William Wall’s new collection, Ghost Estate, takes its title from lonely places: the large, half-finished ‘ghost estate’ housing schemes of Ireland. First started during the height of the Celtic Tiger Boom, the economic collapse left them as unfinished and largely uninhabited chilling and empty spaces. Wall mirrors these qualities here. His sentences are carefully minimalist; Read More
This collection of 12 short stories by the veteran Ghanian author Ama Ata Aidoo, reflects concerns with the displacement of people, particularly women, who move between two cultures: their African homeland and that of the developed world. Her work has inspired younger African authors such as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, who regards Aidoo as a mentor Read More
Take fourteen contemporary fiction writers and pair them with researchers working in diverse fields of bio-medical science; have the writers produce short stories dealing in the speculative ethical consequences of the research, from the utopian to the Frankensteinian; allow a dedicated researcher (or team of researchers) to respond to each story, highlighting technical details of Read More
In celebration of Book Week Scotland, the DCA held an exhibition of books, published ephemera and (maga)zines made by artists selected from, amongst others, the Heart Fine Art in Edinburgh, the DCA’s recent exhibitions programme and the Centre for Artists’ Books which is based in the Visual Research Centre in the building. Exhibiting books is Read More
Cedric Kahn’s Une Vie Meilleure (A Better Life) opens with Yann (played by the excellent Guillaume Canet) attending a disastrous job interview; he meets, and subsequently falls madly in love, with Nadia (Leïla Bekhti), a stunningly attractive young mother. The film follows this fairytale romance, with Yann quickly becoming a family man and taking on Read More
Following the success of The White Ribbon (2009), Michael Haneke’s Palme d’Or-winning film, it is no great surprise that his recent film Amour was awarded the same honour at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. Amour challenges the viewer to step away from mainstream film narratives and instead enter a much more rewarding, albeit demanding, introspective Read More
Based on Matthew Quick’s bestselling novel, Silver Linings Playbook is a romantic comedy that does not shy away from the clichés associated with the genre, but instead twists them in its own quirky, unconventional way. Character as opposed to plot driven, the film is centred on Pat Solitano (Bradley Cooper), who, after having found his Read More
Directed by Wayne Blair and based on a true story, The Sapphires is a charming Australian film about a talented Aboriginal girl group, the Cummeraganja Songbirds. Feisty sisters Gail, Cynthia and Julie are spotted at a local talent contest by Dave Lovelace, a chaotic, drunken Irishman whose only passion beyond the bottle is soul music. Read More
On the DCA’s website it is claimed that fans of the TV show Spiral would be the perfect audience for Mains Armées (or Armed Hands), the new film from director Pierre Jolivet. I have never seen this show but, from what I’ve garnered from the reviews spread across the press and on the internet, it Read More
Within this Dust consists of five performances and opens with ‘Embers’. Muted light centres upon pieces of white paper piled high in the middle of the stage. The audience may be unaware at this point that Marta Masiero is hidden behind this mound of scraps. Until, that is, she begins to sway slowly. We hear Read More