2000s

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With three full feature films in two years under his belt, Igor Voloshin has both received critical acclaim and provoked public debates. Nirvana (2008), a “gothic cyber-punk” about drug addiction, got Voloshin the Best Debut prize at the Kinotavr film festival in Sochi. In March 2009, Russia’s First TV Channel screened Voloshin’s Olympius Inferno, a melodrama-cum-action about Georgia’s attack on Ossetia dubbed by many critics, such as Mkheidze and Kuvshinova, a state-commissioned “agit-prop” film. His next project, I Am,competed at Kinotavr 2009, where the film’s director of photography Dmitrii Iashonkov received an award for Best Cinematography. The film continues to generate controversy: “the best film of the year or the shame of Russian cinematography?” (Mkheidze and Kuvshinova)Read More »

Synopsis
Assis 2005: a troubadour walks the streets of St. Francis of Assisi hometown, singing and playing the Song of Brother Sun or Song of the Creatures, written by St. Francis back in the winter of 1224. Woods of Umbria, 1212: during one preaching to the birds, St. Francis suddenly faints. Reanimated by St. Clare, the saint looks strange and absent and he doesn’t remember anything. When the night falls, the animals in the forest sing and praise Francis. But this love sung by the animals leads to a feeling of possession, a desire of exclusivity usually known as jealousy.Read More »

Iranian Director Tamineh Milani was arrested and faced execution for making The Hidden Half, a film that had been approved by government censors. Milani has been released, but the charges have not been dropped.. A change in the political winds could land her back in jail.Read More »

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A Chinese-American lesbian and her traditionalist mother are reluctant to go public with secret loves that clash against cultural expectations.Read More »

While they did not know, Boris, shy apprentice filmmaker and Marilyne, dynamic executive, fall madly in love at a Parisian evening. Five years later, Marilyn, accompanied by Boris and their children went to the Balearic Islands for a business trip. At the same time Boris, tired of his role as man at home, getting ready to leave, Marilyn made ​​a elopement and disappears … Five years later, Marilyne reappears deep in the Pyrenees. Came with a U.S. discover the mysteries of mating grouse group, she realizes that the mountain guide who accompanies is none other than Boris. (Source: after TV5)Read More »

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One of the most outstanding directors of auteur cinema, Costas Zapas gained international acclaim with Uncut Family (2004) and The Last Porn Movie (2006). With Minor Freedoms his trilogy on the family is complete. Cineuropa: Minor Freedoms is the title of your latest film. However, in the film there is too little freedom. Your characters seem to have no choice.Read More »

The life of a boy in his adolescence takes a turn when his relationship with his mother and father is exposed.

Costas Zapas’ debut film.Read More »

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Todd Solondz is back with Life During Wartime, his sixth feature and a sequel of sorts to his crowd-pleasing 1998 effort, Happiness. Solondz once again follows the joyless Jordan sisters (played by new actors this time around) as they attempt to navigate life and love in sunny Miami. Consisting of a series of loosely connected vignettes and brimming with Solondz’s signature deadpan humor, Life During Wartime skirts the uncomfortable line between pathos and tragedy, all the while maintaining a pitch-perfect tone that never alienates the audience (but still manages to keep them safely at arms length). Solondz is most definitely an acquired taste, but Life During Wartime may just be the film that introduces his work to a wider audience. More accessible than both Storytelling and and featuring stellar performances from Allison Janney (Juno), Paul Reubens (Pee Wee Herman) and Ally Sheedy (The Breakfast Club), Solondz has crafted an ironic exploration into the dark heart of America at its most vulnerable: when it thinks nobody is watching.Read More »

Seaside takes place in a small coastal town on the Bay of Somme. The year-round inhabitants find ways to make their lives work; Paul, a lifeguard in the summer, works at the grocery all winter. His mother, Rose (Ogier) likes to play the slots just about anytime; his girlfriend Marie works in the local factory – the town’s biggest business – but watching the summertime vacationers each year just makes her increasingly curious about what else might be out there. From these and several other stories, aided by close, revealing observations, we see a community perched between transition and stasis. (IMDb)

Awards:
Cannes Film Festival – Golden Camera – 2002Read More »