“TIFF” wrote:
Magnificently acted and orchestrated, João Canijo’s family saga, Blood of my Blood, depicts the harshness of life in inner city Lisbon and the sacrifices that two women are willing to make for their family. Marcia is determined to end the cycle of poverty for her family and when she discovers that her daughter is dating an older professor, she will stop at nothing to end this unwelcome relationship.Read More »
Drama
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João Canijo – Sangue do Meu Sangue AKA Blood of My Blood (2011)
2011-2020ArthouseDramaJoão CanijoPortugal -
Kon Ichikawa – Ana AKA Hole In One (1957)
1951-1960ComedyDramaJapanKon IchikawaEccentric film about female reporter fired for writing about police corruption. To make money she hides while a weekly magazine offers a prize for her discovery. A bank embezzler and his underlings take advantage of her disappearance to pin the theft on her, as well as the murder of the weak link in their gang. Meanwhile, the cop she got fired is now a private detective and he gets involved in the investigation. Another example of Ichikawa’s mixing of farcical genre filmmaking with perspicacious visual design. Comic highlights include an intentions of murder scene in which each shot reveals the gap in knowledge between potential perpetrator and victim, and the role of unseen objects in accidentally protecting the latter from the former. Another cynical film that finds in cinema a model for the superficial image society of 1950s Japan.Read More »
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Alain Corneau – Nocturne indien (1989)
1981-1990Alain CorneauArthouseDramaFranceQuote:
The enigmatic but vivid imagery of this loosely plotted film is based on a similarly evocative novel by the Italian author Antonio Tabucchi, Noturno Indiano. An old friend of the hero’s has been living in Bombay with a prostitute. His friend Peter Schlemihl (Otto Tausig) is a concentration camp survivor, who went to India after being captivated by a photograph he saw there. When the prostitute writes to him in Europe asking that he rescue his friend from a mysterious malaise, he flies into India to try and help. When he gets to Bombay, he discovers that his friend has disappeared. Following the clues left behind by the friend, and based on his acquaintance with him, he journeys to Madras to speak to a Theosophist dignitary there, and then journeys on to Portugues Goa. With each step of his journey, the hero (Jean-Hugues Anglade) becomes more identified with his friend, and re-enacts in his own person the transformations he must have experienced. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie GuideRead More » -
Anja Breien – Forfølgelsen AKA The Witch Hunt (1981)
1981-1990Anja BreienDramaNorway

Synopsis:
Having gone through many personal struggles, Eli (Lil Terselius) returns to her native village and begins to work on the farm of Ingeborg Eriksdotter (Anita Bjork), eventually tending a plot that once belonged to her family. But Eli has been gone a long time, and the opaque villagers see her as an outsider — she is suspicious from the start. The year is 1625, and stories of witches conjuring up evil are a part of the daily culture. Eli unwittingly makes matters worse for herself when she is able to cure the sick with herbs, and when she begins an affair with Aslak (Bjoern Skagestad) a farmhand — clearly she must have cast a spell on him. This all adds up to a witch hunt with a ready-made “witch.” Eli, in the end, is officially accused of witchcraft by a devious bailiff, while Ingeborg makes every attempt to save her, and Aslak himself does not survive the stress — hardly a good omen for the outcome of the trial.Read More » -
François Truffaut – L’enfant sauvage AKA The Wild Child (1970)
1961-1970ArthouseDramaFranceFrançois TruffautIn a French forest in 1798, a child is found who cannot walk, speak, read or write. A doctor becomes interested in the child and patiently attempts to civilize him.Read More »
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Jafar Panahi – Ayneh AKA The Mirror (1997)
1991-2000ArthouseDramaIranJafar PanahiA girl in traditional female clothing, and her arm in plaster, comes out of school one day and doesn’t find her mother meeting her. She decides to travel home her self though she doesn’t know her address and remembers the road only visuallyRead More »
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Gleb Panfilov – Proshu slova AKA I Wish to Speak (1976)
1971-1980ArthouseDramaGleb PanfilovUSSR

When Yelizaveta Uvarova becomes a mayor of a small town, she puts her heart and soul into building a bridge there. Yet soon politics will have to make way for her family life as her son suddenly dies.Read More »
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David Anspaugh – In the Company of Darkness (1993)
1991-2000CrimeDavid AnspaughDramaUSAAfter young policewoman Gina Pulasky succeeds in handling a domestic fight particularly well, she’s added to a small team of detectives assigned to a case of gruesome child killings. She proves herself to be a worthwhile reinforcement by tracking down the prime suspect, a disturbingly smart young man named Kyle Timler. Much to the horror of her team mate and lover Will McCaid, Pulasky goes undercover to infiltrate in Timler’s life and trying to get as close to him as necessary to make him confess his crimes without even noticing it. A dangerous mission involving a process of growing identification with the killer, something that doesn’t leave Pulasky unscathed.Read More »
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Nikos Koutelidakis – To tango ton Hristougennon AKA Christmas Tango (2011)
2011-2020DramaGreeceNikos KoutelidakisQueer Cinema(s)Quote:
The 1970’s … Greece is under a brutal military dictatorship (the so called “Revolution” 1967-1974). Christmas is walking in a military camp, at Evros (in the extreme cold north of the country, borders with Turkey) and everyone is getting prepared for the traditional celebration. The thoughts, however, of Lieutenant Captain Stephen Karamanides are somewhere else. He is a man closed to himself, never smiles, rough and rugged. He has only one desire: to dance with his secret love, the wife of Lt. Colonel Emmanuel Logos. But he does not know how to dance. Read More »






