Action & AdventureHERO starring martial arts legend Jet Li in a visually stunning martial arts epic where a fearless warrior rises up to defy an empire and unite a nation! With supernatural skill ... and no fear ... a nameless soldier (Jet Li) embarks on a mission of revenge against the fearsome army that massacred his people. Now, to achieve the justice he seeks, he must take on the empire's most ruthless assassins and reach the enemy he has sworn to defeat! Acclaimed by critics and honored with numerous awards, HERO was nominated for both an Oscar®* and Golden Globe!
*2002 Best Foreign Language Film
DramaAfter having saved a beautiful Portuguese woman from leaping to her death, Swiss Professor Raimund Gregorius (Jeremy Irons) stumbles upon a mesmerizing book by a Portuguese author, which compels him to suddenly abandon the boring life he has led for years and to embark on an enthralling adventure. In search of the author, Gregorius acts as detective, pulling together pieces of a puzzle that involves political and emotional intrigue and the highest possible stakes. His voyage is one that delves into the realms of history, philosophy and medicine, encountering love and evolving into a liberating search to find meaning for his life.
ComedySet against the wildly atmospheric backdrop of the French Riviera, Jean (Gad Elmaleh), a shy young bartender is mistaken for a millionaire by beautiful scheming opportunist Irene (Audrey Tautou). Abandoned when she discovers his true identity, a love-struck Jean has no intention of letting someone this gorgeous get away! Jean's comical attempts to gain Irene's affection gradually evolve to him setting himself up as a gigolo at the luxury hotel she is staying at…and then the fun really begins. A sexy and thoroughly charming romantic comedy, if you love Breakfast at Tiffany's, you’ll love this.
DramaA Swedish family travels to the French Alps to enjoy a few days of skiing. The sun is shining and the slopes are spectacular but, during a lunch at a mountainside restaurant, an avalanche turns everything upside down.
ComedyRome, in the splendour of summer. Tourists flock to the Janiculum Hill: a Japanese man collapses, felled by such beauty. Jep Gambardella – a handsome man with irresistible charm, despite the first signs of ageing – enjoys the city’s social life to the full. He attends chic dinners and parties, where his sparkling wit and pleasant company are always welcome. A successful journalist and inveterate seducer, in his youth he wrote a novel which earned him a literary award and a reputation as a frustrated writer. He masks his disenchantment behind a cynical attitude, which makes him view the world with bitter lucidity. On the terrace of his Rome apartment which overlooks the Coliseum, he hosts parties where “the human apparatus” – that was the title of his novel – is stripped bare, and where the comedy of nothingness is played out. Weary of his lifestyle, Jep sometimes dreams of taking up his pen again, haunted by memories of a youthful love which he still hangs on to. But will
ThrillerWritten and directed by Olivier Assayas (Clouds of Sils Maria), Personal Shopper stars Kristen Stewart, Lars Eidinger and Anders Danielsen Lie. An ethereal and mysterious ghost story starring Kristen Stewart as a high-fashion personal shopper to the stars who is also a spiritual medium. Grieving the recent death of her twin brother, she haunts his Paris home, determined to make contact with him.
Kids & FamilyCaesar offers the Gauls a deal: if they can perform twelve special tasks successfully, he will hand over the Roman empire to them. If the Gauls fail, they will have to surrender to the Roman Empire. Asterix (fortified by Magic Potion) is ready to take on the challenge.
HorrorIn this unbelievably tense supernatural thriller, a foreigner’s mysterious appearance in a quiet, rural village causes suspicion among the locals - suspicion which quickly turns to hysteria as the townspeople begin killing each other in brutal outbursts for seemingly no reason. As the investigating officer watches his daughter fall under the same savage spell, he agrees to consult a shaman for answers - unknowingly escalating the situation into something far more dangerous. Over six years in the making, director Na Hong-jin’s meticulously crafted follow-up to the globally acclaimed THE YELLOW SEA and THE CHASER (his third to premiere at the Festival de Cannes) smashed box office records upon its debut in South Korea, where fans are already making return viewings to catch new clues and debate what’s sure to be the most talked-about ending of 2016.
Kids & FamilyAfter countless beatings by Asterix and Obelix, the Romans decide to kidnap the druid Getafix in the hope of getting the secret formula for his magic potion.
