Abi Aherne

Wise upon her years, 12-year-old Lee Hana (Kim Na-yeon) is the backbone of her family; acting as a peacekeeper as she tries to calm raging arguments between her parents who are going through a divorce. Constantly cooking dinners in an attempt to bring her family back together – Hana’s gastronomic displays of affection aren’t appreciated by her parents “she’s always trying to cook when nobody asked her to” her mother complains. With no help from her moody teenage brother, Hana puts it on herse...

Returning with his famous love for shooting in black and white and observing the mundane, Hirobumi Watanabe creates a refreshing and funny reflection on when it means to be a creative and what it means to create in his film Life Finds a Way. Starring as himself, Watanabe is spending the summer living at his grandmother’s house. He’s supposed to be writing a new script but he’s behind on schedule and lacking any inspiration. Insistent that it’s impossible to think of any new ideas while the wo...

In America, there is one death by suicide every 12 minutes – equating to over 44,965 deaths a year. For every successful suicide attempt, there are 24 failed ones. In an effort to gain a better comprehension of the causes of suicide, Wake Up: Stories from the Frontlines of Suicide Prevention poses a question as to why traditionally suicide research has always focused firmly on ‘lost’ suicide victims rather than survivors. Instead of solely digging through suicide notes and tracing an individu...

Inspired by a documentary featuring dogs being forced to fight inside car trunks, The Van tells the story of bare-knuckle fighting taking place in vans driven around rural Albania until one of the contestants is knocked out or killed. Amongst this community of fighters and gamblers is a young unnamed upcoming champ, (Phénix Brossard) – ‘the son’. Working with his father (Arben Bajraktaraj) during the day on building sites, the nameless fighter spends his evenings and weekends fighting strange...

As soon as women hit the age of eighteen, we’re jumped on about concerns of ageing. We’re told our bodies are on a downward spiral and after 25 we won’t be able to eat all the things we want to. We’re told it’s never too early to invest in a good eye cream and that we should cherish our chubby cheeks – they’ll save us from ageing in the long run. Women’s worth has long been balanced on their beauty; which in itself, is defined by traits of youth and vitality. Firm and flexible bodies, bright ...

Flooded in neon lights and paired with a booming, brash synthwave-inspired soundtrack – Finky is an atmospheric, drug-fuelled, cynical hurricane. Inspired to infuse Finky with as much colour, absurdity and oddity as possible, director Dathaí Keane strives to mix fantasy and trauma with Cirque du Soleil aesthetics. Filled with notions of pirates, puppets, and carnivals – Finky is a story concerning a lost childhood, the desire to find a place to call home, and the inability to let go of the pa...

Since the late ‘70s, China has implemented a strict policy enforcing that each family is only allowed to have one child in order to control China’s growing population. Although this policy was reformed in 2016, the controversial ‘one-child’ policy has had devastating and traumatic effects on families for generations. Growing up during the height of when this policy was implemented, director Hanxiong Bo explores the extreme lengths this policy drove families to and the crushing expectations an...

Coming out of the growing ‘Abolish ICE’ movement – Gets Good Light is a compassionate and powerful protest against the growing powers of the Immigrant and Customs Enforcement Agency in the United States. Since the start of Trump’s administration, the number of individuals apprehended by ICE has only grown – approximately 4,143 undocumented immigrants without a criminal record are arrested each month in America. Set in near-future New York, Alejandra Parody’s short film is a heartfelt and caut...

Self-improvement seems to be the ‘thing’ of the 21st century – everywhere you look, there are self-help books telling you how you can be the best possible you. Experiences no longer just have to be fun but also ‘life-affirming’. Hobbies are no longer just for enjoyment – but to be a project or skill you’re crafting. This obsession with progression is not exclusive to our work habits or activities, but also in how we approach ourselves. Inspired by the new wave of social media encouraging us t...

In January 2017, President Trump signed an executive order that barred citizens and refugees from Iraq, Iran, Syria, Libya, Sudan, Yemen, and Somalia from entering the U.S for 90 days. All 7 countries being predominantly Islamic, the ban was dubbed as a ‘Muslim ban’ for its Islamophobic undertones and blatant disregard of the lives of Muslim migrants.
Photo © Burn A Light Productions
How Far is Home introduces us to the lives of Ahmed and Ruba Mohammed, two teenage refugees from Iraq living i...

I miss my mates. It’s been almost a year and a half now since I’ve graduated university and don’t get me wrong, I’ve met and reconnected with some wonderful people this year, but God, I miss my uni mates. I miss my course mates, my mates’ mates, my boyfriend’s mates, and even those who have long since unfollowed me on Instagram and unfriended me on Facebook after graduation.

Awaking in a field of swaying lavender, famed philosopher Edmund Burke (Antony Langdon) jumps up – muttering under his breath, ‘this isn’t what I imagined at all – there’s nothing here except lavender and more lavender’. The reason for his peculiarly placed nap? To find out more about the ‘sublime’ – the very concept he discovered a few years earlier in his book A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful. A creative imagining of the ventures of the 18th-...

Arndt Wolf (Sebastian Blomberg) is a bioweapons expert living and working in Berlin in the year 2000. A few years before, he spent months on end working in Iraq helping to search for anthrax production plants. It’s a trip he can’t get his mind off of. Despite his investigation in Iraq being shut down and rumours of Saddam Hussein still having nuclear weapons being squashed, Wolf is obsessed with the idea that chemical weapons are still being produced somewhere in Iraq. At work, he’s assigned ...

With no time to waste, 1917 dives headfirst into its protagonists’ terrifying venture into the heartland of German-occupied France. Somewhere along the north-eastern French trench lines in the midst of WWI, Lance Corporal Blake (Dean-Charles Chapman) and Lance Corporal Schofield (George MacKay) are given orders to cross the frontlines through into German territory to find another British battalion. Their mission of urgency is to deliver orders to call off an attack. An attack that’s going to ...

Nominated for Best Live Action Short Film at the 92nd Oscar Awards, Meryam Joobeur’s Brotherhood is an emotive, discerning and complex look at ISIS’ effect locally on Tunisian families. Mohamed (Mohamed Grayaâ) and his wife, Salha (Salha Nasraoui), are devout Muslims living quiet lives as shepherds with two of their sons in rural Tunisia. A sheep is dying because of a wolf attack; Mohamed whispers a prayer, directs its head towards Mecca and slits its throat to have for dinner. Heaving the sh...