2010s

  • Johnnie To – Daan gyun naam yu II AKA Don’t Go Breaking My Heart II (2014)

    Johnnie To2011-2020ComedyHong KongRomance

    Hong Kong action auteur Johnnie To indulges his silly side with this hilariously inventive sequel to his hit romantic comedy, two former lovers find themselves irresistibly drawn back together — despite the fact that each is engaged to someone else.

    Nowadays the stellar universe of Chinese popular film is filled with romantic comedies full of sap, déjà vu, and worn-out clichés. But the proliferation of these poorly executed star vehicles doesn’t mean that the genre is tired out. In the hands of a master like Johnnie To, the rom-com has plenty of life yet. In Don’t Go Breaking My Heart 2, To’s sequel to his 2011 hit, he combines cinematic wit, brilliant dialogue, and inventive ideas, taking the genre into fresh new territory.Read More »

  • Rudolf Thome – Ins Blaue AKA Into the Blue (2012)

    Rudolf Thome2011-2020DramaGermany

    Quote:
    Retired filmmaker Abraham Rabenthal (Vadim Glowna) is producing the directorial début feature (titled Ins Blaue) for his daughter Nike (Alice Dwyer), and they film around Neapolitan locales with their cast and crew. Nike’s film is about three young women travelling in a camper van through Italy and having individual adventures with men along the way. Eva hooks up with a monk, Josephine with a mute fisherman, and Laura, an old philosopher. After a bank rejects Abraham’s application for further funding, costs need to be cut, so two of the male characters – the monk and the fisherman, are played by the same cast member Wilhelm, and the old philosopher, by Abraham himself. But that’s when things get more complicated…Read More »

  • Dea Kulumbegashvili – Léthé (2016)

    Dea Kulumbegashvili2011-2020DramaFranceShort Film

    By the river of oblivion, a lonely horsemen passes through a village where children play with hidden desires, adults are indulged in a celebration and violence and love are instinctive parts of life.Read More »

  • Dom Pedro – Tango Negro: The African Roots of Tango (2013)

    2011-2020DocumentaryDom PedroFrance

    Quote:
    Tango Negro: The African Roots of Tango by Angolan filmmaker Dom Pedro explores the expression of Tango’s Africanness and the contribution of African cultures in the creation of the tango. Tango was a reflection of the social life of the slaves that were taken to South America – including Argentina and Uruguay – mostly from central Africa, particularly from the former Kongo Kingdom. Director Dom Pedro reveals the depth of the footprints of the African music on the tango, through this rich movie combining musical performances and interviews from many tango fans and historians in Latin America and Europe, including the renowned Argentinean pianist Juan Carlos Caceres.Read More »

  • Tulapop Saenjaroen – A Room with a Coconut View (2018)

    Tulapop Saenjaroen2011-2020ExperimentalThailand

    “A Room with a Coconut View” tells a story of Kanya, a tour guide and hotel rep automated voice, who leads her foreign automated-voice guest Alex through a deceptively aestheticised beach town in the east of Thailand. Dissatisfied by the sanitised, touristic images, Alex decides to explore alone. Local corruption becomes intertwined with the history of Thai cinema, and Alex begins to question how images have been used to mediate his understanding of the world.Read More »

  • Min-Wei Ting – I’m Coming Up (2016)

    2011-2020DocumentaryMin-Wei TingSingapore

    A documentation of the interior of a Singaporean tower block, from bottom to top.Read More »

  • Shane Salerno – Salinger (2013)

    2011-2020DocumentaryShane SalernoUSA

    Synopsis:
    An unprecedented look inside the private world of J.D. Salinger, the reclusive author of The Catcher in the Rye.Read More »

  • Jennifer Reeder – Knives and Skin (2019)

    2011-2020DramaJennifer ReederMysteryUSAWomen Make Horror

    Synopsis
    A mystical teen noir that follows a young girl’s disappearance in the rural Midwest and its effect on teens and parents.
    (imdb)Read More »

  • Meryem Benm’Barek-Aloïsi – Sofia (2018)

    2011-2020DramaMeryem Benm'Barek-AloïsiMorocco

    – 2018 THESSALONIKI — FIPRESCI Prize
    – 2018 CARTHAGE — Special Mention, Best First Work
    – 2018 BRATISLAVA — Best Director
    – 2018 CANNES — Un Certain Regard-Best Screenplay

    Sofia, who is in denial of her pregnancy, gets labor pains during a family meal with guests. Thanks to her med student cousin Lena’s vigilance, they go to a hospital without alerting anyone and she delivers her baby. However, her family aside, bureaucracy and laws get involved as well: if she won’t reveal the identity of the father, the hospital will need to inform the authorities. In her feature-length debut, Meryem Benm’barek delivers a thorough and striking analysis of class differences, gender inequality, matriarchal traditions, and taboos that form the fabric of Moroccan society starting off from article 490 of the country’s penal code which sanctions prison sentences for sexual relations out of wedlock.Read More »

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