Free Republic

The Taliban, earlier this month, prohibited women and families from accessing the garden restaurants in Herat. Video games, foreign movies, and music have been outlawed in Afghanistan under the Taliban government because they are considered to be anti-Islamic. This ban is first imposed in the western city of Herat in Afghanistan. More than 400 firms in Herat had to shut down as a result of the sudden ban enforced by the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice. According to Maulana Azizurrahman Mohajir, the provincial head of the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of...

Three years ago, BBC Culture ran its first major critics’ poll, to find the 100 greatest American films. Two further polls looked for the best films of the 21st Century and the greatest comedies ever made – and those also ended up with films from the US in the top spot. This year, we felt it was time to direct the spotlight away from Hollywood and celebrate the best cinema from around the world. We asked critics to vote for their favourite movies made primarily in a language other than English. The result is BBC Culture’s 100 greatest foreign-language films....

Unfolding beneath skies the color and density of damp concrete, “Loveless,” the fifth feature from the Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev (after his notable 2014 drama, “Leviathan”), uses a toxic marriage to paint a larger portrait of decay, dereliction and moral detachment. And oh, his gaze is pitiless. Set in Moscow in the autumn of 2012, the picture sits on the screen with an almost physical weight, its heaviness as much to do with the bleakly beautiful visuals and painstaking pacing as the bitter divorce at its center. Boris and Zhenya (Alexey Rozin and Maryana Spivak) loathe each other, their vitriol...

Film character 'Godzilla', center, poses with, from left, Los Angeles councilmember Tom LaBonge, Japanese film producer Shogo Tomiyama, honorary Mayor of Hollywood Johnny Grant, actor Masahiro Matsuoka, director Ryuhei Kitamura, actress Rei Kiku Kawa and special effects director Eiichi Asada after receiving a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Monday, Nov. 29, 2004, in Los Angeles. Godzilla celebrates its 50th anniversary with the premiere of the new film 'Godzilla Final Wars. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes) LOS ANGELES (AP) - Godzilla received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Monday, 50 years after he stomped onto movie screens...