Highlights
Art
A tragic radical’s search for meaning
Ketty La Rocca’s early death brought a sudden halt to her witty, melancholy outsider art
Colditz goes hi-tech
The wartime PoW camp has gone interactive and now its high-tech memorials offer both a reminder and a warning to its visitors
The triumph of ‘nobody’s darlings’
Ignored at home, female artists from Australia and New Zealand came to Europe and forged their own daring style
Art in Erdoğan’s long shadow
In the face of a crackdown, the Istanbul biennial returns with fewer homegrown artists and political content neutered
When Stalin went to the chippy
The London artists who united in their desire to oppose the first wave of fascism in Europe
Nothing could prepare you for this blockbuster exhibition
As the Pompidou Centre in Paris prepares to close for a five-year renovation, it is staging the largest single show in its entire history
Books
The terrorist who took over Damascus
Once one of America’s most wanted men, Ahmed al-Sharaa is now feted by Trump and western politicians. But for how long?
László Krasznahorkai’s long and winding Spanish tale
Peter Barron goes in search of The Last Wolf, the new Nobel Laureate’s shaggy tale of a visit to the beautiful but remote region of Extremadura
The worst pro-Brexit book ever written
An author hides behind a pseudonym to invent 75 reasons to celebrate Britain’s slow collapse
Jung Chang: ‘If I set foot in China now, I’d end up in prison’
Jung Chang on her family’s painful history with the communist regime – and her sequel to the bestselling Wild Swans
Where nature calls: Toilets of the world
A new book collects the best of the world’s toilets – because even in an age of division, everyone needs somewhere to sit down
Can we get Jack Kerouac’s America back?
Ebs Burnough’s new documentary, Kerouac’s Road: The Beat of a Nation, wants you to believe that we have more desire to communicate than social media will lead you to believe
Music
President Milei, live in concert
In true Milei fashion, the launch of his book, The Construction of the Miracle, was turned into a rock concert to a crowd of 15,000 diehard supporters
Black Sabbath with attitude
Carlos Acosta’s ballet celebrates a band that is woven into Birmingham’s cultural soul
The struggles of a Starman in storage
The new David Bowie Centre fails when it reduces his ambiguities to tidy lessons – and soars when it simply shows off stagewear and possessions
Jimi Hendrix, the guitarist who kissed the sky
The guitar took Jimi Hendrix to stratospheric heights; first as a backing musician for the Isley Brothers and Little Richard, then to swinging London
Sweet soulless music: the rise of AI pop
Music made with artificial intelligence is funny, viral and quietly insidious
Elves and trolls in Reykjavík
Folklore still fascinates at Iceland’s pan-Nordic jazz mash-up
Film
After the Hunt storms into the culture wars
Bold and unsettling, Luca Guadagnino’s latest project easily transcends its contemporary source material
Could you ever love a robot?
A sci-fi film from 2013 was meant to offer a utopian vision of the future – in fact it is a perfect picture of our age of techno nihilism
Can we get Jack Kerouac’s America back?
Ebs Burnough’s new documentary, Kerouac’s Road: The Beat of a Nation, wants you to believe that we have more desire to communicate than social media will lead you to believe
The festival that shows why silent films still speak loudly
The reels from Palestine and Italy might be a century old – but they feel shockingly of the moment
Is Diva still cool?
It was the stylish cult hit that ushered in a new generation of French film-making. But does Jean-Jacques Beineix’s thriller hold up 40-odd years on?
Tilda Swinton’s star power shines through
Amsterdam’s Eye Filmmuseum has dedicated an entire show to one performer for the first time
Theatre
Remember this name: Hiran Abeysekera is going to be a star
This Hamlet is an unignorable feat of acting genius
The Smashing Machine’s Dwayne Johnson is nothing short of a revelation
The former professional wrestler has proved himself a screen performer to be taken very seriously indeed
Joe Orton: Still entertaining, no longer dangerous
Once shocking, Mr Sloane now feels quaint – but still fun
Review: Brendan Gleeson, boss of the bar stool
The actor excels as a pub philosopher in Conor McPherson’s The Weir
Review: A bloody entrance for the National’s new chief
Indhu Rubasingham banishes the doldrums of her predecessor with a big, bold Bacchae
Rosamund Pike is seriously good in Inter Alia
In Suzie Miller’s latest legal drama, the Hollywood favourite plays a judge and mother facing her worst nightmare
Great Lives
Junko Tabei, the first woman to conquer Everest
Discouraged by the sexism she’d suffered in mountain climbing circles, Tabei took matters into her own hands
Thomas Sankara, the hopeful leader whose country proved ungrateful
It was a dedication to nature and equality that led to Sankara’s bloody removal
Emilie Schindler, one half of a team of equals
It was Emilie who organised the move of their factory to Brünnlitz, Czechoslovakia, one which would lead to the saving of 1,200 lives
David McCallum, the enigmatic star who wouldn’t be pinned down
From The Man From UNCLE to NCIS, the Scottish actor defied typecasting to become a global star and a fixture of television history
Jimi Hendrix, the guitarist who kissed the sky
The guitar took Jimi Hendrix to stratospheric heights; first as a backing musician for the Isley Brothers and Little Richard, then to swinging London
Salvador Allende, the Chilean too much for the Nixon White House
When he won the presidency promising “the Chilean path to socialism”, the US immediately registered him as a profound ideological threat