KAIRALI

ANGELS SHARE

Direction: Ken Loach

Production: Rebecca O’Brien

Screenplay: Paul Laverty, George Fenton

Cinematography: Robbie Ryan

Editing: Jonathan Morris

Music: George Fenton

Cast: Roger Allam, Daniel Portman, John Henshaw, William Ruane, Lorne MacFadyen, Paul Brannigan, John Joe Hay, David Goodall, Finlay Harris, Paul Donnelly

 

Awards/Festivals

Cannes- Jury Prize, San Sebastian-Audience Award, Karlovy Vary, AFI FEST, New Zealand, Sydney, Vancouver

 

Winner of the Jury Prize at Cannes, Angels’ Share is a bitter-sweet comedy carrying a message of hope for the ‘black sheep’ of society. The film follows Robbie, as he sneaks into the maternity hospital and holds his newborn son, Luke for the first time. Overwhelmed by the moment, he swears that Luke will not have the same tragic life he has had. Escaping a prison sentence narrowly, he’s given one last chance….While serving a community service order, he meets Rhino, Albert and Mo who, like him, find it impossible to find work because of their criminal records. The four see a chance at redemption at an unlikely place- the whisky industry. Can- particularly rare and expensive malt- offer them a way out of poverty, or will they hit the bottom of the barrel? Only the angels know.

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THE EXAM (A Vizsga)

Hungary/2011/DCPColour/89’/HungarianHebrew

Direction: Peter Bergendy

Production: Istvan Bodzsar

Screenplay: Norbert Kobli

Cinematography: Zsolt Toth

Editing: Istvan Kiraly

Music: Gergely Parudy

Cast: Janos Kulka, Zsolt Nagy,

Gabriella Hamori, Peter Scherer

 

Awards/Festivals

Karlovy Vary

 

The revolutionary push of autumn 1956 has been stifled and Hungary is enveloped in an atmosphere of fear. And so, Agent Jung, posing as a private teacher, has to undergo a test of loyalty administered by his superior and friend Markó. Living and working in an environment where the spies themselves are spied upon demands a fair amount of vigilance and an ability to make quick judgments, which contributes to the sustained tension and also the dynamics of an otherwise smallscale film. This classic story of a tragic phase in Hungarian history fluctuates between a generic mix, a personal drama, and a documentary of period conditions. These latter are portrayed with an emphasis on secret police practices without ever overlooking the emotional dimensions. And as friends spy upon each other, can relationships be maintained? Can normalcy be restored ever?

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MAI MORIRE

Mexico/2012/DCP/Colour/84’/Spanish

Direction: Enrique Rivero

Production: Paola Herrera, Enrique Rivero

Screenplay: Enrique Rivero, Aleka Rivero

Cinematography: Arnau Valls Colomer and

Gerardo Barroso

Sound: Alejandro de Icaza, Jose Miguel Enriquez

Editing: Enrique Rivero, Javier Ruiz Caldera

Music: Alejandro de Icaza

Cast: Margarita Saldana, Amalia Salas,

Juan Chirinos

 

Awards/Festivals

Rome

 

Chayo returns to her hometown to care for her elderly mother and cope with her death. Surrounded by love and sublime beauty, Chayo has to give up something that as a woman and mother is inalienable. That will be the price of her freedom.

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THE INHERITORS OF THE EARTH (Bhoomiyude Avakashikal)

India/2012/DCP/Colour/114’/Malayalam

Direction, Screenplay: T.V.Chandran

Production: Anand Kumar

Cinematography: Ramachandra Babu

Editing: Johnkutty

Music: Sandeep Pillai

Cast: Kailash, Sreenivasan, Mythili, Shahabaz Aman, Meera Nandan

 

The film addresses the loss of identity of modern man jostled by the chance encounters of a selfimposed make believe world. As the film opens we see Mohanachandran Nair and Menon entering the compound of what looks like a forlorn house that has long been abandoned. Mohanachandran is delighted at the sights and sounds around. He gets to hear something about the house being a haunted one… The film treats space with an implied division between the house and its compound on the one hand and the world outside on the other.

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NIGHT ACROSS THE STREET (La Noche De Enfrente)

Chile-France/2012/DCP/Colour/110’/Spanish-French

Direction, Screenplay: Raul Ruiz

Production: Christian Aspee,

Francois Margolin

Cinematography: Inti Briones

Editing: Valeria Sarmiento, Raul Ruiz,

Christian Aspee

Music: Jorge Arriagada

Cast: Christian Vadim, Sergio Hernandez, Valentina Vargas, Chamila Rodriguez, Pedro Vicuna, Pedro Villagra, Marcial Edwards

 

Awards/Festivals

Cannes, Toronto, New York, Sitges, Chicago Paris Cinema IFF, HK Summer IFF, Mumbai Ostrava Kamera Oko, Best Cinematography

 

Based on Hernan del Solar’s novel, Night Across the Street is both a homecoming and a stocktaking.

 

Drawing on his own obsessions and memories, Ruiz traverses his chosen imaginative landscape in two time periods. In the present, his white-haired alter-ego Don Celso- a “man without ideas”-, awaits his assassin. He looks back on his life through his younger self, Rhododendron, an impish youth ambling the streets of Chile. As Ruiz moves seamlessly between Don Celso and Rhododendron, he casts longing looks back to his childhood memories while fatalistically awaiting a death that he is convinced lies just around the corner. Burnished by a golden haze that gives the film a sepia-tint, Night Across the Street is both a moving meditation on a man’s mortality as well as an insightful account of an artist’s brilliant career.

