2000s

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“24 Realities per Second” portrays Michael Haneke’s work and his view of cinema.

Nina Kusturica and Eva Testor accompanied and observed Michael Haneke over a period of two and a half years during his work. Location scouts, film premieres, public appearances, discussions with audiences, radio interviews, on set, editing rooms. The rare conversations occur almost incidentally in cars, trains and planes. The objective of the film is the precise observation in different situations, out of which emerges an obsessed filmmaker. The thoughts of a man become apparent through his actions and the nature of his activity.

“24 Realities per Second” sketches with many little episodes and a few conversations the working universe of Michael Haneke. In contrast to the numerous interviews that Haneke gave in the course of his career, the film does not focus on his eloquence but concentrates on his craftsmanship.Read More »

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A bare bones synopsis of this film might lead you to expect that it is lethally boring. Four middle aged buddies are returning to Tehran from a trip to the mountains, trying to get back in time to watch an important soccer match on TV. Their homeward journey grinds to a halt when they round a curve in the highway and are confronted by a natural monolith, a 10 foot high, narrow rock formation, projecting straight up out of the ground, overlooking the canyon below. They spend the rest of the movie trying to topple it.Read More »

EL DOCTOR is a dark animated poem set in a crumbling Mexican hospital about 1920. Inhabited by surreal characters including the man shot with one hundred holes, the girl who sprouted morning-glories, and the woman who thinks she is a horse, the Doctor prefers to drink. The Saint of Holes and a mysterious gargoyle rearrange the Doctor’s fated demise and send him on a dark and twisted journey.

The film celebrates the nature of perception and the miraculous. Over five years in production the film was entirely hand painted by artists in Los Angeles and Mexico.Read More »

Filmed in a reformed train Wagon, sueur follows the performance as a belly
dancer of The secret of the Grain lead actress, Hafsia Herzi, who dances on
hot and popular musics.Read More »

the film presents a group of kids – mostly of arab descent – in the “cit?s” (us= projects) who stage the marivaux play of the same name.

at the Istanbul International Film Festival/, it also took the international critics’ prize and a special jury prize for the ensemble acting. Kechiche was awarded a special jury prize at the European Film Awards for his first feature, La faute ? Voltaire (also highly recomended, if you can find it.)Read More »

winner of the Golden Bear 2008 for International Short Film

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This harrowing short film — winner of the Golden Bear at this year’s Berlin Film Festival — follows the trail of a trio of young sociopaths as they pick up a young woman they find at the side of the road and take her to the beach for a day of amoral pursuits. Not for the squeamish.

“The compelling story, sparingly told, of three juvenile delinquents who break out of prison. The beach beckons. Violence is nothing but a game. And the wedding is celebrated in handcuffs.“ (Maike Mia Höhne)Read More »

Deep in the heart of Central Asia lies one of the world’s most secretive countries – Turkmenistan. Run by a crazy dictator whose megalomania has spawned a personality cult to rival that of Chairman Mao, this unlikely desert republic has earned itself a grim reputation as “the North Korea of Central Asia.” But since no one is usually allowed in or out, the truth about Turkmenistan is impossible to separate from the rumours and the legends. Until now.

Posing as a tourist who has come to Turkmenistan for a stag weekend, Waldemar Januszczak goes undercover in this bizarre and sinister country to separate the facts from the fiction. And he’s taken his camera with him…Read More »

Bab’Aziz, AKA The Prince Who Contemplated His Soul, is the story of a blind dervish named Bab’Aziz and his spirited granddaughter, Ishtar. Together they wander the desert in search of a great reunion of dervishes that takes place just once every thirty years. With faith as their only guide, the two journey for days through the expansive, barren landscape. To keep Ishtar entertained, Bab’Aziz relays the ancient tale of a prince who relinquished his realm in order to remain next to a small pool in the desert, staring into its depths while contemplating his soul. As the tale of the prince unfolds, the two encounter other travelers with stories of their own, including Osman, who longs for the beautiful woman he met at the bottom of a well, and Zaid, who searches for the ravishing young woman who fled from him after being seduced by his songs. A fairytale-like story of longing and belonging, filmed in the enchanting and ever-shifting sandscapes of Tunisia and Iran.Read More »

Kôji Wakamatsu’s Cycling Chronicles: Landscapes the Boy Saw (17-sai no fûkei – shônen wa nani o mita no ka) – a.k.a. “Cycle Chronicles – Landscapes the Boy Saw” and “17 and Life” – is scheduled to have its U.S. première at the 49th San Francisco International Film Festival (SFIFF) on April 27th at 8:45 p.m., and to subsequently be screened there on May 2nd at 6:00 p.m.. As was previously reported here and there on Twitch, the movie was screened at Regional Film Festival (Rîjonaru Firumu Fesutibaru) – “RiFF” for short – on October 31, 2004, and at the 26th PIA Film Festival in Sendai (Dai-26-kai Pia Firumu Fesutibaru in Sendai) – “PFF Sendai” for short – on November 23, 2004. It was released theatrically in Japan by Toshiki Shima’s Shima Films on July 30th of last year.Read More »