Arthouse

Synopsis
This bold, stunning exploration of a white mother who undergoes a radical mastectomy and her Black daughter who embarks on a modeling career reveals the profound effects of body image and the strain of racial and sexual identity on their charged, intensely loving bond. At the heart of Onwurah’s brave excursion into her mother’s scorned sexuality is a provocative interweaving of memory and fantasy. The filmmaker plumbs the depths of maternal strength and daughterly devotion in an unforgettable tribute starring her real-life mother, Madge Onwurah.Read More »

Young congressman Miguel Horta represents a party that is directly opposed to the present government. He slyly switches parties in order to gain favor with those in power — seriously compromising his own ideals and ethics in the process.Read More »

Directed by acclaimed Austrian filmmaker Barbara Albert, Falling is a “charming, intelligent and low-key” human drama about five independent women, former classmates who have forged different lives since their school days, who are reunited for the funeral of a beloved teacher. Nina is drifting through existence with neither a job, nor a father for her unborn child. Shy, ethereal Brigitte has followed the group’s idol into education and activism. Alex is a buttoned-down career woman struggling to balance personal needs with professional goals. Cool, calm actress Carmen uses her art to avoid genuine intimacy, while loose cannon Nicole desperately seeks to be closer with her estranged young daughter Daphne.Read More »

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A Raiz do Coração (A Root of the Heart) is a Portuguese film set in the Lisbon during the festivities of Saint Anthony, the patron saint of lovers and the old town. The story is about Cato, a nationalist politician who is charismatic and unscrupulous. He obsessively pursues Silvia, a mystical and mysterious young transvestite whom he meets at the festival. When Silvia runs into Vicente, a policeman who arrests transvestites and threatens them, Silvia must look towards blackmail to save herself. Compromising photos of Cato start to emerge among opposition parties and he must do all in his power to save his political career.Read More »

Daan is the story of a young boy desperate to find work to help support his family and heroin addicted parents. Moving from employer to employer, Daan, aged only 9 and illiterate, faces an almost impossible task without an identity card. Part of the Iranian New Wave, Abolfazl Jalili’s use of non-actors gives the film the feeling of a documentary, as performers recreate lives so close to their own. From Don’s point of view, the world is a tough place, but his determination to make the most of his situation is heartwarming.Read More »

Set in the newly-pacified Phnom Penh, Cambodia, this film is about the return to civilian life of Cambodian soldiers. Initially following three such returnees, the plot narrows to focus on Savannah (Narith Roeun), one ex-soldier trying to make sense of his new situation. He finds a home with his uncle, and they are the only remaining survivors of his once-large family. Despite its attraction and ubiquity, he decides not to turn to a life of petty crime, and instead tries to make his way as a kickboxer. Along the way he meets Srey Poeuv (Chea Lyda Chan), a 19 year-old bargirl who dreams of being rich and is ashamed of her status, in a dancehall. Initially, she resists his advances, but is swayed by the strength of his devotion and perseverance. His is the story of a damaged country trying vigorously to renew itself.Read More »

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After the huge critical and box-office acclaim of the allegoric, iconoclast political satire “Macunaíma” (1969), director Joaquim Pedro de Andrade raised funds in Brazil and Italy (through RAI-TV) to make “Os Inconfidentes”, a politically and artistically ambitious (though low budget) film that tries to reassess historically the most important political event in colonial Brazil – the ill-fated plotting of a coup d’état by a group of Brazilian military officers, poets and intellectuals aiming to overthrow the Portuguese Crown and establish a Brazilian Independent Republic in 1789, inspired by the success of the U.S. independence.Read More »

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The story of a northern Chinese peasant wife in the 1920s whose personal life is played out against a background of sweeping political change.Read More »

A semi-autobiographical account of Lars Von Trier’s early life that follows the misadventures of a young, rebellious student who has aspirations of becoming a film director…Read More »