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KALABHAVAN

 

POONG SAN

Phungsangae

South Korea/2011/DCP/Colour/121’/ Korean

Direction: Jaihong Juhn

Production, Screenplay: Kim Ki-duk

Cinematography: Lee Jeong-in

Editing: Shin Cheol

Sound: Lee Seung-yeop, Kim Sang-woon

Music: Inyoung Park

Cast: Yoon Kye-sang, Kim Gyu-ri,

Han Gi-Joong, Moo-Seong Choi, Yoo Ha-Bok

 

Awards/ Festivals

Busan, CPH PIX, Rome, Dubai, Stiges

 

In the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas, a mysterious hero operates. Nicknamed “Poongsan”, the nameless hero is a gift from heaven. Uniting separated families, saving people in need, and delivering messages \ between those pulled apart forever by the turns of history, the invincible hero seems to pick his jobs randomly. But his way of communication is comparably barren, flowing through the messages left to the fence of the demilitarized zone. When Poongsan decides to accept a mission to carry the lover of a North Korean political exile into the South, his carefully polished working methods suddenly shatter to pieces setting the courier and his human cargo face to face with more far fetching consequences than that they would have ever have dared to dream of.

 

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500 & 5

India/2012/Colour/120’/Tamil

Direction,Screenplay: Raghu Jeganathan

Production: Mohandass Radhakrishnan,

Kousalya Jeganathan, Ramesh Mourthy

Cinematography: Mohandass Radhakirshnan

Music: Sivapragasam

Sound: A.M.Rahamathulla

Cast: Deepak Sundararajan, Vinoth Michael,

Ramesh Mourthy, Raveendran, Karthikeyan,

Jacob

 

A Rs.500-note; five characters; their trysts with the currency bill.

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DRAPCHI

India/2012/35mm/Colour/78’/English

Direction: Arvind Iyer

Production: Iceberg Nine Films

Screenplay: Pooja Ladha Surti

Cinematography: Trevor Tweeten

Editing: Harshal Thakur

Sound: Tim Beale

Music: Arnav Srivastava

Cast: Namgyal Lhamo, Arnav Srivastava

Sarosh Izedyar

 

Awards/Festivals

Kairo, Warsaw, Osians Cinefan

 

Drapchi is based on a true story and events from the life of famed Tibetan opera singer Namgyal Lhamo. Yiga Gyalnang, (played by Namgyal Lhamo) a traditional Tibetan opera singer, is abducted one summer morning and finds herself in nearcomplete isolation in an underground prison cell for what the Chinese government sees as rebellion through her songs of freedom. After two years, she breaks free and escapes to Nepal and from there, to the West.

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CLANDESTINE CHILDHOOD (Infancia clandestine)

Argentina, Spain, Brazil/2011/DCP/Colour/112’/Spanish

Direction: Benjamin Avila

Production: Luis Puenzo

Screenplay: Benjamin Avila, Marcelo Muller

Cinematography: Ivan Gierasinchuk

Editing: Gustavo Giani

Sound: Fernando Soldevila

Music: Pedro Onetto, Marta Roca Alonso

Cast: Ernesto Alterio, Natalia Oreiro, Cesar Troncoso

 

Awards/Festivals

Havana Film Festival- Coral Award

San Sebastian-Casa de America Award

Cannes,Toronto, Philadelphia

 

Set in 1979 during Argentina’s military dictatorship, Benjamín Ávila’s stylized, semi-autobiographical memoir follows the travails of a fifth-grader who is forced to live under an assumed identity in order to protect his resistance-fighter parents. At first, all seems to go well for Juan/Ernesto. He is enrolled in the local school and quickly makes new friends. But the precarious balance between undercover life and the everyday travails comes to the fore when he falls in love. In a series of vignettes, Ávila weaves together the parallel lives of Juan and Ernesto, as a first kiss between young sweethearts is followed by underground meetings, and childish roughhousing gives way to bullet cartridges stashed in boxes of chocolate. As the family prepares for its confrontation with the forces of repression, Juan finds himself torn between responsibility and the ordinary childhood he yearns for.

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LE GRAND SOIR

France-Belgium/2012/DCP/Colour/92’/

French

Direction, Screenplay: Benoit Delepine, Gustave de Kervern

Production: Jean-Pierre Guerin, Andre Logie

Cinematography: Hugues Poulain

Editing: Stephane Elmadjian

Sound: Bruno Seznec

Cast: Gerard Depardieu, Benoit Poelvoorde, Albert Dupontel, Barbet Schroeder, Yolande Moreau, Miss Ming, Brigitte Fontaine, Stéphane Durieux

 

Awards/Festivals

Cannes (Un Certain Regard): Special Jury Prize, Melbourne. London, Warsaw

This is the story of two brothers-dynamic opposites of each other- whose paths converge when tragedy strikes one. Self-professed “oldest punk in Europe with a dog,” Not is a forty-something non-conformist who wears the punk uniform of camouflage fatigues, mohawk and jackboots. His brother, Jean-Pierre, is a mattress salesman in a chain store and he is Not’s opposite, straightlaced and line-toeing. When Jean-Pierre’s life starts falling apart and he is threatened with unemployment, the veneer of acquiescence quickly crumples and it doesn’t take long for Not to woo him over to the rebellious side of the street. Characteristically scabrous but still charming, this Un Certain Regard entry sends up its soul-deadening strip-mall milieu and takes jabs at the failings of a consumerist society without ever taking itself too seriously.

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NEW

 

MY TOMORROW (Il mio Domain)

Italy/2011/35mm/Colour/88’/Italian

Direction: Marina Spada

Production: Francesco Pamphili

Screenplay: Marina Spada,

Daniele Maggioni, Maria Grazia Perria

Cinematography: Sabina Bologna,Giorgio Carella

Editing: Carlotta Cristiani

Music: Paolo Fresu, Bebo Ferra

Cast: Claudia Gerini, Claudia Coli, Raffaele Pisu, Lino Guanciale, Paolo Pierobon, Enrico Bosco

 

Awards/Festivals

Tiburon IFF, Uruguay IFF, Rome IFF

Italian Film Festival in London

 

Monica is a successful corporate motivational speaker in Milan who trains employees to fill “emptiness” with new opportunities. But her personal life is one filled with ambiguity and deceit. Every time she returns to her father’s house, the grief and resentment tied to incidents of her youth re-emerge. She senses a growing detachment from Vittorio Corradi, her boss and lover. The movie presents a different kind of Milan rarely seen in movies, where within the walls of corporate buildings personal livelihoods are ruthlessly cut short against the backdrop of the European economic crisis.

