by Mark Deming
A variety of crooks, losers, and working stiffs living in the shadow of Hollywood find their various personal crises overlapping in this intricately woven melodrama. Lee Woods (James Spader) is a cold-blooded hit man and Dosmo Pizzo (Danny Aiello) a soft-at-heart gangster; they’ve been sent to murder Roy Foxx (Peter Horton), the former husband of also-ran Olympic skier Becky Foxx (Teri Hatcher). Lee’s girlfriend Helga (Charlize Theron) is unhappy about his habit of killing people, and she attracts the attention of Alvin (Jeff Daniels) and Wes (Eric Stoltz), two cops who’ve been put on vice detail but don’t have the heart to bust the prostitute they’ve been trailing. Read More »

Three decades after his cult film Om Dar-Ba-Dar(1988), Kamal Swaroop returns to his cinematic home in Rajasthan to direct Pushkar Puran. An attempt to engage with the historical, mythical and the contemporary worlds of the city of Pushkar.Read More »

Lionel has brought up his daughter, Josephine, on his own since his wife’s accidental death. Over the years, their life together has grown to resemble that of a couple. Josephine has now reached the age at which the roles begin to be inverted. She is now the one who seems to want to take care of her father. Lionel knows that he has one more thing to do: to convince Josephine to make her own way in the world, to become a woman and to leave him.Read More »

An experimental film that lifts the veil on the world of African American drag racing.

Set in the world of African-American drag racing in Virginia, Cinnamon follows Erin (actress Erin Stewart), a young bank teller, and John, a mechanic, as they prepare for a race. As a driver, her routine is to stay focused before races, while his is to constantly examine the driver’s behavior.Read More »

Tough ex-con Corky and her lover Violet concoct a scheme to steal millions of stashed mob money and pin the blame on Violet’s crooked boyfriend Caesar.Read More »

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In 1950, amid-st the ravages of the Korean War, Sergeant Süleyman stumbles upon a a half-frozen little girl, with no parents and no help in sight. Frantic, scared and on the verge of death, this little girl captures the heart of Süleyman, who risks his own life to save her, smuggling her into his Army base and out of harms way. Not knowing her name and unable to communicate with her, Süleyman names her Ayla, in reminiscence of the moon on the fateful night during which they met. The two form an instantaneous and inseparable bond, and Ayla, almost effortlessly, brings an uncanny joy to the Turkish brigade in the grip of war. As the war comes to a close however, Süleyman’s brigade is told that they will be returning home. Süleyman cannot bear abandoning Ayla, and does everything within his power to take her with him. After repeated failure, he is forced to give Ayla to an orphanage, but doesn’t give up on the hope of one day reuniting with her. Will the two ever get back together?Read More »

A story set in nineteenth-century China and focusing on the life-long friendship between two girls who develop their own secret code as a way to contend with the rigid social norms imposed on women.Read More »

Der sensible Träumer Laid lebt in der algerischen Mittelmeerstadt ‘Bejaia’. Er verbringt seine Tage in einem Fotostudio und am Strand mit seinem Freund Nadir. Eines Tages wird er von seiner Schwester aufgefordert, nach Timimoun zurückzukehren und als Ältester die Ehre der Familie wieder herzustellen. Nadir bietet ihm an, ihn auf der abenteuerlichen Reise ins algerische Hinterland zu begleiten…

Der Spielfilm ‘Timimoun’ (2010) von Michael Roes, der zu den bedeutendsten deutschsprachigen Autoren der Gegenwart gehört (‘Rub’ al-Khali – leeres Viertel’), erzählt von der Freundschaft zweier Jungen als Utopie in einem zerrissenen, von religiösen und politischen Spannungen gezeichneten Land. Auf Grundlage des Films entstand auch der Roman ‘Weg nach Timimoun’.Read More »

An African-American GI goes to Berlin and faces prejudice.

An African-American GI retires from the US Army in West Berlin to live with his (white) girlfriend, who already has a baby with another black man. After an argument with her family, she deserts him as well. Despite finding a job and a new place to live, he keeps running into racism, which also manifests itself in sexual intimidation.Read More »