Plot: Newly widowed Santosh inherits her husband’s job as a police constable in the rural badlands of Northern India. When a girl’s body is found, she’s pulled into the investigation under the wing of charismatic feminist inspector Sharma.Read More »
In a rural western town in 1890 a woman has a mute old daughter after relations with her step father, which in his need of money, wants to sell them off to a rich skin tradesman. While resisting this, the woman turns lame.Read More »
Clara and Nikolaï meet at a rave. They return to Nikolaï’s apartment and make love. Afterwards, instead of parting, the two lovers divulge their deepest secrets to one another.
Nicolaï is a beautiful loser. At thirty-one years old, he leads a simple and frugal life. He applies himself to reading the great classics of literature but never finishes a book he has begun. Unable to submit to any schedule, he finds himself unfit for work. He envisions big projects and has large ideas but, inevitably and despite himself, loses sight of them beforethey are realized.Read More »
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Masaki Kobayashi’s six-part magnum opus, The Human Condition, based on Junpei Gomikawa’s postwar novel, bears the imprint of Kobayashi’s tutelage under legendary filmmaker Keisuke Kinoshita at Shochiku’s Ofuna studio, a critical, introspective, and deeply personal account of wartime Japan framed from the perspective of an idealistic everyman (and Kobayashi’s alterego), Kaji (Tatsuya Nakadai). Opening to the ironic image of lovers Kaji and Michiko (Michiyo Aratama) meeting under an archway auspiciously called the Southern Gate of Peace in Manchuria as Imperial troops march in the street, Kobayashi presents an incisive image of 1930s Japanese society that is morally consumed—and ravaged—by increasingly extremist values of militarism, occupation, and nationalism.Read More »
There is an old saying in Farsi, “if you catch a Toughi to keep, it will bring bad omens to the members of the family”. …And that’s what happens to a very close nit family when Toghi is caught for keeps. A well respected uncle plans to marry a young woman who lives in a far away town. He asks his young nephew to bring the fiancée home to him. On the way back the young people fall in love, get married in secret, and return home with their secret. They’re both afraid to tell the truth to the family. Eventually the uncle finds out, and to teach both his nephew and his fiancée a lesson he starts a bloody revenge.Read More »
Quote:
Masaki Kobayashi’s six-part magnum opus, The Human Condition, based on Junpei Gomikawa’s postwar novel, bears the imprint of Kobayashi’s tutelage under legendary filmmaker Keisuke Kinoshita at Shochiku’s Ofuna studio, a critical, introspective, and deeply personal account of wartime Japan framed from the perspective of an idealistic everyman (and Kobayashi’s alterego), Kaji (Tatsuya Nakadai). Opening to the ironic image of lovers Kaji and Michiko (Michiyo Aratama) meeting under an archway auspiciously called the Southern Gate of Peace in Manchuria as Imperial troops march in the street, Kobayashi presents an incisive image of 1930s Japanese society that is morally consumed—and ravaged—by increasingly extremist values of militarism, occupation, and nationalism.Read More »
An old woman’s poignant reminiscence of her youth in a convent school: the happy moments, the sad ones and the tragic love for a Garibaldian.Read More »
On Oct. 30, 2004, acclaimed Japanese musician Okuda Tamio held a one-day-only concert at Hiroshima Stadium. The project that started as the documentary of the concert soon evolved into a story of teenage girls who also do a band, and what they feel in the concert by 39-year old rocker.Read More »
Strikingly progressive and beautifully crafted, Bagrat Oganesyan’s Autumn Sun tells the story of Aghun (a bravado performance by the director’s own wife, Anahit Gukasyan), a simple woman forced to contend with the banal cruelties of the men who populate her small village: from her father to her husband, in-laws, neighbours, and boss. Filmed in the hometown of screenwriter Hrant Matevosyan, who adapts from his own novel, this is a compassionate portrait of resilience and resignation.Read More »