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HOLY MOTORS

France-Germany/2012/DCP/Colour/115’/

French, English, Mandarin

Direction, Screenplay: Leos Carax

Production: Martine Marignac

Cinematography: Caroline Champetier

Editing: Nelly quettier

Sound: Erwan Kerzanet

Music: Neil Hannon

Cast: Denis Lavant, Kylie Minogue, Eva Mendes, Edith Scob, Michel Piccoli

 

Awards/Festivals

Cannes, Rio, New York, Busan, Sitges

 

Holy Motors gives us a glimpse into 24 hours in the life of a being moving from life to life: by turns, murderer, beggar, company chairman, monster, worker, family man…Monsieur Oscar seems to be playing roles, plunging headlong into each part. He is alone, but for Céline, the slender blonde woman behind the wheel of the vast engine that transports him around Paris. He’s like a conscientious assassin moving from target to target, in pursuit of the beautiful gesture, the mysterious driving force, the women and the ghosts of past lives. But where is his true home, his family, his refuge? Holy Motors does a good work in painting the sponge-like quality of movies, their malleability, and their capacity for reinvention. Yet, it is a maddening, self-satisfied, though never smug, game of spot-the-reference that seems intended only for a particular type of cinephile.

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MOON AT THE BOTTOM OF THE WELL (Trang Noi Day Gieng)

Vietnam/2008/Colour/121’/Vietnamese

Direction: Vinh Son Nguyen

Production: Nguyen Thai Hoa,

Morteza Mohammadi

Screenplay: Chau Tho

Cinematography: Trinh Hoan,

Nguyen Nam

Editing: Phung Doc Lap

Music: Quoc Bao

Cast: Anh Hong, Vy Thanh, Cao De Hoang, Thi Ha, Anh Hieu, Phuong Lan

 

Set in Hue, it is the story of the perfect wife in a less-than-perfect marriage. A school teacher shares a childless and unconventional marriage with the school principal. When the secret comes out that he has children with a second wife, with her consent, the scandal drives her to desperate measures.

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7 DAYS IN HAVANA

France-Spain/2012/DCP/Colour/129’/Spanish-English

Direction: Benicio Del Toro, Pablo Trapero, Elia Suleiman, Julio Medem, Gaspar Noe, Juan Carlos Tabio, Laurent Cantet

Production: Didar Domehri, Laurent Baudens, Gael Nouaille, Alvaro Longoria, Fabien Pisani

Screenplay: Leonardo Padura

Cinematography: Daniel Aranyo, Diego Dussuel

Editing: Thomas Fernandez, Rich Fox, Veronique Lange, Alex Rodriguez, Zack Stoff

Sound: Eva Valino, Charly Schmukler, Nicolas De Poulpiquet

Music: Xavi Turull , Descemer Bueno, Kelvis Ochoa

Cast: Daniel Bruehl, Emir Kusturica, Elia Suleiman, Josh Hutcherson, Vladimir Cruz, Mirta Ibarra, Jorge Perugorria

 

Awards/Festivals

Cannes, San Sebastian, Rio, Melbourne,

Edinburgh, Karlovy Vary, Cockatoo Island Film Festival

 

A contemporary portrait of this eclectic, vital, unique city, told through a single feature-length movie made of seven chapters and directed by seven internationally acclaimed directors. Each chapter depicts a day of the week through the extraordinary lives of its characters. A world away from the familiar cliches, the film aims to express the soul of Havana and its diversity in a touching, entertaining and funny style. All stories have independent plots, but the connections between them create a powerful dramatic unity. Emblematic Havana landmarks form the backdrop to the chapters in which several characters appear more than once, organically connecting the narratives and demonstrating that in Havana all social spheres intersect.

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SANSHIRO SUGATA

Japan/1945/B&W/83’/Japanese

Direction: Akira Kurosawa

Production: Keiji Matsuzaki

Screenplay: Akira Kurosawa, Tomita Tsuneo

Cinematography: Akira Mimura

Editing: Toshio Goto, Akira Kurosawa

Music: Seiichi Suzuki

Cast: Denjiro Okochi, Susumu Fujita, Yukiko Todoroki, Takashi Shimura

 

This first effort by Japanese director Akira Kurosawa is based on a best-selling novel about the creation of Judo. Most of the film explores the relationship between its creator and his faithful protégé. In addition to establishing the reputation of Kurosawa, the film made a popular star of Susumu Fujita. Sanshiro Sugata has a compact energy and sense of form that establishes a cinematic intelligence far above the ordinary. It portrays, in an immature and limited fashion, the concerns, ideas, and emotions that will recur in complex and nuanced ways throughout Kurosawa’s career. Sanshiro Sugata is a truly enlightening sketch of so much that was to come.

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ANJALI

 

BEYOND THE HILLS (Dupa dealuri)

Romania-France-Belgium/2012/DCP/Colour/155’/Romanian

Direction, Production,Screenplay: Cristian Mungiu

Cinematography: Oleg Mutu

Editing: Mircea Olteanu

Sound:  Dana Bunescu

Cast: Cosmina Stratan, Cristina Flutur,Valeriu Andriuta, Dana Tapalaga, Catalina Harabagiu

 

Awards/Festivals

Cannes-Best Screenplay, Best Actresses

Chicago-Gold Hugo, Best Feature

Toronto, New York, Busan, London

 

Voichita and Alina grew up together in an orphanage. At 19, Alina was taken in by a foster family and later decided to go and work in Germany. Voichita found refuge in an Orthodox monastery and became a nun. There she found not only God but the family she’d never had. Feeling sick and estranged, Alina strives to get Voichita back in her life. Voichita asks permission to leave the monastery temporarily but the Priest’s answer is firm: once you have taken the path of Christ there can be no comings or goings. Voichita is not pre- pared to abandon her newly found peace, while Alina is baffled by her friend’s decision. She starts fighting with all her strength to get Voichita back, but God is the most difficult lover of whom to be jealous.

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FILMISTAAN

India/2012/DCP/Colour/117’/Hindi

Direction, Screenplay:  Nitin Kakkar

Production:  Satellite Pictures Pvt.Ltd.

