Charlie Bertsch / 27 Sep 2023
Love After Fascism
Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s The Marriage of Maria Braun
The Marriage of Maria Braun is a cinematic speedball, tugging the heart in opposite directions until it cannot bear the strain.(...)
Russia
Wieland Hoban / 26 Jul 2023
Faking the Other
German Jewish Realities and Fantasies
According to the Berlin-based Jewish philosopher Susan Neiman, "There is nothing more German than wanting to be Jewish."(...)
Charlie Bertsch / 05 Jul 2023
Reliving the Cold War
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny probably won’t make a lasting impression on people not already invested in its titular character.(...)
Charlie Bertsch / 28 Jun 2023
Back to the Future
Decisive Pink’s Ticket to Fame
Ticket to Fame, the debut LP by avantpop duo Decisive Pink, isn’t likely to take them far. But the band's refusal to follow the playbook for success gives the record a staying power that hit-minded music rarely achieves.(...)
Basilio Korman / 17 Jun 2023
Only Loyal to Himself
Silvio Berlusconi and L’Etat Pour Moi
There’s an old Doonesbury comic strip about a group of rich people attending a seminar to overcome their guilt about being rich.(...)
Natalie Sarkic-Todd / 02 Jun 2023
May Days in Montenegro
The Month to End All Months
May in Montenegro holds particular historical significance. It marks the country’s triumph over fascism in WWII but also, since 2006, its regained independence, relinquished after WWI to what became Yugoslavia.(...)
Charlie Bertsch / 24 May 2023
Jewish and European
Agnieszka Holland’s Europa Europa
Agnieszka Holland’s 1990 film Europa Europa tells a powerful tale of World War II and the Holocaust, all the more awful for the absurdity it conveys.(...)
Charlie Bertsch / 05 May 2023
The Long 1980s
Molchat Doma in America
When Belorussian dark wave band Molchat Doma began to play their viral TikTok hit Судно at their recent Tucson, Arizona show, I looked out over the tightly packed crowd filling the floor in front of me and was struck by how happy and how diverse it was, from race to age to fashion.(...)
Natalie Sarkic-Todd / 08 Apr 2023
Let Down by the West
Montenegro on the Edge
The Djukanović era is over. On 2 April, Montenegrins voted 59/41 in favour of his opponent, Jakov Milatović.(...)