2011-2020

  • Mohammad Rasoulof – Lerd AKA A Man of Integrity (2017)

    2011-2020DramaIranThriller

    A former university professor now living as a goldfish farmer in a Northern Iranian village, Reza quietly tends to his own affairs alongside his wife Hadis, a principal at a local girls’ school, and their young son. After his river-sourced water supply is cut off, Reza’s goldfish begin dying. His attempt to reopen his sluice is met with a violent attack by thuggish local Abbas, a strongman for a shadowy organization known as simply “the company.” Reza refuses to compensate Abbas for a fake injury, or bribe his way out of mounting legal problems, but he quickly discovers the steep price to be paid for holding on to principles in a system where money trumps morality.

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  • Yahya Alabdallah – Al Juma Al Akheira AKA The Last Friday (2011)

    Drama2011-2020JordanYahya Alabdallah

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    Quote:
    Isolation and loneliness are the dominant feelings in Youssef’s life after getting divorced from his wife who took the only son they have to live with her. He counts the days till he sees his son once a week. He plays with himself gammon, brews himself some tea and makes breakfast. He deals with everyday adversities with silence and stoicism. He secretly steals his electricity from a neighbor. He reacts to getting a parking ticket with a shrug of his shoulders. He endures his employer’s degradations and double-dealings. When female customers talk of their annoyances regarding their fiancées or other men, he simply doesn’t listen. He’s also come to terms with being the only one around without a mobile phone. Sometimes he takes long drives with his taxi in the streets of Amman or meet up with his friend and talk about his troubles. Suddenly, he finds himself in a serious situation when the doctor tells him about the necessity of having emergency surgery. So he is in the dilemma of the choice; either he has an operation, or buy his son the dog before the stepfather with whom the child lives does… lots of details… single shot scenes… a tone takes you through this isolated world… his taxi running in the streets of Amman compelled to live with his loneliness, dominated by oppression endured by all of us at the times of economic and social grinding crises.Read More »

  • Mara Eibl-Eibesfeldt – Im Spinnwebhaus (2015)

    2011-2020DramaFantasyMara Eibl-Eibesfeldt

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    Jonas is already head of the family at just 12 years of age. He has been helping his two younger siblings and supporting his mother, Sabine, since his father left. Sabine is very loving towards her children but she often loses her patience and disappears into her room for the day. Mysterious demons drive her to spend a weekend away to relax in the “sunny valley”. But the weekend grows into weeks in which the three children hear nothing from their mother. Food and money have long since run out, the house has become more and more like a haunted castle: a spiderweb house. Jonas tries his best to maintain the appearance of an intact family. On the hunt for something to eat, he meets a young man, Felix Count of Gütersloh, who speaks in rhymes and declares himself to be not quite right in the head. Rather like a guardian angel, he takes Jonas under his wing and shows him how to get by in a world without adults. The film is less a social drama than a modern-day fairy tale shot in black and white. The audience is immersed in the eerily beautiful world of the children which unfolds its own particular magic.Read More »

  • Heinz Emigholz – Streetscapes [Dialogue] AKA Streetscapes – Chapter 3 (2017)

    2011-2020ArchitectureDocumentaryGermanyHeinz Emigholz

    A film director confides in his interlocutor. He talks about the working process, about creative blocks, about artistic crises and expressive forces. At some point, the idea takes hold that this conversation could be turned into a film. And this is the very film we’re watching the two of them in.Read More »

  • Muzaffer Özdemir – Yurt aka Home (2011)

    Drama2011-2020Muzaffer ÖzdemirTurkey

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    The first feature to be written and directed by actor Muzaffer Ozdemir, best known for his
    roles in Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s The Small Town, Clouds Of May and Distant (for which he won
    the Cannes Best Actor Award) Home (Yurt) is a beautifully composed meditation on
    memories and a changing world. Dogan, a pessimistic and neurotic architect, longing for his
    homeland, revisits the countryside of his childhood for the first time in many years. His
    search for the familiar, however, is an elusive one and in this modern technological age he
    quickly discovers that time which once stood still is now fleeting, and that the tranquillity of
    familiar landscapes is fading. Poetic and resonant, Home (Yurt) is a serene depiction of one
    man’s journey to find his own sense of peace amidst the conflict between nature and the
    ever intrusive modern age.Read More »

  • Helene Hegemann – Axolotl Overkill (2017)

    2011-2020DramaGermanyHelene HegemannQueer Cinema(s)

    Quote:
    Mifti, age 16, lives in Berlin with a cast of characters including her half-siblings; their rich, self-involved father; and her junkie friend Ophelia. As she mourns her recently deceased mother, she begins to develop an obsession with Alice, an enigmatic, and much older, white-collar criminal.

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  • Anucha Boonyawatana – Malila: The Farewell Flower (2017)

    2011-2020Anucha BoonyawatanaArthouseQueer Cinema(s)Thailand

    Quote:
    The the visually stunning new Thai relationship drama Malila: The Farewell Flower, former gay lovers Shane and Pitch reunite after years apart and try to heal the wounds of their past. Shane is haunted by the tragic death of his daughter, while Pitch suffers a grave illness, rejecting medical treatment as painful and ineffective.

    A talented artist, Pitch creates beautiful structures made out of flowers and banana leaves as a way to cope with his deteriorating health. Meanwhile, Shane trains to become a Buddhist monk, in an effort to build karma for Pitch… to either keep him alive or to help him along in his afterlife.Read More »

  • Isao Yukisada – Ribâzu ejji AKA River’s Edge (2018)

    2011-2020CrimeIsao YukisadaJapanMystery

    Synopsis:
    Haruna is a high school student whose, school-mates, school and life is topsy turvy and often tragic. One of her classmates is the homosexual Ichiro. The boy is often bullied, derided and beaten. He has the scars to show for it. Haruna stands by Ichiro‘s side and comes to know Ichiro‘s secret. Then they discover a corpse by a river beside the tall grass.Read More »

  • Raphaël Jacoulot – Avant l’aube (2011)

    2011-2020BelgiumDramaMysteryRaphaël Jacoulot

    Frederic is a young man in social rehabilitation. He has just found a night internship, in an isolated hotel in the mountains when, one evening, he sees his boss, Jacques, together with this son, hiding a car in the parking lot. The day after, he learns that one of the clients left the hotel without notice… (IMDB)Read More »

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