Bimal Roy’s long, conventional Devdas is based on a 1917 novel by Saratchandra Chatterjee. The story is depressing. Wealth and class divide childhood sweethearts Devdas and Parvati (“Paro”), sending the boy into alcoholism and the girl into a forced marriage. Extremely sick, Devdas acts on a promise he once made to Paro to visit her […]

It has been compared to Nuovo cinema Paradiso (Giuseppe Tornatore, 1988), but Karpuz kabuğundan gemiler yapmak, from Turkey, is far, far superior. Set in the 1960s in the Anatolian village of Tepecik, this autobiographical first feature by writer-director Ahmet Uluçay centers on two young teenaged boys who dream of becoming film directors. At the moment, […]