2010s

Shijie (2004)

Quote:
 Jia Zhang Ke’s The World continues along the same path as Platform and Unknown Pleasures, but it’s livelier. This gorgeous, profoundly melancholy distillation of contemporary China’s precarious global position is his most accessible film to date. From the stunning opening tracking shot, in which Tao (Zhao Tao) glides through the backstage of the eponymous amusement park, loudly asking for a Band-Aid, Jia cannily conflates the magical and the prosaic. The World may end with a whimper, but it certainly starts with a bang. That opening immediately establishes a strong sense of community, but by the end of the film, we learn that among the working class in contemporary Beijing, the bonds of friendship and romance are ephemeral by necessity. Read More »

Los ilusos (2013)

The Wishful Thinkers, Jonas Trueba’s virtually home-made follow-up to the altogether less interesting Every Song Talks about Me, is a black and white celebration of open-handed film making as well as of those old chestnuts: art and life. This black and white portrayal of a group of young Spaniards who share an innocent, unconditional love of film has become something of a cult item amongst film literati in Spain with an inevitably lengthy run of festival screenings likely to extend its appeal to those in the know.Read More »

Mange (2012) Synopsis:
Laura is a lawyer, she’s beautiful and has a nice boyfriend. But 15 years ago she was fat, bullied and without friends. Now she has come to terms with her bulimia. She is celebrating her first year abstinence.Read More »

Undskyld jeg forstyrrer (2012)
A story about the beautiful but confused young woman Helene, who, according to her mother, was born as a ‘technical error’. Helene suspects that her father, who left his family before Helene was born, might be the once celebrated director of a dilapidated theater in Copenhagen. Assisted by a series of bizarre coincidences and by her mother’s dog (a creature in whose shadow Helene has always lived), Helene manages to get closer to her father. »In Heat« is a rugged, larger than life comedy about finding your place in life. About being accepted and the price you pay in doing so. It’s a story about identity—amongst all creatures, including humans.Read More »

The Wolf Knife (2010)
The story of two sixteen year old girls living in Hollywood, Florida. We follow the girls from Florida to Tennessee, and watch as their lives become complicated by lies, jealousy and love.Read More »

Las ranas (2020) A woman visits her boyfriend, locked up in a prison a few hours’ drive away from Buenos Aires. Each week, she manages as best as she can to accomplish her mission: provide her boyfriend food, drugs and love. In an exercise of visceral realism, Edgardo Castro constructs a harrowing love story with Las Ranas.Read More »

Ma’a al-Fidda (2014) A look at first-hand video accounts of violence in modern-day Syria as filmed by activists in the besieged city of Homs.Read More »

Ainsi Va La Vie (2019)
A portrait of three women striving to forge their own rosy paths.

The film was produced in 2019 by Nobuhiro Suwa as an commercial for a cosmetics brand called ALBION. It was once on YouTube, but now the link is downRead More »

IMDB:
RIVER ROAD is the story of two Yugur ethnic minority brothers, Bartel and Adikeer. They set out on a journey across the prairies of northwestern China in search of their parents, skillfully maneuvering their camels over the vast expanse of dry ground. The allure of the film’s core components – the great outdoors, children, and animals – instantly catch our attention. Though realistic, the boys’ journey, powered by dreams and anxiety, is depicted with a touch of fantasy. And to firmly establish his characters, director Li Ruijun imbues this impressive effort – a coming-of-age drama couched in the guise of an adventure – with a winning sense of humor rooted in careful attention to detail. At the heart of the film, however, is a mournful air, bemoaning the disappearance of ethnic minorities and the destruction of nature. As suggested by its epic scale, the work has the classic qualities of a film that allows us to enjoy being emotionally affected emotional by what we see.Read More »