FOCUS ON WORLD CINEMA (Americas, Europe, Asia, Africa, Oceania)
JOY (PNA)
Netherlands / 2010 / Colour / 76 min / Dir.: Mijke de Jong
Cast : Samira Maas, Dragan Bakema, Coosje Smid, Olga Louzgina, Naima El Bezaz, Elisabeth Hesemans
Joy has never known her biological mother. She was abandoned as a baby and grew up in several orphanages. This experience weighs heavily on her and she suffers greatly because she has no family roots. What she needs in her life is an anchor. Her boyfriend Moumou tries his best to understand her but, in the end, Joy’s deep-seated needs and problems are beyond him. Moumou comes from a large Serbian family and this makes it hard for him to comprehend Joy’s sense of loneliness. How far will she go to alleviate it?
SNOWMAN'S LAND (PI)
Germany / 2009 / Colour / 94 min / Dir.: Thomasz Thomson
Cast : Jürgen Rissmann, Thomas Wodianka, Reiner Schöne, Walèra Kanischtscheff, Eva-Katrin Hermann, Luc Feit
Walter, a luckless contract killer, is on assignment for mob boss Berger. At first glance it seems more like a holiday. He’s in the snow-covered Carpathian Mountains with little to do except keep an eye on Berger’s villa together with his unreliable colleague Micky. But then Berger’s young wife Sybille has to spoil the vacation when she accidentally shoots herself during a rowdy party. The two inept watchmen now must get rid of the body lest they be blamed for the woman’s death. What started out a nice holiday quickly turns into a nightmare...
SOUL BOY (PC)
Kenya - Germany / 2010 / Colour / 61 min / Dir.: Hawa Essuman
Cast : Samson Odhiambo, Leila Dayan Opou, Krysten Savane, Frank Kimani, Joab Ogolla, Lucy Gachanja
Fourteen-year-old Abila lives with his parents in Kibera, the large slum of Nairobi, Kenya. One morning he discovers his father ill and delirious; someone has stolen his soul, mumbles his father. Abila is shocked and confused but, wanting to help, he goes in search of a cure. Supported by his friend Shiku, Abila learns that his father has gambled his soul away in the company of a spiritual woman. He doesn’t want to believe it and sets about looking for the witch. When he finally discovers her in the darkest corner of the ghetto, she gives him seven challenging tasks to save his father’s lost soul. Abila embarks on a journey which leads him through the microcosm of his home town.
BO (PI)
Belgium / 2010 / Colour / 90 min / Dir.: Hans Herbots
Cast : Ella-June Henrard, Ina Geerts, Thomas Ryckewaert, Kalina Malehounova, Paul Wuyts
Fifteen-year-old Deborah wants to escape dull suburbia and enjoy the big city life in Antwerp. Her new eighteen-year-old friend Jennifer introduces her to the sparkling downtown nightlife. When Jennifer admits she's an escort girl, Deborah is intrigued by what appears to be an easy way of getting cash. Under the alias “Bo”, she takes her first steps into a world she can't handle yet. The downward spiral leads her to cheap thrills, drugs and into a juvenile institution. To escape this spiral, Deborah can only count on herself.
I WAS ONCE TOLD (PM)
Canada / 2010 / Colour / 75 min / Dir.: Aliaa Khachouk
Cast : Nada Houmsi, Raymond Yates, Hanan Chkir, Chadi Alhelou, Kim Prangley, Michel Duteau
Laila, an Arab immigrant in Canada, lives a three-sided love story. Its other protagonists are Sami, a screenwriter who is also a new immigrant, and Jad, Laila's old flame whom she left behind in her country of origin, but for whom she still has affections. While Sami writes Laila’s story, Laila seeks salvation in a nearby field where she meditates, transforms it into a temple of love, sex and spirituality. When Sami leaves town with his wife, Laila is forced to re-assess her illusions...
I HEART REGINA (PM)
Canada / 2010 / Colour / 78 min / Dir.: Brett Bell, Mauricio Carvajal, Lowell Dean, Jackie Dzuba, Eric Hill, Rob King, Terry Mialkowsky, Jason Nielsen, Dianne Ouellette, Robin Schlaht, Wanda Schmockel, Nils Sorensen, Brian Stockton, Mark Wihak
Cast : James Whittingham, Amy Couzens, Justin Ludwig, Kate Heriot, Judy Wensel, Carlos Londoño Sulkin, Geri Hack
Thirteen stories from the Centre of the Universe. In the spirit of films such as PARIS JE T’AIME and NEW YORK, I LOVE YOU, but set in a far more exotic location, I HEART REGINA's 13 wildly different, genre-spanning short films, assert that lives lived in this small city in the middle of North America are as important as lives lived anywhere. While Paris and New York have been visited by millions of tourists and have been the setting for hundreds of films, Regina remains in the realm of the uncharted, the unknown, and dare we say, the unfathomable. Until now. Discover why Mick Jagger calls Regina the city that rhymes with fun.
RETRATOS EN UN MAR DE MENTIRAS (PC)
Colombia / 2009 / Colour / 90 min / Dir.: Carlos Gaviria
Cast : Paola Baldion, Julián Román, Edgardo Román
After the death of their grandfather in a mudslide, Jairo, an itinerant photographer, and Marina, his young amnesic and mute cousin, decide to go back and try to recover the land from which she was displaced years ago. They travel from Bogotá to the coast in a beaten-up old car. During the trip, the story of her traumatic past begins to unfold. Upon reaching their hometown, they are kidnapped by a paramilitary gang...
DOOMAN RIVER (PNA)
South Korea - France / 2009 / Colour / 89 min / Dir.: Zhang Lu
Cast : Cui Jian, Yin Lan, Li Jinglin, Lin Jinglong, Jin Xuansheng
The Dooman River marks part of the boundary between North Korea and China. Crossing it is dangerous, not merely because of the brittle ice on its surface, but also because of the heavily armed soldiers that patrol the North Korean border. In spite of this, over 400,000 Koreans have already crossed to find refuge in China. Many North Koreans only come to find food for their families. One such North Korean is the boy that twelve-year-old Chang-ho befriends. The boy is the same age as Chang-ho; he makes the crossing regularly to look after his sick sister. Chang-ho’s mute sister Soon-hee also begins looking after her brother’s North Korean friend...
NEKE DRUGE PRICE (PNA)
Serbia - Slovenia - Croatia - Bosnia - Macedonia - Ireland / 2010 / Colour / 114 min / Dir.: Marija Dzidzeva, Ivona Juka, Ana Maria Rossi, Hanna Slak, Ines Tanovic
Cast : Nera Stipecevic, Goran Bogdan, Natasa Ninkovic, Sergey Trifunovic, Nina Violic, Fedja Stukan
In the country that used to be called Yugoslavia, men didn't ask women whether war was the right thing to do. Now, those women are asking what kind of a life can they be expected to bring into a postwar world. Five countries, five women, five stories. The film comprises five dramatic reflections on motherhood among young women today in the countries formally known as Yugoslavia. Five everyday, contemporary stories from Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia and Slovenia. Balkan stories looking at the aftermath of war. Stories that raise the question: what does giving life mean after so much death?
FRIHED PÅ PRØVE (PI)
Denmark / 2010 / Colour / 95 min / Dir.: Eric Clausen
Cast : Erik Clausen, Helene Egelund, Henrik Bruhn, Pil Egholm, Henrik Lykkegaard, Jesper Asholt
When career criminal John, the protagonist from Erik Clausen's dramatic comedy TEMPORARY RELEASE (2007), is granted parole, he hastens to Jutland to visit his son who is in difficulty. John might be a dedicated father, a perfect employee, and a great line-dancer, but life isn't exactly plain sailing. “This is a ‘road’ movie... It creates an opportunity for the spectator to explore society, meet different characters and at the same time feel the freedom in being able to leave them again. A restless human being, a searcher -- looking for freedom and love -- but what does this person have to offer himself?” -- Erik Clausen
80 EGUNEAN (PNA)
Spain / 2010 / Colour / 105 min / Dir.: Jon Garaño, José Mari Goenaga
Cast : Itziar Aizpurua, Mariasun Pagoaga, José Ramón Argoita, Zorion Egileor, Ane Gabarain
Axun and Maite first met in high school during a repressive era that never allowed their relationship to go beyond friendship. Later on, their paths led the two women apart: Axun got married and moved out to the country to live on a farm, while Maite travelled the world, clarified her sexual orientation in her own mind, and now, having had a successful career as a piano teacher, she has returned to San Sebastian to take up her retirement. Fifty years on, Axun and Maite, now both seventy, meet up by chance while visiting patients in hospital. At first, they don’t recognize one another, but soon long-suppressed feelings begin to emerge...
NACIDAS PARA SUFRIR (PNA)
Spain / 2009 / Colour / 110 min / Dir.: Miguel Albaladejo
Cast : Adriana Ozores, Petra Martinez, María Alfonsa Rosso, Malena Alterio, María Elena Flores, Mariola Fuentes
Flora, 72, a spinster, lives in a small village and has spent her whole life looking after her elderly relatives. Her only sister died young, leaving Flora with three nieces to raise. As soon as they reached adulthood her nieces all left the village. Flora is beginning to worry. The time is coming when the three young women should be looking after her and Flora is afraid that she’ll be carted off to the old people’s home where one of the nieces works. Her salvation is Purita, who has stood by her over the years; she is the only person whom Flora accepts as a member of the family...
QUCHIS DGEEBI (PC)
Georgia / 2010 / Colour / 86 min / Dir.: Levan Koguashvili
Cast : Guga Kotetishvili, Rusudan Kobiashvili, Zura Begalishvili, Irakli Ramishvili, Gerge Kipshidze
Tbilisi, Georgia. Checkie, 45, is a junkie with a reputation of doing anything for drugs. One day he gets an “offer” from the cops. They order him to get his friend's son Ika, 16, onto drugs so that they can blackmail the boy’s politician father. If Checkie cooperates, he’ll get paid; if he refuses, he will end up in prison. Checkie is unemployed and his family is in dire straits. His ex-wife’s business has gone bankrupt and she needs money for their 7-year-old boy’s schooling. Checkie is in no position to refuse. The cops give him two days to set everything up. Checkie is caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place. He is desperate to find a way out...
VESPA (PI)
Hungary / 2010 / Colour / 93 min / Dir.: Diana Groó
Cast : Sándor Toth, Juli Nyakó, Rudolf Balogh, János Puporka, Gábor Nagypál, Krisztina Erdély
Twelve-year-old Lali wins a bar of chocolate at cards and it contains a winning coupon for a Vespa motorbike inside the wrapper. However, the motorbike is in Budapest. So Lali leaves his community in Bereghát not only to find the prize of his dreams, but also his father, whom he has not seen for a long time...
