By Brendan Boyle The opening passage of Daughter of Rage outlines the world of young heroine María (Ara Alejandra Medal), depicting the scavenger economy centered around a Nicaraguan landfill. Director Laura Baumeister introduces the children who pick through the waste in a surreal image that shows them rising out of the trash dunes, set to…

By Brendan Boyle Following the case of a 13-year-old girl who was raped by three men in Jharkand, India, To Kill a Tiger upsets all manner of clichés about narratives of sexual assault and criminal justice. Director Nisha Pahuja takes her camera into some unfriendly settings, and the villagers and local authorities direct a startling…

By Brendan Boyle Director Abba Makama displays an array of tones in his Lagos odyssey The Lost Okoroshi, which follows Raymond Obinwa (Seun Ajayi), a shiftless security worker who commutes to the city and, one morning, finds himself transformed in his bed into the voiceless purple spirit of his dreams. Stricken mute by his transformation,…

By Brendan Boyle  Early in Katrin Gebbe’s Pelican Blood, an abrupt edit takes the viewer to the scene of a clash between police and rioters. Smoke hangs in the air and the mounted police struggle to control their horses. After a moment it becomes clear that the scene is being staged: the rioters are only…