No One’s Son is the story of Ivan, a 36-year old ex-rock singer and a disillusioned war veteran who has lost both legs in the recent Croatian Homeland War. His father, Izidor, has been a well-known political prisoner in the former Yugoslavia, and he is now standing as an independent candidate for the Croatian Parliament. Then a face from the past re-appears: an impoverished Serbian refugee called Simo, who has recently returned to town. As an ex-communist official, Simo imprisoned Izidor decades ago. He knows certain facts about Izidor that could destroy his reputation and wreck his political campaign. Simo…
Browsing: Conversations
On a hot summer day in Poland, a group of people walks through a run-down steel mill. They are actors, from a theater in Prague, and they’re here to rehearse for a performance to be held in the space the next day. There are a few workers still on the job at this mill, the only living creatures left. They pay the actors little attention at first, pre-occupied with a personal tragedy: the day before, the son of a maintenance-man fell from a catwalk and seriously injured his spine. Their interest is in his fate. Amid remnants of old machinery…
The story of Under The Bombs happens during a cease-fire in the Lebanon-Israel conflict of 2006. A Christian taxi driver brings an untraditional Shiite woman from Beirut to the heart of the conflict in the country’s south. While they scour the rubble of local towns for her son, who was sent to live with her traditional family while she was staying with her husband in Dubai, they discover that despite their very different backgrounds they have much in common. And during their trip through the desolate countryside, the two travelers develop a deep bond as a response to the death…
Tricks tells the story of Stefek, a 6 year old boy who challenges fate. He believes that the chain of events he sets in motion will help him get closer to his father, who abandoned his mother. His sister Elka, 17, helps him learn how to “bribe” fate with small sacrifices. Tricks and coincidences eventually bring the father to the mother’s doorstep, but things go wrong. In despair Stefek tries his good luck with the most risky of his tricks…Andrzej Jakimowski, director of Tricks, began his career by directing short features and documentaries and co-founded the Association of Artists and…
Ishaan Awasthi is an eight-year-old whose world is filled with wonders that no one else seems to appreciate; colours, fish, dogs and kites are just not important in the world of adults, who are much more interested in things like homework, marks and neatness. Ishaan just cannot seem to get anything right in class. And so, he gets into far more trouble than his parents can handle, and is packed off to a boarding school to ‘be disciplined’. Things are no different at his new school, and Ishaan has to contend with the added trauma of separation from his family. …
Iska Journey follows the toil of a twelve year-old girl living on the streets in a coal mining town in Eastern Europe. The story follows her fight for survival in her small town until the her experience with the Black Sea, where she becomes a victim of human trafficking. Maria Varga plays a role almost identical to her own life and her childish naivety and vitality lend a tragic charm to this story. When Iska is taken to an orphanage and asked if her parents hurt her, she simply responds, ”Well, they do not beat me every day.” Csaba Bollók…
I’ve Loved You So Long (Il y a longtemps que je t’aime) is the story of two sisters Léa (Elsa Zylberstein) and Juliette (Kristin Scott Thomas). The film begins with Léa, the younger sister by fifteen years, picking Juliette up at the airport. We soon realize that the two sisters are almost complete strangers to each other. Juliette has just been released from prison after serving a long sentence. Léa was still a teenager when Juliette, a doctor, was convicted of the murder of her six-year-old son. Léa contacted Juliette when she was released and suggested that Juliette come to…
Pray the Devil Back to Hell is the gripping account of a group of brave and visionary women who demanded peace for Liberia, a nation torn to shreds by a decades old civil war. The women’s historic, yet unsung achievement finds voice in a narrative that intersperses contemporary interviews, archival images, and scenes of present-day Liberia together to recount the experiences and memories of the women who were instrumental in bringing lasting peace to their country.Gini Reticker (Director) is an Emmy-winning, Academy Award-nominated documentary director and producer. She produced the Academy Award nominated short Asylum and the Emmy nominated A…
A Christmas Tale is story of Junon (Catherine Deneuve) and Abel (Jean-Paul Roussillon) the parents of three grown children: Elizabeth (Anne Consigny), a melancholic playwright with a mathematician husband (Hippolyte Girardot) and a tortured teenage son, Paul (Emile Berling); Henri (Mathieu Amalric), the self-destructive black sheep, banished from family events by Elizabeth five years prior; youngest Ivan (Melvil Poupaud), the peacemaker, is married to the beautiful Sylvia (Chiara Mastroianni) and has two eccentric little boys; while a fourth – Joseph, the eldest – died from leukemia as a boy. When the disease reappears again in the family, all are tested…
In Antarctica, we follow the miserable Omer; he’s about to turn 30 and he hasn’t found love or his true purpose in life. However, he’s not looking very hard. He prefers to lose himself among the stacks of books at the local library and immerse himself in a series of delicious one night stands. He becomes intrigued by Danny, a young dancer, who energizes his libido but not his ambition. He resists the attentions of Ronen, a handsome journalist, who understands him and sparks his imagination. So, who do you choose? Omer is just starting to get a handle on…