SUÎTO RITORU RAIZU (PC)
Japan / 2009 / Colour / 117 min / Dir.: Hitoshi Yazaki
Cast : Miki Nakatani, Nao Omori, Chizuru Ikewaki, Junichi Kobayashi
Ruriko, an artist who makes teddy bears has been married to Satoshi for three years and on the surface their marriage seems ideal. In fact, however, they have been gradually growing distant. Whenever Ruriko tries to tell Satoshi about her alienation, Satoshi retreats into his room to play video games. Mostly, there is only silence and a polite exchange of smiles. One day at Ruriko’s gallery Haruo shows and asks if he can buy one of Ruriko’s bears for his girlfriend. The bear isn’t for sale but Haruo insists. Ruriko admires his persistence. It’s more than what she gets from her husband...
FINAK ALYAM () (PNA)
Morocco / 2009 / Colour / 99 min / Dir.: Driss Chouika
Cast : Abdellatif Chaouqi, Yasmina Bennani, Karima Chamssi, Kods Joundoul, Mohamed Ayad, Maria Chiadmi
Three couples in their forties, having lost track of each other since their carefree days at university, find themselves re-united at the villa of one of them, after having received a strange invitation, ostensibly from Rajaâ, an old friend who had gone missing since the last time they were together. Despite Rajaâ’s physical absence from reunion, she is present in the memories of everyone. The six friends have ended up as they did despite having formed entirely different couples in their youth. How exactly did that occur? And what really happened to Rajaâ?
TERMINUS DES ANGES (PI)
Morocco / 2009 / Colour / 86 min / Dir.: Narjiss Nejjar, Mohamed Mouftakir, Hicham Lasri
Cast : Salah Bensalah, Sanaa Alaoui, Sanae Akroud, Meryem Zaimi, Driss Roukh, Myriem Ben Barek
1) A young man keeps wondering: to live, is it an act of resistance, subversion, or an inalienable right? 2) Yamna marries a man she has known for only a single night, that of her wedding. The next day he will disappear without a trace. Later, she will understand. 3) Jalila learns that her husband, from whom she has been separated for two years, has just committed suicide. She learns that he had a second wife, Yamna... Three short stories. Three characters whose lives intersect. Three windows on ignorance, stigma and loneliness in the face of AIDS.
YUMA, LA (PC)
Nicaragua - Mexico - Spain - France / 2009 / Colour / 91 min / Dir.: Florence Jaugey
Cast : Alma Blanco, Rigoberto Mayorga, Gabriel Benavides, María Esther López, Juan Carlos García, Eliezer Traña, Salvador Espinoza
Yuma, a strong-willed girl from the gang-infested barrios of Managua, dreams of becoming a boxer. In the street, gangs battle for control of the neighbourhood. At home, lovelessness prevails. Yuma sees the ring as a path to escape this dismal existence. One day she meets Ernesto, a journalism student from the other side of the city. Despite their many differences, they fall in love, attracted by their shared dreams and a desire find their own space in the world. Their relationship is threatened by Yuma’s jealous ex-boyfriend and her overprotective brother. But the physical and emotional strength that helps Yuma in the ring will help her in real life as well...
KÖNTÖRFALAK (PNA)
Hungary - Slovakia / 2010 / Colour / 78 min / Dir.: Zsombor Dyga
Cast : Ferenc Elek, Kátya Tompos, Roland Rába
A man and a woman. A blind date. An urban legend. Eszti is in a park waiting for her blind date, when Zoli turns up to snatch a few quiet minutes for himself. It’s all a misunderstanding, and the girl wants to make it clear there is no chance of them being together. Two total strangers in the middle of Budapest meeting because of a date that has gone astray. They start talking and it is a collision of two totally different worlds. They are just about to start getting to know one another when Gábor, Eszti’s rude brother, shows up. Events take an unexpected turn -- the three of them haven’t the slightest idea that they are bound together by an old secret.
EINES TAGES... (PI)
Germany / 2010 / Colour / 97 min / Dir.: Iain Dilthey
Cast : Horst Janson, Annekathrin Bürger, Heinrich Schafmeister, Irene Fischer, Herbert Schäfer
The paths of three families cross at a dementia centre. Jacob worked in radio for 32 years, and has been suffering from dementia for a long time. His wife Margot knows how to manage his illness, loves her husband and would never put him in a home. But his situation has worsened... Leon left for Berlin years ago and is on route to becoming a successful composer. When he and his sister, Annette realize that their mother is no longer capable of living alone, Annette takes her in... Frieder, an architect, first notices his symptoms at his job. They provoke fear, are denied and compensated for. This denial alienates Frieder from his family and friends...
MARTÍN AL AMANECER (PI)
Mexico / 2010 / Colour / 85 min / Dir.: Juan Carlos Carrasco
Cast : Adal Ramones, Carmen Salinas, Imelda Castro, Manuel Ojeda, Diana Bracho, José Sefami
When Martin's car breaks down in the middle of the desert, he has no choice but to head off across the empty landscape to look for help. Along the road he happens upon a brothel. No choice. But when he goes inside he unknowingly is drawn into a fateful game of chance. He will be changed forever...
AAROHAN (PC)
India / 2010 / Colour / 126 min / Dir.: Pinaki Chaudhuri
Cast : Soumitra Chatterjee, Somodarshi Dutta, Rituparna Sengupta, Tulika Basu, Siddharta Chatterjee
The patriarch Suryashekhar Chattopadhyay, steeped in traditional values, treats the predictions of his horoscope like axiomatic truth. His obduracy distances him from his only son, Alok, who has no time for horoscopes, marries outside his caste and settles abroad. Suryashekhar’s wife, an educated woman, doesn’t share his religious biases, but she bears everything with quiet dignity. She goes along to Benares when her husband decides that he will die in the holy city to rid himself of the bondage of the eternal cycle of rebirth. But it is precisely in Benares that Suryashekhar discovers that his unbending faith in horoscopes is based on ignorance.
SONHOS ROUBADOS (PC)
Brazil / 2009 / Colour / 90 min / Dir.: Sandra Werneck
Cast : Nanda Costa, Amanda Diniz, Kika Farias, Marieta Severo, Daniel Dantas, Nelson Xavier
Jessica, Sabrina and Daiane have the same dreams as young women around the world. But these girls live in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro and sometimes work as prostitutes in order to survive. Though their families are largely dysfunctional, though early pregnancy and lack of education are common among the girls, they still have dreams. They still maintain a sense of humour as they make decisions and try to enjoy life as it is -- celebrating a new boyfriend, a much-awaited MP3 player, a dance party or skipping school to go to the beach. They refuse to allow poverty and life’s vicissitudes to deprive them of their youthful optimism...
R (PNA)
Denmark / 2009 / Colour / 96 min / Dir.: Tobias Lindholm, Michael Noer
Cast : Pilou Asæk, Roland Møller, Dulfi Al-Jaburi, Jacob Gredsted, Kim Winther, Omar Shargawi
The prisoner R arrives at Denmark’s toughest prison, where he is scheduled to serve a sentence for violent assault. R is reduced to a number, a letter, just another inmate. Prison is a parallel world filled with rules, honour and debts. A world in which bars cover the world and blood stains the floor. R is placed in the ward for hardcore prisoners. Here he must find his place in the system, learn to navigate the prison shoals. Fight for survival.
GASTARBEITER (PNA)
Russia - Uzbekistan / 2009 / Colour / 94 min / Dir.: Yusup Razykov
Cast : Darya Goshkaleva, Bakhatdyr Boltayev, Aleksandr Pashutin, Dzhalol Yusupov, Natalya Grebyonkina
Vika, a young provincial woman, tries to find her place in Moscow. Unexpectedly, she meets Sadyk, an old Uzbek man who has returned to the capital where he fought more than 50 years ago during the Second World War. He has come to find his missing grandson, a migrant worker. In order to finance the long trip, Sadyk had agreed to be a mule for a local gangster and deliver drugs to an Uzbek dealer in the capital. Now he is in trouble with the police. With no relatives of her own, Vika takes the old man’s problems to heart and becomes his companion as she helps him in his search.
DEN ZVERYA (DAY OF THE BEAST, THE) (PI)
Russia / 2009 / Colour / 84 min / Dir.: Mikhaïl Konovaltchouk
Cast : Yohann Van-Utr, Svtlana Pati, Deanna Dezmari, Denat Ibragimov
At the end of the Second World War, a 16-year German sniper is left behind by the retreating Nazis. Separated from his squadron, he is lost. With nowhere to go and nothing to do, he hides out in a half-ruined house and tries to survive without giving himself away. From the window he watches as the inhabitants return to the postwar city and begin to resume their interrupted lives. One day, a Jewish family -- a disabled grandfather, a mother and her 15-year old daughter -- return home from where they fled during the German invasion. Their house is just opposite that of the sniper. He watches their life through his gunsight and soon falls in love with the girl...
SWANSONG - STORY OF OCCI BYRNE (PI)
Ireland - Germany / 2009 / Colour / 91 min / Dir.: Conor McDermottroe
Cast : Martin McCann, Jodie Whittaker, Marcella Plunkett, Gerald McSorley, Owen Roe
When he was young, Austin (Occi) Byrne was tormented by the local bullies who would taunt him because he had no father. As he grows up within the closed ecclesiatial communities of 1970s Ireland, those taunts escalate in Occi’s mind into a chorus. His quest to find his father becomes core to his identity; but his mother -- all but shunned by her parents and the local community, insists on keeping this secret. His story unfolds as a series of chaotic encounters, tempered by moments of tenderness and longing. Abused by the system -- the church, the hospitals, the community -- this troubled soul never gives up his search for peace.
NY EXPORT: OPUS JAZZ (PI)
United States / 2010 / Colour / 61 min / Dir.: Jody Lee Lipes, Henry Joost
In 1958, Jerome Robbins’ “ballet in sneakers”, NY EXPORT: OPUS JAZZ, became a smash hit when it was broadcast on the Ed Sullivan Show and toured around the world. Set to an evocative jazz score by Robert Prince and abstract urban backdrops by Ben Shahn, the dance told the story of disaffected urban youth through movement that blended ballet, jazz and ballroom dancing with Latin, African and American rhythms to create a powerful new style. The work is now given a new screen adaptation featuring dancers of the New York City Ballet. Following the ballet, a 15-minute documentary by Matt Wolf and Anna Farrell resumes the history and significance of Robbins’ classic.
NORMAN (PC)
United States / 2010 / Colour / 97 min / Dir.: Jonathan Segal
Cast : Dan Byrd, Emily VanCamp, Richard Jenkins, Adam Goldber, Billy Lush
Norman Long is a high school loner, a self-aware and darkly funny teen who’s just trying to handle his daily existence. In the wake of his mother’s sudden death, Norman must now also deal with the reality that his father is beginning to lose his battle with stomach cancer. Depressed and angry, Norman gets caught in a lie that he, in fact, has stomach cancer. Soon his lies spiral out of control, making him the focus of schoolwide attention. It also wins him the attention, and affection, of Emily, a beautiful classmate. But then Emily too has to struggle with her own feelings in the face of Norman’s “impending” death...
