2001-2010

  • S. Pierre Yameogo – Moi et mon blanc AKA Me and My White Man (2003)

    2001-2010African CinemaBurkina FasoComedyS. Pierre Yameogo

    Plot: Mamadi is struggling to complete a doctorate at a Parisian university after the government of his country has stopped paying his scholarship. Thanks to his acquaintances in the African community, he finds a job as night watchman in an underground car park. There, a French colleague, Franck, helps the friendly African academic getting around. However, the car park is also a meeting point for dubious characters, and when Mamadi accidentally wrecks a drug trafficking operation, Franck is really hard-pressed to put his pal and himself out of harm’s way. Wouldn’t Mamadi’s home country be the ideal place to escape the gangsters’ wrath?Read More »

  • Giles Walker – Blind Terror (2001)

    2001-2010CanadaGiles WalkerMysteryThriller

    From the back cover-
    A young widow’s pain and grief finally fades after meeting a charming and handsome man who helps her to forget her past. But everything begins to go terribly wrong when it’s discovered that Mr Right hides a deadly secret from his own past.

    Immediately after her whirlwind romance culminates in marriage Kevin Massie, Susan Brice (Natassja Kinski 😉 ) becomes the object of a stalker. What at first appears to be nothing more than a voyeur, frighteningly becomes an obsessed psychopath bent on murder. Susan’s nightmare begins with ominous phone messages and petty vandalism, but quickly escalates into life threatening situations.Read More »

  • Naoyuki Tomomatsu – Rôjin to rabudôru: Watashi ga shochô ni natta toki… AKA Maid-Droid (2008)

    2001-2010AsianEroticaJapanNaoyuki Tomomatsu

    Quote:
    Mr. Ueno, retired, lives alone; he talks to Maria, a maid-droid his parents brought from their factory decades ago. Maria became Ueno’s companion after his parents’ deaths, and now her battery is run down; there are no replacement parts. Meanwhile, Inspector Akagi and her police squad are looking for a serial rapist that may not be human; however, if it’s a robot, in harming people it would be disobeying Asimov’s rules of robotics. Akagi’s inquiry takes her to a droid factory run by Mr. X; he helps by explaining why host-droids, the male equivalent of a maid-droid, don’t sell. What will Ueno and Akagi learn about love and the nature of men and women?Read More »

  • Marion Hänsel – Si le vent soulève les sables AKA Sounds of Sand (2006)

    2001-2010African CinemaArthouseDramaFranceMarion Hänsel

    On the one hand, there’s the desert eating away at the land. The endless dry season, the lack of water. On the other there’s the threat of war. The village well has run dry. The livestock is dying. Trusting their instinct, most of the villagers leave and head south. Rahne, the only literate one, decides to head east with his three children and Mouna, his wife. A few sheep, some goats and Chamelle, a dromedary, are their only riches. A tale of exodus, quest, hope and fatality. Rahne and his family travel across hostile lands under a lethal sun, walking endlessly onwards and frequently crossing paths with death. But “Sounds of sand” is also a parable about determination and eternity that takes us in the footsteps of Shasha, a nomad child full of the joys of life, whose tenacity and strength will conquer her father’s love.Read More »

  • Shûichi Okita – Nankyoku ryôrinin AKA The Chef of South Polar (2009)

    2001-2010ComedyJapanShûichi Okita

    Quote:
    Nishimura has a passion for cooking, but never would he have imagined the task before him now: He is unexpectedly assigned to a south polar mission to serve as head chef at the Dome Fuji station. Leaving wife and daughter behind for a year, he and the other crew members experience one existential crisis after another in the icy cold. And then they run out of Ramen!Read More »

  • Bob Gale – Interstate 60: Episodes of the Road (2002)

    2001-2010AdventureBob GaleCanadaComedy

    A Canadian independent road film written and directed by Bob Gale, in his directorial debut, and starring James Marsden, Gary Oldman, Amy Smart, Christopher Lloyd, Chris Cooper and Kurt Russell, with a cameo by Michael J. Fox.

    PLOT: Neal Oliver, a very confused young man and an artist, takes a journey of a lifetime on a highway I60 that doesn’t exist on any of the maps, going to the places he never even heard of, searching for an answer and his dreamgirl.Read More »

  • Masahiro Kobayashi – Ai no yokan aka The Rebirth (2007)

    2001-2010AsianDramaJapanMasahiro Kobayashi

    Quote:
    The Locarno Film Festival is renowned for showing interesting, unconventional films, favoring fresh, undiscovered talent over established names. The two do occasionally mix: one example is Anthony Hopkins’ directorial debut Slipstream, a stream-of-consciousness satire that competed at the 2007 edition. It didn’t win anything, though: the prestigious Golden Leopard was picked up by Masahiro Kobayashi, who stunned critics and audiences with The Rebirth, a minimalistic character study of rare poignancy.Read More »

  • Stephen Chow – Siu lam juk kau AKA Shaolin Soccer (2001)

    2001-2010ChinaComedyMusicalStephen Chow

    A young Shaolin follower reunites with his discouraged brothers to form a soccer team using their martial art skills to their advantage.Read More »

  • Hannes Schüpbach – Spin (2001)

    2001-2010ExperimentalHannes SchüpbachShort FilmSwitzerland

    The concept of Spin, the inherent turning momentum of electrons, stands for the passing of time and for time itself. The unceasing transformation of the world is translated into film via the gliding movement of the camera. Bright light and blurring portray the environment of the film’s elderly subject, my mother, as pure atmosphere. Her few calm gestures in the face of diminishing time and energy convey a personal presence undisturbed by specific goals. She sits and breathes quietly. When walking she travels across space. The turning away of a tree full of apples evokes regret, as does a sharp light that narrows and dissolves. In the final image my mother seems to taste a bitterness that eludes comprehension.Read More »

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