MUBI, the streaming home of beautiful, interesting and incredible films, has announced a huge slate of additions for August 2022. There might be a heatwave outside, but here we’re planning exactly what we want to add to our watch list!
August on MUBI includes the release of A Chiara, the third film in Jonas Carpignano’s loosely-connected “Calabrian trilogy”. The film explores the true meaning of family in a gritty neorealist drama that tells the coming-of-age story of a teenage girl grappling with the sins of her father.
In an astonishing, award-winning central performance, Swamy Rotolo plays Chiara, the 15-year-old daughter of the affluent Guerrasio family (all played by Rotolo’s real-life family) who live a seemingly idyllic life in the Calabrian city of Gioia Tauro. When her father Claudio (Claudio Rotolo) suddenly disappears after her sister’s 18th birthday party, Chiara embarks on a dangerous investigation that draws her deeper into the mafia underworld, gradually discovering that her family’s ties to the local crime world are more troubling than she thought.
Vividly brought to life by Tim Curtin’s (Beasts of the Southern Wild) cinematography as well as its powerful, naturalistic performances, the film won the Europa Cinemas Label prize for best European film, in the Cannes 2021 Directors’ Fortnight.
From Mexican-Ethiopian director and cinematographer Jessica Bashir, Faya Dayi (2021) is a lyrical, spiritual journey into the rituals and trade practices of Khat, a stimulant green leaf that – according to Ethiopian legend – was founded by Sufi Imams in search of eternity.
A hypnotic blend of documentary and drama, this immersive experience weaves a tapestry of intimate stories of people for whom chewing this lucrative crop has become a form of religious meditation, radical escape and a space of socialisation and revolt against oppressive forces.
Beshir’s visually breathtaking debut examines the landscape through vignettes that highlight the vast economic and social force of Khat, channelling its rebellion and reverence into an ode to the country’s turbulent past unfolding into its urgent present.
The sophomore feature Babysitter (2022), directed by and starring Monia Chokri(revealed on the big screen by Xavier Dolan’s Heartbeats), arrives exclusively on MUBI following its world premiere at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.
After going viral for drunkenly accosting a television reporter, Cédric (Patrick Hivon) is suspended from work and finds himself stuck at home with his exhausted wife Nadine (Chokri) and shrieking infant daughter. Enter babysitter Amy (Nadia Tereszkiewicz), a captivating young woman who forces them to confront their sexual anxieties while turning their lives upside down.
Adapted from Catherine Léger’s stage play of the same name, the wholly enjoyable psychosexual comedy mixes gender satire and screwball farce wrapped in a highly stylised retro-aesthetic.
Here’s the full listing for the month:
1 August | Trances | Ahmed El Maanouni | Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project
2 August | Nest | Hlynur Palmason
3 August | Our Eternal Summer | Émilie Aussel | Festival Focus: Locarno Film Festival
4 August | Paris, 13th District | Jacques Audiard | MUBI Spotlight
5 August | Holy Emy | Araceli Lemos | Festival Focus: Locarno Film Festival
6 August | One More Time With Feeling | Andrew Dominik | Turn it Up: Music on Film
7 August | The Illusionist | Sylvain Chomet
8 August | Squish! | Tulapop Saenjaroen | Brief Encounters | Festival Focus: Locarno Film Festival | A MUBI Release
9 August | Public Toilet Africa | Kofi Ofosu-Yeboah | Festival Focus: Locarno Film Festival
10 August | Faya Dayi | Jessica Beshir | Debuts | A MUBI Release
11 August | A Ciambra | Jonas Carpignano | Jonas Carpignano’s Calabria: A Double Bill
12 August | Taming the Garden | Salomé Jashi | MUBI Spotlight
13 August | Caprice | Joanna Hogg | The One and Only: Tilda Swinton
14 August | Summer of 85 | François Ozon | François Ozon: Intimate Summers
15 August | Between Two Dawns | Selman Nacar | Viewfinder | A MUBI Release
16 August | TBC
17 August | Brute Force | Jules Dassin | Jules Dassin: A Double Bill
18 August | The Woman With a Knife | Timité Bassori | Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project
19 August | Babysitter | Monia Chokri | The New Auteurs | A MUBI Release
20 August | The Sheltering Sky | Bernardo Bertolucci
21 August | The Father of My Children | Mia Hansen-Løve | Mia Hansen-Løve: Things to Come and Go
22 August | The Invisible Frame | Cynthia Beatt | The One and Only: Tilda Swinton
23 August | TBC
24 August | Bubble Bath | György Kovásznai | Rediscovered | A MUBI Release
25 August | The Metamorphosis of Birds | Catarina Vasconcelos | MUBI Spotlight
26 August | A Chiara | Jonas Carpignano | The New Auteurs | A MUBI Release
27 August | Be Kind Rewind | Michel Gondry
28 August | Goodbye First Love | Mia Hansen-Løve | Mia Hansen-Løve: Things to Come and Go
29 August | The Naked City | Jules Dassin | Jules Dassin: A Double Bill
30 August | Egomania: Island Without Hope | Christoph Schlingensief | The One and Only: Tilda Swinton
31 August | Outside Noise | Ted Fendt | The New Auteurs | Spotlight on Ted Fendt | A MUBI Release