ORADA () (PNA)
Turkey / 2009 / Colour / 87 min / Dir.: Hakki Kurtulus, Melik Saraçoglu
Cast : Dolunay Soysert, Sinan Tuzcu, Erol Günaydin, Füsun Erbulak, Bahtiyar Engin
THERE tells the story of 24 hours in the life of a Turkish family. After his mother’s suicide, Mazhar, who was exiled in France for twelve years, returns to Istanbul. The reunion with his sister Neslihan is painful. After the funeral, they decide to find their father and tell him about the death of their mother. Since their separation, their father Erol has lived in isolation on an island. During their discussion which is full of both confessions and mutual recriminations, the family’s whole past resurfaces and all their unspoken secrets come to light.
KAVSAK () (PM)
Turkey / 2010 / Colour / 95 min / Dir.: Semir Demirdelen
Cast : Güven Kiraç, Sezin Akbasogullari, Cengiz Bozkurt, Umut Kurt, Yücel Erten, Basay Okay
Guven works as an accountant. He has a happy marriage and a daughter. But when he comes home after a day at the office, he is really alone. His “family” is a facade. He lost his wife and unborn child five years ago, but, unable to bear the pain, decided to pretend that they were still alive. His imaginary world begins to fall apart when Arzu comes to work in the same office. Perhaps because her life is also a mess, Arzu wants to know more about Guven’s. It turns out that their pasts had once intersected...
CHANCE (PC)
Panama - Mexico / 2009 / Colour / 90 min / Dir.: Abner Benaim
Cast : Francisco Gattorno, Isabella Santo, Aida Morales, Rosa Lorenzo
Toña and Paquita work as live-in maids at the home of Gonzales-Dubois, an upper class family in Panama. For a long time they have been mistreated and poorly paid and they’re now fed up with the abuse. While the family plans to leave for a shopping weekend in Miami, Toña and Paquita have different plans: they hold the Gonzales Dubois hostage in their own home and demand a large ransom. After sessions of interrogation and ridicule, the family secret is revealed: the Gonzales Dubois household, despite appearances, is bankrupt. All they have to their name is debt. But Toña and Paquita have gone past the point of no return…
MOTEL NANA (PI)
Serbia - Bosnia-Herzegovina / 2010 / Colour / 92 min / Dir.: Predrag Velinovic
Cast : Dragan Micanovic, Nikolina Djordjevic, Zijah Sokolovic, Nikola Pejakovic, Mladen Nelevic, Ljubivoje Tadic
Ivan teaches history in a Belgrade high school. In his class, Ivan is provoked by a student and ends up slapping the boy. Under pressure, Ivan finds himself non grata in the school. He finds a temporary job opportunity in a war-scarred mountain village in Bosnia. On his way there, he meets Yasmina, a young Muslim woman, just returned from Germany to her homeland after the war, invited by an old friend, Hazim, who now runs a motel. A lone kiss in a stormy night, in a village still lying in ruins, will bring Yasmina and Ivan closer together in a joint escape from reality and to a ride on a dusty bus, where neither of them wants to sit next to the window.
SHITSUREN SATSUJIN (PI)
Japan / 2010 / Colour / 100 min / Dir.: Shoji Kubota
Cast : Mao Miyaji, Yurei Yanagi, Ryuchi Ohura, Kinuo Yamada, Kouta Kusano, Mari Hoshino
Shuichi Minamida lives comfortably on the proceeds of his father’s legacy, but he struggles with the idea that his beautiful wife, Moyako, no longer loves him. One day he confesses his worries to Kotoura, his dentist. Kotoura summons the Akechi detective agency and asks them to investigate his friend’s wife, Miyako. Fumiyo, wife of agency head Kogoro Akechi, a talented detective in her own right, takes the case and begins her investigation. She soon notices that something strange is going on between Miyako and the dentist. This observation leads to a tragic ending which none of those involved could ever imagine.
RETORNOS (PI)
Spain - Portugal - Argentina / 2009 / Colour / 88 min / Dir.: Luis Avilés
Cast : Xavier Estévez, Manuela Vellés, María Bouzas, Emilio Gutiérrez Caba, José Manuel Olveira “Pico”
After an absence of ten years, Álvaro returns to his home village, a place he never wanted to see again. He has returned to attend his father's funeral. Once there, he tries to reconcile with his brother and rebuild his relationship with his daughter, Mar. None of this is easy for him. Everything becomes even more complicated when Álvaro finds a young woman lying dead on the road. She is Lidia, a prostitute and also a good friend of Mar's. Concerned about his daughter's safety, Álvaro initiates an investigation in a village where nothing is what it appears to be and everybody has something to hide.
ZEMSKÝ RÁJ TO NAPOHLED (PNA)
Czech Republic / 2009 / Colour / 114 min / Dir.: Irena Pavlásková
Cast : Vilma Cibulková, Tereza Vorisková, Dana Marková, Miroslav Itzler, Jiri Dvorak, Ondrej Vetchy
Adolescence is always a difficult time; it is doubly so for Gábina. For one thing, she is growing up in the 1970s, in the years following the brutal crackdown after “Prague Spring” and the re-imposition of Soviet political control. As well, she has to face the reality that her father is a well-known actor disavowed by the regime. Although he abandoned the family years before, his existence casts an ominous shadow over the lives of not only Gábina, but also her older sister and mother, who are trying to find a civilized way through the social mire of the times.
ORPHELINE AVEC EN PLUS UN BRAS EN MOINS, L' (PM)
France / 2010 / Colour / 97 min / Dir.: Jacques Richard
Cast : Jean-Claude Dreyfus, Pasquale D’Inca, Melvil Poupaud, Dominique Pinon, Fabrice Carlier, Caroline Loeb, Kentaro
Eléonore is a beautiful young girl… with a missing arm. She's spent the first twenty years of her life in a private institution run by nuns. Now Georges London, a respectable 50-year-old judge, decides to take care of her, and invites her to live in his largely empty family mansion. Eléonore has a crush on a handsome young magician, Robinson. But when a gruesome murder is discovered, London suspects Robinson. There's something odd about the judge himself, though. Every night he spies on Eléonore in her bathroom through a one-way mirror, and he also has a strange collection of fetishistic court exhibits. Has Eléonore been given shelter by a dangerous maniac?
TURQUAZE (PM)
Belgium - Turkey / 2010 / Colour / 95 min / Dir.: Kadir Balci
Cast : Burak Balci, Charlotte Vandermeersch, Nihat Alptug Altinkaya, Tilber Saran, Sinan Vanden Eynde
Having buried their father in Istanbul, Timur, 28, and his two brothers, Ediz, 36, and Bora 16, return to Ghent in Belgium. Their mother remains in Istanbul. The three brothers resume their lives but need to find a new balance. While Ediz plays the dominant father and Bora does silly things with the wrong friends, Timur tries to fulfil his father's dream: playing the trumpet in a brass band. Sarah, Timur's girlfriend, thinks it's cool, until she realizes how little he seems to notice her now… A chronicle of one Turkish family's life in in Belgium... Turkish for beginners!
NAO SE PODE VIVER SEM AMOR (PNA)
Brazil / 2010 / Colour / 102 min / Dir.: Jorge Durán
Cast : Cauã Reymond, Victor Navega Motta, Simone Spoladore, Ângelo Antônio, Fabiula Nascimento, Maria Ribeiro
December 23rd. Ten-year-old Gabriel and 30-year-old Roseli arrive in Rio de Janeiro in search of the boy’s father who left them years before. João is an unemployed young lawyer who is deeply in love and desperately seeking a way to improve his life. Pedro is a university researcher who lives with his father; his family is going thorough a period of drastic changes. Gilda is a nightclub dancer willing to leave the city behind, but who is still held back by the happiness she once let slip through her fingers. Their lives are all on the edge. But Christmas is coming and along with it a deepened appreciation of the power of love.
EMBARGO (PI)
Portugal - Spain - Brazil / 2010 / Colour / 83 min / Dir.: António Ferreira
Cast : Filipe Costa, Cláudia Carvalho, Pedro Diogo, José Raposo, Fernando Taborda, Eloy Monteiro
Nuno works at a sandwich stand, but he's also the man who has invented a machine which promises to revolutionize the shoe industry. But when an oil embargo is declared, Nuno finds himself in a difficult situation. Blinded by the promise of success and his obsession with achieving his goals in life, he tries desperately to sell his machine. One day he is mysteriously trapped in his own car and misses the once in a lifetime opportunity to finally present this invention to the world. His life is suddenly embargoed…
FRIENDSHIP! (PNA)
Germany / 2010 / Colour / 104 min / Dir.: Markus Goller
Cast : Matthias Schweighöfer, Friedrich Mücke, Alicja Bachleda
November, 1989. The Berlin Wall has fallen. The whole world celebrates, and two pals Veit and Tom along with it. The two young East-Germans, products of the GDR's repressive Communist regime, heed the call of the West, and set out for America with little more than 100 Deutschmarks in their pocket and a dream in their head: to make it to San Francisco. Veit's convinced that his dad's been living there since he fled the GDR years ago. But with their knowledge of English limited to the words "friendship" and "Vee are Communists," they're in for a rough ride.
LIEBE MAUER (PC)
Germany / 2009 / Colour / 107 min / Dir.: Peter Timm
Cast : Felicitas Woll, Maxim Mehmet, Anna Fischer, Thomas Thieme, Karl Kranzkowski, Margarita Broich
Berlin, 1989. Sascha is a young East German border guard and Franzi a lively young West German woman who's just moved into a flat next to Sascha's watchtower at the Berlin Wall. It takes only a slight mishap and a selfless act of chivalry and the two fall in love. But soon the Stasi believes they are witnessing the start of a revolt. Not unusual, since this is the time of mass protests and East Germans taking refuge in the West German embassy in Prague. Franzi and Sascha have to find their ways to stand up for their love and strive for the impossible -- to bring down the wall.
DONG FENG YU (PI)
China / 2010 / Colour / 122 min / Dir.: Liu Yunglong
Cast : Liu Yunlong, Fan Bingbing, Li Xiaroran, Yu Rongguang, Ying Da, Kenneth Tsang Kong
Shanghai, December 1941. Chinese spy An Ming, working as a nightclub pianist in the city's International Settlement, learns from Masahiro, a Japanese communist, that Japan is to attack Pearl Harbor. However, following the assassination of two members of his unit, An has no way of transmitting the incredible information to his superiors. Masahiro receives confirmation of the attack in a coded weather broadcast on Japanese radio, "East wind, rain", and also hears that a roll of film containing details is secretly on its way to him from a sympathizer in Tokyo. On the night of December 7, Nakanishi is arrested, the roll of film goes missing...
PETITE CHAMBRE, LA (PI)
Switzerland - Luxembourg / 2010 / Colour / 87 min / Dir.: Stéphanie Chuat, Véronique Reymond
Cast : Michel Bouquet, Florence Loiret, Éric Caravaca, Joël Delsaut, Valérie Bodson, Fabienne Barraud
This story is about affairs of the heart. Edmond's isn't that strong anymore. Nevertheless, it does still beat to the rhythm of a fierce independance, which is why, even at 85, he rejects the idea of going to a nursing home or accepting Rose's help, the visiting nurse who is sent out to his flat to take care of him. But despite his unflagging resistance, Rose keeps insisting. She knows only too well how tough it is when your heart cannot accept the unacceptable, because hers is still aching. One day, however, a bad fall forces Edmond to let Rose into his life...
