2007 Film Guide

Wherever there is injustice--and, for that matter, wherever there is justice--there is someone fighting it, a fact that comes delightfully to light in Connie Field's documentary about the Cuban medical system and its work in other developing countries. Some might turn green with envy. The perfect in-depth complement to Sicko! more...

Director Corina van Eijk's reworking of the celebrated Saint-Saëns' opera is a splendid example of cinema offering many things that the stage cannot. Ingenious ideas abound at every turn, from the sparks of the contemporary setting to the acting of Klara Uleman as the temptress who tricks the strong man into a haircut. more...

Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney star as a brother and sister who are suddenly forced to deal with their aging father, much to their horror. The hit of the Sundance Film Festival, Tamara Jenkins' (Slums of Beverly Hills) insightful drama heralds the return of a critically intelligent directorial voice. more...

Suzanne Chisholm and Michael Parfit tell the true story of a lone orca nicknamed Luna, who was separated from his pod in 2001. Intelligent and playful, this young killer whale searches for friendship amongst humans on the West Coast of Vancouver Island in Nootka Sound. more...

The economic brutality of contemporary Poland comes to bear on a young family with devastating consequences. As the pressure of money, family, and unemployment mount, a mother is driven to an act of terrible desperation. Winner, Best Film, Best Director, Best Actress from The Association of Polish Filmmakers. more...

Heinz Emigholz's latest terrific entry in his Photography and Beyond series consists of a precise filming of 40 Los Angeles houses by Austro-American architect Rudolph Schindler, one of the key figures in modernist American architecture. This very unique film also amounts to an up-to-date portrait of contemporary life in Los Angeles. more...

Hugely influential (Bowie, Eno, Radiohead, Johnny Marr, Sting, Jarvis Cocker, Damon Albarn--all of whom appear here--count themselves as big fans) and notoriously reclusive musician Scott Walker is the subject of Stephen Kijak's superb documentary. Exemplary... Five Stars!--Time Out, London more...

A young man visits his dying grandfather and hears a series of incredible tales that lead to the Inaccessible Pinnacle on the Isle of Skye. Simon Miller's stunning new Gaelic-language feature, filmed entirely on the Isle of Sky, possesses a boldness of spirit and vision that heralds a new cinematic voice. more...

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Jeon Do-Yeon was the deserved Best Actress winner at Cannes for her wrenching account of a woman coping with tragedy in her life as she tries to reinvent it. A vortex of hatred and forgiveness, faith and nihilism, composure and hysteria orchestrated by the great Lee Chang-Dong. more...

Peter Carstairs' poignant debut feature tells the story of Ed and Paddy, two friends growing up on a farm in 1960s Australia--one is white, the other Aborigine. The burgeoning Aboriginal rights movement, along with the arrival of a girl, threaten to tear their friendship apart. more...

Maria Bello and Gerard Butler play a happily married couple, Pierce Brosnan plays a sociopath kidnapper and Vancouver plays Chicago in this satisfying thriller about a couple whose child is being held hostage while the demands of the kidnapper become more and more extreme. more...

At the age of 23 Steven Haworth started the journey toward becoming Gwen Haworth. Documenting her transition and its effect on those closest to her (including her ex-wife) filmmaker Gwen Haworth introduces us to an extraordinary group of thoughtful, insightful and articulate people. more...

This complex work uses visual artist Max Dean’s robotic chair as the thread that entwines reenactments of the filmmakers’ childhood memories, variations on the theme of suspension and philosophical contemplations about mortality. more...

Set against the backroads of Southeast Arkansas, Jeff Nichols' debut feature pits two sets of half-brothers against each other after the death of the man who fathered all of them. A measured and sobering meditation on violence and discontent... A highly intelligent and accomplished first feature.--Screen International more...

Clearly on a roll this year, Brillante Mendoza has followed Foster Child with another hyper-realist vision of life on the bottom rung of Manila’s social ladder. His setting is a decrepit tenement building and his characters are mostly petty thieves, subject to constant police harassment, struggling to better their lives. Angry, impassioned and bursting with life. more...

Told from the perspective of the youngest daughter of a Chinese immigrant family, and punctuated by a fantastic 80s rock soundtrack, this endearing tale recounts the events surrounding the taking of a family portrait. more...

This thoroughly engaging, serio-comic drama--about the effects of the arrival of a new male nurse on the patients and predominantly female staff at an old people's home--combines winning naturalistic performances with a fantasy element that is both light and funny. Stefan Hillebrand and Oliver Paulus direct. more...

Rather than offering transcendence or redemption, this film suggests that the distinction between desperation and hope is one of degree and not kind. more...

A man accused of sexually molesting young boys is brought to violent justice in this remarkably assured debut from director Erick Richter Strand. Based on award-winning short story, this Seattle prize-winner insightfully explores the grey areas of morality and retribution with depth and sensitivity. more...

Japanese-Korean director Sai Yoichi has rediscovered his Korean roots (and his Korean name: Choi Yang-Il) with this sensational revenge thriller, the best of its kind since Kitano’s Violent Cop. Ji Jin-He plays the hitman Soo who stops at nothing to avenge his long-lost twin brother. Maximum violence. more...

A terrible water shortage causes a Djibouti schoolteacher and his family to travel into the searing heart of the desert on a desperate quest for water. Mercenaries, land mines, sickness and the brutally blank gaze of the sun are pitted against them in this epic story of familial strength and endurance. more...

 From the makers of The Dream is Alive, Blue Planet, Destiny in Space, and Mission to MIR comes another strikingly beautiful and technically challenging film epic: the first-ever IMAX 3D film from space: SPACE STATION. more...

Martin, Roos and their 17-year-old son Isaac are locked in a tangled triangle of love, family and miscommunication. But when Isaac begins to retreat from the world into silence and isolation, his parents must find a way of reaching the boy or risk losing him forever. more...

Big mountain skiing came of age in the 1970s, when apparently suicidal young men took to the slopes to prove their mettle against near vertical inclines. Mark Obenhaus's thrilling documentary features some of the sport's most famous practitioners including the late, great Doug Coombs. more...

Kari Skogland delivers the sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll version of this Can-lit classic The film has humour and great sex scenes, the emotions are electric and the pace is relentless. more...

Storm surge is water that is pushed toward the shore by the force of the winds swirling around the storm. This advancing surge combines with the normal tides and wind-driven waves to create the hurricane storm tide, which can increase the mean water level 15 feet or more." more...

Hirabayashi Isamu’s Buddhist-minded fable of reincarnation. more...

When artist Steve Kurtz awoke to realize that his wife had tragically died in her sleep, a surreal sequence of events ensued that led to his being held as a suspected terrorist. Lynn Hershman Leeson's genre-bending reconstruction exposes the US government's rapacious tactics in the so-called war on terror. more...

She has everything, he wants nothing. Any bets on who prevails? more...