Cinematography: Subhransu Das

Editing:  Shachindra Vats

Sound:  Arun Nambiar, Fasial Majeed

Music:  Arijit Datta

Cast:  Sharib Hasmi, Inaamulhaq, Kumud Mishra, Gopal Datt

 

Sunny, a wanna-be-actor who works as an assistant director in Mumbai is summarily thrown out at every audition. Undeterred, he goes with an American crew to the remote areas of Rajasthan to work on a documentary. There, an Islamic terrorist group kidnaps him. The house in which he is confined belongs to a Pakistani, whose trade stems from pirated Hindi films, which he brings back every time he crosses the border. Soon, the two realize they share a cultural bond. The film shows how cinema can be the universal panacea for co-existence.

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IN RECENT TIMES... (Ee Adutha Kaalath...)

India/2012/Colour/160’/Malayalam

Direction, Editing:  Arun Kumar Aravind

Production: Raju Malliath

Screenplay: Murali Gopy

Cinematography: Shehnad Jalaal

Sound: N.Harikumar

Music: Gopi Sunder

Cast: Indrajith Sukumaran, Murali Gopy, Anoop Menon, Nishaan, Tanushree Ghosh, Mythili, Jagathy Sreekumar, Lena

 

Ee Adutha Kaalathu blends a post-modern urban tale with the antiquity of the Puranas. It cuts through the different layers of population whose fates get intertwined by an incident. It’s a Rubik’s Cube of sorts. Vishnu is a rag-picker, a doting father, and an obedient husband. Ramani, his fiery wife, considers him an incorrigible bum. Madhuri was a starlet growing up in Mumbai. She is now a homemaker and mother to an eleven-year-old boy, but remains a head turner. Her husband Ajay Kurien, the CEO of an upmarket hospital, is a self- made man. Rustam is a North Indian bloke on a short-term contract in the city. Tom Cherian, the City Police Commissioner, wants to earn his medals the easy way. His girlfriend Roopa is a cutthroat journalist. There is also a serial killer out on the prowl.

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THE LAST STEP (Pele Akher)

Iran/2012/DCP/Colour/88’/Persian

Direction, Screenplay, Production: Ali Mosaffa

Cinematography: Alireza Barazandeh

Editing:  Fardin Sahebzamani

Cast:  Leila Hatami, Ali Mosaffa, Alireza Aghakhani, Hamed Behdad

 

Actress Leila bursts into laughter on camera during the filming of a dramatic scene. Her improper behaviour is a reaction to the recent death of her husband Koshrow, who accidentally fell down a flight of stairs. And it is Koshrow who serves as the film’s somewhat unreliable narrator, appearing in the movie even after his death. Director Ali Mosaffa has loosely adapted Tolstoy’s novella The Death of Ivan Ilyich (1886) and the James Joyce story The Dead (1914). He has once again cast his wife, noted actress Leila Hatami, in the lead. He himself took the part of the heroine’s hus- band.

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FLORBELA

Portugal/2012/DCP/Colour/119’/Portuguese

Direction, Screenplay: Vicente Alves do O

Production: Pandora da Cunha Telles, Pablo Iraola

Cinematography:  Luis Branquinho

Editing: Joao Braz

Sound: Jaime Barros

Cast: Dalila Carmo, Ivo Canelas, Albano Jeronimo, Jose Neves, Antonio Fonseca, Carmen Santos, Anabela Teixeira, Rita Loureiro

 

Awards/Festivals

International Independent Film Festival of Braga -Grand Prize Augusta Bragacine, Best film

 

Portugal, 1920. Florbela Espanca, a woman ahead of her times and a famous poet, throws herself into a third marriage after two failed experiences. She stops writing to please her new husband, but soon feels restless and frustrated. When her brother, Apeles calls her to Lisbon, she runs away from her too quiet home to join him. Together they throw themselves into the dark side of the capital: alcohol, political riots, open air balls and their strong mutual attraction. Florbela finds herself torn between two forces: the love of her husband and the turmoil brought about by Apeles. When the latter dies a sudden death, her world collapses. Only one thing can save her: writing.Loosely based on the life of the Portuguese poet Florbela Espanca, portrayed by Dalila Carmo, Mr. Alves do Ó creates a biographical fantasy in Florbela.

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AJANTA

 

LE HAVRE

Finland- France-Germany/2011/DCP/Colour/103’/French- Finnish

Direction, Production,Screenplay: Aki Kaurismaki

Cinematography:  Timo Salminen

Editing: Timo Linnasalo

Sound:  Tero Malmberg

Cast: Andre Wilms, Kati Outinen, Blondin Miguel, Elina Salo, Jean-Pierre Leaud, Ilkka Koivula, Evelyne Didi, Quoc Dung Nguyen, Francois Monnie, Pierre Etaix, Roberto Piazza

 

Awards/Festivals

Cannes-FIPRESCI Prize, Prize of the Ecumenical Jury - Special Mention, Karlovy Vary, Melbourne, Locarno, San Sebastian, New York, Toronto, Telluride, Chicago: Gold Hugo, Vancouver, Stockholm, Rotterdam

 

In this warmhearted portrait of the French harbor city that gives the film its name, fate throws young African refugee Idrissa (Blondin Miguel) into the path of Marcel Marx (André Wilms), a soft spoken bohemian who works as a shoeshiner. With innate optimism and the unwavering support of his community, Marcel stands up to officials doggedly pursuing the boy for deportation. A political fairy tale that exists somewhere between the reality of contemporary France and the classic cinema of Jean-Pierre Melville and Marcel Carné, Le Havre is a charming, deadpan delight, whose gentle spontaneity is perhaps the most appealingly irresistible aspect of it.

