2000s

With a poem consisting of twenty names of towns in Minas Gerais, Brazil, the film gains in rhythmic body and is open to the unforeseen and to the improvised. Intrigued by the names of these towns, the team for the first time goes through each of them. In a movement of immersion and submersion, the documentary is made by means of two layers of narrative – one consisting of the history of the poem and the other, of commonplace events that accidentally arise before the camera in each one of these cities. Open perception, to allow one to blend in with day-to-day life in each place, and alertness, to pinpoint any one event that can possibly relate to the poem and that can reveal to what extent life is unpredictable and accidental.Read More »

In the pitch black of the tunnel, rats swarm through piles of garbage as high-speed trains leaving Penn Station tear through the darkness. For some of those who have gone underground, it has been home for as long as twenty five years.
Deeply moving and surprisingly entertaining, Dark Days is an eye-opening experience that shatters the myths of homelessness by revealing a thriving community living in tunnels beneath New York City and honestly capturing their resilience and strength in their struggle to survive.Read More »

Jacob Thuesen, a former editor for Danish directors Susanne Bier and Lars von Trier, had a very simple premise for his first film as a director: “Imagine if you got picked up by the police one day…” The film is called Angklaget (Accused) and tells the story of Henrik (Troels Lyby), a swimming instructor whose professional-, social- and family life is turned upside down when his difficult teenage daughter Stine (Kirstine Rosenkrands Mikkelsen) accuses him of having sexually abused her when she was younger. Stine’s mother Nina (Sofie Gråbøl) is shocked that her own daughter would do something so horrible; she knows her daughter has a history of lying about her parents, but never have their been such grave consequences. Stine is no longer allowed to stay at her parents house and is asked to press charges against her father, while Henrik has to wait in prison until his trial begins.Read More »

The Milky Way is an interesting film from Brazil. Heitor, a literature professor, meets and falls in love with Julia, a young actress. During the course of the movie we see scenes from their relationship where they both love and fight each other. Through the film Heitor is driving around the busy streets of Sao Paulo trying to reach and reconcile once more with Julia. This provides an opportunity for the director to interject characters from Sao Paulo’s street environment in to the picture, from child beggars to crazy men with guns. The chaotic nature of life in Sao Paulo is contrasted with serene shots of Brazilian country side to further reinforce the impact of environment on personal relationships. The first encounter between Heitor & Julis takes place at a show by an experimental theatre company. In its way, The Milky Way can also be called an experimental and non conventional movie for those who are looking for something a little off the mainstream track of films. Read More »

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Pilger tells a story literally ‘hidden from history’.

In the 1960s and 70s, British governments, conspiring with American officials, tricked into leaving, then expelled the entire population of the Chagos islands in the Indian Ocean.

The aim was to give the principal island of this Crown Colony, Diego Garcia, to the Americans who wanted it as a major military base. Indeed, from Diego Garcia US planes have since bombed Afghanistan and Iraq.

The story is told by islanders who were dumped in the slums of Mauritius and in the words of the British officials who left a ‘paper trail’ of what the International Criminal Court now describes as ‘a crime against humanity’ .Read More »

A semi-documentary, semi-fictional film of the days following the cold-blooded murder of Alexis Grigoropoulos, a 15 years old boy, by the police at Athens, in December 2008. In the film -among other things- are presented many original street scenes and media stuff of those days. Read More »

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In this dreamlike yet earthbound film, Rahmat the boatman navigates the increasingly brackish waters of a coastal land, collecting the heartaches and tears of its inhabitants. But he remains powerless against their misguided attempts to appease the gods and make the land green again, whether by offering a bride to the sea or forcibly “treating” the eyes of a painter who sees in different colors. Drawing first-hand on the challenges faced by Iranian artists today, writer-director Mohammad Rasoulof’s deeply atmospheric and poetical film is a gorgeous allegory of intolerance, brutality, and mystified routine that resonates far beyond any one state’s borders.Read More »

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A handful of children are left to their own devices in this subtle drama from Argentine filmmaker Celina Murga. Maria (Magdalena Capobianco) is a girl in her early teens whose family lives in an upscale gated suburb. Maria’s parents are going out of town for a week, and rather than leave her with relatives or hire a babysitter, Maria is put in charge of looking after her little sister Sofia (Eleonora Capobianco), with housekeeper Esther (Natalia Gomez Alarcon) serving as a nominal adult authority figure, though for the most part she lets Maria and the others do what they please. With only their parents bedroom off-limits, Maria and Sofia have the run of the house, and soon they and their friends Facundo (Lucas Del Bo), Quique (Federico Pena), Rodrigo (Ramiro Saludas) and Timmy (Mateo Braun) are spending their days exploring the place. As the kids begin creating their own rules to run counter to the ones their absent parents set down, Esther brings a young relative, Fernando (Gaston Luparo), to play with them, and the privileged kids begin to get a notion of the ways of the outside world. Una Semana Solos (aka A Week Alone) was an official selection at the 2008 Buenos Aires Film Festival.Read More »

The overlapping tales of three Iranian women who live in a poor Tehran neighborhood unfold by revisiting certain plot points from different perspectives. Each revisit reveals new insights into the characters’ motivations and struggles. The story centers around the people who frequent Cafe Setareh and who play important roles in the lives of each of the main three female characters.Read More »