DramaPower, money and blood: these are the “values” that the residents of the province of Naples and Caserta confront every day. They have practically no choice, and are forced to obey the rules of the “System”, the Camorra. Only a lucky few can even think of leading a “normal” life. Five stories are woven together in this violent scenario, set in a cruel and ostensibly invented world, but one that is deeply rooted in reality.
DramaThe latest from acclaimed filmmaker Joachim Trier (Oslo, August 31st, Louder Than Bombs), The Worst Person in the World is a wistful and subversive romantic drama about the quest for love and meaning in contemporary Oslo. The film revolves around Julie (a dazzling star-making central performance from Renate Reinsve), a vibrant and impulsive young woman who, on the verge of turning thirty, is faced with a series of drastic choices that force her to continually reinvent and pursue new perspectives on her life. Over the course of several years, Julie navigates multiple love affairs, existential uncertainty and career dissatisfaction as she slowly starts deciding what she wants to do, who she wants to be with, and ultimately who she wants to become. Co-starring Trier regular Anders Danielsen Lie and Herbert Nordrum as the men pivoting around Julie’s magnetic presence, this is as much a formally playful character study as it is a poignant and perceptive observation of quarter-life angst.
RomanceKiss Me is a stunningly rendered and honest love story about what happens when you follow your heart. When Mia and Frida's eyes meet for the first time at a party the attraction is instant. However, Mia is engaged to be married to a man she believes she loves, so acting on anything seems out of the question. When subsequent circumstances throw the two women together, openly gay Frida finds it impossible to resist seducing Mia, and Mia finds it impossible to resist. Soon, Mia must choose between following her heart or fulfilling everyone else's expectations of her. A candid and beautiful film, Kiss Me is a classic lesbian movie in the making.
DramaIn Rome, at dawn, when everyone is sleeping, one man is awake. That man is Giulio Andreotti. He's awake because he has to work, write books, move in fashionable circles and, last but not least, pray. Calm, crafty and inscrutable, Andreotti is a synonym of power in Italy for over four decades. At the beginning of the Nineties, this impassive yet insinuating, ambiguous yet reassuring figure appears set to assume his seventh mandate as Prime Minister without arrogance and without humility. Approaching seventy, Andreotti is a gerontocrat who, with all the attributes of God, is afraid of no one and does not know the meaning of awe, since he is accustomed to seeing it stamped on the faces of all his interlocutors. His satisfaction is muted, impalpable. For him, satisfaction is power, with which he has a symbiotic relationship. Power the way he likes it. Unwavering and immutable, from the outset. He emerges unscathed from everything: electoral battles, terrorist massacres, slanderous accusati
DramaAnne (Juliette Binoche), a well-off, Paris-based mother of two and investigative journalist for ELLE, is writing an article about student prostitution. Her meetings with two fiercely independent young women, Alicja (Joanna Kulig) and Charlotte (Anaïs Demoustier), are profound and unsettling, moving her to question her most intimate convictions about money, family and sex.
DramaWhen Babette, a beautiful and mysterious French refugee, arrives in a remote Danish town the tight-knit, puritanical community begrudgingly let her in, providing her with shelter and work. But after the town patriarch passes away and Babette insists on preparing a feast in his honour, a magical world of sensory revelations is thrown open to the villagers, changing their lives forever…
Evoking the work of other great Scandinavian directors such as Bergman and Dreyer, but with a uniquely joyous, exuberant touch, this tale of everyday passion - of the human capacity to create and to love - is a mouthwatering ode to the glory of life from one of cinema’s true originals.
DramaAgnes Vardas classic captures Paris at the height of the sixties in this intriguing tale expertly presented in real time about a singer (palyed toperfection by Corinne Marchand) whose life is in turmoil as she awaits a biopsy test result. As well as memorable cameos from director Jean-Luc Godard and actress Anna Karina, it also includes an appearance and impressive score from Oscar-nominated composer Michel Legrand.
DramaClass, cultural and sexual differences are explored in this romantic gay drama set in scorching, picturesque Tunisia. Tall, quiet Malik (Antonin Stahly), a 30-year-old Parisian architect, returns to his homeland after the death of his father. He's greeted warmly by his over-bearing, petulant mother (Italian icon Claudia Cardinale) and is immediately confronted with her expectation that he stay and get married. This now strange world of his youth, his mothers pressure and his barely hidden homosexuality set off anxiety attacks in Malik, who finally finds relief when he meets the darkly handsome handyman, Balil (Salim Kechiouche, Full Speed.) They begin a tentative relationship, but Islamic mores, a still class conscience society, and the ever-presence of his mother threaten their burgeoning love. A forbidden love story as well as a character study of people lost in rapidly changing cultures, Le Fil is an engaging, insightful and undeniably sexy drama.