DER GROSSE KATER (PI)
Switzerland - Germany / 2010 / Colour / 88 min / Dir.: Wolfgang Panzer
Cast : Bruno Ganz, Ulrich Tukur, Marie Bäumer, Christiane Paul, Edgar Selge, Justus von Dohnáyi
Bern. Kater, the president of Switzerland, is at the peak of his career. He is about to receive the King and Queen of Spain on a state visit. Just before the official dinner, however, he realizes that Pfiff, the head of the Secret Service, has plotted a wily intrigue to overthrow him. The two of them went to the same school and rose to power together. But their friendship has gone sour since Kater married Marie, who was once Pfiff’s fiancée. Now Pfiff sees his chance for revenge. Forced into choosing between his career and his family, Kater gathers his strength for one last battle. And his enemies had better not underestimate him.
DEL AMOR Y OTROS DEMONIOS (PC)
Costa Rica - Colombia / 2009 / Colour / 97 min / Dir.: Hilda Hidalgo
Cast : Pablo Derqui, Eliza Triana Amaya, Joaquín Climent, Margarita Rosa De Francisco, Jordie Tauter
Sierva María, an adolescent girl born to a noble family in Colombia during the colonial era, is never given the chance to determine her own future. When she is bitten a rabid dog and believed to be possessed by a demon, her family officially abandons her. Her father eventually succumbs to a bishop’s advice and takes her to be exorcised. When Cayetano Delaura, a young priest, is charged with the task, Sierva María allows her burgeoning sexuality to blossom and the two begin an affair fraught with danger, secrets and passion.
TE EXTRAÑO (PC)
Mexico - Argentina / 2010 / Colour / 96 min / Dir.: Fabián Hofman
Cast : Fermin Volcoff, Martin Slipak, Luis Ziembrowski, Susana Pampin, Alvaro Gtuerrero, Carmen Beato
He should have gone to Mexico, he should have run away to save his neck, he should have survived; he had a vision of what to do in the world, he was the one who knew how to change it. He was brave, he put his life on the line. He is the one everyone misses, he is the one who has left an unbearable void in our family life. He made everyone laugh with his dark sense of humour. He had everything to become the man people would love, he had charisma. But he disappeared in Buenos Aires in 1976. He was 20. I was just 15. He wasn't me. He was Adrian; my name is Javier. He was my brother. I miss him.
Reflection (PM)
Algeria / 2010 / Colour / 10 min / Dir.: Abel Abada
Cast : Selim Abada
A story of a modern man, successful and ambitious, who defines his life through the scope of his job. At the end of a not so common day, he receives an anonymous letter that triggers the feeling that he might have missed something.
Out of Zinc (PC)
Germany - United States / 2010 / Colour / 2 min / Dir.: Mattio Martinez
Cast : Blake Peyrot, Brad Hammer
When uptight health nut Bob pops some pills from his roomate’s zinc bottle, he goes on a wild adventure that leads to anunwanted self-discovery.
Martha (PM)
Belgium / 2010 / Colour / 28 min / Dir.: Raphaël Dethier
Cast : Carine Bouquillon, Jérémie Pétrus, Sandrine Blancke
Martha, a young single mother with an adolescent son, Thomas, finds out she’s pregnant and yet she is convinced she has not had relations with anyone recently. Confused, ridden by guilt and anxiety, she tries to understand.
Nachtraven (PNA)
Belgium / 2010 / Colour / 14 min / Dir.: Hans Van Nuffel
Cast : Kirsten Pieters, Valentijn Dhaenens, Inge Van Bruysteghem
A disillusioned older woman is trying to hide her true nature from the young girl she is dating. Things heat up considerably when her maker shows up.
Vida de María Magdala, La (Life of Maria Magdala, The) ()
Belgium - Spain / 2010 / Colour / 14 min / Dir.: Santos Hevia
Cast : Bach-Lan Lê-Bà Thi
Marie tries to survive in a world which offers few opportunities to a woman like her. She could be a victim like the others, but she decides to change everything one night.
Coupable (PNA)
Canada / 2010 / Colour / 7 min / Dir.: Renée Beaulieu
Cast : Jean-Sébastien Chartray, Sylvie Dumont, Réjean Jacques
A jogger stops, out of breath. He’s lost. He finds his dog. Red doors catch his attention. He walks around the cabin. Nothing. Then a noise...
Ecchymose (PM)
Canada / 2010 / Colour / 5 min / Dir.: David Béland
Cast : Mathieu Lepage, Anne-Elisabeth Bossé, Guillaume Cyr
A young man is the target of an unusual Cupid.
Pants on fire ()
Canada / 2010 / Colour / 8 min / Dir.: Maureen Bradley
Cast : Thea Gill, Grace Vukovic, Dean Wray, Jan Wood
When an 8-year-old Catholic girl catches her dad red-handed in a lie, she finds a creative way to get back at him.
Subway Harmonies (PC)
Canada / 2010 / Colour / 8 min / Dir.: Leah Cameron
Cast : Grace Armas, Geoff Kahnert, Marvin Karon, Jane Spence
The breaking of an old memento reminds an elderly opera diva of the talented woman she once was -- and may still be.
Tremor (PM)
Canada / 2010 / Colour / 9 min / Dir.: Marites Carino
A dance video created by Montrealers with Parkinson’s disease translates the symptomatic movements of the neurological disorder into poetic imagery.
Nede (PM)
Canada / 2010 / Colour / 13 min / Dir.: Izabela Ciesinska
Cast : Allen Bergeron, Ken Olsen, Sarena Paton
During an overpopulation crisis in the near future, a random lottery grants a couple the right to produce one child. But they are expecting twins.
Mud (PM)
Canada / 2010 / Colour / 8 min / Dir.: Andrew Cividino, Jeoff Smart
Cast : Mike McPhaden, Jessica Booker, Paul Saunders
On the most important day of his career, Geoffrey Hutton wakes to discover that his past has come to pay him a visit.
Near Silence (PM)
Canada / 2010 / Colour / 9 min / Dir.: Ana de Lara
Cast : Treena Stubel, Roderick Glanville
Roger, a former concert pianist debilitated by later stage Huntington's disease, is cared for by his devastated but loving wife Fay, who struggles to find meaning in their existence.
Play. Stop. Rewind. ()
Canada / 2010 / Colour / 17 min / Dir.: Gerald Patrick Fantone
Cast : Victor Pereira, Matt Landry, Elizabeth McCallum
On the day of their mother’s funeral, Joel, a special needs child goes missing. Dani, the eldest of the three brothers refuses to leave without him.
Chroniques de l'autre, Les ()
Canada / 2010 / Colour / 17 min / Dir.: Sophie Farkas Bolla
Cast : Niels Schneider, Sarianne Cormier, Vincent Fafard
Sophie and Louis are in love. Anton is Louis’s best friend and Sophie’s next-door neighbour.
Junko's Shamisen (PC)
Canada / 2010 / Colour / 10 min / Dir.: Sol Friedman
Cast : Clemence Wong, Benny Min, Kenji Fujino, Masako Kinno
After discovering her blind grandfather murdered, a young Japanese peasant and her mystical friend exact gruesome poetic justice.
Perfect Day (PM)
Canada / 2010 / Colour / 4 min / Dir.: David Ferron
Cast : Ariane Lacombe, Louis-Karl Tremblay
A perfect day.
Four Sisters (PM)
Canada / 2010 / Colour / 22 min / Dir.: Rob Gray
Cast : Janet-Laine Green, Rena Polley, Vickie Papavs, Joy Tanner
As they wait for the doctor to pronounce her dead, four sisters fight over their mother’s drugs and everything else they can think of.
Detroit (PM)
Canada / 2010 / Colour / 12 min / Dir.: Michael Jasen
Cast : Jamison Child, Katlyn Ziegler
Patrick has recently suffered the death of his girlfriend, the last joyful refuge of his life. He reflects on the past and tries to discover a new beginning.
Forbidden Fruit (PM)
Canada / 2010 / Colour / 14 min / Dir.: Tommy King
Cast : John Cor, Krysta Carter, Jenni Burke, Paul Amos, Barry Flatman
When God is creating the Garden of Eden, Mother Nature suggests adding Adam. But Adam is bored...
Bingo (PM)
Canada / 2010 / Colour / 14 min / Dir.: Tony N. Kung’u
Cast : Lara Mkoci, Barb Frigault
It's Saturday night at the bingo hall, and Lucille and her pregnant daughter, Denise, arrive for some mother-daughter time. But it’s definitely not an evening of family fun.
Je ne le répéterai pas (PM)
Canada / 2010 / Colour / 16 min / Dir.: Gino Levesque
Cast : Laurent Allaire, Ingrid Falaise, Karima Brikh, Audrey Rancourt-Lessard
The world of a writer looking for inspiration is upset when he accepts a dishonest proposal.
Til death (PM)
Canada / 2010 / Colour / 19 min / Dir.: Raphael Levy
Cast : James Harrington, Melanie St-Pierre, Tiio Horn, Bjanka Murgel
A sensitive young man murders the girls who reject him until he meets his match.
Rhonda's Party (PM)
Canada / 2010 / Colour / 7 min / Dir.: Ashley McKenzie
Cast : Karine Vanasse, Marguerite McNeil
In a rundown nursing home, a nurse helps a resident plan a 100th birthday for her only friend. Death threatens to spoil the party.
Winter's End (PM)
Canada / 2010 / Colour, B&W / 13 min / Dir.: Wrik Mead
Cast : David Archer, Kevin Brewer
A wintery sun sets on a scene of loss and mourning. The grieving protagonist tumbles capriciously from one state of sadness and confusion to another.
Without Wings (PM)
Canada / 2010 / Colour / 4 min / Dir.: Jo Meuris
Cast : Cherie Adame, ALlie Knox, Justin Wirick
A celebration of the human body in motion.
India 66, la route d'Auroville (PM)
Canada / 2010 / Colour / 4 min / Dir.: Roger Otis
An experimental road movie to the heart of the Indian continent.
Twilight Express, The (PM)
Canada / 2010 / Colour / 13 min / Dir.: Stephen Philipson
Cast : Michael Young, Sarah Stunt, Reid Morgan, Meira Gold
When Newman Brown discovers he is ineligible to follow his dreams because his wife is pregnant, he begins to disappear.
Soled out (PM)
Canada / 2010 / Colour / 15 min / Dir.: Daniel Chevrier, Roger McKeen, David Rheaume
Cast : Daniel Chevrier, Roger McKeen, Elizabeth Harpur
Is it about life... or just a pair of shoes?
