Stylish should be his middle name: Luca Guadagnino to receive SIAE Andrea Purgatori prize in Venice

E. Nina Rothe August 25, 2023

From his latest collaboration with Spanish luxury house Loewe, to his latest film which features everyone’s favorite girl Zendaya, the Italian-Algerian filmmaker and fashionista has always proven that cinema and fashion go hand in hand.

"...I haven't completely lost hope" writes Amos Gitai about Israel, in Sunday's 'La Repubblica'

E. Nina Rothe August 10, 2023

The beloved international filmmaker and artist, who spends his time between Haifa and Paris, has taken to writing op-eds in the international media, where he equates his country’s leader, Benjamin Netanyahu to Machiavelli and draws parallels between Israel’s distant past with its possible undoing because of Bibi’s latest act.

*Photo by © Getty Images, courtesy of the DFI, used with permission.*

Michael Winterbottom at Qumra 2023: "If you want to have a healthy film culture, you want directors who are making lots of films"

E. Nina Rothe August 9, 2023

Qumra Master Michael Winterbottom is a critically acclaimed British filmmaker renowned for unconventional narratives and hard-hitting social commentary. In fact, what Winterbottom does counts as much in real life as it does on the big screen.

Six questions with Palestinian filmmaker Annemarie Jacir

E. Nina Rothe August 3, 2023

A personal favorite helmer, Jacir’s latest project ‘All Before You’ has just been accepted to participate in the upcoming Venice Film Festival’s Gap-Financing Market.

*Kaouther Ben Hania, in blue, flanked by the cast and crew of her latest film in Cannes*

An open letter to Kaouther Ben Hania about her latest film 'Four Daughters'

E. Nina Rothe August 2, 2023

For as long as I've been watching her work, the filmmaker has been reinventing cinema, her cinema, which knows no boundaries and sees no limits.

John Malkovich talks 'Seneca', acting in the TikTok generation & shooting in Morocco, again

E. Nina Rothe July 17, 2023

The American actor may have said something during the press conference about his good friend Julian Sands, also featured in the film Malkovich is promoting at this year's Berlinale, but during our interview the tragedy of the actor who has gone missing felt like a looming presence, unspoken and indescribable.

An interview with Aamir Khan for 'Laal Singh Chaddha', the Indian Forrest Gump

E. Nina Rothe June 30, 2023

"We have such a large and healthy audience of our own in India, the fact is that none of the filmmakers have really felt the need to reach out to a world audience," Aamir Khan told me in 2010, "and when I say really felt the need, I mean filmmakers in Argentina perhaps, or in France or Germany, different parts of the world, don't have such big and healthy audiences of their own and so they come from a situation where they really need to reach out to a world audience and an audience in the West."

"The digital revolution has brought democracy to filmmaking": Spike Lee speaks

E. Nina Rothe June 16, 2023

Thirty years after Lee's film 'Malcolm X' was the first ever international production to film in Mecca, the filmmaker returned to Saudi Arabia, to bring his film full circle and inspire film lovers in the Kingdom.

"If only there was a Palestinian Superman": An interview with Sayed Kashua

E. Nina Rothe June 15, 2023

Sayed Kashua is a Palestinian writer who pens his work in Hebrew and whose latest projects include a film helmed by an Israeli filmmaker and a TV series airing on Israeli kids TV -- but don't call the man a bridge-builder, not to his face anyway!

"The language of cinema is universal": Damian Kocur's 'Bread and Salt' in Cairo

E. Nina Rothe October 20, 2022

Before the film received one more award, this time at the Cairo International Film Festival, I sat down with the Polish filmmaker to talk cinema, inspiration and what constitutes the best soundtrack of all to him in a film.

Hany Abu-Assad talks 'Huda's Salon', Arab women audiences & the theme of betrayal

E. Nina Rothe March 2, 2022

In his latest film, Palestinian auteur Hany Abu-Assad does what he does best -- tackles betrayal and draws us a story made in human shades of grey.

*A still from ‘Until Tomorrow’ which world premiered at Berlinale in 2022*

Ali Asgari talks 'Until Tomorrow' and filmmaking in Iran

E. Nina Rothe January 3, 2022

Don’t think of this film as your ordinary Western world garden variety torment, as Asgari's oeuvre usually involves two individuals dancing a dance of impossibilities with the authorities of Tehran, trying to navigate a world that makes one's humanity a challenge.

Darren Aronofsky at El Gouna FF gives a masterclass in personal filmmaking

E. Nina Rothe October 20, 2021

The American filmmaker talked about inspiration, meeting one's heroes and making personal films the audience wants to watch, at a great masterclass in Egypt. in 2021.

