World Cinema Challenge - Part One
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- DirectorAtiq RahimiStarsGolshifteh FarahaniHamid DjavadanHassina BurganIn a war ridden country a woman watches over the husband reduced to a vegetable state by a bullet in the neck, abandoned by Jihad companions and brothers. One day, the woman decides to say things to him she could never have done before.
- DirectorJoshua MarstonStarsTristan HalilajSindi LacejRefet AbaziAn Albanian family is torn apart by a murder, resulting in a blood feud that makes eldest son Nik a prime target and forces his sister, eldest daughter Rudina, to leave school in order to take over the family business.
- DirectorCosta-GavrasStarsYves MontandIrene PapasJean-Louis TrintignantThe public murder of a prominent politician and doctor amid a violent demonstration is covered up by military and government officials. A tenacious magistrate is determined not to let them get away with it.
- DirectorMaria João GangaStarsJoão RoldanDomingos Fernandes FonsecaJúlia BotelhoA group of children, fleeing the war, is taken to Luanda accompanied by a nun. When they reach the airplane, 11-year-old N'dala decides to leave the group and to explore the city. The nun then starts her unceasing quest for the missing boy. N'dala, carrying only a textile bag and a toy car made of wire, walks through the busy streets filled with people and traffic. Later he finds the tranquility of the beach, where he meets the old fisherman Antonio, with whom he becomes friends. Not much later, he meets the lively, whimsical Zé, who is a little older than he is. N'dala starts to experience the city and its inhabitants as increasingly forbidding and he would most like to return to his countryside. Then he meets Joka, a fringe figure who persuades him to help with a robbery in exchange for money. With this film, Maria Joao Ganga wanted to provide a realistic sketch of the bitter political situation in Angola. One of her most important motivations for making In the Empty City was to provide a picture of an African city without awakening feelings of a patronizing sympathy or associations with the sensationalism of war.
- DirectorCiro GuerraStarsNilbio TorresJan BijvoetAntonio BolívarThe story of the relationship between Karamakate, an Amazonian shaman and last survivor of his people, and two scientists who work together over the course of forty years to search the Amazon for a sacred healing plant.
- DirectorHiner SaleemStarsRomen AvinianLala SarkissianIvan FranekIn a remote, isolated Yazidi Kurdish village in post-Soviet Armenia, Hamo, a widower with a pitiful pension and three worthless sons, travels daily to his wife's grave. There he meets the lovely Nina, who is communing with her late husband. The two are penniless--she works in a local bar that is about to close down, while he has been forced to start selling his meager possessions. All seems hopelessly bleak, yet when Hamo begins to court Nina, their unexpected love revitalizes them.
- DirectorDavid MichôdStarsJames FrechevilleGuy PearceJoel EdgertonA seventeen-year-old navigates his survival amongst an explosive criminal family and the detective who thinks he can save him.
- DirectorMichael HanekeStarsChristian FriedelErnst JacobiLeonie BeneschStrange events happen in a small village in the north of Germany during the years before World War I, which seem to be ritual punishment. Who is responsible?
- DirectorVahid MustafayevStarsNebahat ÇehreFaig MirzayevAzer AydemirThe film tells the story of the events during the night of January 19 to 20, 1990, when the Soviet Army invaded Baku and its surroundings and killed many civilians.
- DirectorKareem MortimerStarsJohnny FerroStephen Tyrone WilliamsMargaret Laurena KempThe story of two young Bahamian men who fall in love with each other and portrays the homophobia of the Bahamian society.
- DirectorMohamed BualiStarsIbrahim Al-HasawiOmar AlsaeediHayfa HussainA daughter's relationship with Mother Nature could change the course of a family driven apart...
- DirectorTareque MasudStarsNurul Islam BabluRussell FaraziJayanto ChattopadhyayA family must come to grips with its culture, its faith, and the brutal political changes entering its small-town world.
- DirectorSelwyne BrowneStarsAndrew FranklinDamien GibsonVincia ClarkePayday, a Barbadian comedy-drama/buddy film showcasing a raw slice of Barbadian community life. Romie, an aspiring mechanic and ladies man, with his brutally honest best friend Pack, invest their entire salaries in a down-payment on a garage. Their goal: to establish a successful mechanic's shop to get away from their boring jobs as security guards, their loving yet eccentric and demanding families, and poor standard of living in their village - Pickletons. Their simple task of making the down-payment to the garage owner at the village lime that night is hilariously complicated by Romie's love-life, and Pack's love for cannabis. The complications and laughs multiply as the best friends go to extremes to avoid violent drug men, a charity collector, crazy ex-girlfriends and other wacky villagers.
