IMDb wrote: In the chaotic days of the December 1989 revolution that overthrew the Communist regime, the Transylvanian city of Sibiu becomes the scene of a violent assault on a Police unit that quickly escalates into a bloody confrontation between soldiers, policemen, civilian protesters and representatives of the secret police. In a desperate attempt to escape the siege, Police captain Viorel is captured by the army and thrown into an empty swimming pool along with hundreds of prisoners accused of being terrorists.Read More »
James Gracey on Eye For Film wrote: Based on a 19th century Gothic novella by Aleksey Tolstoy (previously adapted for cinema by Mario Bava as a segment in his 1963 anthology, Black Sabbath), The Vourdalak is the debut feature film from French writer-director Adrien Beau. It tells of the Marquis d’Urfé (Kacey Mottet Klein), an emissary of the King of France who seeks shelter with a family when he becomes lost travelling through Eastern Europe. The family are anxiously awaiting the return of their patriarch, Gorcha, who has gone to capture an outlaw. Before leaving, he forewarned his family that if he does not return within six days, he has been killed and, if he reappears, they must refuse him entry to the house as he has become a vourdalak; a walking corpse returned from the grave seeking the blood of its loved ones…Read More »
Golden Bear for Best Short Film / Berlinale, Berlin International Film Festival 2023
Asma and Sarah, two women originally from the Levant, find themselves working in the same restaurant in the city of Lyon in France. Both bear the weight of a home they were forced to leave behind. Initially wary of each other, they gradually discover a common thread that binds them – one that dates back to when the Silk Road connected Lyon to their home countries. In the midst of forced migrations, can we move past our animosity to find solace in each other?Read More »
Synopsis: The project originated from two novellas of J.-H. Rosny, the joint pseudonym of the Belgian brothers Boex who wrote on natural, prehistoric and speculative subjects—sci fi before it was a genre. The film takes up their pluralist vision of evolution, where imagining prehistory is inseparable from envisioning the future. Also central are Roger Caillois’ writing on stones, Robert Hazen’s theory of Mineral Evolution, Clarice Lispector’s Hour of the Star, the Symbiosis theory of Lynn Margulis, multi-species scenarios of Donna Haraway, Hazel Barton’s research on cave microbes and Marcia Bjørnerud’s thoughts on time literacy. In one way or another, these thinkers have all sought to displace humankind and human reason from the center of evolutionary processes. Passages from Rosny and interviews with Bjørnerud form the film’s science-fictional / science-factual spine. Stones are its anchor. To touch stone is to meet alien duration. We trust stone as archive, but we may as well write on water. In the end, it’s particles that remain.Read More »
Quote: Masao Adachi’s first new film in six years that secretly started filming at the end of August. About the life of Tetsuya Yamagami, suspected assassin of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.Read More »
When an asteroid hits the Earth leading to underwater volcanic eruptions, the inhabitants of a small riverside town start to flee inland. Before she leaves, Nian decides to say goodbye to her childhood friend.Read More »
Thomas lives in a military base on colony of Madagascar. His parents and their circle, gradually becomes aware of politics both territorial and sexual while finding an outlet for his imagination in the exploits of crimebuster Fantômette.Read More »
During the presidential elections in Belarus, three actors from an underground theatre in Minsk are caught up in the wake of mass protests. It draws them onto the open streets of Minsk to protest for freedom of speech and the long-awaited change of power. But the people’s voice is brutally crushed by the regime’s security apparatus. Members of the theatre group are arrested. The country is on the brink of civil war. COURAGE accompanies the brave and peaceful resistance of Maryna, Pavel and Denis before and during the protests and offers a personal and deep insight into the Belarus of today.Read More »
Quote: Gigi is a police officer in a countryside where nothing ever happens. One day however, a young girl throws herself under a train. This is not the first time. Facing this unexplainable suicide wave, Gigi starts investigating a strange world, between reality and fantasy, where a garden turns into a jungle and where an ever-smiling policeman keeps his heart open to love.Read More »
