120 BPM. The average heart rate. The protagonists of 120 battements par minute are passionate about fighting the indifference that exists towards AIDS. Show more
A group of German labourers come to work in the godforsaken Bulgarian hinterland. Visiting a foreign country arouses the men’s sense of adventure. But due to language barriers and cultural differences between the outsiders and the locals, tensions begin to rise. What’s more, conflicts flare up among the Germans themselves, which escalate when two of them try to woo the same woman. As its title makes clear, Western is an intriguing variation on a contemporary western, complete with the genre’s classic visual tropes (long, slow shots of broad horizons and wilderness), standard plotline and familiar characters (mysterious stranger/cowboy arrives in unfamiliar territory). Western was screened at this year’s Cannes FF in the Un Certain Regard section.
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Writer Daniel Mantovani has the world at his feet. He’s just won the Nobel Prize for Literature, but instead of satisfaction, he’s got a bad case of the blues. The revered author’s days as a provocateur are long gone, replaced by a neat and tidy nook in the literary canon. He withdraws from society, stops writing and stubbornly refuses invitations to prestigious events and interviews. But something in him snaps when, among the usual heap of letters, he finds an unassuming missive from his hometown, the Argentinean backwater he once fled, inviting him to accept the honorary title of Distinguished Citizen. Daniel resolves to return – to memories, bygone romances, old friendships. He revisits his familiar streets as a star, but his visit quickly turns into a comedy that later develops a bitter tinge. It turns out success isn’t the only thing that’s hard to forgive. Daniel comes to realize that no one can love him – or hate him – like those who've known him since childhood. Will his hometown revive his will to write, or will it only make him more reclusive than ever?
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In 1997, after 30 years in prison, Horacia returns to a completely unfamiliar world: her husband is dead, and while she is able to contact her daughter, her son is nowhere to be found. But what hasn’t changed, she soon finds out, is the power and privilege of the elites. Ironically, however, Horácia’s aristocratic ex-lover Rodrigo, who had her sent to jail, is now himself a prisoner in his own gilded cage: like his affluent friends, he won’t leave the house for fear of a rise in kidnappings of the wealthy. Horácia decides to make use of this hysteria to plot her revenge. Lone-wolf filmmaker Lav Diaz returns to Filipino history with an exhaustive, clinical accuracy, revealing the dark currents that continue to shape his country. The Woman Who Left is a penetrating study of the gaps between the rich and the poor, between the past and the present – in the subtlest of gestures, Diaz captures the entrenched histories of institutional privilege, complicity and arrogance that have contributed to the vast disparities in present-day Filipino society. Its cinematic virtuosity and thoughtfully articulated “quiet rage” make Diaz’s latest one of his best and most compassionate films.
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The Square is a poignant satirical drama reflecting our times - about the sense of community, moral courage and the affluent person's need for egocentricity in an increasingly uncertain world. Christian is the successful curator of a modern art museum - he lives in the epicenter of the art community and takes his work very seriously. A few days before the opening of the prestigious exhibition The Square he is mugged, which he can neither shake off or let pass unnoticed. Christian embarks on a hunt for the perpetrator and ends up in situations that turn steadily more amusing, and make him question his own moral compass. Simultaneously he has to deal with the PR agency the museum hired to help market the upcoming exhibition. Something which takes an unexpected turn and plunges both the curator and the museum into crisis.
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After 18 long years, Hungarian director Ildikó Enyedi returns to international cinema with On Body and Soul, the unconventional love story of two people, each with their own affliction: an aging financial director of an abattoir, and a young, withdrawn meat quality inspector. Shocked by the realization that they share the same dreams, both protagonists begin trying to fulfil them. This eccentric, tactile, yet detached romance, with elements of everyday drama and black comedy, suggestively thematizes the dualities of wakefulness and dreaming, animality and humanity, body and soul. Joining cold observation with unusual emotionality, the film taps a vein of distinctive visuality – from its precise, geometrically composed shots and inconspicuous mingling of lyricism and brutality to its symbolic use of colours and focused work with actors. With its use of allusion and metaphorical dreams to speak to many modern-day societal traumas, it could not be clearer why this of all films came away from this year’s Berlinale with the grand prize – the Golden Bear.
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A war veteran's attempt to save a young girl from a sex trafficking ring goes horribly wrong.
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A woman lives alone on the outskirts of a village in Russia. One day she receives a parcel she sent to her incarcerated husband, marked 'return to sender'. Shocked and confused, the woman has no choice but to travel to the prison in a remote region of the country in search of an explanation. So begins the story of a battle against this impenetrable fortress, the prison where the forces of social evil are constantly at work. Braving violence and humiliation, in the face of all opposition, our protagonist embarks on a blind quest for justice.
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Marina, a waitress who moonlights as a nightclub singer, is bowled over by the death of her older boyfriend.
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After nearly 40 years of gestation in the visionary mind of Terrence Malick, the eminent US director’s most ambitious brainchild to date has finally assumed cinematic form as Voyage of Time: Life’s Journey. The film is concerned with nothing less than the origin, development and extinction of the known universe, the life cycle of the solar system. Naturally, Malick focuses on the evolution of life, the various forms it takes, its metamorphosis from protozoa to the rise of human civilization. This singular documentary features contributions from a whole range of distinguished scientists – palaeontologists, biologists and astrophysicists from prestigious institutions around the world. The expanded feature-length version, created in conjunction with the shorter IMAX version, is poetically narrated by famous actress Cate Blanchett. Her mesmerizing voice poses questions that have haunted humanity since the dawn of time. The film is thus a continuation of Malick’s efforts, so clearly evident in his award-winning film The Tree of Life, to unearth the root of human existence.
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A couple going through a divorce must team up to find their son who has disappeared during one of their bitter arguments.
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A teenager's attempts to bring a brilliant surgeon into his dysfunctional family take an unexpected turn. Show more