DramaCaye is a middle-class prostitute whose family are unaware of her profession. While many of Caye's days are spent hanging out with her fellow prostitutes cursing the rapid proliferation of cheaper immigrant prostitutes on the city streets, a chance encounter with Zule, who hails from the Dominican Republic, soon prompts Caye to re-evaluate her condemnation. A dedicated mother who sells her body in order to send money back home, Zule is taken to the hospital by Caye after being badly beaten and left for dead. Now, as a warm bond bgins to develop between the two women whose dreams of financial stability ad kind companionship help to ease the pain of familial separation, the resulting discovery of self-determination leads Caye and Zule in a journey of self-discovery that will leave both women changed forever.
DocumentaryFrom Oscar®-winning director Giuseppe Tornatore (Cinema Paradiso), ENNIO: THE MAESTRO celebrates the life and legacy of the legendary Italian composer Ennio Morricone, who passed away on 6 July 2020. Through interviews with directors, screenwriters, musicians, songwriters, critics and collaborators, Tornatore’s documentary retraces the life and works of the cinema’s most popular and prolific 20th century composer - who wrote over 500 scores for film & television and sold over 70 million records - from his cinema debut with Sergio Leone, to winning an Academy Award for The Hateful Eight in 2016.
DramaAfter arriving at a holiday villa on an Italian island, bourgeois couple Adam (Dobromir Dymecki) and Anna (Agnieszka Żulewska) discover that the swimming pool is empty. The migrant worker sent to fix it suffers a deadly poolside accident, setting off a chain of disturbing events that shake the moral foundations of this seemingly-perfect couple. Aesthetically sparse, with an enigmatic plot, Agnieszka Woszczyńska’s debut feature is an unflinching character study that unfurls the power of denial.Silent Land debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival, before picking up the FIPRESCI award for the International Competition at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival.
DramaBased on the best selling Department Q novels by Jussi Adler-Olsen, ‘The Absent One’ is the thrilling follow-up to ‘The Keeper Of Lost Causes’. In 1994 two young twins are found brutally murdered in a summer cottage. A number of clues point in the direction of a group of young upper class students from a nearby boarding school, but the case is closed as a local outsider pleads guilty and is convicted for the murders. When the case ends up on Carl Mørck's desk 20 years later, he soon realises that something is terribly wrong. As Carl and Assad start investigating the case, they are led on to an old emergency call from a desperate girl who seems to know the secrets of the murders. Soon they are plunged into an intense search for the girl, Kimmie, who has been missing since the murders happened. But Carl and Assad are not the only ones trying to track her down as the girl's testimonial is of great danger to a group of influential men at the top of society who will do all they can
ComedyNestled in the mountains somewhere between North Africa and the Middle East, the women of one village are on strike. Fed up of trekking miles every single day to the nearest well, newly wed Leila leads a campaign to force the men to share the duty of bringing water to the village. Overcoming the wrath of the village elders and an unexpected visit from an old flame, Leila brings the colourful local traditions face-to-face with the modern world. Fun, lively and unforgettable, this is an entertaining journey through the African mountains to the heart of one vibrant community.
RomanceWhen Leon joins Mario's football club, an immediate tension brews between them; both players are talented, driven and prepared to fight for their spot on the first team. When the pair are moved into a flat with one another, the competitive tension turns sexual. As their relationship intensifies, the pair become inseparable, yet Mario is desperate to hide their love from his teammates. As rumours of their relationship begin to circulate, the boys are forced to make a choice; their careers, or each other.
IndependentThe much-anticipated latest treasure from Céline Sciamma (Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Girlhood), Petite Maman is a sublime modern fairytale about the quiet wonder of mother-daughter relationships. After the death of her beloved grandmother, eight-year-old Nelly meets a mysterious friend in the woods. Together they embark on a fantastical journey of discovery which helps Nelly come to terms with this newfound loss. A favourite of the 2021 Berlin Film Festival, Sciamma’s new masterwork examines childhood, memory and loss with a typically delicate touch, elegantly weaved together into an enchanting and moving depiction of love and acceptance.
