Interviews

Starting as a refugee and rising all the way to award-winning film star and now into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Zain Al Rafeea has done a lot at 17 years old. With only two acting roles under his belt, Zain has managed to catapult himself and his family into a new life.

“You could summarize Spin Time as a documentary about the poor as you've never seen them before,” says Italian author, stand-up comedian and satirist Sabina Guzzanti, known internationally for her 2005 documentary Viva Zapatero! Her new film, Spin Time, subtitled How Tiring Democracy Is!, had its premiere at the Venice Film Festival last September and will be screened in New York in early December. “The film portrays the world of the invisible poor, who refuse to play the victims here,” says Guzzanti, who is famous in Italy for her parodies and hilarious impressions of Italian politicians (her Berlusconi is a classic).

The HFPA met Oliver Stone in Nursultan, Kazakhstan, and later at the Rome Film Fest in October to talk about his involvement in the new documentary Qazaq: History of the Golden Man, which is now showing at the Asian World Film Festival in Los Angeles. The film, available both as a feature-length version and as a six-hour series, is written, directed and produced by Igor Lopatonok, and Stone figures as the interviewer of Kazakhstan's former President, considered the founder of the country, Nursultan Nazarbayev, the larger-than-life and controversial subject of this intriguing project with the music score composed by Golden Globe nominee Carlo Siliotto.

Velvet Jesus is a collaboration between African American filmmakers Anthony Bawn and Spencer Michael Collins IV, who created the company VIM Media LLC to create content for their community and tell stories that are not often heard outside it. It turned out that it is not an easy task creating gay African American content, and the team set out to make a difference and create a platform for their community to tell their stories too.

The Reykjavik International Film Festival (RIFF) prides itself on being a low-key and unpretentious film festival without VIP treatments and long red carpets. The festival, which lasts 11 days and this year was from September 30 until October 10, is young and hip.

“Unlike other kids my age,” recalls Bretten Hannam, “I didn’t play with many toys. I would rather draw, paint and tell stories.

It was very clear to Gaby Chiappe that the lead character in AMC’s The Beast Must Die would have to be a woman. The screenwriter, who was about to adapt Nicholas Blake’s 1938 novel into a TV thriller series, felt that the story about a parent who loses a child to a traffic accident would be easier for her to relate to if the character were a woman.

Justine Bateman, former child star of 80s sitcom Family Ties, makes her feature film directorial debut with the thought-provoking drama, Violet, at the Toronto Film Festival. The success of the film rests on the shoulders of Olivia Munn, playing a successful Hollywood executive, Violet, who battles multiple insecurities exacerbated by the voice in her head (otherwise known as ‘the committee’) voiced by Justin Theroux, who takes her to task at every opportunity.

When the end credits started to roll after the first press screening of Dune at the Venice Film Festival, enthusiastic applause filled the Sala Grande screening theater. Director Denis Villeneuve’s bold adaptation of Frank Herbert’s iconic science fiction novel divides the 412-page book into two sections, with Dune: Part One (the movie’s full moniker) introducing audiences to the dangerous desert planet of Arrakis, colossal sandworms and a young heir named Paul Atreides (played by Golden Globe-nominated actor Timothée Chalamet).

She's back in Stockholm after spending a few days at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, where she presented her first feature, Pleasure, in front of a live audience. Her name is Ninja Thyberg and in the eyes of Hollywood, she is the next big thing.