The picks
One good thing from Europe, every weekday.
Films, series, albums, podcasts, books and products we think deserve a place in your week. Pick a type below, or just scroll.
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Music: Fenian · Kneecap 🇬🇧
Kneecap, the Irish-language rap trio from Belfast, answer their critics on Fenian, a dark and defiant second album.
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Series: Occupied (Okkupert) 🇳🇴
Russia takes control of Norway to restart its oil, with quiet support from the EU. Occupied is a tense Norwegian thriller.
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Film: Late Shift (Heldin) 🇨🇭🇩🇪
One nurse, one shift, too many patients. Late Shift (Heldin), with Leonie Benesch, turns a Swiss hospital ward into a tense thriller.
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Music: Garip · Altın Gün 🇳🇱
Altın Gün, from Amsterdam, play ten songs by the Turkish folk master Neşet Ertaş. Garip is psychedelic and sung in Turkish.
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Film: Franz (Franz K.) 🇨🇿
Agnieszka Holland tells the life of Franz Kafka in pieces, from Prague in 1883 to the Kafka burger restaurant of today.
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Software: LibreOffice 🇩🇪
LibreOffice, from a non-profit foundation in Berlin, is a free office suite with no subscription, no generative AI and no ads.
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Series: Becoming Karl Lagerfeld 🇫🇷
In 1972, Karl Lagerfeld was an unknown designer in Paris. This French series with Daniel Brühl shows how he became Karl.
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Book: Focus ON/OFF (Focus AAN/UIT) · Mark Tigchelaar & Oscar de Bos 🇳🇱
Two Dutch authors explain why we cannot concentrate and what to do about it. Focus ON/OFF is practical and easy to try.
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Music: 22 Durnham Dew · Benny Sings 🇳🇱
Benny Sings renovated a house with his family and wrote an album about it: 22 Durnham Dew, warm and soulful Dutch pop about home.
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Book: Free · Lea Ypi 🇦🇱
Lea Ypi grew up loving Stalin in Europe’s last Stalinist state. Then, in 1990, the system fell. Free is her funny, sharp memoir.
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