Umnia El-Neil is a British-Sudanese artist and professional pop culture fan.
Film
Know your history! I was born in ‘96, and by the time I was old enough to know British Music, let alone Black British Music, my tastes were decidedly set on pop. I had never been exposed to 2-Tone, or to the history of Black artists in the UK that
Reviews
OK. The moment you’ve all been waiting for. Anora does a great job of insisting you’re not watching what you think you’re watching. Aside from the impeccably kind and respectful handling of sex workers, you are going to be told, nay, rallied into ignoring your first instincts.
BFI LFF 2024
I’m not going to say this film won’t surprise you. It truly will, in ways you cannot comprehend yet. The intrigue and passion and speed and patience and beauty alone will astound you. What I will say is whatever prediction you make at the start, will probably be
The first beat of Blitz immediately signals to you that you are in danger. Far away from heroic depictions of a London on the defensive, we are instead confronted with immediate and benign terror. Sure, it’s an air raid - but we’re following firefighters. And the enemy they
Reviews
TW: Sexual Assault, R*pe, the UK Justice System On the surface, this play is quite one dimensional - incredibly predictable, even. You know, even just from the warnings, what is about to happen. The play doesn’t need to surprise you to make you think, though. The story becomes
Reviews
There aren’t really ever going to be enough stories about addiction - but there certainly aren’t enough that are unglossed, unfiltered, and grounded the way that ‘The Outrun’ is. Aside from beautiful cinematography, and a star turn from Saoirse Ronan, the story is a patient one, and it
SOPHISTICULTURE
Reviews
Jesse asks, what does it mean to “feel your feelings”? From every angle - from the ancestral wound all the way down to the familial bond - from personal despair to community responsibility, what do we owe one another? And what do we suppress to ensure we keep the social
Reviews
I don’t need to hear rapturous applause or raving reviews in the lobby to know a film’s importance. Dahomey serves a very specific, very important, very beautiful purpose - to document the moment the Beninoise got 26 of their Treasures back from the French, and the conversation they
Exhibitions
It was my first time in Margate, and for a Sunday, it was bare. I’d been given a lot of pretext for the area - the multiple articles written about its artistic resurgence, the proximity to a Hospital my mother used to work at, and it’s history as
Watchlists
Anyone but You A modern Shakespeare adaptation? Yes. A modern rom-com alluding to Zillenial malaise in late-stage capitalism? Yes. One of my least favorite characters that either lead has played? Yes. Too corny for my current taste? Yes. A good try, but nothing to write about beyond being a little