Cinetopia Radio Sep 2025 – Highest 2 Lowest, Honey Don’t!, Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk, Happyend & Paul and Paulette Take a Bath + Interviews with Paul Sng, Marta Massa & Hannah Papacek Harper

Cinetopia Radio – September Edition

Cinetopia Radio host Amanda is joined by the Cinetopia team — Isy Santini, Simon Bowie, and Kat Zabecka — for this month's episode, where we review five distinctive new releases and bring you a set of exciting conversations with filmmakers and festival organisers.

Film Reviews

4:50 - Highest 2 Lowest (dir. Spike Lee)- Lee's English-language reinterpretation of Kurosawa's High and Low stars Denzel Washington as a music mogul who faces a moral crisis when a ransom plot targets his chauffeur's son. Relocated to contemporary New York, Lee transforms the classic crime thriller into a sharp exploration of inequality and power. Streaming on Apple TV+

15:40 - Honey, Don't! (dir. Ethan Coen) Margaret Qualley stars as a small-town private investigator delving into strange deaths tied to a mysterious church. The second in Coen's "lesbian B-movie trilogy," this neo-noir dark comedy mixes absurdist humor with genre conventions in his typically offbeat style. In UK cinemas now

24:35 - Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk (dir. Sepideh Farsi) - Shot through video calls over 200+ days, this documentary captures life in Gaza through exchanges between filmmaker Farsi and Palestinian photojournalist Fatima Hassouna. A poignant meditation on survival under siege, made more profound by Hassouna's tragic death in an airstrike after the film's Cannes selection. Distributed by Dogwoof - www.dogwoof.com

36:33 - Happyend (dir. Neo Sora) - Set in near-future Tokyo bracing for a devastating earthquake, Sora's narrative debut follows teenage friends navigating personal struggles as foreshocks predict disaster. The film weaves fragments of youth and anxiety into a haunting meditation on memory and belonging. UK distribution by Modern Films - www.modernfilms.com

50:28 - Paul and Paulette Take a Bath (dir. Jethro Massey) An American photographer and French girl spark an unusual friendship around reenacting notorious Parisian crimes from bygone eras. This surreal British debut won the Audience Award at Venice Critics' Week. Distributed by Conic Films

Alongside the reviews, we feature three in-depth interviews:

• 1:04:00 Paul Sng joins Amanda Rogers to discuss Reality is Not Enough, his new documentary portraying author Irvine Welsh, ahead of its UK release later this month.

• 1:23:40 Marta Massa, representing Iberodocs, talks with Veronica Buccino about the festival's mission to celebrate Ibero-American culture through film

• 1:37:18 Hannah Papacek Harper chats with Clara Strachan about her award-winning short Lost for Words, which took home the North Light Award at Montrose LandxSea Film Festival.