WEB EXCLUSIVE | REVIEW | NZIFF Written by Trevor Pronoso | Letterboxd: @CleverGurl | Instagram: @trev.pro | Contributing Writer The Wizard of the Kremlin dir. Olivier Assayas France/UK/USA, 145 mins Olivier Assayas is a known admirer of Guy Debord, which—despite my not having seen many Assayas films—allows me to make the fair assertion that The Wizard of the Kremlin is a work of détournement (he'd probably let film writers like me make such comparisons before he does), albei

WEB EXCLUSIVE | REVIEW | NZIFF Written by Trevor Pronoso | Letterboxd: @CleverGurl | Instagram: @trev.pro | Contributing Writer The Ice Tower dir. Lucile Hadžihalilović France, 145 mins There's this quote by Terence Davies that immediately popped into my mind halfway through watching The Ice Tower, where he talks about his first time seeing Singin' in the Rain (1952) at the age of seven: "During that scene in the rain, I cried and cried and cried… [My sister] asked, 'Why are

REVIEW | WEB EXCLUSIVE Written by Tashi Donnelly (she/her) | @tashi_rd | Editor Ahead of opening night, I caught up with director Grace Augustine to talk about reimagining Henrik Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People for present-day Aotearoa. You can read that interview here. She told me the production was motivated in part by increasing nitrate contamination in our freshwater, and by a desire to create political theatre that asks audiences to think critically about the systems gove

REVIEW | ISSUE NINE | WHAKAKATA / HUMOUR Written by Trevor Pronoso | Letterboxd: @CleverGurl | Instagram: @trev.pro | Contributing Writer With Hasan in Gaza (2025) dir. Kamal Aljafari France / Germany / Palestine / Qatar / Switzerland, 106 mins Within the first 30 minutes of this film, I could already tell the differing cinematic temperaments of director Kamal Aljafari and his tour guide, Hasan Elboubou. Throughout With Hasan in Gaza, Kamal would often instruct Hasan to take

REVIEW | ISSUE NINE | WHAKAKATA / HUMOUR Written by Ricky Lai (he/him) | @rickthelai on IG & Letterboxd | Columnist The first UniFest short film competition resembles the kind of combination between creative outlet and filmmaking practice which I would have adored during my studies. It’s reassuring to see a body of undergrads wishing for the same, taking that into their own hands – run by the students, for the students. Each entry was held down by only two creative constraint

COLUMN | ISSUE NINE | WHAKAKATA / HUMOUR Written by Ricky Lai (he/him) | @rickthelai on IG & Letterboxd | Columnist Da Hip Hop Witch (Dale Resteghini, 2000) Directed by the music videographer who’d go on to lend tone-deaf visuals to Busta Rhymes’ ‘Arab Money, Da Hip Hop Witch was a Blair Witch parody riding on four plots interwoven with no discernible rhythm. (A) Female staff at the office for a tabloid magazine fight off their creep of a boss. (B) A gang of youngins from Sal

FEATURE | ISSUE NINE | WHAKAKATA / HUMOUR Written by Caeden Tipler (they/them) | @caedentipler | Contributing Writer The time is now for Aotearoa cinema. Recent films, such as Mārama and Big Girls Don’t Cry, are garnering international attention. And films like Caterpillar and The Weed Eaters have become instant cult classics for audiences at home. It seems intuitive, then, that our largest film festival, Whānau Marama: New Zealand International Film Festival, would embrace t

POETRY | ISSUE NINE | WHAKAKATA / HUMOUR Written by Leva Kusari (she/her) | @levalol | Contributing Writer (Written in 2019) important to note This is NOT my type anymore My type My type My type wears Doc Martens Has a handlebar moustache he has “ironically” And pretends he doesn’t listen to Mitski anymore My type studied English lit at Victoria Or communications at AUT And is majoring in philosophy so he can quote Simone de Beauvoir without being pretentious Swears he’s movi

KŌRERO TOI | ISSUE NINE | WHAKAKATA / HUMOUR Written by Isabella den Boogert (they/them) | @belladbb | Contributing Artist Isabella den Boogert is a multidisciplinary artist who works between the mediums of sculpture and printmaking. They explore the internet-driven culture of performance, self-presentation, and identity in the digital age, using text and found objects as tools for exploring culture. Often delving into the rabbit holes and dark trends of the internet and pop

EDITORIAL | ISSUE NINE | WHAKAKATA / HUMOUR Written by Tashi Donnelly (she/her) | @tashi_rd | Editor With everything going on in the world, it feels like there isn’t much to laugh about. We’re staring down the barrel of climate collapse. Fascism is more fashionable than it’s been since World War 2. It costs $50 to leave the house, late-stage capitalism is probably as bad, if not worse, than Marx predicted, and World War 3 feels like it’s one Donald Trump tweet away. But it’s