DramaForced out of their apartment due to dangerous works on a neighbouring building, Emad and Rana move into a new flat in the centre of Tehran. An incident linked to the previous tenant will dramatically change the young couple’s lives.
DramaTouko Laaksonen, a decorated officer, returns home after a harrowing and heroic experience serving his country in World War II, but life in Finland during peacetime proves equally distressing. He finds post-war Helsinki rampant with homophobic persecution, and men around him even being pressured to marry women and have children. Touko finds refuge in his liberating art, specialising in homoerotic drawings of muscular men, free of inhibitions. His work - made famous by his signature, Tom of Finland - became the emblem of a generation of men and fanned the flames of a gay revolution.
ComedyInspiring and uplifting, This feel good comedy delivers laughs and love in equal measures. Sick of the constant bickering between the men in their lives, a group of women in a tight-knit community decide to make a stand. To prevent all out conflict, the women take extreme steps to resolve the situation; whether it be hiring Ukranian strippers or faking a miracle in their own village, there is nothing they won't try. Bringing the village back together was never going to be easy but no-one could have imagined it would be this much fun. Hilarious and heartfelt, Where do we go now? is a vibrant tale of love, family and humanity.
Kids & FamilyA lonely 9 year old boy makes a new friend when he discovers a magical little man inside a cupboard, but when one of the man's spells goes awry, the boy's entire family is shrunk down to four inches in height.
ThrillerRichard is a typical cop who spends too much time on the job and isn't always there for his family. One day as he's preparing to spend some quality time with his young daughter he gets an urgent call and responds to it. His worst fears are brought to life when he returns home to find his daughter missing. Tragically, the girl's body is soon discovered, and thanks to the dedication of Richard's colleagues, a suspect is caught and convicted.
However, shortly after his incarceration the supposed killer manages to lure Richard into a secret correspondence. Wracked with guilt for his failure to save his daughter and filled with hatred for the man convicted of the crime Richard is initially resistant. But doubts begin to surface. Did they catch the right man? Or could a child murderer still be at large? Driven by his tortured conscience, and determined to find the truth, Richard launches his own secret investigation.
ComedyLOL? It means "laughing out loud" in text language. It is also the name that Lola's friends have given her. However, when it is time to go back to school after summer break, Lola doesn't feel much like laughing. Arthur, her boyfriend, provokes her by telling her that he cheated on her over the summer. And her gang of pals is very gifted at complicating matters. Just like her mother, Anne, with whom life has become impossible, and not only because she has no idea what LOL means. That her parents have divorced is one thing, but that Anne treats her teenage daughter like a child, by lying to her about basic things - like the fact that she is still seeing her ex-partner on the sly, or that a cop is interested in her - is another. As for Anne, she wonders what on earth has happened to her sweet little daughter. From fusion to confusion, mother-daughter relationships simmer with love and plenty of LOL.
ComedyIn 1122, a brave soldier and his right hand man are sent to the future by a sinister witch and an absent-minded wizard. Hilarity ensues as they try to find their way back to their own time while dealing with the confusion and chaos of 21st century France.
DramaJesmark, a struggling fisherman on the island of Malta, must make an agonising choice: repair his leaking luzzu - the traditional wooden fishing boat that has been in his family for generations - or decommission it in exchange for a government pay-out. Faced with the temptation of making easy money working for a black-market fishing operation, Jesmark must reconcile his desire to preserve tradition with the need to provide for his young family. The award-winning and critically acclaimed debut of writer-director Alex Camilleri recalls the neorealist traditions of Luchino Visconti, Roberto Rossellini and Ramin Bahrani, and offers a glimpse into the beauty of an island rarely portrayed in cinema.
