Drama

  • Rodrigo Sorogoyen – Madre AKA Mother (2017)

    Rodrigo Sorogoyen2011-2020DramaShort FilmSpain
    Madre (2017)
    Madre (2017)

    While at home in her apartment with her own mother in Spain, a woman gets a phone call from her six-year-old son, who’s on holiday in France with his father. Every parent’s nightmare ensues.Read More »

  • Maunu Kurkvaara – Raportti eli balladi laivatytöistä AKA Report or Ballad about Shipgirls (1964)

    1961-1970DramaFinlandMaunu Kurkvaara
    Raportti eli balladi laivatytöistä (1964)
    Raportti eli balladi laivatytöistä (1964)

    Quote:
    In Maunu Kurkvaara’s social film, journalist Ilmari Niemelä (Yrjö Tähtelä) is assigned to investigate prostitutes working in the harbour. In a sparrow bar, he meets Ritva (Ritva Vepsä) and Ulla (Ulla Väre), who tell him about their lives as shipgirls. Ilmar is intrigued by Vuokko (Anneli Sauli), whose romance with him seems to be hindered by the woman’s difficult past, the contents of which are gradually revealed to Ilmar.

    Unlike most Finnish movies in the 1960s, this film included nude scenes, receiving a K-16 certification.Read More »

  • Idrissa Ouedraogo – Samba Traoré (1992)

    Idrissa Ouedraogo1991-2000African CinemaBurkina FasoDramaThriller
    Samba Traoré (1992)
    Samba Traoré (1992)

    Quote:
    Samba Traoré had left his village years ago to seek his fortune in the big city. He has found only unemployment and rootlessness. As the film begins, he is part of a filling station holdup in which his partner is killed but Samba Traoré, determined, takes the money at gunpoint.

    He returns to his village, hides the money, and lets out that he has been successful and now wants to live at home. He resumes old friendships. He marries. His impulses run away with him as opportunities arise to spend more and more of the money. At first people just think he did well in the city. Then they think he did amazingly well. Then they think that they never dreamed anyone could make so much money. Finally his trail becomes so obvious that the police hear of him.Read More »

  • Darko Bajic – Pocetni udarac AKA Kick-Off (1990)

    Darko Bajic1981-1990DramaYugoslavia
    Pocetni udarac (1990)
    Pocetni udarac (1990)

    A group of students with varying family backgrounds begin to question their lives and the hypocritical values of their corrupt socialist society. Their decision to follow their own ideals brings them in disrepute with those closest to them. Their support of one another finally brings them to realise a friendship based on loyalty and belonging.Read More »

  • Ken Loach – The Gamekeeper (1980)

    Ken Loach1971-1980DramaUnited Kingdom
    The Gamekeeper (1980)
    The Gamekeeper (1980)

    Quote:
    A simple tale of a year in the life of a Gamekeeper. From the troubles involved in rearing the pheasants and dealing with predators (poachers and foxes). The gamekeeper shows us all the good things about living so close to nature. The end of his year comes with the organised shoot. He has the sudden pressure of dealing with a lot of people, (beaters, the guns and “the master”) and ensuring that everyone has a good day and stays safe.Read More »

  • Abel Gance – Un grand amour de Beethoven AKA Beethoven’s Great Love (1936)

    Abel Gance1931-1940ArthouseDramaFrance
    Un grand amour de Beethoven (1936)
    Un grand amour de Beethoven (1936)

    If one were to gather the hundreds of books written about Ludwig van Beethoven, sift through each with a fine-tooth comb, and extract every simple mistake, wild speculation, and outright falsehood, the result would still be nowhere near as fabulous and artificial as this 1936 biopic, which rewrites the composer’s life story into a throbbingly melodramatic tale of genius ignored and love unrequited. Director Abel Gance, best known for his expansive silent classic Napoleon, wasn’t interested in the truth of Beethoven’s life, but instead the romantic ideal of a great man tormented by history; Gance’s Beethoven is merely a variation of the filmmaker’s beloved Bonaparte, triumphant yet scorned by his inferiors in the artistic realm rather than the political. (Needless to say, among the film’s many omissions is Beethoven’s bitter rededication of the “Eroica” Symphony.)Read More »

  • Camilo Luzuriaga – La tigra AKA The Tigress (1990)

    Camilo Luzuriaga1981-1990ArthouseDramaEcuador
    La tigra (1990)
    La tigra (1990)

    The wild and wanton Francisca, known as the “The Tigress,” is the eldest of three sisters, who are bosses of a farm in Ecuador. A medicine man tells Francisca and Juliana that their youngest sister Sara must remain a virgin to protect their land. A travelling salesman, engaged to Sara, tells the police that she is being kept locked up by her older sisters.Read More »

  • Claude Lelouch – Attention bandits! (1986)

    Claude Lelouch1981-1990CrimeDramaFrance
    Attention bandits! (1986)
    Attention bandits! (1986)

    Synopsis:
    Claude Lelouch’s Bandits combines a murder story with a skewered view of “family values.” Jewel thief Jean Yanne ships his daughter Marie-Sophie Lelouch off to a Swiss boarding school. His motives are not altogether paternal: Yanne intends to avenge the murder of his wife, and doesn’t want his daughter around to complicate his plans. In Switzerland, Lelouch falls in love with a young criminal, and the cycle that has entrapped her father starts all over again. Nothing is what it seems and nothing that happens is what we expect in Bandits.
    ~ Hal Erickson, RoviRead More »

  • Xhanfize Keko – Tomka dhe shokët e tij AKA Tomka and His Friends (1977)

    1971-1980AlbaniaDramaWarXhanfize Keko
    Tomka dhe shokët e tij (1977)
    Tomka dhe shokët e tij (1977)

    The Wehrmacht arrives in a small Albanian town after Italy capitulates to the Allies. Tomka and his gang decide to exact revenge when the German soldiers set up camp on their football pitch.Read More »

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