2000s

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Sending shock waves through the Mexican film industry and the world, this blistering feature debut from Alejandro G. Iñárritu brought the director’s electrifying visual style and bravura multistrand storytelling to the screen with the heart-stopping impact of a primal scream. In Mexico City, the lives of three strangers—a young man mixed up in the gritty underworld of dogfighting, a glamorous woman who seems to have it all, and a mysterious assassin who is desperate to reconnect with his estranged daughter—collide in a tragic twist of fate that forever alters their personal journeys. A tour de force of violence and emotion captured in a rush of kinetic handheld camera work, Amores perros is an unforgettable plunge into a world of brutality and aching, interconnected humanity.Read More »

SYNOPSIS
Jessica (Cécile de France) has moved from the provinces to Paris to start a new life, inspired by her grandmother, Madame Roux (Suzanne Flon), who “always loved luxury”. In Paris, she gets a job waitressing in a small café, the Bar des Théâtres, in spite of the fact that the café has never hired female waitstaff. The owner hires Jessica only because he is expecting large crowds soon and needs staff. The café is in an area of Paris close by several artistic venues, including the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and a concert hall, on Avenue Montaigne. One of the backstage staff at the theatre, Claudie (Dani), helps to welcome Jessica to Paris. Read More »

“When things are really crap, they will generally get much worse…”

Mokhtar, unable to find work, leaves his wife and child to find employment in more distant lands. After seeing him onto a train we pick up with another man, Marhab, at the end of his journey. The dislocation is such that it takes a while to realise that Marhab has arrived in the same area that Mokhtar has just left. Marhab is also struggling to find and keep work, but still manages to get married in a short space of time – to Mokhtar’s wife (whose former husband is believed dead).Read More »

A fraud investigator falls in love with his suspect, though they may be closer than they think.Read More »

This acclaimed BBC adaptation of Crime and Punishment remains faithful to Fyodor Dostoevsky’s classic novel. Set in St Petersburg in the second half of the 19th century, the psychological thriller tells of a desperate young murderer caught in a web of his own guilt. Rodya Raskolnikov is a poverty-stricken student living among the fetid alleyways and crumbling tenements of St Petersburg. Intense and highly intelligent, Raskolnikov believes he is among a class of men destined for greatness and as such is permitted to breach ‘normal’ moral values. He decides to test his courage and integrity by killing a pawnbroker, a mean old woman whom he is sure nobody will miss. The murder, however, only serves to draw Raskolnikov into a nightmare world in which he is dogged by guilt, paranoia and alienation. Faced with the wily investigator Porfiry, who sets up a complex series of traps, encounters and conversations, can Raskolnikov escape his own conscience or the seemingly inevitable punishment?Read More »

Plot / Synopsis
Yoji Yamada’s torchy Japanese drama Love and Honor follows the heartbreaking plight of Shinnojo, a young man employed as a “food taster” for the imperial family. Shinnojo’s position comes to a sudden and tragic end when he consumes poisoned fish intended for the clan leader and is forever robbed of his sight. Forced to give up his job, Shinnojo thus heads home and sinks into a deep and seemingly inescapable depression. Contemplating suicide, Shinnojo is only stopped by the love of his wife, Kayo, who insists that she will also commit seppuku if he proceeds. Begrudgingly, he agrees to relinquish his self-destructive thoughts, but financial problems from his unemployment linger on. With no other recourse, Shinnojo must send Kayo off to the clan bursar to appeal for monetary assistance. Nothing, however, can prepare him for the bursar’s demand for his wife’s body in exchange for monetary help — or for his wife’s sudden complicity in this arrangement. ~ Nathan Southern, RoviRead More »

Synopsis:
A desolate, restless small town lost in the industrial wastelands of Kyrgyzstan. Plagued by boredom, confusion and sex–all the usual agonies of adolescence–17 year-old “Chimp” (so-called because of his ears) and his friends are killing time by fighting, partying, and working in the railyard before undergoing their military service. Chimp has more than his share of problems: his pretty and capricious girlfriend causes him nothing but heartache, his father is a self-loathing chronic alcoholic, and his long-suffering mother has had enough. She leaves, taking Chimp’s kid sister with her.Read More »

Eric Bishop, a middle-aged postman working for the Manchester sorting office, is going through a dreadful crisis. For starters, his second life companion has not resurfaced although she was released from prison a few months ago. He is left alone with two stepsons to look after, which is no bed of roses since the two teens disrespect him and keep disobeying him. To make matters worse, Ryan, the older boy, fascinated by Zac, a dangerous gangster, has accepted to hide his gun in Eric’s house. On the other hand, he is asked by Sam, his student daughter who has a newborn baby,to get back in touch with Lily, his separated wife. Now, Eric left her not long after she gave back to their daughter. As a result Eric panics… Having lost all his bearings, Eric Bishop soliloquizes face to the poster of his idol, another Eric, French footballer Eric Cantona, when the latter appears just like the genie out of Aladdin’s lamp. Through a series of aphorisms peculiar to him, the footballer-philosopher will help remorse-ridden desperate Eric Bishop to get by.Read More »

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A very black comedy (and virtually unknown in the U.S.), Niki and Flo is about ill-suited neighbors united by marriage. Angela and her husband have decided to leave Romania for a better life in the United States. Niki, Angela’s father, who is also a former colonel in the Romanian army, is torn between his wish to see his daughter happy and his desire to have her close by; meanwhile Flo, the father of Niki’s son-in-law and a domestic tyrant of sorts, slowly exerts his control over Niki. Courtesy of Filmex Romania. Based on a screen play by Cristi Puiu.Read More »