Arthouse

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It is a Sunday in late winter. Church bells ring as Huh-wook sets off to meet his sweetheart Jee-yun. Huh-wook, who cannot afford to start a family, goes off to meet his friends to get money for an abortion for Jee-yun. But he instead ends up stealing from a friend when no one wants to lend him money. The doctor recommends an abortion for Jee-yun because she’s ill. Huh-wook leaves the hospital and has a drink, then visits a bar and a roadside bar with a woman he meets in a salon. Completely intoxicated, Huh-wook makes love to her in a construction site but comes to his senses at the sound of church bells ringing and runs back to the hospital. He arrives to discover that Jee-yun has died during the surgery and goes to tell her father, only to be turned away at the doorstep. Then the friend whose money he had stolen catches him and beats him up. Blood streaming down his face, he runs down the dark streets and reminisces about the happy times he had with Jee-yun.Read More »

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Created for an innovative museum exhibition in Barcelona and Paris that paired the works of Víctor Erice and Abbas Kiarostami, Correspondences is composed of ten “filmed letters” between the two great filmmakers. As in their other films, children, imagination, and the creative process take center stage; in one, the young grandchildren of the painter from Erice’s The Quince Tree Sun show off their own unique styles, while in another nine-year-olds in a rural Spanish classroom watch Kiarostami’s Where Is the Friend’s Home? Kiarostami follows an “escaped quince” from the Spanish film to a neighborhood in Iran in one sequence, and plays with artistic perspective in another. “Modern messages in a bottle” (Miguel Marias), these not-so-simple video letters recognize no international stamps or borders, only the artistic and personal links between individuals.Read More »

This is the story of Mei, a young woman on a trip from East to West after her escape from her provincial Chinese village. Beginning in Chongqing and a disastrous factory job, Mei soon heads out for London and a marriage to an older man where her entrapment begins anew.Read More »

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Julie (Anaïs Demoustier) is eager to make a start in the job market. But she finds herself taking a succession of soul-destroying jobs (the film is especially brittle in its look at the ostensibly hip and ‘human’ PR world) and tangling with a series of wildly unsuitable men. Taking part in a role-playing charade for a job interview, she meets a freewheeling young actor (Pio Marmaï), who shows her another way to live life, outside the nine-to-five rut. The couple hit it off and head for an idyllic existence away from the system, only for reality to catch them unawares.Read More »

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A family man slowly becomes dangerously obsessive and paranoid in this grim Austrian drama that contains a graphically violent ending. As the story begins, George, an engineer who works at a science facility, has a normal happy life with his wife and kids. They are in the process of building a new house when George learns that a nearby chemical plant has been leaking dangerous gas into the air. This causes George to begin suffering from terrifying hallucinations. His paranoia increases every time he hears another report of violence, crime, war, or any other social problems on the news. After learning that his company may be overtaken by a larger corporation, George decides to send his family on an Italian vacation while he stays home and turns their apartment into a strange refuge from the terrible world he knows is coming.Read More »

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This Senegalese melodrama tells the story of a young girl called Mossane who lives in a village between the ocean and the savannah. There, veneration for the traditions is very common. There’s a legend saying that every other century a girl is born who is doomed because of her beauty. Mossane is only fourteen years old but is already considered to be extraordinary beautiful. Even her own brother is in love with her. According to the custom she has been promised to a rather wealthy man called Diogoye since the day of her birth. However, Mossane is in love with the poor student Fara who is forced to return to the village while the university is on strike. Torn between her own dreams and traditions, Mossane decides to escape. The film shows the resistance of the young generation and is dedicated especially to the African women, their courage and their wish for emancipation.Read More »

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Things in Portugal weren’t what they are now. The story of this film is the story of bygone days when Portugal was hidden away from the rest of the world, when men were obliged to go to countries many Portuguese people could not point out on the map.
Men died and changed in these lands. Alex was only 10 years old, but he remembers, so its better for him to tell the story.Read More »

Synopsis:
‘George takes care of his invalid wife and holds down a full-time job but is forced into retirement for health reasons. When an investment firm wipes out his life savings, George takes up a life of crime. He is soon driven to the brink of insanity over the unfortunate series of events that transpire.’ [Edited to correct inaccuracies.]
– Dan PavlidesRead More »

“Liv Ullmann’s directorial debut is a beguiling and bittersweet tale about the yearning to be free… “

Synopsis:
Copenhagen at the end of the nineteenth century. Sofie is a beautiful and cultured 28-year-old who lives at home with her parents Frederikke and Semmy. They only want the best for her and worry that she will end up an old maid like her three aunts with whom they share the weekly Sabbath meal…Read More »