Unforgotten ()
Canada / 2010 / Colour / 5 min / Dir.: Rick Rose
Cast : Matt Owen, Diana Groenendjik, Tom Brouillette
Dinner, dance, love, loss and an unforgettable journey through life.
Homestead, The (PM)
Canada / 2010 / Colour / 9 min / Dir.: Tracy D. Smith
Cast : Laura Mennell, Christine Lippa
Gothic Western about a mail order bride who must fight for her life when she arrives at her new home.
Fête, La (PM)
Canada / 2010 / Colour / 7 min / Dir.: Malcolm Sutherland
A sketchbook-style animated look at people celebrating La Fête nationale in Montreal.
Reign of terror () (PM)
Canada / 2010 / Colour / 9 min / Dir.: David Uloth
Cast : Phil Harrison, Shawn Baichoo, James Milvan
An Al Qaeda kidnapping meets the Pepsi taste test challenge. What happens when terrorists want to improve their marketing image?
Measuring Tape Girl ()
Canada / 2010 / Colour / 14 min / Dir.: Pasquale Marco Veltri
Cast : Jessica Embro
A young woman approaching her thirties turns to online blogging as a means of expressing her doubts and fears.
Once upon a many time (PM)
Canada / 2010 / Colour / 6 min / Dir.: Eva Cvijanovic
A child’s perspective on the relationship to things, places and people left behind when one is forced to leave what one considered home.
Dart (PM)
South Korea / 2010 / Colour / 10 min / Dir.: Sungbin Cho, Kisoo Ham
When a spider gets interested in his dart board, Ferdinand, a former dart champion, begins throwing darts at it.
Dentro del bosque (PC)
Spain / 2010 / Colour / 15 min / Dir.: Luis Caballero
Cast : Sandra Arpa, Miguel Catarecha, Alejandro Navarro
Rosas and Jesús, a young couple, are driving at night through a dense forest. First her handbag goes missing, then Jesús.
Killer (PC)
Spain / 2009 / Colour / 15 min / Dir.: Nacho Carballo
Cast : Carlos Bardem, Pilar Bardem, Sancho Gracia, Fernando Guillen Cuervo
At the end of WW IV, the surviving cities become states and gangs have the run of the streets.
Yanindara (PC)
Spain / 2010 / Colour / 20 min / Dir.: Lluís Quílez Sala
Cast : Camelia Paun, Bulgar Turcano, Tinika Kishcaru, Gilbert Bosch, Alba Ferrara
A car arrives at a gypsy encampment outside a European city. A stranger exits. He seeks a miracle. He is looking for Yanindara.
Autoridad, La (PNA)
Spain / 2010 / Colour / 9 min / Dir.: Xavi Sala
Cast : Hwidar, Bélen Lopéz, Priscilla Delgado
A Moroccan-Spanish family on vacation is stopped by the police. After the humiliating search, things will never be the same.
Cortejo, El (PNA)
Spain / 2010 / Colour / 14 min / Dir.: Marina Seresesky
Cast : Mariano Llorente, Elena Irureta, César Vea, Rámon Ibarra
Gravedigger Capi waits monthly for Marta to place flowers on her husband’s grave. Only Marta can rescue Capi from his daily routine.
Mi nombre junto al tuyo (PNA)
Spain / 2010 / Colour / 15 min / Dir.: Javier Velasco
Cast : Victor Clavijo, Ruth Diaz
Antonio is working on a house plan but has designer’s block. It’s not his best day. It’s not his best year either.
Groenland (PM)
France / 2010 / Colour / 21 min / Dir.: Muriel Breton
Cast : Nicolas Moreau, Nanou Garcia, Husky Kilhal, Tina Becker
That night, when Bruno looked at Carine, it seemed as if he were looking at a stranger. He looked around and wondered what he was doing there.
Cabossés (PC)
France / 2010 / Colour / 16 min / Dir.: Louise De Prémonville
Cast : Ambre Rochard, Louis Lefebvre, Gauthier Babo, Ludo Harlay, Lou Sultan
Jacotte, 13, decides to celebrate her brother’s 7th birthday in their usual forest haunt with their friends. Everything goes well until they stumble on an abandoned car.
Cheveu (PNA)
France / 2010 / Colour - B&W / 17 min / Dir.: Julien Hallard
Cast : Franc Bruneau, Jean-Pierre Becker, Julie Delarme, Matthew Bond, Stéphanie Noel
Phillip is losing his hair. How long before he goes bald? His dematologist is clear: only his father can answer that question.
7.57 am-pm ()
France / 2010 / Colour / 11 min / Dir.: Simon Lelouch
Is music accessible to all? Violinist Renaud Capuçon puts it to the test.
Monsieur l'abbé (PM)
France / 2010 / Colour / 35 min / Dir.: Blandine Lenoir
Cast : Margot Abascal, Marc Citti, Anaïs Demoustier, Nanou Garcia, Florence Loiret-Caille
Men and women in the 1930s and 40s confide to Father Viollet, a modern priest. They ask him thousands of questions, trying to reconcile Catholic morality and conjugal relations. No small affair...
Seconde vie (PI)
France / 2010 / Colour / 14 min / Dir.: Yves Levêque
Cast : Armelle Deutsch, Thomas Jouannet, Marie-Laure Descoureaux, Aurélien Wik
Mathilde is in love. She’s dying to tell her brother Louis. Too bad Louis is dead.
Rescapé, Le (PI)
France / 2010 / Colour / 33 min / Dir.: Aurélien Vernhes-Lermusiaux
Cast : Enzo Roger, Caroline Ducey, Christian Cloarec, Elsa Barthe, Chloé Levez
Twelve-year-old Marc wakes up badly injured. Back home, his family puzzled. What happened to Marc?
Caron (PM)
France / 2010 / Colour / 22 min / Dir.: Pierre Zandrowicz
Cast : Christophe Salengro, Christophe Vandevelde, Jean-Michel Martial, Philippe Bourgogne
When a tramp asks Caron, a cop, to arrest him so he can spend the winter indoors, Caron’s life is turned upside down.
Tre ore () (PNA)
France - Italy / 2010 / Colour / 12 min / Dir.: Annarita Zambrano
Cast : Rolando Ravello, Sofia Ravello
Rome today. A father is convicted for murder; his young daughter speaks up.
Chienne d'histoire (PNA)
France - Turkey / 2010 / Colour / 15 min / Dir.: Serge Avédikian
In 1910, Istanbul had a problem with stray dogs. Finally, 30,000 of the animals were deported from the city to the deserted island of Oxia and left to their own devices.
Sangari (PM)
Georgia / 2010 / Colour / 14 min / Dir.: Amiran Dolidze
Cast : David Kikvidze, David Rostomashvili
Two soldiers awake in a trench, get aquainted, argue about the war, settle their differences, then dance together. All while being dead.
Neizvestni soldat (PM)
Georgia / 2010 / Colour / 11 min / Dir.: Giga Liklikadze
Cast : David Lashvili, Sandro Lortkipanidze, Dato Toroshelidze, Vako Mandzulashvili, Dato Davituliani
Some boys are drinking beer in the forest and shooting at empty bottles. A man who happens by, chides them about the shooting. War is bad, he tells them. He knows. He’s a veteran.
Ezra Rishona (PC)
Israel / 2010 / Colour / 16 min / Dir.: Yarden Karmin
Cast : Hila Victor, Erez Kahana
A day before his wedding, Shai visits Tamar, his ex-girlfriend, for a tempestuous encounter before he becomes a marriage man. Tamar leaves him with a hickey, which makes things a bit tricky.
Lavan (PM)
Israel / 2010 / Colour / 28 min / Dir.: Guilhad Emilio Schenker
Cast : Tomer Ben David, Sigal Rosh, Razia Israeli
Gioza, a female prison guard, becomes obsessed with Nick, an unaware prisoner under her supervision. Gioza must choose between her love for Nick and the prison rules.
Mina de oro, La (PI)
Mexico / 2010 / Colour / 10 min / Dir.: Jacques Bonnavent
Cast : Paloma Woolrich, Alfonso Dosal, Cristina Michaus, Sonia Couoh
Betina, in her fifties, finds love on the Internet. She leaves her monotonous life behind to go meet her virtual fiancé on the other side of the country.
Días de verano son mas largos, Los (PI)
Mexico / 2010 / Colour / 10 min / Dir.: Aina Calleja
Cast : Evangelina Sosa, Lenny Zundel, Joel Figueroa, Sofia Bezaury
Carmen and Jorge are a married couple with two children. A visit to the pool, a ride in the car, a heated argument show us why silence would help to keep them together.
Sueño de Luisa , El (PM)
Mexico / 2010 / Colour / 10 min / Dir.: Carlos Dávila Yeo
Cast : Valentina Girón, Evangelina Sosa, Pilar Pellicer, Martín Lasalle
Luisa’s 7th birthday celebration promises to last into the next day because her grandparents are coming from far to visit her. But the course of their lives will be changed by the 1985 earthquake in Mexico City.
Double Happy (PM)
New Zealand / 2010 / Colour / 15 min / Dir.: Shalir Daud
Cast : Riley Brophy, Augusta Wills, Theo Taylor, Jamie Burns
Fifteen-year-old Rory carries a backpack filled with homemade fireworks, a pocket knife and a Polaroid camera. He’s planned a surprise for Rebecca, but everything is spoiled when she reveals why she hangs out with him.
That Thing You Drew (PC)
United Kingdom / 2010 / Colour / 8 min / Dir.: Kerri Davenport-Burton
Cast : Chloe Roberts, Stephen Beresford, Zee Asher, George Keeler, Mia Sendall, Paul Sayce
A 7-year-old girl with a hearing impediment turns down her hearing aid to keep the disruptive sounds of the adult world as a safe, muted distance.
Terms, The (PC)
United Kingdom / 2010 / Colour / 12 min / Dir.: Jason LaMotte
Cast : Gary Lewis, Ciaran Flynn
A father and son forge a twisted pact: one shot will decide between freedom and death.
Ameen (PC)
Singapore / 2010 / Colour / 17 min / Dir.: Sanif Olek
Cast : Sani Hussin, Alfie Jerome Mossadeg, Seriwahyuni Jaes, Megat Danial Sharip
Johan is infatuated with Yati and Sharifa, two girls from the local madrasah. How can he impress them?
Micky Bader () (PC)
Sweden - Denmark / 2010 / Colour / 14 min / Dir.: Frida Kempff
Cast : Ebba Micky Heyman
Every day Micky swims with her friends at her beloved bathing club. Micky teaches us that our existence is but the fruit of coincidence.
Schlaf (Sleep) ()
Switzerland / 2010 / Colour / 4 min / Dir.: Frank Braun, Claudius Gentinetta
Full breath and into the final sleep. A lullaby, eyes closed, into silence.
Heaven is Waiting (PNA)
United States - Israel / 2010 / Colour / 16 min / Dir.: Shlomi Ben Yair
Cast : Rachel Claire, Claude Laniado, Arturo Castro, Ibrahim Asalah
After being smuggled into Israel for a suicide bombing, a Palestinian girl must convince her handler that she is prepared to go through with it. But is she really?