DramaFrom renowned provocateur Paul Verhoeven (Elle, Basic Instinct), Benedetta is a subversive erotic drama based on the true story of a 17th-century nun entangled in a forbidden lesbian affair. Virginie Efira stars as the titular Benedetta, a nun who, devoted to the Virgin Mary as a child, is granted entry to the Theatine Convent of the Italian city of Pescia. As an unwaveringly faithful adult, Benedetta’s religious fervour begins to manifest in increasingly sensual and violent visions of Jesus. These hallucinations arouse the suspicions of Charlotte Rampling’s shrewd abbess, Sister Felicita, whose distrust grows when a farm girl called Bartolomea (Daphné Patakia) enters the convent seeking refuge and quickly develops an attraction to Benedetta. Set to the backdrop of a country overcome by a gruesome plague, this outrageous cinematic spectacle is a mischievous and unique twist on the period drama. Premiering at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival, Verhoeven’s intoxicating latest is a tra
DramaAn 18 year old girl called Joy has gone missing. Another girl called Helen is a few weeks away from leaving her care home. Helen is asked to ‘play’ Joy in a police reconstruction that will retrace Joy’s last known movements. Joy had everything. A loving family, a boyfriend, a bright future. Helen, parentless, has lived in institutions all her life and has never been close to anyone. Gradually Helen begins to immerse herself into the role, visiting the people and places that Joy knew; quietly and carefully insinuating her way into the lost girl’s life.
DramaAfter 23 years of dutiful service to the Valdes family, Raquel (Catalina Saavedra) has come to regard herself as not only a maid but a family member. But her employers start to worry about her workload after Raquel repeatedly clashes with their teenage daughter, and they hire additional help. Frantic that her position is under threat, Raquel utilises ever more childish antics to sabotage each new employee. Brilliantly observed and featuring an award-winning performance from Catalina Saavedra, Sebastian Silvas acclaimed black comedy recalls the satirical genius of Luis Bunuel.
HorrorArriving at their remote lakeside holiday home, a middle class family are alarmed by the unexpected arrival of two young men who soon begin to subject them to a twisted and horrifying ordeal of terror. With characteristic mastery, Haneke turns the conventions of the thriller genre upside down and directly challenges the expectations of his audience, forcing viewers to question the complacency with which they receive images of casual violence in contemporary cinema.
DramaA bourgeois middle-aged dentist named Veronica (MARIA ONETTO) drives alone on a dirt road, becomes distracted, and runs over something. Immediately she becomes disoriented, unmoored from her identity and reality, like a sleepwalker who’s actually awake. At first she thinks it was a dog, but as the weeks go on, she becomes obsessed with the possibility that she may have killed someone: a young boy whose body is found in a roadside canal. Veronica tries to piece together what happened while her family systematically erases any trace of the accident.
DramaMartina Gedeck, best known for her performance in the Academy Award-winning film 'The Lives of Others', stars in 'The Wall', a contemporary female Robinson Crusoe story. Based on Marlen Haushofer’s best-selling eponymous novel from the 1960s, the film is a highly original exploration of the experience of solitude and survival. Gedeck plays an unnamed Austrian woman who goes to a secluded Alpine hunting lodge with her cousin and the latter's husband who, shortly after their arrival, decide to visit the nearest village. When the couple do not return the next morning, the woman sets out for the village and discovers an invisible wall, behind which there appears to be no sign of life. The wall now separates her from the rest of the world. Left behind with a dog, a cat and a cow, she must try to survive alone in the forest. She keeps a record of her thoughts, her fears and the hardship she suffers, although it's unlikely anyone will ever read her outpourings. Martina Gedeck's outstanding
Action & AdventureBrace yourself for white-knuckle fight scenes and breathtaking stunts in CLASH, a relentless all-out-action thriller. Mercenaries, and lovers, Trinh and Quan, are forced to complete a series of organised crimes in order to win the release of Trinh’s kidnapped daughter. But their affair appears doomed when each other’s motives collide and two people in love suddenly find themselves at war. With an incredibly talented cast showcasing the hottest prospect in mixed martial arts and stunt work, Johnny Nguyen, CLASH is a break-neck-speed thrill-ride that re-invents the action genre. Blink and you’ll miss it!
DocumentaryTurn It Loose: The Real Street Dance is the incredible true story of the best dancers from around the globe doing battle to win the ultimate prize and be crowned World Champion. The 16 best B-Boys travel to Soweto, South Africa where they thrill and amaze the crowds with the most extreme, gravity defying dance moves ever seen! Overcoming the odds to perform the routine of their lives, this extraordinary, gripping film combines great drama with the passion, sweat, athleticism and artistry needed to become the best. Full of the most exciting dance moves on the planet, The Real Street Dance is the essential dance movie of the year.
