Joel Schalit / 21 Apr 2023

Liberation Day Today

Remembering WWII in Italy

In the lead-up to every Liberation Day on 25 April, adverts commemorating the event appear on most of the municipal billboards of my Torino neighbourhood.(...)
The Battleground / 20 Feb 2023

Retro World

The Battleground’s Spring Books List

Protests and war belong together. Not because they reflect each other but because conflict stirs the pot. Not just about itself but everything else.(...)
Charlie Bertsch / 02 Feb 2023

Pre-Neoliberal Poland

Krzysztof Kieślowski’s The Scar

Krzysztof Kieślowski's 1976 film The Scar, which chronicles the construction and operation of a large chemical factory, breaks many of the rules that had governed narrative cinema since the silent era.(...)
John Foster / 25 Nov 2022

Think Different

Culture from the Slums, by Jeff Hayton

Based on the flurry of academic titles about it over the last decade, punk has become as common to college curriculums as it is to the Top 40. Why this took so long is baffling.(...)

Charlie Bertsch / 03 Nov 2022

Breaking the Rules

Daisies, by Věra Chytilová

Czech filmmaker Věra Chytilová’s insisted that her remarkable 1966 film Daisies was a critique of decadence, personified in the young women, both named Marie, who are its protagonists. (...)

Charlie Bertsch / 06 Jul 2022

Working Through History

Folk on Acid, by OOPUS

If you stumbled upon Estonian band OOPUS at a festival, where many different acts are on the schedule, it might take you a few minutes to realize how special they are.(...)

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