Films by Country - Synopsis View > Films from Countries From A to B > All Sections
Country
Event
Algeria
An Algerian Dream[ALGER]Changing the World
Algeria, France, 2003, 106 min
Jean-Pierre Lledo profiles the fascinating Henri Alleg, a French national of Jewish descent, publisher of Alger Republicain, Algeria's one truly independent newspaper during French colonial rule. As the now quite elderly man returns to Algeria to reminisce about his imprisonment at the hands of the French and his camaraderie with other resistance fighters, recent Algerian history is brought vividly to life. ( more... )
Argentina
Captive[CAPTI]Cinema of Our Time
Argentina, 2003, 115 min
A FIPRESCI-Award winner, Gastón Biraben's sensitive directorial debut is an intelligent and emotional drama told from the point of view of a young woman forced to come to terms with the realization she is the illegally adopted daughter of architects who "disappeared" during the military dictatorship. ( more... )
The Motorcycle Diaries[MOTOR]Special Presentations
Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru, USA, 2004, 128 min
In January 1952, Che Guevara and his companion, Alberto Grenado, travelled across South America on an eight-month journey of discovery. In this beautiful and captivating film, director Walter Salles and star Gael Garcia Bernal delight in documenting the human and vivid geographical details that would inform the politics of the future revolutionary leader. ( more... )
Los Muertos[MUERT]Cinema of Our Time
Argentina, France, 2004, 76 min
Where Lisandro Alonso's debut La Libertad created a circular structure out of a day in the life of a woodcutter, his mysterious, masterful follow-up, Los Muertos, takes the form of a straight line. A 54-year-old man is released from jail and travels by canoe along the river towards his now-adult daughter, while hiding a dark secret... ( more... )
El Patio (Short)[MISSD]Cinema of Our Time
Argentina, Switzerland, 2004, 16 min
Milagros Mumenthaler injects a palpable sense of summer ambiance into her affecting short that features two bored girls anticipating/longing for their mother's phone call. ( more... )
Rolling Family[ROLLI]Cinema of Our Time
Argentina, 2004, 95 min
In Pablo Trapero's wonderful new film based on the experiences and anecdotes of his family and friends, matriarch Emilia, her children, and her grandchildren take off on a trip across Argentina. Living together in a motor home doesn't make for the smoothest ride, as reminiscences and politics block the road, and the film becomes an intense portrait of the strength with which common lives are lived. ( more... )
A tango dancer herself, filmmaker Jana Bokova celebrates the lives of the tangueros and tangueras who dance at the Confitería Ideal in Buenos Aires. Old milongueros, local dancers, tango teachers, foreigners and tango stars aged from 20 to 80 share their tango stories of love, family, nationality, etc., and how the political--i.e. the economic crisis--and the aesthetic are inextricably interwoven. ( more... )
Australia
Human Touch[HUMAN]Cinema of Our Time
Australia, 2004, 101 min
Veteran Aussie director Paul Cox returns with another humanist take on the need for love and the complexities of relationships. Anna (Jacqueline McKenzie) and David's (Aaron Blabey) relationship is put in jeopardy when the attentions of a wealthy older man (Chris Haywood) starts Anna on a voyage of self-discovery. ( more... )
The Ister[ISTER]Nonfiction Features of 2004
Australia, 2003, 189 min
David Barison and Daniel Ross' absolutely unique video-essay, based on Martin Heidegger’s 1942 lectures on a poem by Friedrich Hölderlin, is a geographical journey from the mouth of the Danube in Romania to its source in the Black Forest, and a philosophical voyage through the themes of technology, ecology, politics, memory and mortality. ( more... )
The Widower[WIDOW]Cinema of Our Time
Australia, 2004, 60 min
A beautiful and evocative tale of love, loss and loneliness. Kevin Lucas (One Night, the Moon) collaborates on a cinematic song cycle grounded in the poetry of Poet Laureate Les Murray and the Australian temperate rainforest. Screens with: Closer. ( more... )
Austria
Antares[ANTAR]Cinema of Our Time
Austria, 2004, 120 min
Cool, analytical and oh so Austrian, Götz Spielmann's dark and intense drama is centred on the love lives of three different women from the same suburban housing project. Each of them is after affection in her own twisted manner, involving sex, passion, jealousy, deception and violence. ( more... )
Time of the Wolf[TIMEO]Spotlight on France
Austria, France, 2003, 113 min
A family arrives at their holiday home to find it occupied by strangers. Director Michael Haneke (The Piano Teacher) strips away the surface conventions that keep our dark impulses at bay in this post-apocalyptic tale starring Isabelle Huppert and Beatrice Dalle. A compellingly cinematic--it must be seen on the big screen--and powerful depiction of a society in dissolution. ( more... )
Belgium
Flatlife (Short)[FINIS]Nonfiction Features of 2004
Belgium, 2004, 11 min
Jonas Geirnaert's hilarious animated tale divides the screen into four rooms in an apartment block, each one occupied by unassuming types whose mundane personal interactions nevertheless provoke much laughter. ( more... )
The Living World[LIVIN]Spotlight on France
Belgium, France, 2003, 75 min
Part fairytale for adults and part minimalist drama in the vein of Bresson (crucial difference: there's a lot of humour here), Eugène Green's unclassifiable delight sends its hero Nicolas on a picaresque journey wherein he encounters the Brave Lion Knight and his pet lion (actually a guy and his dog), beautiful damsels and a child-eating monster... ( more... )
South[SOUTH]Cinema of Our Time
Belgium, Denmark, Netherlands, 2004, 88 min
A successful boss at an industrial laundry, Martje appears to have moved beyond the psychological trauma of her battle with breast cancer. That is, until a truck driver comes into her life... Martin Koolhoven's gripping film began as Dogme 95 but ended up as something this side of Fassbinder--intense, fantastical and tragic. ( more... )
Strong Shoulders[STRON]Cinema of Our Time
Belgium, France, Switzerland, 2003, 96 min
Ursula Meier’s alluring dramatic comedy about an obsessive high school track athlete, a young woman desperate to prove she's as good as any man, is an unpretentious and forceful piece of filmmaking that provides a powerful--and amusing--antidote for all teenage movies that encourage kids to "be themselves." ( more... )
Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche's second feature after the much-praised The Cup is a moving and very funny film about a young government officer who dreams of going to America instead of staying in his homeland where "there are no movies, no restaurants and most importantly, no cool girls." Set against the breathtaking backdrop of the mountains in Bhutan, the film is also a rare visual treat. ( more... )
Winner of the audience award for best documentary at the Rio de Janeiro Film Festival last year, Guilherme Coelho's soulful first feature, shot over nine months, follows the lives of three unknown rappers dreaming of escaping the favela slums of Rio and making it big. They tell it like it is! ( more... )
The Motorcycle Diaries[MOTOR]Special Presentations
Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru, USA, 2004, 128 min
In January 1952, Che Guevara and his companion, Alberto Grenado, travelled across South America on an eight-month journey of discovery. In this beautiful and captivating film, director Walter Salles and star Gael Garcia Bernal delight in documenting the human and vivid geographical details that would inform the politics of the future revolutionary leader. ( more... )