Action & AdventureExperience a breathtaking journey back to Korea's fabled Joseon Dynasty with this stunning, action-packed adaptation of the life of legendary Empress Myseongseong: the inspirational leader who stirred the courage of her nation in the face of seemingly overwhelming foreign aggression. A young woman of noble birth embarks on a dangerous journey, where she meets an infamous bounty-hunter. Honour-bound, he becomes her protector and against all the odds they fall in love. A few years later, to fulfil a sacred promise, she must ascend to the throne as Empress, leaving her love behind. However, when aggressive Japanese forces gather against her nation, the bounty hunter will once again stand by her side as a devoted bodyguard. As the conflict escalates to all-out war, her irrepressible leadership will sustain her people and give them the hope of victory. Tragically, as her reputation spreads, she will become a target for assassination, but one man's courage will make all the difference...
DramaEnrique Buchichios charming drama LEOS ROOM (EL CUARTO DEL LEO) stars Martin Rodriguez as Leo, a man on a journey of self-discovery. After his relationship with his girlfriend fizzles out Leo starts to question his sexuality; an issue complicated further by a chance encounter with an old school crush, Caro (Cecilia Cosero).
DocumentaryFilm director Corinna Belz was granted extraordinary access to the studio of eminent German painter Gerhard Richter. The result is rare, immediate insight into the genesis of a series of his abstract paintings, from the first stroke of paint on canvas, through countless layers of over-painting, to an exhibition opening in New York. The perceptive feature-length documentary allows the viewer to become immersed in the quietly suspenseful cycle of an artistic process. Born in 1932, Gerhard Richter has been at the cutting edge of his field for five decades. His first 13 years were spent under the National Socialist regime, followed by 16 years of East German Communism and then a half century of what Richter has jokingly referred to as "Capitalist Realism". The artist remains fundamentally sceptical of all belief systems and ideologies. Throughout the film we are treated to Richter's pithy comments, which reveal not only wry humour but also hard-won insight into life and art. Filmmaker Cori
Action & AdventureDuring the freezing Italian winter of 1944, a mine detecting squad from the Brazilian Expeditionary Force find themselves lost in the middle of no man’s land after a collective panic attack forces them to flee the front line. Realising they could face a court martial, they must attempt to make their way to a US forward observation post and re-enter the conflict. Along the way they meet two army deserters: a would-be Italian partisan and an injured German officer tired of war. Together they form a strange band of deserters. When they have to cross the dreaded Road 47, the most feared mine field in all of Italy, they must work together with these two former enemies and find safe passage across the deadly terrain and ultimately achieve redemption.
ComedyOdette Toulemonde (Odette Everybody) has no objective reason to be happy, but she is. Balthazar Balsan has all it takes to be happy, but he’s not. Odette, in her awkward 40s, between her luscious hairdresser son and her teenage daughter stuck in puberty, works by day selling make-up in a department store and by night sewing feathers on costumes for the girls of Parisian cabarets. She dreams of thanking Balthazar Balsan, her favorite writer, for the optimism which she believes emanates from him. The wealthy and seductive writer is going to land in her life in a totally unexpected way. The story of a meeting between two unusual castaways who have nothing in common...
DramaIsabelle Carre plays Mousse, a young woman who narrowly survives an accidental overdose that claims the life of her lover (Melville Poulaud, Time to Leave). Shocked to learn that she is pregnant, Mousse attempts to put her life back on track and flees to a house far from Paris where, several months later, she is joined by Louis brother Paul. United in their grief, Mousse and Paul begin to form a bond, despite their very different personal lives. This new film from the acclaimed and prolific director Francois Ozon is among his very finest.
DramaPedro Almodovar's Oscar and Bafta winning film. Manuela has lost her son, Esteban, in a car accident. Esteban's number one obsession in life was to meet his father who had left Manuela before he was born. As a kind of penitence Manuela goes in search of him only to find that his new name is Lola.
Drama"The Time That Remains" is a semi-autobiographical film, in four episodes, about a family, my family, from 1948 until recent times. The film is inspired by my father's private diaries, starting from when he was a resistance fighter in 1948, and by my mother's letters to family members who were forced to leave the country. Combined with my intimate memories of them and with them, the film attempts to portray the daily life of those Palestinians who remained and were labelled "Israeli-Arabs", living as a minority in their own homeland.