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LIGHT IN DARKNESS (Luz Nas Trevas)

Brazil/2010/83’

Direction: Helena Ignez, Icaro C. Martins

Production: Mercurio Producoes

Screenplay:  Helena Ignez

Cinematography:  Jose Roberto Eliezer

Editing:  Rodrigo Lima

Sound:  Sinai Sganzerla, Rodrigo Lima, Helena Ignez, Lucio Branco

 

Light in Darkness follows the trajectory of two of the country’s most notorious criminals. While the Red Light Bandit (Ney Matogrosso) sits in the cell of a maximum-security prison recollecting his career and reading philosophy, his son, an outlaw known as all or Nothing (Andre Guerreiro Lopes), follows in his father’s footsteps leading a life of violence, women, and excess. Through flashbacks and comic book imagery, we experience the multitude of influences on the revolutionary minds in a city infected with corruption. Both the Red Light Bandit and All or Nothing is recognized as celebrities amongst the poor, only feeding a desire for more crime. In an ironic turn of events, justice is served, leading the estranged father and son to learn more about one another than they ever expected.

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BAD SEEDS (Comme Un Homme)

Luxembourg-Belgium-France/2012/35mm/Colour/95’/French

Director:  Safy Nebbou

Production: Michel Saint-Jean

Screenplay: Safy Nebbou, Gilles Taurand

Cinematography: Pierre Cottereau

Editing: Bernard Sasia

Music: Jerome Reuter

Cast: Charles Berling, Emile Berling, Sarah Stern, Kevin Azais

 

Awards/Festivals

Montreal World Film Festival, Chicago

 

Quiet 16-year-old Louis, the high school headmaster’s son, has never been in trouble. His best friend, 18-year-old Greg, however, is his opposite: provocative, angry, violent, he has been kicked out of school for physically threatening young English teacher Camille. When Greg asks Louis to help him take revenge on Camille, Louis accepts, fascinated. Together, they kidnap the young woman and lock her in an old remote shack. But Greg’s plans with Camille are more sinister than Louis could have foreseen, forcing him to confront his own dark side…

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MS. TU HAU (Chi Tu Hau)

Vietnam/1963/35mm/B&W/78’/Vietnamese

Direction: Pham Ky Nam

Screenplay:  Bui Duc Ai

Cinematography: Nguyen Khanh Du

Cast: Tra Giang, Ba Du, Minh Tri, Tran Phuong, Minh Dang

 

Tu Hau is a simple woman who takes care of her young daughter and her aging father-in-law while her husband is away fighting for the revolution. Her peaceful village is attacked and a series of tragic events befall her, each of which challenges her will. Eventually, her hardships drive her to join the resistance and she makes the difficult choice of leaving her child behind so she can help lead the front.

Tu Hau personified the strength and conviction of the Vietnamese woman of the era. The film is considered a masterpiece of Vietnamese cinema.

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LOVE LIKE POISON (Un Poison Violent)

France/2010/Colour/92’/French

Direction, Screenplay: Katell Quillevere

Production:  Justin Taurand

Cinematography:  Tom Harari

Editing: Thomas Marchand

Music: Olivier Mellano

Cast: Clara Augarde, Youen Gourvil Leboulanger, Lio, Stefano Cassetti, Michel Galabru

 

Awards/Festivals

Cannes, Seattle

 

Its spring break and 14-year-old Anna returns from boarding school to her village in Brittany, where she lives with her mother in the house of her elderly and ailing paternal grandfather. In her father’s absence, the young girl quickly understands that her parents are no longer together. Upon further investigation, Anna realizes that one of the reasons for this separation is their dis agreement about faith. Soon, things become complicated by the increasingly depressed mother’s attraction to an easy-going young village priest. Meanwhile, Anna is caught between her own religious convictions—she’s due for her confirmation—and her teenage sexual stirrings, which are awakened by choirboy Pierre. This naturalistic, coming-of-age film depicts the cycle of life from adolescence to adulthood, confirming the ongoing demands of the flesh and the way they frequently conflict with religious faith.

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SREEKUMAR

 

BEAUTIFUL 2012 (Mei Hao 2012)

Hong Kong-China/2012/Digibeta/Colour/90’/Putonghua-Mandarin-Korean-Cantonese

Direction:  Kim Tae-yong, Gu Changwei, Tsai Ming-Liang, Ann Hui

Production: Agnes Paik

Screenplay:  Kim Tae-yong, Kim Young-hyun

Cinematography: Kwon Sang-jun

Editing:  Seong Su-a

Cast: Gong Hyo-jin, Yan Lianke, Lee Kang-Sheng, Francis Ng

 

Awards/Festivals

Hong Kong, Shanghai, Taipei, Vancouver,

Busan, Cannes Film Festival Critics’ Week

Closing Film (Walker)

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PIETA

South Korea/2012/Digibeta/Colour/104’/Korean

Direction, Screenplay, Editing:  Kim Ki-duk

Production: Kim Ki-duk Film, Kim Soon-mo

Cinematography:  Jo Yeong-jik

Sound: Seung-yeop Lee

Music: Park In-young

Cast: Cho Min-soo, Lee Jung-jin

 

Awards/Festivals

Venice- Golden Lion, Golden Mouse, Little

Golden Lion, Nazareno Taddei Award

Toronto, Hamburg, Busan, Sitges, Hong Kong

 

Hired by moneylenders, a man lives as a loan shark brutally threatening people for pay back their debts. This man, without any family and therefore with nothing to lose, continues his merciless way of life regardless of all the pain he has caused to a countless number of people. One day, a woman appears in front of him claiming to be his mother. He coldly rejects her at first, but gradually accepts her in his life. He decides to quit his cruel job and to live a decent life. Then suddenly the mother is kidnapped. Assuming that it would be by someone he has hurt in the past, he starts to track down all the people he has harassed. The man finally finds the one, only to discover horrifying and dark secrets that were better left unrevealed.