Chase Thompson, a film by Chase Thompson (PI)
United States / 2010 / Colour / 12 min / Dir.: Vincent Lin
Cast : Jason WInfield, Patricia Frost, Joseph Callari
When up and coming filmmaker Chase Thompson is hired to direct a lackluster romance, the foolhardy director takes the opportunity to fire the crew and turn the film into his own zombie-slaying masterpiece, starring himself.
Guerrilla Garden (PI)
United States / 2010 / Colour / 18 min / Dir.: Rafael Palacio Illingworth
Cast : Alex Patino, Eddie Ruiz, Esteban Pena, Jesse Wang, Kyle Joe
A golf course becomes a battleground where Mexican and Chinese gardeners fight for the job.
Charley (PM)
United States / 2010 / Colour / 10 min / Dir.: Dee Austin Robertson
Cast : Alexia Rasmussen, Brian McElhaney, Frank Langley IV
A young and dysfunctional couple visits New York City with a unique stowaway travelling in their suitcase.
TEHRAN TEHRAN (PM)
Iran / 2010 / Colour / 109 min / Dir.: Dariush Mehrjui, Mehdi Karampour
Cast : Pantea Bahram, Ghorban Najafi, Katayoung Amir-Ebrahimi, Reza Yazdani, Rana Azadivar, Borzou Arjmand
Two films about Tehran by Iranian filmmakers of different generations. In Dariush Mehrjui’s Days of Acquaintance, an ordinary family joins a group of wealthy people during the Nowruz holidays on a tour of the city’s historical monuments. It is the beginning of a series of unforgettable adventures. In Mehdi Karampour’s The Last String, young members of an Iranian band get permission to give a concert... which is cancelled on the very day of the event. Now they must scramble to find a new location. But they are young, and nothing is impossible.
Feast of Stephen, The ()
United States / 2009 / Colour / 4 min / Dir.: James Franco
A young man watches a group of teenagers playing basketball. Suddenly the four lads chase him and start terrorizing him. Or so it seems.
Toute ma vie ()
France / 2009 / Colour / 6 min / Dir.: Pierre Ferriere
Cast : Caterina Murino, Vincent Desagnat
Out walking, Alessandra is hailed by a man she doesn’t recognize even though he keeps telling her about important moments of her life.
Kill Brass (PM)
Canada / 2010 / Colour / 18 min / Dir.: Michel Kandinsky
Cast : Ron White, Graham Abbey
Dawn. Winter. Crosshairs. Two expert snipers face off in a moment of truth.
Coming Home. ()
United States / 2010 / Colour / 11 min / Dir.: Aksel Stasny
Cast : Shannon Baker, Kate Jarrah
Demeter, an elderly man, flees his nursing home and makes his way back to his former residence.
Grosser Bruder ()
Germany / 2010 / Colour / 14 min / Dir.: Felix Charin
Cast : Sebastian Mahnke, Markus Faust, Daniel Fripan, Larissa Pungthong
Jonas, 19, loves his older brother Sebastien, 21, but has trouble accepting that Sebastien is mentally handicapped. Maybe an “escort” girl would help him.
Corps à corps ()
France / 2009 / Colour / 18 min / Dir.: Julien Ralanto
Cast : Hélène Vivies, Karl E. Lander, Aurore Paris
When Raphaëlle is attacked one night on her way hom from the gym, she decides she no longer wants to be a woman. But how far can one go in denying reality?
LISANKA (PC)
Cuba - Russia / 2009 / Colour / 114 min / Dir.: Daniel Díaz Torres
Cast : Miriel Ceja, Carlos Enrique Almirante, Rafael Ernesto Hernández, Kirill Zolyqin, Blanca Rosa Blanco, Jorge Alí
Cuba 1962. Veredas del Guayabal is a small town surrounded by nuclear missiles: there is a Soviet military base in the neighbourhood. Lisanka, a young female tractor driver can’t make up her mind about her three suitors -- two Cubans and one Soviet soldier from the base. Veredas del Guayabal’s previous claim to fame was when the statue of the Virgin Mary was stolen. When the Cuban Missile Crisis breaks out in October, however, the town and its inhabitants suddenly become the centre of the world...
NEW YEAR (PM)
Canada / 2010 / Colour / 76 min / Dir.: Philip Borg
Cast : Julian DeZotti, Joanna Douglas, Nick Rose, John Bregar, Morgan Kelly, Eli Ham, Romina D’Ugo
A group of friends reunite at a New Year’s party a year out of university. They are all being thrust into the world of adult responsibility and accountability. Allison witnesses a senseless murder during a gas station robbery. Jason, her boyfriend, has just been financially cut off by his parents and is torn between dealing with this new, unwanted autonomy and trying to comfort his shaken girlfriend. Tyler enjoys his bachelor lifestyle, but when he learns that he will soon become a reluctant father, he must make a choice between his life of leisure and growing up. With Jason’s New Year’s Eve party looming, all want to forget their troubles and enjoy the evening. It won’t be easy.
CITY OF LIFE (PNA)
Dubai / 2009 / Colour / 97 min / Dir.: Ali Mostafa
Cast : Jason Flemyng, Alexandra Maria Lara, Sony Sood, Natalie Dormer, Javed Jaffrey, Saood Al-Kaabi
Dubai today. A privileged young male Arab at odds with his cultural identity and his less fortunate street-smart friend; a disillusioned Indian taxi driver who bears an uncanny resemblance to a famous Bollywood star; and a former Romanian ballet dancer now working as a flight attendant and searching for love and companionship... Their lives are about to collide for better or for worse in a city where ambition, growth and opportunity are encouraged and dreams can still manifest themselves. Even unexpected tragedy and loss can lead to hope and profound transformation.
JOSEPH ET LA FILLE (PI)
France / 2010 / Colour / 86 min / Dir.: Xavier de Choudens
Cast : Jacques Dutronc, Hafsia Herzi, Aurélien Recoing, Denis Menochet, Thierry Gibault, Marc Bodnar
Joseph has just come out of prison after serving 20 years, his debt for a career of hold-ups. Julie, young, pretty and impulsive, earns a living through small-time scams with her boyfriend. As Julie's father shared a cell with Joseph before he died in prison, he heads for the house where his cellmate's daughter is now living. It's an encounter between two lost souls: Joseph, who resents his body for letting him down, is determined to undertake for one last time the only thing he knows how to do: a hold-up... this time with Julie, who's never known her father and who devours life to the point where she destroys herself.
MYTH OF THE AMERICAN SLEEPOVER, THE (PC)
United States / 2009 / Colour / 97 min / Dir.: David Robert Mitchell
Cast : Claire Sloma, Marlon Morton, Armand Bauer, Brett Jacobsen, Nikita Ramsey, Jade Ramsey
Set against the backdrop of mile roads, neighbourhood blocks, abandoned factories and lakes which make up Metropolitan Detroit, this story follows four young people as they search for love and adventure on the last night of summer. Maggie, Rob, Claudia and Scott cross paths as they explore the suburban wonderland chasing first kisses, elusive crushes, popularity and parties. They are looking for the iconic teenage experience, but instead they discover the quiet moments that will later become the part of their youth that they look back on with nostalgia.
Tickets (PNA)
Singapore / 2010 / Colour / 10 min / Dir.: Sherman Ong
Cast : Xiao Jing
Xiao Jing, a box office attendant in an old Singapore theatre, has come from China to study acting and break into in the Singapore film industry.
When the end of Winter is almost Spring (PI)
Singapore / 2010 / Colour / 20 min / Dir.: Sherman Ong
Cast : Kuik Swee Boon, Xiao Jing, Vincent Yong
A ménage-a-trois between a father, his new wife and his son, is revealed through dance. A film about jealousy, seduction, desire and broken pieties.
RENN, WENN DU KANNST (PC)
Germany / 2010 / Colour / 112 min / Dir.: Dietrich Brüggemann
Cast : Robert Gwisdek, Anna Brüggemann, Jacob Matschenz, Franziska Weisz, Michael Sens, Leslie Malton
Benjamin is confined to a wheelchair. He is intelligent, funny, and frustrated. Love is out of the question, or so he explains to his social worker Christian. Christian takes life easy: he’ll stay half a year with Ben and then go his own way. Annika studies the cello, but her music studies and the merciless drive for perfection weigh heavy on her. She passes Benjamin’s apartment every day on her bicycle, while he watches her wistfully from his balcony. It takes Christian’s collision with Annika one morning for the trio to get to know each other and become friends. Together they create their own world of longing and imagination. But of course, the boys want more from Annika than just to be her friends...
MARY (PM)
Canada / 2010 / Colour / 63 min / Dir.: Andrey Petrusha
Cast : Craig Cyr, Trisha Echeverria, Cheryl King, Rick Cordeiro
Allen Hall is asked to check on his best friend’s wife. She was supposed to pick him up at the airport but never showed up. For some reason, he fears the worst. And his fears are realized: Allen finds her half-naked body in the hallway. He is shocked. Then overcome by a mixture of grief and lust. Strange, unexplainable things begin to happen to him...
MAL AJENO, EL (PC)
Spain / 2009 / Colour / 107 min / Dir.: Oskar Santos
Cast : Eduardo Noriega, Belén Rueda, Angie Cepeda, Cristina Plazas, Clara Lago, Marcel Borrás, Carlos Leal
Diego is a doctor so used to dealing with crises that he has become inured to the suffering of others. He has distanced himself from his work, and is detached from -- and in danger of losing -- his wife and daughter. During a confrontation with the lover of a patient, Diego is threatened with a gun, but hours later remembers nothing but the sound of a firearm going off and the strange sensation of having been hit by more than a bullet, even though he has no bullet wounds. This episode, together with patients who start to go into remission and emerge from comas, makes Diego believe that he has the power to heal the sick with the touch of his hands. But this comes at a cost.
Climax ()
France - Belgium / 2009 / Colour / 15 min / Dir.: Frédéric Sojcher
Cast : Patrick Chesnais, Lorànt Deutsch, Jean-Paul Comart
On set, when the star of a film and the first-time director face off over how to play the climax, the producer comes down on the actor’s side. But the film is about the young director’s grandfather and he won’t have anyone rob his real life.
D'AMOUR ET D'EAU FRAÎCHE (PI)
France / 2010 / Colour / 89 min / Dir.: Isabelle Czajka
Cast : Anaïs Demoustier, Pio Marmaï, Laurent Poitrenaux, Jean-Louis Coulloc’h, Christine Brücher, Manuel Vallade
Julie Bataille, middle-class and 23, is finished school and doesn’t want any casual jobs anymore. She’s looking for real work. Full of enthusiasm, dreams and hopes, she is confronted with the harsh reality of the workplace and low-skilled employment. During a job interview she meets Ben, a charmer who lives by his wits from day to day and who is constantly on the lookout for small-time schemes. He suggests that she come along with him to spend the summer in the south of France. She declines at first. Then curiosity and impulse combine to make her accept. She joins him on a summer to remember.
