term refers to the ultimate level of wealth, beyond anything that can be tangibly grasped. In “The Haves and Have-Yachts”, Evan Osnos brings us news from another world.
The End of the Odyssey
Universal
If only Christopher Nolan had listened to James Joyce. Instead, he transforms Homer’s fluid, ambiguous 'Odyssey' into a rigid monument of masculine pathos, plot-driven drama, and sensory overload.
The Bitterness of Proximity
Bea Phi, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
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Yang Shuang-zi
Yang Shuang-zi’s award-winning novel 'Taiwan Travelogue' blends colonial history, desire and culinary art with as much emotion as intelligence – and every dish is allowed to tell a story of power
The biggest heist of all time?
Debashree Mitra
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William Dalrymple
In "The Anarchy", William Dalrymple recounts how the British East India Company conquered the mighty Mughal Empire, plundered the wealthy region of Bengal, and, in its day, became an early symbol of global corporate power
The song of the heartbroken
Abderrahim Annag
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Abdellah Taïa
Abdellah Taïa's "Die Bastion der Tränen" is a poetic and painful novel about homosexuality, exile and the incurable wounds of origin, family and social confinement in a Morocco of memory
Those who remain silent about techno-capitalism are talking about vampires
Nat Ruiz
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Madeline Cash
A billionaire, the blood of young women, bomb-making, Islamists online: Madeline Cash collects contemporary conspiracy theories. It’s funny, but why does 'Lost Lambs' remain silent when power is laid bare?