The subject of this book is a security facility situated between Bethlehem and Jerusalem and known as Checkpoint 300. It is in the West Bank, the largest of the two Palestinian territories – the other being Gaza – and has been under Israeli occupation since 1967.   Sean Sheehan   […]

Dramatising on stage a novel by Barbara Pym seems an obvious idea now that it has been so successfully achieved at London’s Arcola theatre.   Sean Sheehan   The production comes to an end on June 20, so it needs to be seen this week to enjoy Pym’s deeply affecting […]

Mainstream film criticism, an unappetizing stew of the shallow and the impressionistic, is in dire straits. An honourable exception is A. S. Hamrah and the latest collection of his reviews, “Algorithm of the night: Film writing, 2019-2025”, is warmly welcomed.   Sean Sheehan   Part of the problem, of course, […]

Since her days working as an assistant to Graciela Iturbide – and now her artistic heir – Maya Goded has emerged as a vital figure in Mexican photography and documentary film making. “The serpent’s trail”, a precious and aesthetically pleasurable publication, is a work of memory and resistance.   Sean […]

There are countless ways of looking at London and two new books narrow the focus by taking the idea of looking in more of a literal than a metaphorical sense: a cartographic approach, mapping the city through its boroughs; and a street-photography journey across the metropolis.   Sean Sheehan   […]