2001-2010

Synopsis:
Six-year-old Vanya Solntsev lives in a desolate and rundown orphanage run by an alcoholic headmaster. When a wealthy Italian couple wanting to adopt selects him, the other children, especially his good friend, Anton, envy his fortune and name him The Italian. However, when a grief-stricken mother of another boy commits suicide after returning to reclaim her son and discovering he is no longer there, Vanya fears the same fate looms for him. With the aid of some of the older boys, he retrieves his file from the office safe and learns the address of the children’s home where he previously lived. Certain the records there will identify his mother, he sets off on his quest with the help of an older girl.Read More »

In Paris, a young American who works as a Michael Jackson lookalike meets Marilyn Monroe, who invites him to her commune in Scotland, where she lives with Charlie Chaplin and her daughter, Shirley Temple.Read More »

A bookshop renowned for its rare works is mysteriously and completely filled with copies of a book entitled 1, which doesn’t appear to have a publisher or author. The strange almanac describes what happens to the whole of humanity in the space of a minute. A police investigation begins and the bookshop staff are placed in solitary confinement by the Bureau for Paranormal Research (RDI Reality Defense Institute). As the investigation progresses, the situation becomes more complex and the book increasingly well known, raising numerous controversies (political, scientific, religious and artistic). Plagued by doubts, the protagonist has to face facts: reality only exists in the imagination of individuals.

Based on Stanislaw Lem’s experimental novel One Human Minute.Read More »

Belorussia, summer 1942. The war has moved on, far off to the east. The life of a small town where the German authorities of the region have set themselves up is getting back to “normal”. The Germans study Russian, flirt with the local girls, the women wash their clothes and feed them. They have to carry on somehow… But suddenly the teenage son of the film’s heroine decides to run away to the partisans and blows up a German train so that they could accept him. He gets caught and the Germans have to execute him in order “to teach others a lesson”. That’s the order and it can’t be disobeyed. The Germans know that this execution will bring an end to their peaceful lives. The local commandant understands this better than anyone as he is already involved in a close relationship with the boy’s mother. But he can’t ignore an order from his commanders …Read More »

In 2002, 12-year-old Maria, living in dire poverty with her family, is sold by her fisherman father to prostitute recruiter Seu Tadeu, who takes her to a low-class brothel in the Amazon region. While she suffers innumerable abuses, Maria only thinks of escaping the horrible conditions she’s faced with.Read More »

Double (2001)
A film of the interactive video installation and performance art Double/Bunshin that Ito did in collaboration with Butoh dancer Setsuko Yamada in 2001.Read More »

The new teacher at a severely administered boys’ boarding school works to positively effect the students’ lives through music.Read More »

A depiction of a girl’s uneasy state of mind as it wavers between life and death.Read More »

AMG: When a blind date arranged by mutual friends results in a whirlwind courtship for an enchanted young couple, the pair soon discover that fate may not ultimately be so kind in director Jeff Lipsky’s affecting romance. As the rain poured down on the night that they first met, Stuart and Nicole sat mesmerized in a small diner, wondering if life could truly get any better than it was in those early, magical moments. In the coming weeks they found that indeed life could get better, but as the young couple embarks on a dizzying romance their initial enchantment soon gives way to a painful reversal of fortunes. With human flaws eclipsing the perceived initial perfection and the disparities of their backgrounds prying open an ever deepening chasm filled with selfishness and religious conflict, Stuart and Nicole soon find that the heartbreak of their failing romance is as emotionally devastating as their early moments together were intoxicating.Read More »