Drama

  • Thomas Arslan – Geschwister – Kardesler (1997)

    1991-2000DramaGermanyThomas ArslanTurkey

    Thomas Arslan’s second feature film and part of his Berlin-trilogy is a slow-paced milieu study of German-Turkish youth in Berlin-Kreuzberg. The film depicts the every day life, domestic conflicts, dreams and disappointments of three siblings and their aimless, meandering strolls through the Kreuzberg district. The family itself encapsulates the culture clash that is at the centre of many German-Turkish films. In Arslan’s film, the mother is German, the father is Turkish and the children have to make up their own minds about their cultural allegiances. Seventeen-year-old Leyla tries to escape from her family by spending most of her time with her best friend Sevim. Read More »

  • Séverine Cornamusaz – Coeur animal (2009)

    2001-2010DramaSéverine CornamusazSwitzerland

    Paul and Rosine live deep and isolated in the craggy, breathtaking Swiss Alps where they have a small dairy farm. The day-to-day work attendant on this rustic if somewhat modernized two-person operation is punishing and relentless. Life is made no easier by the fact that Paul is an emotionally stunted brute. While treating his cows as tenderly as a family pet, he bullies Rosine mercilessly, both physically and verbally. She finds a few moments of pleasure when left alone to milk the cows or shimmy to the radio while making goat cheese—reveries more often than not interrupted by Paul’s crude appetites.Read More »

  • Arnaud Desplechin – Un conte de Noël aka A Christmas Tale (2008)

    2001-2010Arnaud DesplechinComedyDramaFrance

    Criterion wrote:
    In Arnaud Desplechin’s beguiling A Christmas Tale (Un conte de Noël), Catherine Deneuve brings her legendary poise to the role of Junon, matriarch of the troubled Vuillard family, who come together at Christmas after she learns she needs a bone marrow transplant from a blood relative. That simple family reunion setup, however, can’t begin to describe the unpredictable, emotionally volatile experience of this film, an inventive, magical drama that’s equal parts merriment and melancholy. Unrequited childhood loves and blinding grudges, brutal outbursts and sudden slapstick, music, movies, and poetry, A Christmas Tale ties it all together in a marvelously messy package.
    Read More »

  • Bostjan Hladnik – Maskarada aka Masquerade (1971)

    Drama1971-1980Bostjan HladnikEroticaYugoslaviaYugoslavian Cinema under Tito

    Quote:
    An erotic drama about complicated love affairs and blackmailing. Dina, the young wife of elderly manager Gantar meets attractive student Luka and falls in love with him. All her further activity is submitted to one and only goal: to get Luka for herself.

    Banned for over a decade because of its explicit sexual situations, when this film was released in Yugoslavia in 1983 the explicit scenes had become tame. Other than the notoriety it obtained through censorship, the film has an undistinguished story about the forbidden love affair between the older wife of a sports director and a young athlete.
    ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie GuideRead More »

  • Kang-sheng Lee – Bang bang wo ai shen AKA Help Me Eros (2007)

    Drama2001-2010ArthouseKang-sheng LeeTaiwan

    Quote:

    The literal translation of the Taiwanese title is ‘Help Me, God of Love’, since Eros is an artifact of Greece-Roman mythology. The exclamation is a wry reference to the film’s comically cynical perspective on human relationships, in which a wide variety of unlikely subjects – food, marijuana and live eels, amongst others – become substitute objects of comfort and affection for the protagonists. The plea for help is also a strong theme in the form of the suicide hotline.Read More »

  • Jennifer Reeves – The Time We Killed (2004)

    2001-2010DramaExperimentalJennifer ReevesUSA

    Quote:
    Over six years on and off in the making, Jennifer Reeves’ debut feature “The Time We Killed” is a beautiful, impressionistic and deeply personal cinematic poem that, even though it takes the point of view of a so-called mentally disturbed woman, captures a clear view of the world that we live in now. Somewhat of a companion piece to Reeves’ earlier half-hour short “Chronic”, “The Time We Killed” combines elements of experimental film, narrative cinema, documentary to create a stellar example of personal filmmaking that operates on multiple levels — psychological, sociological, political, and even technological.Read More »

  • Claude Sautet – Mado [+Extras] (1976)

    Drama1971-1980Claude SautetFrance

    Synopsis (possible spoilers):
    “Middle-aged businessman, Simon Leotard finds his future in jeopardy when his partner Julien commits suicide after having accumulated a mass of debts. Simon’s unscrupulous business rival Lepidon offers to save him from bankruptcy by buying his company, at a discount rate. Reluctant to fall into Lepidon’s trap, Simon decides to resolve the crisis himself. A prostitute, Mado, provides him with the solution to his problems…”
    – IMDbRead More »

  • Mariya Saakyan – Mayak AKA The Lighthouse (2006)

    2001-2010ArthouseDramaMariya SaakyanRussia

    AMG (allrovi.com): Maria Saakyan’s elegiac, semi-autobiographical slice-of-life drama The Lighthouse (2006) unfolds in the very early ’90s, against the backdrop of the Caucasus wars that plagued Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. As the scope of this mass-scaled conflict extends itself to one woman’s small village, she is forced to drop everything, move to Moscow, and start over from scratch — thus bidding farewell to her hometown and way of life, perhaps indefinitely.Read More »

  • Mostafa Kiayee – 4 Rah Istanbul AKA Istanbul Junction (2018)

    2011-2020DramaIranMostafa KiayeeThriller

    Quote:
    Bahman and Ahad are two bankrupt manufacturers who are fleeing from their creditors. But when a fire in Plasco Building happens it is their chance to take advantages.Read More »

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