• Erden Kiral – Mavi sürgün AKA The Blue Exile (1993)

    Drama1991-2000Erden KiralTurkey

    Brief Synopsis
    Based on an autobiographical novel, story of the four year exile (1922-26) from his Turkish homeland of early European ecologist Cevat Sakir (1890-1973).

    Quote:
    Based on the true story of Cevat Şakir, a Turkish writer who, just after Turkey’s defeat in World War I, fell foul of the authorities when he wrote about deserters from the army. At first sentenced to hang, he was later sent to a distant part of the country to serve a prison sentence and eventually allowed to live in a rented house.Read More »

  • Radu Jude – Toata lumea din familia noastra AKA Everybody in Our Family (2012)

    2011-2020DramaRadu JudeRomania

    Quote:
    Marius is a divorced man in his late thirties. His five year-old daughter Sofia lives with her mother, which causes Marius a deep frustration. On the day Marius arrives to take his daughter on their annual holiday, he is told that she is ill but he doesn’t believe it and insists to take her with him. The situation soon gets out of control with all the family taking part in a web of humor, violence, childish songs, police interventions and love statements.Read More »

  • H.C. Potter – Hellzapoppin’ (1941)

    1941-1950ComedyH.C. PotterMusicalScrewball ComedyUSA

    Plot: Ole and Chick are making a movie, but the director is not satisfied. So he brings them to a young writer, who outlines them an absurd story. They have to support Jeff and Kitty in setting up a musical revue in their garden and want to bring it up on Broadway. If Jeff is successful he can marry Kitty. But there is his rich friend Woody, who also loves Kitty, Chick’s sister Betty, who’s in love with a false Russian count, and detective Quimby. They all make the thing very complicated for Ole and Chick. After some mistakes they think that Kitty isn’t the right girl for Jeff and they start sabotaging the show, but the Broadway producer is impressed and signs the contract. That’s the story the writer tells them. For this he’s sued by the director.Read More »

  • Richard Billingham – Ray & Liz (2018)

    2011-2020DramaRichard BillinghamUnited Kingdom

    Synopsis
    Photographer Richard Billingham returns to the squalid council flat outside of Birmingham where he and his brother were raised, in a confrontation and reconciliation with parents Ray and Liz.Read More »

  • Abbas Kiarostami, Ken Loach, Ermanno Olmi – Tickets (2005)

    2001-2010Abbas KiarostamiArthouseDramaErmanno OlmiKen LoachUnited Kingdom

    Synopsis
    A train travels across Italy toward Rome. On board is a professor who daydreams a conversation with a love that never was, a family of Albanian refugees who switch trains and steal a ticket, three brash Scottish soccer fans en route to a match, and a complaining widow traveling to a memorial service for her late husband who’s accompanied by a community-service volunteer who’s assisting her. Interactions among these Europeans turn on class and nationalism, courtesy and rudeness, and opportunities for kindness.Read More »

  • Lewis Milestone – The North Star (1943)

    Drama1941-1950Lewis MilestoneUSAWar

    In a peaceful Ukrainian village, the school year is just ending in June 1941. Five young friends set out for a walking trip to Kiev, but their travels are brutally interrupted when they are suddenly attacked by German planes, in the first wave of the Nazi assault on the Soviet Union. When the village itself is attacked and occupied, most of the men flee to the hills to form a guerrilla unit. The others resist the Nazis as well as possible, but soon the village is placed under the command of a Nazi doctor who begins using the town’s children as a source of constant blood transfusions for wounded German soldiers. Meanwhile, the small group of young persons tries desperately to take a supply of firearms to the guerrillas.Read More »

  • Jack Witikka – Aila – Pohjolan tytär AKA Arctic Fury (1951)

    Drama1951-1960FinlandJack WitikkaRomance

    A precursor of sorts to The White Reindeer (1952), featuring the same female lead, Mirjami Kuosmanen, and the same cinematographer, Erik Blomberg, who was Kuosmanen’s husband and went on to direct as well as shoot the later film. Disappointment in this film was one of the reasons that led Blomberg and Kuosmanen to make The White Reindeer as an independent production. The film’s nominal producer was Michael Powell, but in fact the production was supervised by John Seabourne (for some reason billed “Jussi” Seabourne in the opening credits), a close friend of Powell’s and the editor of many of the Powell & Pressburger classics of the 1940s. Read More »

  • Salvatore Samperi – Ernesto (1979)

    1971-1980DramaItalyQueer Cinema(s)Salvatore Samperi

    Quote:
    Remastered in 2019. Ernesto is based on the scandal novel by Umberto Saba, scandalous for the outspoken portrayal of a gay relationship between an adult man and an adolescent. The film has won numerous awards worldwide, including the “Silver Bear” of the Berlinale 1979. His ironically witty mood is repeatedly compared to the best films by François Truffaut. Martin Halm in the title role, the film legend Michele Placido as his proletarian relationship and Italy’s film goddess Virna Lisi as Ernesto’s mother guarantee this film an absolute cult status.Read More »

  • Mikio Naruse – Onna no naka ni iru tanin AKA The Stranger Within a Woman (1966)

    1961-1970CrimeDramaJapanMikio Naruse

    Synopsis:
    Tashiro (Keiju Kobayashi) coincidentally meets his best friend Sugimoto (Tatsuya Mihashi) in a bar very close to the apartment in which Sugimoto’s wayward wife is found dead. Although Tashiro is not a suspect in the police investigation, he is racked with guilt and confesses to his wife, Masako (Michiyo Aratama). In an effort to further relieve his tortured sense of guilt, he then confesses to Sugimoto. Neither his wife nor his friend can believe that he could have been involved.Read More »

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