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DELWENDE

Burkina Faso-France-Switzerland/2005/89'

Direction, Screenplay: S. Pierre Yameogo

Production: Pierre-Alain Meier, S. Pierre Yameogo

Cinematography: Jurg Hassler

Editing: Jean-Christophe Ane

Cast: Claire Ilboudo, Daniel Kabore, Abdoulaye Komboudi, Blandine Yameogo, Celestin Zongo

 

Adapted from a true story, Delwende unveils the pathetic life of a West African village ravaged by epidemic, poverty and superstitions. A beautiful young dancer is exiled to a mysterious community of witches, on the backdrop of a series of deaths of infants. Pougbila is on a quest to find her mother. Charged with witchcraft and the children’s deaths, Pougbila’s mother, who sus- pects her husband of having raped her daughter, had been expelled from the village. Diahrra finds a groom for Pougbila from the neighboring village. Amidst this, the village fool hears on the radio, the real cause of the children’s deaths... Dealing with the multifarious ways in which women are oppressed by the patriarchal order, Delwende/Stand up and walk from Burkina Faso belongs both to the auteur approach and the oral tradition. Delwende’s subtitle (‘Stand up and walk’) also carries a message of hope for women aspiring to break out of the limitations imposed upon them.

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THE CRIER

Cheeka

India/2012/HD/Colour/80’

Direction, Screenplay,Editing: M. Adeyapartha Rajan

Production: Tom Alter,M Adeyapartha Rajan

Cinematography:  Praveen Chaturvedi

Music:  Dr. Revati Sakalkar, Uday Chandra, Prabol Majumdar

Cast:  Tom Alter, Mona Ambegaonkar, Uday Chandra, Paru Uma Gambhir, Vineet Verma

 

Awards/Festivals

Kolkata

 

Cheekha, the Crier explores the trail of a monk who descends from the Himalayas, drawn to an unusually disturbing, almost erotic, moaning. The monk traces the sound to a house where a pros- titute is making love to a man. Soon he realizes that those sounds were being made by an old man named Cheekha who has been confined under her bed for many years. He is part of a cult tradition of men who cries, moans, sings, and screams for an ageing prostitute, hiding under her bed. Forgetting his life as a recluse, the monk sets out to fathom the secret life of the prostitute and there begins the story of love, light, and liberation.

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SALVATION

Australia/2008/Colour/98’/English

Direction, Screenplay:  Paul Cox

Production: Paul Cox, Tony Llewellyn-Jones

Cinematography:  Ian Jones

Editing:  Aden Young

Music: Paul Grabowsky

Cast: Wendy Hughes, Bruce Myles, NatashaNovak, Kim Gyngell

 

Irina has left Russia to support her mother and daughter, and has fallen into prostitution in Melbourne, but her world is constantly under threat by fellow Russian, Anton who has under- world connections. Gloria is a televangelist with a thriving church franchise, and is married to Barry, a biblical scholar who needs more human warmth, intimacy and love than Gloria can offer. He starts to confide in and trust Irina and he makes a decision that changes all their lives. Paul Cox spins a wry, acidic tale in Salvation that unmasks televangelists as fakes and moral dwarfs. None too subtly, he makes a single mother forced into prostitution as the device with which to unseat the self-delusional Gloria and her long suffering husband. Although serious in intent, Cox is keen to put a smile on our face with Salvation, and manages just that with a wicked ending.

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REMYA

 

OUTRAGE BEYOND (Autoreiji: Biyondo)

Japan/2012/35mm/Colour/110’/Japanese-Korean

Direction, Screenplay:  Takeshi Kitano

Production: Mori Masayuki, Yoshida Takio

Cinematography:  Katsumi Yanagijima

Editing: Takeshi Kitano, Yoshinori Ohta

Music:  Keiichi Suzuki

Cast:  Takeshi Kitano, Ryo Kase, Tomokazu Miura, Ken Mitsuishi, Hirofumi Arai, Fumiyo Kohinata, Toshiyuki Nishida, Shun Sugata

 

Awards/ Festivals

Venice,Toronto, New York

 

When a car dredged from Tokyo Bay is revealed to contain the body of the city’s top anti-gang investigator, the police immediately launch a full scale crackdown on organized crime, and appoint the corrupt Kataoka to head the investigation. Eager to gain favor with the rival families of Sanno and Hanabishi, Kataoka wheels and deals with both sides, manipulating his way into the profitable gig as the yakuza’s resident crooked cop. But when a crucial move against Sanno chairman Kato goes sour, Kataoka enlists the help of ex-gangster Ohtomo, who has his own reasons for wanting to oust Kato and his underboss Ishihara. Sure to delight fans, this slick action flick is cool and deliberate with bone rattling bursts of violence sure to keep you alert, no matter the hour.

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AFTER THE BATTLE

Egypt- France/2012/35mm/Colour/116’/Arabic

Direction: Yousry Nasrallah

Production: Walid El-Kordy, Georges-Marc Benamou

Screenplay: Yousry Nasrallah, Omar Schama

Cinematography:  Samir Bahsan

Editing:  Mona Rabi

Sound: Ibrahim Dessouky

Music:  Tamer Karawan

Cast: Menna Chalaby, Bassem Samra, Nahed El Sebai, Salah Abdallah, Phaedra

 

Awards/Festivals

Cannes, Toronto

 

Mahmoud is one of the Tahrir Square Knights, who carried out attacks on protestors at the Square on 2 February 2011. After the incident, Mahmoud lost his job, and was subjected to humiliation and ostracization by his own community. He and his family are in a deplorable state, when he meets Reem, a young, secular Egyptian divorcee and modern-thinker who works in advertising. This will be the encounter of two individuals as also of two different worlds. Not only does the film explore how individuals experience major historic upheavals, but also how an over- whelming present can be transposed to a film in the here and now. Part cinema verite, part fiction, After the Battle possesses a raw, captivating energy that takes us to the heart of a revolution, and the new world that it has wrought.

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RANIA

Brazil/2011/35mm/Colour/85’/ Brazilian-Portuguese-English

Direction, Production: Robert Marques

Screenplay:  Luisa Marques, Roberta Marques

Cinematography: Heloisa Passos

Editing: Bernardo Barcellos, Rob Das, Luisa Marques, Roberta Marques

Sound:  Bernardo Uzeda

Cast: Graziela Felix, Mariana Lima, Nataly Rocha, Rob Das, Demick Lopes

 

Awards/Festivals

Rotterdam, Rio, Trinidad-Tobago

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

16-year-old Rania studies dance and lives with her mother and two brothers in restricted circumstances. With her father, a fisherman, also facing hard times, Rania contemplates following her friend Lizi and becoming a dancer in a grotty night club. A wonderful opportunity then presents itself for her to go with a dance troupe to New York, but Rania’s father refuses to give his permission. How far will she go to achieve her dreams? For her first feature film, Roberta Marques makes a real movie of women, made by women and where heroes are women, each one in a very distinct way, and gives a beautiful first role to the young Graziela Felix.