ThrillerThe recently dead return to life and seem content merely to go back to their former lives, but their return causes a myriad of complications. Isham and Véronique have their trepidations, but they're generally happy, at first, to see their little boy Sylvain, and the town's elderly mayor welcomes home his wife, Martha. But Rachel, a government health official, cannot bring herself to visit her newly returned husband, Mathieu, at the ad-hoc shelter where the government houses the "zombie" like refugees. Eventually, she relents, and Mathieu returns home, but the living find that their loved ones are not exactly as they remember them. Studies soon reveal that the dead suffer from a form of aphasia. They cannot create new memories, and they cannot be trusted to perform any but the most menial tasks. Perhaps sensing the discomfort they cause the living, the dead gather together at night, and seem to be formulating some kind of secret plan.
DramaTo Get to Heaven First You Have to Die marks director Djamshed Usmonov (Angel On the Right) out as one of the brightest talents of post-Soviet cinema. Sparer, bleaker and much more unsettling than his previous films it stars Khurched Golibekov as the sullen, wide-eyed Kamal, who has been married for a few months, but is unable to consummate his marriage. Learning that there is nothing physically wrong with him after visiting a doctor, Kamal sets off to town to find a woman. With his child-like, country-boy naivete, he struggles to meet anyone until a chance encounter on a bus. This accidental meeting takes him on a far more troubling and darker journey than he was counting on… Compared by critics to Krzysztof Kieslowski’s A Short Film About Love, Usmanov's absolutely sure-footed direction and storytelling make for a film that gently, gradually pulls the rug out from under our feet, in a classic example of less-is-more film-making.
DramaAcclaimed adaptation of the Marcel Pagnol novel, and Best Film BAFTA winner. City-dweller Jean moves his family to the Provence countryside in the 1920s to forge a new life as a farmer. But his proud, cocky neighbouring rival Le Papet schemes with his simple-minded nephew to acquire some nearby land ensuring the novice owner never discovers an all-important natural spring on the property. A wholly captivating, emotionally powerful and beautifully photographed classic epic of innocence, greed, envy and revenge.
DramaIn 1942, Belarus is in the hands of the Nazis and the local militia. Sushenya is taken from his house in the middle of the night by Burow and his sidekick Voitik, two partisan fighters hiding out in the hills and forest. Sushenya is the only one of four captured rail workers who has been allowed to live by the occupying Germans, after seemingly sabotaging the rail tracks. With the village and even his wife turned against him as a collaborator, Sushenya accepts his fate until the Germans show up and he is, perhaps, given a second chance, leaving room for doubt both on his betrayal and on the legitimacy of punishment by death. The three, and later two men, walk in the wood, exhausted, fleeing death from the Nazis whilst discussing and living with the moral dilemmas of treason, heroism, guilt and revenge. Shot in sumptuous long takes and vibrant colour, In the Fog ultimately questions the corruption of man’s very humanity in the context of war.
DramaThe convergences and complexities of life in a middle-class suburb of Recife, Brazil, are played out in mesmerizing style in this stunning debut feature from film critic turned director Kleber Mendonça Filho.
Taking a broad, diverse set of strikingly realistic characters - including a bored housewife seeking solace in technology, a descendant of colonial landowners struggling with his dark, mysterious past and a security company employed to provide protection to them all – Filho paints a rich, detailed portrait of a community connected and engulfed by fear, desire and the incessant murmur of modern life.
A beautifully subtle, fiercely intelligent and utterly engrossing snap-shot of present-day Brazil, this bold, compelling and endlessly intriguing film has announced one of the most exciting new voices in contemporary world cinema.
DramaThe timeless story continues in the award-winning sequel to Jean De Florette. Jean's daughter Manon has grown up in to a beautiful and free-spirited young shepherdess on her father's Provence farm.But when she learns the tragic truth about her father's demise, Manon plots her revenge on the dim-witted Ugolin and the scheming Le Papet. A visual feast containing masterly performances leading to a heart-stopping and totally unexpected conclusion, Manon des Sources is regarded as one of the best French Films ever made.
DramaA beautifully affecting love story that has rightly earned comparisons to Brokeback Mountain, Haim Tabakman's potent yet impeccably restrained tale has won awards and accolades at film festivals the world over. Aaron, a pillar in Jerusalem's Orthodox community is respected by friends and family. However, when he hires handsome runaway student Ezri to assist with his business, sexual tensions bristle and the pair cautiously embark on a love affair. Meanwhile, a neighbouring shopkeeper persists in seeing a man of her own choosing, even though she's been promised by her father to another. As forbidden truths come to the fore, these lovers are forced to either confront or relent in the face of a centuries old religious community, with startling results.
