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Showing posts from January, 2021

A Head Full of Labyrinths: Susanna Clarke's "Piranesi"

As the whole world is shutting down, requiring people to withdraw into tiresome isolation and to see even less people than before, I feel myself more and more drawn to literary characters who are going through the same experience, dealing with various degrees of solitude, albeit under different circumstances. I had mentioned this strange kind of comfort before, in my review of Ottessa Moshfegh's books which feature insanely peculiar female characters in situations of extreme solitude. During the first lockdown in spring I read both My Year of Rest and Relaxation and Death in Her Hands by Moshfegh and found myself oddly fascinated by these women who, out of their free will, chose lonesomeness and told how they go through their days as if nothing else in the world mattered (and strangely enough, I never felt bored reading both these books, they are extremely captivating). That exactly, the ability to zoom out anything else going on around you and focus on your own microcosm is wha...

...the Soul of Wit

I guess we're all happy to leave the old year behind, so here's to a new year and hopefully a better one too! I hope you had a tolerable festive season despite all the new restrictions. As for me, I took the work-free time to read an awful lot of books and think it best to tick off the shorties as quickly as possible – because their number is raising almost by the day, incredible what even more lockdown can do- and to get to the more interesting ones that I’ll be discussing longer and in detail. Last week I already announced the 2021 plan of the Final Girls Berlin to split their popular horror film festival into two parts - the first being next month virtually and the second in October, hopefully in person. Another happy announcement for 2021 is that I will be monthly reviewing the “Rewind or Die” series for the Otherland Newsletter this year – a sum total of 21 retro-horror paperbacks which are inspired by 80s and 90s horror fiction. I can’t tell how excited I am for this ta...

A Terrific, Horror Filmic Start Into the New Year!

  Happy and healthy new year 2021, everyone! The year starts with great news for Berlin horror fans - the program and time schedule for the Final Girls Berlin Film Festival is ready! I have to say I'm super excited for this year's selection - especially, as always, for the short film selection, squee! Here goes their message: Final Girls Berlin Film Festival, a festival showcasing horror directed, written, and/or produced by women and non-binary people will be doing things a bit differently this year - we are splitting our 6th edition! Part 1 of the festival will take place online on February 4-7 2021 and Part 2 will be on Halloween weekend, October 29-31 2021, at City Kino Wedding in Berlin. Here is what we planned for February! Our opening night film is Sabrina Merten's debut feature FELLWECHSELZEIT  (Berlin Premiere), a disturbing, brilliantly conceived psychological thriller about young Stephanie who is trapped in a dysfunctional family set-up with no way of ge...