The Last Thing I Saw

Ep. 381: Berlin 2026 – Rachel Pronger on The Blood Countess, No Good Men, The Radu Jude Short, The Fabulous Time Machine, The Cruel Woman

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. As the 2026 Berlinale enters its second week, I continue my series covering the highlights. This time I welcome a new guest to the podcast, Rachel Pronger, critic and co-founder of Invisible Women, an archive activist feminist film collective which champions historic work by women and marginalized gender filmmakers through curation, events, and editorial. We began with a revival selection from the festival’s Teddy 40 anniversary series, Seduction: The Cruel Woman, co-directed by Elfi Mikesch and Monika Treut. Then we discuss premieres from across the festival: The Blood Countess (directed by Ulrike Ottinger, from Berlinale Special Gala), the opening film No Good Men (Shahrbanoo Sadat), The Fabulous Time Machine (Eliza Capai and Daniel Grinspum, from Generation Kplus), Crocodile (The Critics and Pietra Brettkelly) and a new short film from Radu Jude, Plan Contraplan (from Shorts Program 4).

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Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 380: Berlin 2026 – Jonathan Romney on My Wife Cries, 17, Safe Exit, Chronicles from the Siege

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. As the 2026 Berlinale enters its second week, I continue my series of episodes covering the highlights. This time I sit down with Jonathan Romney, who is contributing as usual to Screen and the Observer. Titles discussed include: My Wife Cries (aka Meine Frau Weint, directed by Angela Schanelec), 17 (Kosara Mitic), Safe Exit (Mohammed Hammad), and Chronicles from the Siege (Abdallah Alkhatib).

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Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 379: Berlin 2026 – Guy Lodge on Queen at Sea, We Are All Strangers, Nina Roza, Forest High

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. As the 2026 Berlinale continues, I continue my series of episodes covering the highlights. This time I sit down with Variety critic Guy Lodge. Titles discussed include: the freshly screened Queen at Sea (directed by Lance Hammer, starring Juliette Binoche and Tom Courtenay), We Are All Strangers (Anthony Chen), Nina Roza (Geneviève Dulude-De Celles), and Forest High (Manon Coubia).

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Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 378: Berlin 2026 with Jordan Cronk – Rose, Everything Else Is Noise, Dust, Doggerland, Tristan Forever, London

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. As the 2026 Berlinale continues, I continue my series of episodes covering highlights. This time I sit down with critic and curator Jordan Cronk, founder of Acropolis Cinema in Los Angeles, and we certainly made the most of our time! Titles discussed hail from across the festival’s sections (Competition, Panorama, Forum) and include: Rose (directed by Markus Schleinzer), Dust (Anke Blondé), Everything Else Is Noise (Nicolas Pereda), Doggerland (Kim Ekberg), London (Sebastian Brameshuber), and Tristan Forever (Tobias Nölle and Loran Bonnardot).

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Photo by Steve Snodgrass

Ep. 377: Berlin 2026 – David Hudson on Rosebush Pruning, Red Hangar, Dao, plus a word for Mouse

Welcome to The Last Thing I Saw, with your host, Nicolas Rapold. The 2026 Berlin international film festival has kicked off, and to kick things off in suitable fashion, I sat down with the one and only David Hudson, who writes the indispensable Daily column for Criterion’s Current. We chatted about the latest edition of the festival and discussed a few films in particular, including Dao (directed by Alain Gomis), Rosebush Pruning (Karim Ainouz), and Red Hangar (Juan Pablo Sallato), while I put in an early word for the very fine Mouse (Kelly O'Sullivan and Alex Thompson). Stay tuned for more!

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Photo by Steve Snodgrass