- DirectorKonstantin LopushanskiyStarsMaksim SukhanovDmitriy SutyrinMaria Järvenhelmi"The Role" is about a brilliant actor in revolutionary Russia who takes on the greatest role of his life -- the role of another man. Influenced by the ideas of symbolism and the Silver Age, he decides to slip into the life of his doppelganger - a revolutionary leader in the new Soviet Russia. First intrigued, then obsessed, he flings himself into the role and lives it to the hilt... even when the play of the life he is writing heads towards a tragic finale. Based on true incidents in the lives of Russia's symbolists, this gripping film explores how far one man will go for the role of a lifetime.
- DirectorJean-Pierre DardenneLuc DardenneStarsThomas DoretCécile de FranceJérémie RenierAbandoned by his father, a young boy is left in a state-run youth farm. In a random act of kindness, the town hairdresser agrees to foster him on weekends.
- DirectorRoss JordanStarsDudley AugustineKadisha AugustineClarence BaileyA drum teacher is forced to face his insecurities when he must choose between his marriage, and the chance of a lifetime.
- DirectorKhyentse NorbuStarsTshewang DendupGup Kado DubaDasho KadoThe two men embark on parallel, if separate, journeys. Their yearning is a common one--for a better and different life. Dondup, delayed by the timeless pace of his village, is forced to hitchhike through the beautiful wild countryside of Bhutan to reach his goal. He shares the road with a monk, an apple seller, a papermaker and his beautiful young daughter, Sonam. Throughout the journey, the perceptive yet mischievous monk relates the story of Tashi. It is a mystical fable of lust, jealousy and murder, that holds up a mirror to the restless Dondup, and his blossoming attraction to the innocent Sonam. The cataclysmic conclusion of the monk's tale leaves Dondup with a dilemma--is the grass truly greener on the other side?
- DirectorJuan Carlos ValdiviaStarsNinón del CastilloPascual LoayzaNicolás FernándezFor a rich upper-class family locked into their own little world, Bolivia's social changes threaten to burst their bubble.
- DirectorDanis TanovicStarsPredrag 'Miki' ManojlovicMira FurlanBoris LerA story set in the former Yugoslavia and centered on a guy who returns to Herzegovina from Germany with plenty of cash and hopes for a good new life.
- DirectorJamie UysStarsN!xauMarius WeyersSandra PrinslooA comic allegory about a traveling Bushman who encounters modern civilization and its stranger aspects, including a clumsy scientist and a band of revolutionaries.
- DirectorLaís BodanzkyStarsRodrigo SantoroOthon BastosCássia KisA trip to the mental institution hell. This odyssey is lived by Neto, a middle class teenager, who lives a normal life until his father sends him to a mental institution after finding drugs on his pocket. The marijuana cigarette is just the final drop that exposes the family tragedy. Send to a mental institution, Neto gets to know a completely absurd, inhumane reality in which the people are devoured by a corrupt and cruel institution system. The documentary type language used by the director give this movie a sensation of realty that increases even more the impact of the emotions Neto goes through. In the mental institution, Neto is forced to mature. The transformations that he goes through change this relations with his father.
- DirectorSiti KamaluddinStarsLiyana YusReza RahadianRoy SungkonoA young woman who lives with her strict father works to become a a champion at Silat, Indonesia's version of kung fu.
- DirectorEmir KusturicaStarsPredrag 'Miki' ManojlovicLazar RistovskiMirjana JokovicTwo underground black marketeers, Marko and Blacky, sell weapons to the Communist resistance in wartime Belgrade, living the good life along the way.
- DirectorSouleymane CisséStarsIssiaka KaneAoua SangareNiamanto SanogoA young man with magical powers journeys to his uncle to request help in fighting his sorcerer father.
- DirectorRobert MorinStarsJani AlbanRémi Muhirwa CizaPatrice FayeJean-Marc Phaneuf, an unmarried electrical engineer, travels to Burundi as a volunteer for the NGO Radio du Monde. He finds a country ruined by grinding poverty, famine, war, disease and appalling social inequality. At the same time, he meets a joyful, brave people hungry for happiness, knowledge and human dignity. The camera that becomes his personal diary also helps Jean-Marc expose the shaky, ineffective workings of NGOs. His investigations turn up a few praiseworthy examples of international cooperation, but on the whole he finds himself drawn to a terrible, inescapable conclusion: humanitarian aid is a utopian mirage. After falling victim to an attack and losing whatever ideals he still had, Jean-Marc becomes entangled in an impossible relationship. He is ultimately forced to leave Africa in disgrace.