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DHANYA

 

CHICKS (La Vie Au Ranch)

France/2009/Colour/90’/French

Direction: Sophie Letourneur

Production: Emmanuel Chaumet

Screenplay: Delphine Agut, Sophie Letourneur

Cinematography: Claire Mathon

Editing: Michel Klochendler

Music: Maxence Cyrin, Benjamin Siksou

Sound: Julien Cloquet

Cast: Sarah-Jane Sauvegrain, Eulalie Juster, Mahault Mollaret, Elsa Pierret, Jade Tong Cuong, Angele Ferreux

 

Awards/Festivals

Rotterdam, BAFICI, Locarno, Entrevues FilmFestival, Audience Award, Best Feature Film

 

The communal life of a group of Parisian girls revolving around an apartment affectionately known as ‘the Ranch’, is the stage for Sophie Letourneur’s debut feature, which tells of a life of talking, smoking, drinking and partying. Bold, natural and utterly believable, Chicks underlines how poorly served cinema often is for female characterisation. Letourneur and cinematographer Claire Mathon’s camera is relatively steady given their subjects; it’s more observational than restive, practically anthropological. But the movie does reflect its characters through its narrative—with little actual plot,it feels as aimless as a young literature major. Stuff happens; the girls bicker with boyfriends, break away from their group of friends to become individuals, move from the collectivity of childhood to the autonomy of adulthood, coupled and not. Like its characters (and most people), the movie mellows as it moves forward.

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STAVISKY

France-Italy/1974/35mm/Colour/115'/French

Direction:  Alan Resnais

Production:  Alexandre Mnouchkine, Oscar Dancingers

Screenplay:  Jorge Semprun

Cinematography:  Sacha Vierny

Editing: Albert Jurgenson

Sound:  Jean-Pierre Ruh and Bernard Bats

Cast: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Charles Boyer, Francois Perier

 

Awards/Festivals

Cannes Film Festival, Special Tribute, Charles Boyer, 1974, New York Film Critics Circle, Best Supporting Actor, Charles Boyer, 1974

 

France, 1933.  Police inspector Bonny is conducting a private investigation into the activities of Serge Alexandre, who is actually the infamous Russian swindler Stavisky.  This is just one of Alexandre’s tribulations, however.  His business empire is about to crumble owing to lack of funds. To escape ruin, he resorts to increasingly desperate measures and as his world collapses, there would be only one way out… A compelling and seductively stylish period piece, Stavisky investigates historical events. In Stavisky, Resnais adopts a subjective framework and also plays with our notion of time, using flashbacks and fast-forwards to break the linear narrative.

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SREE PADMANABHA

BUSINESS AS USUAL

Ukraine/2012/35mm/DCP/Colour/88’

Direction: Valentyn Vasyanovych

Production: Iya Myslytska

Screenplay: Valentyn Vasyanovych, Iya Myslytska, Mamaciej Sobieszczanski, Malgorzata Sobieszczanska

Cinematography: Iurii Dunai

Editing: Valentyn Vasyanovych, Maxym Vasianovych

Music: Oleksandra Morozova, Borys Shkolovyi, Kostyantyn Bushynsky, Valentyn Vasyanovych, Mykyta oiseyev

Cast: Taras Denysenko, Vitaliy Linetskiy, Lesia Samayeva, Semen Furman

 

Awards/Festivals

Odessa,Tirana

 

The protagonist, Tolik, comes from a family of doctors, but is fired after a fist-fight with some patients. However, he chooses to view this event as a chance to start a new life. Finally his dream of being a “free” poet will come true and maybe, if he’s lucky, fame and fortune will follow. He sets out with his old friend Slavik, a character who knows everything: the meaning of life, how to make money, how to be happy. He drags the protagonist into a series of absurd situations, and ultimately, Tolik ends up losing almost everything. But it seems that family drama and the adventures with Slavik would be the inspiration for truly magnificent poetry.

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ON THE ROAD

Brazil-USA-UK-France/2012/DCP/Colour/124’/English

Direction: Walter Salles

Production: Charles Gillibert, Nathanael Karmitz, Rebecca Yeldham

Screenplay: Jose Rivera, Jack Kerouac

Cinematography: Eric Gautier

Editing: Francois Gedigier

Sound: Brian Copenhagen

Music: Gustavo Santaolalla

Cast: Sam Riley, Garrett Hedlund, Kristen Stewart, Kirsten Dunst, Tom Sturridge, Viggo Mortensen, Amy Adams, Alice Braga, Steve Buscemi, Danny Morgan, Giovanna Zacarias

 

Awards/Festivals

Cannes, Toronto, AFI FEST, Sydney

 

The film follows narrator Sal Paradise, an aspiring writer, drawn to the energy and charisma of his friend Dean Moriarty. Sal’s voice-over is our entrée into the world of the Beat Generation, as he joins Dean on a trip through the mental and physical landscape of postwar America. Dean carves a wild path through the highways and byways of the nation, drinking and sexing in and out of trouble, while Sal stores up a stash of memories that will serve him well as a writer. Along with Dean’s girlfriend and Carlo Marx, they go cruising in a beat-up car with all the time in the world, to explore various states of ecstasy via drugs, alcohol and sex. But even transcendental hedonism has its limits… On the Road is a portrait of a generation not afraid to break rules in their search for meaning. A must-watch.