RASSAYEL EL BAHR (PNA)
Egypt / 2010 / Colour / 134 min / Dir.: Daoud Abdel Sayed
Cast : Asser Yassin, Basma, Mohamed Lotfy, Salah Abdallah, May Kassab, Samia Asaad, Nabiha Lotfy
Alexandria, the cosmopolitan city on the northern shore of Egypt, was once home to a thriving multi-cultural society. Egyptians, Greeks, Italians, Christians, Muslims and Jews, all once lived there in harmony. But now, a new form of Islamic-driven capitalism is transforming the city into a mono-culture that ignores this past and its rich complexity. Yehia is a witness to these changes when the death of his mother takes him back to the city containing so many memories of his childhood. Encounters with old and new friends introduce him to the new face of the city and bring him into conflict with a Muslim fundamentalist landlord.
Amour à trois, L' (PI)
France / 2010 / Colour / 13 min / Dir.: Chiara Malta
Cast : Ykue Nakagawa, Lorenzo de Angelis, Na-Bi Shin
His hand on my big belly, I say: “Don’t you want to come down from this hill?”
HIMPAPAWID (PC)
Philippines - United States / 2009 / Colour / 98 min / Dir.: Raymond Red
Cast : Raul Arellano, John Arcilla, Sue Prado, Ronnie Lazaro, Soliman Cruz, Karlo Altomonte
In rural Philippines, a poor farmer finds a bag of money and jewelry. He pays off some debts and vows to send his young son away to the city to find a better life. He orders the boy never to return home. Raul, the boy-turned-man, comes to Manila and finds work on the docks handling cargo. But the job doesn’t last long. Raul is anxious to find well-paying work overseas, in the hope of making enough money to return home to his ailing father. A volatile, impulsive young man, Raul falls in with a gang of thieves plotting to get even with their corrupt employer. Hounded by guilt about his hopelessly sick father, Raul decides that desperate times can only be remedied by desperate measures.
MOSQUITERA, LA () (PNA)
Spain / 2010 / Colour / 95 min / Dir.: Agustí Vila
Cast : Emma Suárez, Eduard Fernández, Martina Garcia, Fermí Reixach, Geraldine Chaplin, Marcos Franz
The members of a well-off Catalan family struggle to cover up, make excuses for or put a stop to their own basest impulses. Maria suffers from Alzheimer's disease. Luis, Maria's fifteen-year-old grandson, doesn't say very much either; he shuts himself off in his own silent world to escape his parent's marital crisis, spending his time instead picking up stray cats and dogs off the street. His father, Miguel, wants to put a stop to this eccentric behaviour, but his protective mother Alice indulges him. Nevertheless, the animals begin to appear at home in increasing numbers, making life complicated for the family in their flat...
SEBBE (PNA)
Sweden / 2010 / Colour / 79 min / Dir.: Babak Najafi
Cast : Sebastian Hiort af Ornäs, Eva Melander, Kenny Wåhlbrink, Emil Kadebyt, Adrian Ringman, Leo Salomon Ringart
Fifteen-year-old Sebbe and his thirtyish mother, Eva, share a tiny apartment in a rundown housing estate in a Gothenburg suburb. Sebbe likes his mom, but, stressed by single motherhood and her overnight job, she blows up at him frequently. Small for his age and friendless, Sebbe is mercilessly tormented by a clique of boys who make his school life a living hell. His sole comfort comes from his talent for converting discarded junk into functional objects. When Eva heedlessly steals another boy's jacket as a belated birthday gift for Sebbe, the present precipitates further humiliations for the desperate boy...
DES FILLES EN NOIR (PNA)
France / 2010 / Colour / 85 min / Dir.: Jean-Paul Civeyrac
Cast : Elise Lhomeau, Léa Tissier, Elise Caron, Isabelle Sadoyan, Roger Jendly, Thierry Paret
Priscilla and Noémie have a thing for black clothes and dark thoughts. They remain isolated from the rest of the highschool kids, and they do not accept the rules of a society they despise. A good student and accomplished flautist, 17-year-old Noémie lives with her mother, with whom she constantly fights. She attempted suicide before and has been unable to cry for years. Priscilla's troubles are more palpable: she is estranged from her parents, lives with her sister, is doing poorly in school and has been dumped by a boyfriend. The longer they stay together, the more they encourage each other to commit suicide at the same time. But is it going to be that simple?
NUNTA IN BASARABIA () (PNA)
Romania - Moldavia - Luxembourg / 2009 / Colour / 92 min / Dir.: Nap Toader
Cast : Vlad Logigan, Victoria Bobu, Constantin Florescu, Igor Chistol, Viorcia Geanta Chelbea, Corina Druc
Vlad, 25, an orchestra conductor, and Vica, 23, a pianist, have just gotten married. With a baby on the way, they need to make a home together. Aware that their earnings are insufficient for the purchase of a house, they have a bright idea: they’ll get married again in in Vica’s native Bessarabia, where the tradition of wedding gifts is more generous and includes cash.
MAR MUERTO, EL (PI)
Mexico / 2010 / Colour / 83 min / Dir.: Ignacio Ortiz Cruz
Cast : Joaquín Cosío, Aída López, Adriana Segura, Sergio de Bustamante, Mario Almada
An electrical blackout hits Mexico City. The capital is suddenly plunged into darkness. In the shadows, some prominent people transgress against God. A murder occurs. When power returns and the lights come back on, these people realize what they have done. They must redeem themselves; they must expiate their sins... “I wanted to show another face of Mexico City, not to demonize but to see its other side. The urban environment. The lost souls. We use the light coming directly from the streets. I looked and felt the silent contrasts." -- Ignacio Ortiz Cruz
Jóel (PNA)
Iceland / 2009 / Colour / 14 min / Dir.: Hlynur Pálmason
Cast : Saevar Knutur Hanneson
Young Joel doesn’t quite fit in anywhere so he desperatly tries to make friends with a local motocross gang.
O DIACHIRISTIS (PNA)
Greece / 2009 / Colour / 93 min / Dir.: Periklis Hoursoglou
Cast : Periklis Hoursoglou, Vangelio Andreadaki, Evstathia Tsaparelli, Kostas Voutsas, Katerina Gioulaki, Konstantinos Hoursoglou
Fortysomething Pavlos has his hands full -- two children who go to school every morning, the apartment block it's his turn to manage, the building’s rotten plumbing and leaking sewage, the mother who can’t get it into her head that her son is married to another woman, his wife, Niki, who feels him drifting away after ten years of marriage. But Pavlos has a dream: he wants to make this little world better. And somewhere in it a young woman, Gianna, half his age. She touches Pavlos. It's the first time he's kissed another woman. Gianna is a gift from God. But not all good things last. Or bad.
LUMEKUNINGANNA (PNA)
Estonia - Norway / 2010 / Colour / 100 min / Dir.: Marko Raat
Cast : Helena Merzin, Artur Tedremägi
A romantic tale for adults. A woman lures a teenaged boy into coming with her to an ice villa where she lives as a recluse, freezing her body to stop the proliferation of cancer cells. She believes she has to break a young boy’s heart to survive. Based on a theme from the fairy tale The Snow Queen (1844) by Hans Christian Andersen, the film begins where the fairy tale leaves off -- showing what went on between the boy and the woman while they were together in the ice villa.
GECENIN KANATLARI (PI)
Turkey / 2009 / Colour / 100 min / Dir.: Serdar Akar
Cast : Beren Saat, Mura Ünalmis, Erkan Petekkaya, Cezmi Baskin, Ferit Kaya, Arif Erkin
On September 12, 1980, in response to increasing political instability and violence from both left and right wing militants, the Turkish military deposed the government, suspended the constitution and imposed martial law. Militants from either political wing were arrested, imprisoned and even executed. Gece was four when she was witness to her parents’ killing by the police in a house where some revolutionaries were hiding and she grew up embittered and into a would-be suicide bomber for a terrorist group. But in Istanbul, where a bloody assassination attempt is planned, she meets Yusuf, a committed student and a budding track star. Gece nows faces a difficult decision.
DES-AUTORIZADOS (PI)
Venezuela - Colombia - Peru - Uruguay / 2010 / Colour / 90 min / Dir.: Elia K. Schneider
Cast : Erich Wildpret, Samantha Dagnino, Juan Carlos Alarcón, Dad Dager
Art vs. life. Elías is a poor playwright faced with a dilemma -- remain faithful to his art, or give in to pressure from the producer. Meanwhile, Nina and Federico, the main characters of Elías' play, seeking to love each other, are forced out of their characters in order to argue with the author, to persuade him to rewrite the drama so that their love is possible. A comedy about the city of Caracas, about art and the creation process, and finally about love. Or the lack of it.
SLUCHAINAYA SVIAZ (PM)
Russia / 2010 / Colour / 75 min / Dir.: Olga Stolpovskaya
Cast : Sofia Kashtanova, Anton Batirev, Alexey Solonchev, Natalya Koliakanova
She wakes up every day in new places. She is not ready to marry her boyfriend. She forgets the names of her lovers. She tries to get a job, but constantly is late for interviews. The life of the film’s heroine is but a never-ending chain of (mis)adventures. And a reflection of life in modern Russia where the senior generation, out of ideas, is mired in stagnation and younger generation in frustration.
DERNIER SAFAR, LE (PI)
Algeria / 2009 / Colour / 80 min / Dir.: Djamel Azizi
Cast : Nabil Haïdi, Mohamed Chergui, Abdelkrim Larbaoui, Mohamad Beyaza, Mbarek Benzitou
A projectionist in a moviehouse in Algiers, Amou Salah is pushed into retirement and irrelevence. But he refuses to do nothing. Despite his age and declining health, he decides he is going to travel. He equips a truck with projection equipment and as a mobile home. He crosses Algeria from north to south, showing movies -- some purely entertaining, some socially engaged -- in small towns along the way. Here there is still an audience for his movies.
Little Angel (PM)
New Zealand / 2010 / Colour / 14 min / Dir.: Suzi Jowsey Featherstone
Cast : Harry Stanbridge, Katherine Kenanrd, Jessica Thompson, Molly Stanbridge
As the youngest in the family and the only male, Dylan has drawn the short straw.
BJARNFREDARSON (PNA)
Iceland / 2010 / Colour / 109 min / Dir.: Ragnar Bragason
Cast : Jón Gnarr, Jörundur Ragnarsson, Pétur Jóhann Sigfússon
Based on the wildly popular Icelandic TV series, this film chronicles the latest adventures of three former co-workers and friends: Georg, an over-educated know-it-all and social outcast; Daniel, who's deceived his family into thinking he's finishing medical school; and Olafur, a 40-year-old man-child who is still struggling to fit in with the in crowd. When Georg is released on parole after a long stay in jail and his mother refuses to take him in, Daniel, who Georg tried to frame for the murder he committed, reluctantly invites him to stay at his place until he can get back on his feet. As the layers of Georg’s past life begin to peel away, we begin to care for the man we’ve loved to hate.
