Based on the short story “Barn Burning” by Haruki Murakami, this tense mystery-thriller won the FIPRESCI prize for best director (South Korea’s Lee Chang-dong) at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival, and is South Korea’s official Academy Award entry for Best Foreign Language Film. An acute observation of human paranoia, the film centres around Jong-su, a part-time worker, who rekindles a relationship with an old friend just before a mysterious—and dangerous— stranger enters their world. (Well Go)

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Loosely based on the infamous Argentinian serial killer dubbed “Death Angel,” this cautionary drama follows an innocuous-looking but deeply sinister thief whose lawlessness escalates exponentially when he takes up with a career criminal. Nominated for the Queer Palm at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival, El Angel is splendidly paced and gorgeously photographed, a departure from the sparser nature of Argentinian director Luis Ortega’s previous films, and offers a meaningful reflection on how violence is glamourized on the screen. (The Orchard)

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Singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Vera Sola’s timeless sound and enthralling stage presence draws an unlikely connection between British music hall and Depression-era spirituals. The LA-based artist, who played as a touring musician in others’ bands before finally releasing her own music, self-produced her debut album and recorded it using anything at hand. What emerged is a collection of ten finely-honed and carefully-rendered ballads. (Spectraphonic Records)

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›› ISSUE Feature: Interview and performance by Vera Sola.

Chicago-based synth-pop-punk-folk band Grapetooth are fast becoming known for the intensity of their live shows, and now they deliver their thrilling self-titled debut album. The duo behind Grapetooth, Chris Bailoni and Clay Frankel (the latter also plays in garage rock outfit Twin Peaks) create a refreshingly strange blend of doomy disco and woozy laments, writing songs about death, love, wine and even the movie Badlands. (Polyvinyl Record Co.)

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Winner of the Un Certain Regard Prize at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival, Border is a weird and wonderful modern fairytale, and is Sweden’s official Oscar entry for Best Foreign Language Film. The film tells the story of Tina (Eva Melander), a border agent born with a strange “disfiguration” that lends her the ability to sense or smell how people feel—especially their intent to deceive. But Tina’s life is forever changed after she meets a mysterious man (Eero Milonoff) with a smell that eludes her. Based on a short story by Let The Right One In author John Ajvide Lindqvist, Border is part oddball romance and part chilling Scandinavian thriller.(Neon)

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Chris Stein, co-founder of legendary punk/new wave band Blondie, has just released a new collection of previously unseen photographs capturing the golden age of the ’70s New York City punk scene. Following his successful book Negative (2014), Point of View presents a more personal and more visceral snapshot: self-portraits in his run-down East-Village apartment, streetscapes in all their longed-for romance and dereliction, and candid photographs of William Burroughs, Debbie Harry, Andy Warhol and Iggy Pop. At once a chronicle of one music icon’s life among his heroes and peers, and a love letter to the city that was the backdrop and inspiration for those scenes, Point of View transports us to another place and time. (Rizzoli)

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›› ISSUE Feature: Chris Stein in conversation with Jon Ronson

London-based Eliza Shaddad—the daughter of a Sudanese astrophysicist father and a Scottish mother—has announced her highly anticipated debut album Future. Described as “blistering” by The Line of Best Fit, the album is a deeply candid look into the unique songwriting mind of its creator. Set on the bedrock of Eliza’s early folk and grunge influences, it revels in flavours of trip-hop, West-Coast surf sounds, ’80s choruses, ’90s movie soundtracks and all-out pop—while still managing to sound like a focused and cohesive body of work. (Beatnik Creative)

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With their second album, I Wasn’t Only Thinking About You…, Australia’s Oh Pep! makes good on the promises of their critically acclaimed debut Stadium Cake. The return at once captures the duo’s spirit, curiosity and imminent likability, thoughtfully exploring the melody-rich expanse between indie pop and alt-folk while coming of age and seeing the world. The band has garnered praise from The New York Times and NPR, the latter calling them “thoughtful, deep, funny, and poetic.” ATO Records)

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›› ISSUE Feature: Interview and performance by Oh Pep!