peter0969

Watched at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival.

Imagine Chantel Akerman, but with 3D Halo Style animation about a lesbian furry, mother and daughter relationship, and it's weird, yet actually emotional and fun. Bouchra basically sums that up.

What directors Orian Barki and Merrier Bennani succeeds is using animation, documentary style filmmaking, and interesting explorations about it's themes in a unique approach. Blending these elements together offers a fun and emotional experience about family bonds, queer identity, and the world of Moroccan culture. Many of the animation moments, designs and textures are beautiful, bright and purposeful. Using animation to experiment and work through different forms of storytelling is a real achievement to animation, as I love to see animation used in different ways.

Throughout, the main subject named Bouchra on her relationship with her mother and her environment is well-explored and interesting. It allows the viewers to get into her world, her personality and understand her as a human and being. Implemented with some really good voice-over discussions, sound designs, and really creative structures and presentation. Although, some of the animation movements did feel a little too robotic which made some of the design moments feeling clunky.

With good pacing, direction, and music displayed, it's quite a groundbreaking and unique animation documentary that I really liked. As someone who is a furry, queer and had encounters in my life with my family, this movie does hit quite close to me.

Watched at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival.

Family/child influencers have become quite the controversial discussions due to the toxic and extremely immoral situations and moments that has happened behind the scenes. What director Joscha Bongard offers is a critique on the societal world of capitalism, greed, exploitation, and the negative effects of family/child influencers.

Throughout, the camerawork, production designs, and sound designs are excellent. Using colorful sets, placed cameras and designs to establish the rich, money, and somewhat isolated feeling within the main characters and others surrounded. The performances are pretty good, especially Maja Bons as Bons captures the loneliness, sadness, and tense personalities of it's main role.

The narrative does a solid work on exploring it's purpose and subject. Although, due to some of Bongard's direction being a little unbalanced, the narrative, at times, doesn't fully take advantage of it's concept as it could have been. Some of the concepts and themes explored didn't feel fully explored, fulfilled, or developed enough as it could have been, and this causes some of the characters to not be fully emotionally nor engaging to connect with as Bongard would have wanted.

Alongside with some decent musical scores, the dialogue was a bit off-putting, whether it was intentional, it felt slightly stilled. Including certain pacing moments that could have been improved.

Overall, I'm surprised stories about family/child influencers haven't been made much despite how popular they have been in the recent digital ages. I do appreciate Bongard's attempt as this is definitely an ambitious movie and a subject that definitely needs to be called out. However, it could have been better.

Watched at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival.

Gianfranco Rosi isn't a filmmaker that has really wowed me as I have seen his previous works like Fire at Sea and Notturno, which are interesting but felt a bit a lack of substance.

I do appreciate what Gianfranco Rosi is wanting to display for this documentary. Using imagery, sound and presentation to explore the world and everyday life of Italian people in Naples is an interesting experimental. What Rosi does successful is his direction on the beautiful camerawork, atmosphere and sound designs throughout. Scenarios, scenes and pictures of Naples, the environment, the people, and setting are beautiful, and a wonder to examine. As if we witnessing the fragments of the common things about life, traditions, and society.

However, the way he structures his documentary on how it's presented, paced and the purpose feels thin. Just like his previous movies, Rosi direction tries to balance out between the experimental, documentary, and different approaches of filmmaking to explore it's subject and purpose. While I do admire where Rosi is coming from, the problems is that it causes the message and themes to feel a bit thin, and unbalanced. You learn about things but as a whole, you don't really gain much about Naples, and rather, it feels a bit lifeless and missing.

Alongside with some good light humor moments, the movie at times, feels too superficial, as if it feels fictional, rather than realist. Whether it was intentional to Rosi, it doesn't really fully grasp with it's message and themes. Which causes the documentary to feel a bit slanted.

Overall, I do understand and appreciate to what Rosi is wanting to explore and there are some solid moments. However, as a documentary, it feels slightly confused and unfulfilling.