French

A young Kurdish refugee finds friendship from an unlikely source in Welcome, writer-director Philippe Lioret’s dramatic (chronicle of intersecting lives. The tale unfurls in Calais, a seaside community in the north of France where one can glimpse the white cliffs of Dover, England with the naked eye. Vincent Lindon stars as Simon, a local swimming instructor privately reeling in turmoil because he dreads an imminent divorce from his wife (Audrey Dana). Soon, his path unexpectedly criss-crosses with that of Bilal (Firat Ayverdi), a 17-year-old Kurdish refugee with two aspirations: swim the English Channel, and join his girlfriend in England following a lengthy separation. Despite their differing ages, the two men discover that they have a fair amount in common, and soon forge a tight bond marked by similar goals.)Read More »

Plot Synopsis:
Soriba Samb (Oumar Diop Makena) is a Senegalese who has just received a much sought after internship to study filmmaking in Paris. In this story, Soriba heads to Paris, accompanied by the five-year old son of a friend who he believes to be still living in Paris. On arrival he struggles to find the boy’s father. In addition to coping with his new internship, Soriba has to also spend time tracking down the boy’s father ‘Issa’. Soriba eventually finds ‘Issa’ but only to discover that he is running a prostitution ring and actually has no intention of leaving Paris. This is deeply disturbing to Soriba as the fate of the young boy now hangs squarely in the balance. Soriba sets out to change this and invokes the spirits of his ancestors to transform ‘Issa’s’ wayward living so he can care for his son and return to Senegal.

1991: Namur International Festival of French-Speaking Film: Golden Bayart for Best ActorRead More »

Quote:
We follow 24 hours in the life of a being (DL) moving from life to life like a cold and solitary assassin moving from hit to hit. In each of these interwoven lives, the being possesses an entirely distinct identity: sometimes a man, sometimes a woman, sometimes youthful, sometimes old to the point of dying; sometimes destitute, sometimes wealthy. By turns murderer, beggar, company chairman, monstrous creature, worker, family man…Read More »

Synopsis “Jeanette” is a musical drama based on Charles Peguy’s play “Le Mystère de la charité de Jeanne d’Arc” (1910). It focuses on the part of Peguy’s play that deals with Joan of Arc as a child, from age 8-12, when she started to embrace her sacred mission.

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During the Algerian War, Bruno Forestier lives in Geneva to escape the enlistment in France. Working for French intelligence, he is ordered to kill Palivoda, who is pro-FLN (National Liberation Front of Algeria), to prove he is not a double agent. Refusal and hesitation keep him from carrying out the assassination.

Meanwhile, he meets and falls in love with Véronica Dreyer, who helped the FLN. Bruno plans to leave with her for Brazil, but is captured and tortured by Algerian revolutionaries.

He escapes, and agrees to kill Palivoda for the French in exchange for passage to Brazil for himself and Veronica. However, the French discover Veronica’s ties to the FLN, and torture her to death. (Wikipedia)Read More »

Paris, 1955. Guy, film critic of the Cahiers du Cinéma, often goes to see the films of Vittorio Cottafavi in a local cinema. One day he notices that Jeanne, film critic of “Positive “, the rival magazine, seems to be following him. He is intrigued.Read More »

Inspired by the Greek myth Medea in which a mother kills her own children. Set in a suburban locale, Medea finds she is incapable of killing her own kids.Read More »

synopsis – AMG:
Nine-year-old Amine (Hamza Moctar Aguid) and his older brother, Tahir (Ahidjo Mahamat Moussa), are at loose ends when their father walks out on them one day for no apparent reason. Their mother (Zara Haroun) tells them that their father is “irresponsible.” Amine doesn’t understand the word, so he looks it up and ends up believing that it means their father is “not responsible” for his actions. In their search for their father, the boys go to the local cinema, where Amine is convinced that he sees their father up on the screen. He even seems to address them from the film. The two boys steal the film to examine it for evidence of their father’s presence. When they’re caught, their distraught mother gives up and sends them off to a madrasah, a strict Muslim boarding school. There, the headmaster’s grieving wife (Ramada Mahamat), whose own son has drowned, takes pity on Amine, who, on top of his emotional pains, suffers from asthma. Tahir meets a beautiful deaf mute girl (Mounira Khalil) who lives nearby. But the boys are woefully unhappy, and they plot their escape. When another boy teases Amine for his inability to swim, Amine responds with violence, which eventually leads to tragic results. Abouna is the second feature from Chad-born, France-based writer/director Mahamat-Saleh Haroun (Bye Bye Africa). It was shown at New Directors/New Films in 2003. — Josh RalskeRead More »

Synopsis
1859-60 in the Savoy Alps. Joseph (Richard Berry) is a young Savoyard peasant who has been established in a village with his wife and two children for some time, and like others before him, makes a living by crossing the Alps into Italy in the winter months and selling his wares to the villagers. This story traces a winter’s itinerary as the man encounters various adventures in his always-dangerous journey, but he seems oblivious to all the nuances and reverberations of social change going on around him. When he finally returns to his family after many months away, he discovers to his surprise that his village is now a part of France and it looks like a Savoyard would soon be sitting on the throne of a unified Italy…Read More »