2011-2020

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Touko 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 peace-time Helsinki rampant with persecution of the homosexual men around him, even being pressured to marry women and have children. Touko finds refuge in his liberating art, specializing 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.Read More »

With ABOUT ENDLESSNESS, Roy Andersson adds to his cinematic oeuvre with a reflection on human life in all its beauty and cruelty, its splendour and banality.Read More »

The institute that this film is about existed twice. Once as the top-secret Institute for Physical Problems as part of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, which was in operation from 1938 to 1968, and a second time as the largest film set in Europe, which was destroyed at the end of the project. The DAU Institute in Kharkiv was an experiment designed by director Ilya Khrzhanovskiy in which leading mathematicians, artists, philosophers and mystics lived and worked between 2009 and 2011. Among other things, they explored the foundations and limits of intellectual understanding and human action, working towards the creation of a “new human being” and beyond, to the bloody end. Read More »

This is a snapshot of the global state of the movie industry with a special feature on fims about pandemics and a look at what’s available to stream online “beyond the mainstream”.Read More »

Natasha and Olga work in the canteen of a secret Soviet research institute. This is the beating heart of the DAU universe, everyone drops in here: the institute’s employees, scientists and foreign guests, like Luc Bigé. Natasha begins an affair with him, but not before she and Olga have a lengthy talk about love which puts them at loggerheads. In her bathtub and during jovial drinking games, Natasha ponders her lovers and describes the Frenchman as being “gentle”. But the secret service, headed by Vladimir Azhippo, intervenes. For Natasha (and us) this is an “ungentle” experience. Even those who know nothing about Ilya Khrzhanovskiy’s DAU project – a large-scale simulation of the totalitarian system under Stalin and after – will be able to recognise in the artistic and political dimensions of DAU. Read More »

Diagnosed with cancer, a Siberian man, inspired by an ancient folk tale, tries to fool death by adopting a new identity—one that leads to ostracism and violence from the others in his village.

Egor, a forest ranger in Siberia, finds out he has terminal cancer. He accepts his prognosis and prepares for the inevitable. His wife (Natalia Kudryashova), who is expecting another child, begs him to visit a shaman, who relates a Russian folktale about a creature who fooled fate by disguising itself. Therefore, Egor decides to disguise himself and dress as a woman. Dressing as a woman in a Siberian village is an audacious move that is way beyond the comprehension of the locals, and worst of all, his son and wife, who are mortified. Read More »

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Aeronautic engineer Graham Dorrington tries his hand at a journey towards the massive waterfalls of Kaieteur, in the heart of Guyana, hoping that his helium airship will make it successfully over the treetops. His undertaking is not without risks: twelve years earlier, a similar expedition that attempted to fly over a rainforest habitat in Sumatra had culminated in the tragic death of Dieter Plage, a friend of Dorrington. Werner Herzog is among the protagonists of the expedition, embarking in a new dirigible prototype to observe the lost world of this uncontaminated rainforest, one of the least explored territories on the planet.Read More »

Synopsis:
A cop from the provinces moves to Paris to join the Anti-Crime Brigade of Montfermeil, discovering an underworld where the tensions between the different groups mark the rhythm.Read More »

The film is based on Ryunosuke Akutagawa’s story “In a Grove” which takes place during the times of Tsar Alexander II. A lady-in-waiting tells the Emperor in his bedroom a metaphysical story about a 13th century prince who is killed in the woods under mysterious circumstances. Fairy tale characters who have witnessed the terrible death, all share their version of the events, gradually shedding light on what really happened.Read More »