Le Journal

Programme for February’s Berlinale includes Adams in ‘enthralling’ film At the Sea, the directing debut for the Adolescence actor and the pop star’s tour mockumentaryNew movies starring Amy Adams, Channing Tatum, Pamela Anderson, Callum Turner and Charli xcx and the directorial debut of British rapper-actor Ashley Walters will headline next month’s Berlin film festival, the first major European cinema showcase of the year.The Berlinale, as the event is known, will spotlight new work on screen from 80 countries in its 76th edition, bringing A-list stars and fresh faces to the German capital during its 12-22 February run. Continue reading...

A Giant on the Bridge, performed by a ‘Scottish indie folk supergroup’, draws on dozens of interviews about the confines former prisoners experience on the outsideWhen we talk about crime and punishment, the notion of homecoming is often absent but decarceration and re-entry are critical aspects of the justice system. These subjects are at the heart of A Giant on the Bridge, the singer-songwriter Jo Mango and the theatre-maker Liam Hurley’s urgent piece of gig-theatre, which premiered in 2024 and heads out on tour across Scotland next month.It was born from a research project, Distant Voices: Coming Home, that revealed dire statistics for the number of people who come out of prison and then go back in again, says Mango. “Research showed that the process is often less about the individuals and more about societal and structural issues – whether they can get a job when they come out, whether they have any family left who are there to support them.” A Giant on the Bridge emerged as “a kind of way of writing an essay about what we learned”, Mango says, but using songs co-written by people who have lived experience of the prison system. Continue reading...