*Searching for Sarah, in ‘A Starry Sky Above the Roman Ghetto’ by Giulio Base*

Magical: Giulio Base and his wondrous ‘A Starry Sky Above the Roman Ghetto’ hits the U.S.

E. Nina Rothe March 3, 2021

I remember the very day I discovered Italian filmmaker and actor Giulio Base — on Twitter! His voice of reason seemed like such a breath of fresh air on a platform usually invaded by opinionated views that only wish to prove any wisdom wrong. I went about finding out more on this artist, the man behind the avatar “Il Banchiere Anarchico” (The Anarchic Banker) which was what his Twitter handle was at the time. The journey didn’t disappoint. Base is as cool a filmmaker as he is an actor but also as a man. And that perfect package is wrapped up in kindness, intelligence and generosity.

*A still from the short ‘Maya at 24’ by Lynne Sachs*

"Lynne Sachs: Between Thought and Expression" and why you cannot miss her MoMI retrospective

E. Nina Rothe January 12, 2021

All the great filmmakers have been artists of the lens. If you think about Hitchcock, Truffaut, Wilder, Kazan, Visconti, Fellini and endless more that make up our collective cinematic heritage, they constructed their work like one long sequence of aesthetics — sight and sound.

Lynne Sachs is no exception.

*Julia Vysotskaya in a still from ‘Dear Comrades!, photo by Sasha Gusov, Courtesy of NEON*

Watch 'Dear Comrades!'... and some Andrei Konchalovsky wisdom will be your gift in return

E. Nina Rothe December 25, 2020

So, if I had to explain why Andrei Konchalovsky’s films appeal so deeply to me, what would I say? That his women characters are always the entree in his films and often his male roles seem like the parsley sprinkled around them to enhance the presentation. Embodied often by his real-life wife Julia Vysotskaya, women like Lyuda in ‘Dear Comrades!’ appeal to my sense of womanhood, to my inner strength but also on a very basic aesthetic level. Lyuda is elegant, in her clunky shoes and with her hungry, lean body, as are the men around her. First and foremost Konchalovsky is a true artist, always loyal to the visual — the most important aspect of the seventh art.

*Rufus Sewell photographed by James Van Alden, courtesy of CIFF*

Rufus Sewell does his thing at this year’s Cairo International Film Festival: "I’m not nearly as rock and roll as I used to think..."

E. Nina Rothe December 21, 2020

Since “virtual is the new black” as Cairo Industry Days Head Aliaa Zaky so perfectly pointed out in a Facebook post, I got to interview Rufus Sewell on Zoom while the actor was in Cairo — with the hustle and bustle of a film festival happening all around him. As a journalist who specializes in interviews, I have to say that I’ve never interviewed anyone like Sewell. Funny, insightful, but also ready to steer me in the right direction when I went wrong. While replaying it to write it out, I found the interview fascinating and heard myself not so much in the driver’s seat, as I’m accustomed to during a Q & A, but rather enjoying a passenger’s side ride into the life, love and career of one of the most charismatic actors of our time.

Lesson in Sincerity: Sir Christopher Hampton receives Lifetime Achievement Award at this year's Cairo International Film Festival

E. Nina Rothe December 4, 2020

Oscar-winning writer Sir Christopher Hampton has the wonderfully modest aura about him. Despite being an awardee of one of the most coveted prizes in the world, a celebrated screenwriter and playwright, the perfect translator of the works of two of the most notable French authors of contemporary times, Hampton is humble.

Tilda Swinton on Learning from Her Children, Four-Legged Wisdom and Cinematic Friendships

E. Nina Rothe November 5, 2020

Today, on November 5th 2020 Tilda Swinton turned 60. Wrap your head around that little boys and girls. Sixty! And she looks absolutely flawless IRL. So, I celebrate her agelessness by posting an interview from Cannes 2017 when I got to sit next to her majestic beauty and fell in awe of her class.

Paradise is a talk with the Maestro: Resharing my interview with Andrei Konchalovsky

E. Nina Rothe September 13, 2020

Is Paradise always a great place, for all?

We use the word “paradise” loosely in our everyday lives, to describe an idyllic place where we spent our summer vacation, or the word’s more common counterpart “heaven” to talk about a feeling of bliss after a great meal or an intense yoga class. But can the concept of paradise be used to create a hell on earth for some?

In-depth interviews and casual chats with the personalities and influencers of today, yesterday and tomorrow.