The MUBI Podcast launches today, 3 June, with new episodes releasing every Thursday through 8 July. Hosted by arts and travel reporter Rico Gagliano, the MUBI Podcast is a documentary-style show available on all major podcast platforms and on MUBI's online publication Notebook. Season one, titled "Lost in Translation," will focus on films that were massive cultural phenomena in their home countries, but never gained traction elsewhere, exploring why these films captivated so many people in one place, at one moment in time. Listen to the trailer and subscribe to the podcast here.
The MUBI Podcast covers nearly every continent with each of its six episodes exploring a different film and country, providing a window into cinema cultures around the world. The unique stories behind the films will be brought to life with movie clips, music, and original interviews with filmmakers, critics, academics, and historians.
Episode 1: Turkish Delight, The Netherlands (available now)
Season 1 begins with a look at Paul Verhoeven's second feature Turkish Delight (1973). While one of Verhoeven's lesser known films to international audiences, it remains the most well-attended domestic film in the history of the Netherlands and was named the greatest Dutch film of the 20th century by the Netherlands Film Festival. The episode covers the film's unique significance during the counterculture movement in 1970s Holland and features exclusive interviews with Paul Verhoeven, Monique van de Ven, and Jan de Bont, amongst others.
With Verhoeven's latest film, Benedetta, having its world premiere at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival, now is a perfect time to revisit the film that launched the legendary director's career. MUBI also recently announced that it has acquired all rights to Benedetta in the UK and Ireland and will be releasing it in cinemas.
UPCOMING EPISODES
Episode 2: DDLJ, India (available 10 June)
The longest-running film in Bollywood history, 1995's Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (aka DDLJ), caught the imagination of a country in transition and practically created a new Bollywood subgenre. Rico gets the inside story of its creation and legacy from DDLJ co-star Anupam Kher, costume designer Manish Malhotra, and critic Anupama Chopra, who literally wrote the book on this classic rom-com.
Episode 3: Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands, Brazil (available 17 June)
In the mid-70s, in the midst of a military dictatorship, a Brazilian filmmaker barely out of his teens brought a beloved magical realist story about food, sex and happy compromises to the screen... and nearly blew Jaws out of Brazil's box office waters. Featuring interviews with the film's director Bruno Barreto, and Klebher Mendoca Filho, co-director of the Cannes-winning Bacarau.
Episode 4: Living In Bondage, Nigeria (available 24 June)
One of the world's most prolific film industries was founded on the success of a direct-to-video film distributed on VHS cassettes. Rico learns the history of Living In Bondage - the $1,000 indie project that launched Nigeria's "Nollywood." Featuring interviews with the movie’s writer/producer Okey Ogunjiofor and director Chris Obi-Rapu.
Episode 5: Yesenia, Mexico/USSR (available 1 July)
The biggest box office hit in the history of the Soviet Union was an early-’70s Mexican romance so obscure in its home country that even many experts on the era haven't heard of it. Rico talks with several who have - including esteemed cinema historian Ian Christie and Concordia University’s Masha Salazkhina.
Episode 6: The Dream Factory, China (available 8 July)
China’s Lunar New Year movie season is like America's summer blockbuster season on steroids. And it got that way thanks to The Dream Factory - a wry 1997 comedy directed by Feng Xiaogang, who’d come to be known as "the Chinese Spielberg." Rico gets a crash course on the movie from City University of New York's Ying Zhu and UCLA's Michael Berry.