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SHUTTER

India/2012/DCP/Colour/136’/Malayalam

Direction, Screenplay: Joy Mathew

Production: Saritha Ann Thomas

Cinematography: Hari Nair

Editing: Bijith Bala

Sound: Ranganath Ravee

Music: Jacob Panikkar, Bibin Samuel

Cast: Sreenivasan, Lal, Sajitha Madathil, Vinay Fort, Premkumar, Riya Augustin

 

Three individuals — Manoharan, a filmmaker wandering through places with his dream project; Rasheed, an expatriate from Gulf; and Suren a typical autorickshaw driver from Kozhikode — turn out to be close friends who help each other and become aware of their follies. The film is based on the realities of the middleclass Malayali lives, cinematically choreographed through the eyes of Manoharan. The story spans two nights and a day.

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THE REPENTANT (Le Repenti)

Algeria-France/2012/DCP/Colour/87’/Arabic

Direction, Screenplay: Merzak Allouache

Production: Yacine Djadi

Cinematography: Mohamed Tayeb Lagoune

Editing: Sylvie Gadmer

Sound: Ali Mahfiche, Xavier Thibault, Carole Verner, Julien Perez

Cast: Adila Bendimerad, Khaled Benaissa, Nabil Asli

 

Algeria region of the high flatlands. As Islamist groups continue to spread terror, Rashid, a young Jihadist, leaves the mountains to return to his village. In keeping with the law “of pardon and national harmony”, he has to surrender to the police and give up his weapon. He thus receives amnesty and becomes a “repenti”. But the law cannot erase his crimes, and for Rashid, it is the beginning of a one-way journey of violence, secrets, and manipulation.

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THE PIROGUE (La Pirogue)
France-Senegal-Germany/2012/DCP/Colour/87’/French-Wolof
Direction: Moussa Toure
Screenplay: Moussa Toure, Abasse Ndione, Eric Neve
Production: Adrien Magne, Eric Neve, Alexandra Swenden
Cinematography: Thomas Letellier
Editing: Josie Milievic
Sound: Martin Boissau, Thierry Delor, Agnes Ravez
Music: Prince Ibrahima Ndour
Cast: Souleymane Seye Ndiaye, Laity Fall, Malamine Drame “Yalenguen,” Balla Diarra, Salif “Jean” Diallo, Babacar Oualy, Mame Astou Diallo, Saikou Lo, Ngalgou Diop

Awards/Festivals
Film Fest Munchen- Arri Award, Cannes, Durban

Baye Laye is the captain of a fishing pirogue. Like many of his Senegalese compatriots, he sometimes dreams of new horizons, where he can earn a better living for his family. When he is offered to lead one of the many pirogues that head towards Europe via the Canary Island, he reluctantly accepts the job, knowing full-well the dangers that lie ahead. Leading a group of 30 men who don’t all speak the same language, some of whom have never seen the sea, Baye Laye will confront many perils in order to reach the distant coasts of Europe. Handsomely shot in fairly conventional style by a mixed Senegalese and French crew, La Pirogue is a well-crafted melodrama in classic issue- movie mold.

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NILA

BELLE EPINE

France/2010/Colour/80’/French

Direction: Rebecca Zlotowski

Production: Frederic Jouve

Screenplay: Rebecca Zlotowski, Gaelle Mace

Cinematography: George Lechaptois

Editing: Julien Lacheray

Music: ROB

Cast: Lea Seydoux, Anais Demoustier,

Johan Libereau, Anna Sigalevitch

 

Awards/Festivals

Prix Louis Delluc, Best First Film-2010 Seattle IFF, Zurich IFF

 

Prudence Friedman is 17 years old. Her mother died a few days ago. Left alone in the family apartment and to her own devices, she encounters Maryline, a rebellious teenager who takes her to an illegal racetrack in Rungis, on the outskirts of Paris, where customized cars and bikes dangerously spin. Fascinated by the circuit gang, Reynald, Franck, and the others, Prudence attempts to establish her place among them by trying to pass her loneliness off for freedom. Neither sentimentality nor nostalgia for reckless years gone by can be found in the film, which makes its tale of teenage rebellion in the face of overwhelming grief fall closer to a sobering character study than a classical youth film.

 

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SAME OLD SONG (On Connait La Chanson)

France/1997/35mm/Colour/120'/French

Direction: Alan Resnais

Production: Bruno Pesery

Screenplay: Agnes Jaoui

Cinematography: Renato Berta

Editing: Herve De Luze

Sound: Pierre Lenoir

Cast: Pierre Arditi, Sabine Azema, Jean Pierre Bacri, Andre Dussollier

 

Awards/Festivals

Berlin International Film Festival, Silver Bear, 1998, French Academy of Cinema, Best French Film, Best Actor for Andre Dussollier, Best Sound, Pierre Lenoir, Best Screenplay, Agnes Joui, 1977

 

Odile is frustrated with her dull marriage to Claude. Camille, her sister is working for a doctorate in an mysterious subject and suffers from a panic disorder. Their lives take a turn when three men enter the picture. Nicholas, an old flame of Odile, returns to Paris to buy an apartment for his family. Simon a history-freak and romantic radio-playwright also falls in love with Camille, hiding the fact that he is an estate agent working for the unscrupulous. Marc, the boss of the agency also desires Camille.... Marking Resnais’ triumphal return to mainstream French cinema, this film deals with the typically Resnaisian themes of time, place and memory. Resnais adopts Dennis Potter’s lip-synch to music device by weaving popular French songs from the past fifty years into the dialogue, creating a comical effect.

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THE DELAY (La demora)
Uruguay- Mexico- France/2012/35mm/Colour/84’/Spanish
Direction: Rodrigo Pla
Production: Imcine
Screenplay: Laura Santullo
Cinematography: Maria Secco
Editing: Miguel Shverdfinger
Sound: Fabian Oliver, Alejandro De Icaza, Sergio Diaz, Arturo Zarate
Music: Jacobo Lieberman, Leonardo Heiblum
Cast: Roxana Blanco, Carlos Vallarino

Awards/Festivals
Moscow- Grand Prix, Berlin, London, Sydney Latin American Film Festival, Chicago, Calgary Latin Wave, Melbourne, Haifa

Overworked and underpaid, a forty-something mother of three is driven to abandon her senile father so she can take better care of her children. Her trip to the social security office reveals that she is too poor to afford to put her father in a home, but still too wealthy to qualify for benefits…

 

Special Thanks: Nimmy Francis