2000s

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The Guitar Mongoloid
(Sweden)
By GUNNAR REHLIN
A Trianglefilm release of a Hinden/Lanna-Ateljeerna production. (International sales: Hinden/Lanna-Ateljeerna, Stockholm.) Produced, directed, written by Ruben Ostlund.

With: Erik Rutstrom, Ola Sandstig, Britt-Marie Andersson, Julia Persdotter.

One of the quirkiest Swedish films of recent memory, “The Guitar Mongoloid” has all the makings of a cult classic. Shot on a shoestring over several years, pic defies traditional norms of storytelling, making it a distant cousin to the films of iconoclast Roy Andersson (“Songs From the Second Floor”). A dark, but also humorous, depiction of a society with lonely people and sudden outbursts of violence, pic is ideal fest fare.Read More »

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A slowly moving camera captures the interiors of various houses in a village. They are all deserted except one house with a group of young soldiers. They are digging the up the ground. It is unclear whether they are exhuming or burying something. The voices of three young men are heard. They repeat, rehearse, memorise a letter to a man named Boonmee. They tell him about a small community called Nabua where the inhabitants have abandoned their homes. The wind blows fiercely through the doors, and the windows, bringing with it a swarm of bugs. As evening approaches, the sky turns dark. The bugs scatter and the men are silent.

A Letter to Uncle Boonmee is part of the multi-platform Primitive project which focuses on a concept of remembrance and extinction set in the northeast of Thailand. Boonmee is the main character of the feature film of the project.Read More »

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Bernardo Bertolucci’s “The Dreamers” is set in Paris in the spring of 1968, a tumultuous time of sexual experimentation and political revolt. The people have taken to the streets, but for attractive, enigmatic twins Isabelle and Theo and their American friend Matthew, the riotous events that will define their lives transpire inside–in the bath tub and on the hard kitchen floor, in bed and beneath the altar of a black and white pin-up of Marilyn Monroe tacked on to Theo’s bedroom wall.
The story of three young cinephiles and sexual neophytes coming of age in Paris is captivating material. Based on the novel by Gilbert Adair, Bertolucci tells the story through the eyes of the outsider. Matthew (Michael Pitt), first meets the twins at the locked gates of the Cinematheque Français, where Isabelle (Eva Green) strikes the pose of a movie star while Bertolucci adds documentary footage of Jean-Pierre Léaud with a bull-horn and François Truffaut protesting the forced resignation of Henri Langois.Read More »

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In Portugal, late in the night of April 24 to 25, 1974, the radio broadcast an outlawed song: “Grândola”. It could have just been an act of insubordination by a rebellious
journalist. It was in fact the preplanned signal triggering the military coup which was to change the face of this country and the destiny of vast territories in Africa.Read More »

Twenty-six year-old Lukasz, well-educated and mild-mannered, is accused of assault on an older woman. Placed in custody awaiting trial, Lukasz’s mental stability becomes threatened as he attempts to find himself within the prison’s pervasive code of criminal ethics. But soon Lukasz discovers that it is his principles that are put on trial as he is faced to choose sides when a man accused of child molestation becomes his cellmate. Nothing will be the same.Read More »

In his award-winning debut feature film, director Ahmet Ulucay portrays the innocence of childhood and the lure of the cinema for two teens in a small Turkish village. Working for a watermelon seller by day, Remet spends his evenings trying to rebuild a film projector with his friend Mehmet. Both have big dreams to be famous film directors one day.Read More »

In the mid-1960s, a respected surgeon dreams of leaving Poland to see his wife and daughter in England. To get the money for his escape, he needs to consider taking part in a bank robbery.Read More »

Aina wants to escape from it all, but the house of fools is not a peaceful place to be. After throwing herself through a shop window, Aina is taken in for treatment. She is forced to join therapy groups, riding lessons and cleansing conversations with those who wish to help her. Especially with Stetson, named after his own hat, who considers it honourable to bring a broken soul back to life. In the house of fools, Aina learns that sheer madness usually makes a lot of sense.Read More »

A feature-length documentary, possibly focusing, at least in part, on the recent anti-globalisation protests in Gothenburg, Sweden and the alleged police misconduct during the protests. The first film to be made by the appeal group ‘Swedish Film Workers for Peace and Freedom in an Independent Palestine’.Read More »