LONG-FORM ARTICLE, Alice Bruxelle | Are cartoons just for kids? If your answer is yes, it’s probably because you haven’t yet discovered *Chico & Rita* (2011), a Spanish-British animated feature film directed by Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal. A story of passionate love set against a backdrop of Afro-Cuban jazz, it chronicles the lives of two musicians whose dreams are dashed by social forces far more powerful than they are. By addressing themes of identity loss and racism, the two directors give this animated film a depth that rivals that of traditional films.

LONG-FORM ARTICLE, Ivan Garcia | He’s a vampire musician. She’s a vampire bookworm. Their main concern? Getting fresh blood. In *Only Lovers Left Alive*, a couple of millennia-old bloodsuckers fall in love against the backdrop of a world in decline. And all of this, set to music, no less. A far-fetched feature film that, in the end, isn’t very funky.

A poetic, funny and enigmatic fable

In the elitist world of musicians, does austerity go hand in hand with high standards? With Lara Jenkins, Jan-Ole Gerster follows the daily life of an embittered 60-year-old in search of redemption. On her birthday, her son Viktor is about to give a recital to present his new compositions. At odds with her offspring - or rather, in interstellar freeze - this stepmother decides to buy the twenty or so remaining tickets and makes it her mission to distribute them before the event begins. Can the Jenkins be reconciled?