Eureka

A film by Shinji Aoyama

When a bus is violently hijacked in a small Japanese town, only three people survive: the guilt wracked driver Makoto Sawai, and young brother and sister, Naoki and Kozue Tamura. Two years on, each of them, still traumatised by their ordeal, struggles to re-engage with life. But then one day Makoto impulsively buys a bus and sets off with Kozue and Naoki on a long journey across Japan. Their journey becomes a cathartic odyssey of spiritual self-discovery.

Set mainly in rural Japan, it is the story of the three survivor's attempted return to normal life. The children have lost their parents and are alone in a big house. They do not speak. Makoto, the bus driver, moves in with them, acting as their parents, or simply as someone who can understand their pain and confusion. The children appear to communicate telepathically. Meanwhile, a series of murders has begun and the prime suspect is the bus driver. These numerous unfortunate events bring the three, along with the orphans' cousin, Akihiko, back together, forming a family and working towards reconciliation from the shared hijacking experience.

This beautifully shot drama, much of which is sepia-toned with long takes and slow tracking shots, is a serene and resonant meditation on the psychological scars wrought upon the victims of terror and violence, and of the courage and inner strength they must find to survive.

El aura

The Aura
a film by Fabián Bielinsky

Esteban Espinosa is a quiet, introverted taxidermist living in Buenos Aires who suffers epilepsy attacks and is obsessed with committing the perfect crime. He claims that the police are too stupid to solve the crime when it's well executed, that the robbers are too stupid to execute it the right way, and that he could do it himself relying on his photographic memory and his strategic planning skills. When he is invited on a hunting trip in the Patagonian forest, an accident gives him the chance of his life, the opportunity to commit the perfect crime.

Esteban's work is solitary and conducted in silence, paying meticulous attention to the restorative detail of the animals he prepares for museum exhibits, yet incongruously he has a strong distaste for hunting, violence and bloodshed. His obsession with planning the perfect robbery also seems in complete contrast to his passive nature and lack of criminal intent. When his friend and fellow taxidermist, Sontag, suggests he accompanies him on a hunting trip in Patagonia, to take the place of a hunting friend who has had to cancel, Esteban is reluctant to accept. But then on discovering a note from his wife who has just left him, he changes his mind and decides to go.

On his first ever hunting trip, in the calm of the Patagonian forest, with one squeeze of the trigger his dreams are made real. Esteban has accidentally killed a man who turns out to be a real criminal and he inherits his scheme, the heist of an armoured truck carrying casino profits. Moved by morbid curiosity, and later by an inexorable flow of events, the taxidermist sees himself thrown into his fantasies, piece by piece completing a puzzle irremediably encircling him. He does so whilst struggling with his greatest weakness, epilepsy. Before each seizure he is visited by the "aura", a paradoxical moment of confusion and enlightenment where the past and future seem to blend. Caught up in a world of complex new rules and frightening violence, Esteban's lack of experience puts him in real danger and whilst his quick mind and acute visual memory enable him to link all the pieces of the heist puzzle together, he overlooks one tiny detail.

An unusual, subtly crafted and superbly acted neo-noir crime thriller. Slow-paced with minimal dialogue, it draws us deep into the isolated world of this complex character. The stunningly beautiful cinematography with its palette of silvers and muted greens, together with a highly atmospheric use of soundtrack music, emphasises the sense of tension, detachment, uncertainty and unease.

The Lighthouse

Mayak
a film by Maria Saakyan

This elegiac, semi-autobiographical, humanist drama unfolds against the backdrop of the Caucasus wars that plagued Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan during the early 1990s. It is the story of a young woman, Lena, who has decided to return to her home in a remote, war-ravaged Armenian village to try to persuade her grandparents to leave with her for safety in Moscow. After spending several years in Moscow, Lena now journeys to the small mountain village where she was born and where her relatives and friends still live. The war and misery of the region are a counterpoint to the memories and emotions that bind Lena to her roots. Will she stay or flee? Lena's journey through her devastated homeland becomes a poetic journey of discovery.

Director Maria Saakyan was born in Yerevan, Armenia. As a 12-year-old girl she was forced to move with her family to Moscow, because of the war in the Caucasus. She comments on the inspiration for the film and the autobiographical nature of its main character: "This is a personal story not just for me but it is a story which has been part of the autobiography of many people of our generation. This is a personal story also for our screenwriter, who is Georgian, for our set-designer, who is from Serbia. We were all forced to leave our home countries because of local wars. And this very strong desire to return, to come back home to the country you were forced to leave, brings us to this film. For us, it was more important to try to reflect the personal truth about these 1990s local wars. We tried to make a film not only about the Nagorno-Karabakh war or the Georgian war, but one which could be understood globally."

Told with a striking emphasis on the cinematic image and set to a hypnotic soundtrack, this outstanding, award-winning directorial debut captures a dream-like emotional resonance of gender, place and culture. Haunting, mysterious and unforgettable, it combines documentary and personal perspective with visuals of immense power and beauty, as it examines themes of family, memory, war and displacement.