1971-1980

Spain – the Civil War is raging. Fanny Horn, an English aristocrat looking for adventure, is caught up in the turmoil in Madrid. Here, for the first time, she meets Father Heredia – a monk of the Jesuit Order. Obsessed by her passion for him, she enrolls as a nurse at Peña Ronda, a focus of epidemic typhoid fever, where the Jesuit has set up a field hospital. The monk tries to reject the English woman, but, for a short while, loses control of his feelings. Fanny is ready to take desperate action, but she is once again confronted with Father Heredia’s fanaticism, which is capable of destroying everything around him.Read More »

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Remastered in 2019. Ernesto is based on the scandal novel by Umberto Saba, scandalous for the outspoken portrayal of a gay relationship between an adult man and an adolescent. The film has won numerous awards worldwide, including the “Silver Bear” of the Berlinale 1979. His ironically witty mood is repeatedly compared to the best films by François Truffaut. Martin Halm in the title role, the film legend Michele Placido as his proletarian relationship and Italy’s film goddess Virna Lisi as Ernesto’s mother guarantee this film an absolute cult status.Read More »

Four Third-World Christs try to stop the American industrialist John Brahms in Glauber Rocha’s experimental film inspired by Pier Paolo Pasolini’s murder.

The day that Pier Paolo Pasolini was killed, Glauber Rocha decided to make this film about the life of Christ in the Third World. Starting from a dialectical synthesis between capitalism and socialism, and a search of interracial relationships in Brazil, Rocha created a work of religious and prophetic tone that results in a kind of bewilderment contemplative, now lyrical, now frantic, soaked in a new messianism. In his last film, the director proposed a tune of sounds and images that build a picture of Brazil and a portrait of himself.Read More »

Synopsis:
Vengeance Is Mine is the come-back feature of master Shohei Imamura after a 10 year hiatus. The film is based on a real-life serial killer who went on a killing spree across Japan in the 60s.Read More »

Synopsis:
Blind masseur and master swordsman Zatoichi finds a robbed and fatally wounded pregnant woman, whose baby he delivers before she dies. He takes the baby in search of its father and finds the child’s aunt, who is about to be forced into prostitution for want of a payment the dead mother was bringing. Zatoichi determines to save the woman from her fate.Read More »

Hirobe is a lonely man. After witnessing her girlfriend die with a terminal illness, he wanders through the city like a shadow. One day, he meets Masako and they begin an affair. Masako is in an unhappy marriage with Yazawa, who is also cheating on her with a younger lover. The tension builds up to an unforgiving, yet quiet climax…Read More »

The life and times of Petar Chushko and his fellow peasants from the village Sushevo (Droughtville) are inextricably linked to the scarcity of their water supply. With the blessing of their priest, the villagers of Sushevo change the course of the local river and steal the waters of the neighboring village Kamenovo (Stoneville). A fight breaks out between the villages, their priests included. The peasants are brought before a judge for disturbance of the peace. The judge is corrupt enough to pronounce a verdict in favor of those who are prepared to pay more, so the water goes to Kamenovo. Meanwhile, there is no water at all in Sushevo and the villagers refuse to pay the water tax in protest. Read More »

After Kanchana Seeta (1977), the mythical dimension of Aravindan’s cinema acquires a quasi-real, quasi-mythical character in Esthappan (1980). Esthappan is a mysterious figure, allegedly immortal, in a Christian fishing village in Kerala. An enigmatic figure defying spatiotemporality, like many others in Aravindan’s films, Esthappan resides at the periphery of society. Although a more earthly version of Kummatty (the subject of Aravindan’s previous film), all manner of virtues and magical powers are ascribed to the Christ-like worker of miracles (including printing his own money and drinking whisky without getting drunk).Read More »

Synopsis:
Two Jesuit priests encounter persecution when they travel to Japan in the 17th century to spread Christianity and to locate their mentor.Read More »