EMIR (PC)
Philippines / 2010 / Colour / 135 min / Dir.: Chito S. Roño
Cast : Francheska Farr, Dulce, Sid Lucero, Jhong Hilario, Kalila Aguilos, Beverly Salviejo, Julia Clarete
Amelia, a Filipina nanny, decides to work abroad to help her family. She finds a job in the Middle East taking care of a Sheik's wife who is about to give birth, and later acts as the nanny to their first-born son, Ahmed. Amelia watches him grow up, rearing him, and in the process introducing the young boy to the culture, values, and language of the Philippines. A war ensues and an evacuation of the royal family is ordered, but it is too late. In the ensuing turmoil, Amelia saves Ahmed and escapes to the desert. They become separated and Amelia is forced to go back to the Philippines, alone, and left wondering if her heroism will ever be rewarded.
MARTI, EL OJO DEL CANARIO (PC)
Cuba - Spain / 2010 / Colour / 120 min / Dir.: Fernando Pérez
Cast : Damián Antonio Rodríguez, Daniel Romero, Broselinda Hernández, Rolando Isidro Brito Rodríguez, Manuel Porto
Jose Martí (1853-1895), writer and poltical activist, is known as the Apostle of Cuban Independence and is revered as a hero by Cubans of all political stripes. “Jose Martí was a truly sensitive man who marked the history of Cuba. But he was also a normal human being, like any one of us. I think that is what makes great men great. My film delves into the day-to-day complexity that helped form Marti’s character during his childhood and teenage years. Its point of view leans more towards the personal than the historical. More subjective than biographic. Each Cuban has their own Martí. In this film, I am expressing mine.” -- Fernando Pérez
RENE MIDIS HOLIWUDSHI (PM)
Georgia / 2010 / Colour / 103 min / Dir.: Aleko Tsabadze
Cast : Nika Tavadze, Zurab Begalishvili, Viktor Barbakadze, Tina Aleksishvili
Rene Dadiani, 37, teaches video arts and also works as a driver for a propane gas company. Rene likes to say that a man should try everything in life; a person can enrich himself with via fantasy and imagination. He observes society with his video camera, often turning its lens on himself. And some of his subjects are imaginary. Like the Yahoos. They live in the projects on the city’s outskirts. Rene hates the Yahoos. After being assaulted by one of them on a delivery run, Rene returns to the area the next day to exact revenge. But what really happens when he shows up? Rene isn’t too sure himself...
INSHITE MIRU (PM)
Japan / 2010 / Colour / 110 min / Dir.: Hideo Nakata
Cast : Tatsuya Fujiwara, Haruka Ayase, Satomi Ishihara
Ten people respond to a preposterous job posting -- a short term project promising to pay 112,00 yen (roughly $1200) an hour. Sounds dodgy but the money is hard to resist. They gather at the Ankikan complex and are informed that all they have to do is be observed 24 hours a day for seven days. Each person is assigned one of ten rooms without locks, with a different weapon in each room. Each person must be back in their room by 10 p.m. and the experiment will end in seven days or when only two participants remain. Large “bonuses” are payable for murder (a “killer” bonus), for being killed (a “victim” bonus) or for informing on a killer. On the second day, someone is shot...
TAXIPHONE (PNA)
Switzerland / 2010 / Colour / 94 min / Dir.: Mohammed Soudani
Cast : Mona Petri, Pasquale Aleardi, Tarik Bouarrara, Stefan Kollmuss, Jean-Luc Bideau, Bruno Ganz
Oliver and Elena, a young Swiss couple, are crossing the Sahara in a truck, heading for Timbuktu in Mali, where their client Moussa is waiting impatiently to buy the vehicle. But when the truck breaks down in the middle of the desert, Oliver and Elena are forced into an unscheduled stop in Tar. Beset by problems of all kinds, the lack of spare parts and a specialized mechanic, the stopover becomes an indefinite stay. Taken up entirely with the need to repair his truck, Oliver grows increasingly remote from Elena. Bored, she decides to explore the place on her own. Her encounter with two local women leads Elena to discover a world straight out of the Arabian Nights.
STELLE INQUIETE, LE (PI)
Italy - France / 2010 / Colour / 87 min / Dir.: Emanuela Piovano
Cast : Laura Guiaro, Fabrizio Rizzolo, Isabella Tabarini
A magical summer interlude awaits a young woman in a dark moment in history when she reluctantly accepts an invitation to a couple’s farmhouse in the south of France. Based on a true episode in the life of the charismatic French philosopher Simone Weil, this was the historic encounter with Gustave Thibon, the "philosopher peasant" who would later posthumously publish one of her most famous manuscripts. Under the spell of this "enchanted land" of vineyards, lavender, and Provencal sun, Simone, Gustave and his wife Yvette live a precious moment of intimacy. As teasing, complicity, and jealousies give way to love and laughter, the power of sheer joy makes time stop for a moment in occupied France.
MORGEN (PNA)
Romania - France - Hungary / 2010 / Colour / 100 min / Dir.: Marian Crisan
Cast : Marian Crisan, András Hathazi, Yilmaz Yalcin, Elvira Rimbu
Nelu works as a security guard in the local supermarket in Salonta, a small town on the Romanian-Hungarian border. This is where many refugees try to cross to Hungary and then on to Western Europe. For Nelu, the days all resemble each other: fishing at dawn, then work, and finally home to his wife Florica in their isolated farmhouse. One morning, Nelu “fishes” out something different: a Kurdish man trying to cross the border. Unable to communicate verbally, the two men somehow understand each other. Nelu takes the stranger to his farmhouse, gives him some dry clothes and food. The man gives Nelu all his money to help him cross the border tomorrow... Morgen.
THELMA, LOUISE ET CHANTAL (PNA)
France / 2010 / Colour / 89 min / Dir.: Benoît Pétré
Cast : Jane Birkin, Caroline Cellier, Catherine Jacob, Thierry Lhermitte, Michèle Bernier, Sébastien Huberdeau
Gabrielle, Nelly and Chantal are traveling to the wedding of an ex in La Rochelle. The decide to to make the trip together. During the eventful trip, the three women will share their secret crushes, rants and middle-aged blues, in turn funny, fragile and poignant. ”Among the important things I wanted to talk about was my mother, her life and the women she represents. I think I knew her by heart; I watched her evolve, be hurt, broken, then get up again. I watched her and her friends. The impetus for the comedy was right there, and that’s when I saw the story of THELMA, LOUISE AND CHANTAL.” -- Benoît Pétré
WILLIAM VINCENT (PI)
United States / 2010 / Colour / 100 min / Dir.: Jay Anania
Cast : James Franco, Julianne Nicholson, Josh Lucas, Martin Donovan
William Vincent assumes a new identity for the sole purpose, it seems of disappearing in plain sight. He lives on the margins of New York City, both figuratively and literally. He spends his days eating alone in restaurants and editing nature videos in a small storefront apartment in lower Manhattan. He relishes living on the fringe, unnoticed and in the obscurity of the everyday, stepping out on occasion to pickpocket a bourgeois businessman or defend a poor waitress. The concrete landscape provides perfect camouflage as he walks the path to becoming a reluctant criminal. But when William meets Ann, he is forced to emerge from the shadows.
PLEIN SUD (PC)
France / 2009 / Colour / 90 min / Dir.: Sébastien Lifshitz
Cast : Yannick Renier, Léa Seydoux, Nicole Garcia, Théo Frilet, Pierre Périer
It is summer and 27 year-old Sam is at the wheel of his Ford, heading due south. Sitting in the back seat are Mathieu and Léa, a brother and sister he met by chance on the road. Léa is beautiful and sexy. She loves men. So does Mathieu. On their long journey, far from highways and major roads, making their way to Spain, they will get to know, fight, and love one another. But Sam has a secret, an old wound that alienates him from the others a little more each day. Having been separated from his mother at a young age, this trip has one sole purpose for him: to find his mother.
BIBINUR (PI)
Russia / 2010 / B&W / 98 min / Dir.: Yuri Feting
Cast : Firdaus Akhtjamova, Ernest Timerhanov, Ruslan Mustafin, Rezeda Hadiullina, Ilgiz Zajniev
When Bibinur has a dream that she is going to die next Friday, she quickly prepares to settle her debts. Suddenly crooked businessmen and landowners appear in the village. They want to make a deal for the land where the old cemetery lies. One of them, Jihangir, who has lived abroad in big cities for most of his young life, is not used to the routine of Tartar village existence. He needs a place to stay and Bibinur puts him up. She tells him about life in the village and he discovers that he has roots here. He also discovers that Bibinur is a righteous woman. For her sake, Juhangir is even ready to confront his own partner.
O ÚLTIMO VOO DO FLAMINGO (PNA)
Portugal - Brazil - Mozambique - France / 2010 / Colour / 98 min / Dir.: João Ribeiro
Cast : Carlo D’Ursi, Elliot Alex, Alberto Magassela, Cláudia Semedo, Adriana Alves
Tizangara, a small town in Mozambique, a short time after the end of the civil war. Explosions have killed five U.N. peacekeepers. The only remaining evidence: male sex organs and the familiar blue helmets; the bodies themselves are missing. The U.N. sends Massimo Risi, an Italian officer stationed in Maputo, to investigate. Risi recruits Joaquim, a local translator to help him -- not so much with the language as with local customs and politics. As for the murders, it seems that everyone has a different explanation. There is the version of the local governor, that of Zeca Andorinho, the sorcerer, Ana the prostitute, even that of Father Muhando, the priest who has reportedly confessed to the crimes...
A'ELAT MICKEY (PM)
Egypt / 2010 / Colour / 90 min / Dir.: Akram Farid
Cast : Lebleba, Ahmed Fouad Selim, Ragaa' Hussien, Hasan Harb, Amr Abed, Irene Fady
Within the walls of an ideal home, in one of the city's upscale districts, lives the family of Mickey. A father with a military background, a mother who juggles her home-front responsibilities with her job as a legal investigator, her mother and five children, all start their normal day one morning. The supposedly "normal" family competes to win the title of the "Ideal Family" on a television show, aiming to prove to society that they are just that; The Ideal Family. Needless to say, the reality of “reality” shows is often not what is depicted on our television screens. As unexpected events intrude on this reality throught the day, the question remains: what should an ideal family should be like?
(PC)
Philippines / 2010 / Colour / 110 min / Dir.: Joel C. Lamangan
Cast : Dawn Zulueta, Zsazsa Padilla, Tirso Cruz, Gina Alajar, Jaime Pebanco, Marvin Agustin
Dolly, a Filipino-American journalist, is back in the Philippines to find her long-lost daughter. In the 1970s, Dolly was sent to the Philippines to write about the rising social unrest at that time. Before long she found herself being recruited to the revolutionary group she was writing about. While seeking her daughter, Dolly is also reunited with her former comrades, forty years since they last saw each other: Rading, a working-class youth organizer; Oliver, a student activist who later became a presidential spokesman; Azon, who was arrested and raped; and Cida, now a leader of new group of militants. Times have changed and so have the former revolutionaries...
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