I Carried You Home

Tongpong Chantarangkul : 2011
Padang besar

A mother travels to Bangkok to visit her teenage daughter, Pann, who lies to avoid spending time with her. Soon after, Pann returns to her friends but then receives a phone call from her aunt telling her that her mother has suffered a terrible accident and is in a coma. Pann hurries to contact her elder sister, Pinn, who had run away from her marriage to Singapore to start a new life away from family constraints. Their mother's subsequent death forces the two sisters, alienated from each other, to accompany the body in an ambulance on a two-day journey from Bangkok to the birthplace of their mother in rural Thailand. During the journey home, they look back on what they shared and what drove them apart. Each is forced to confront the secrets and resentment they have been hiding their whole lives, and also the loneliness their mother must have felt without her daughters.

We Need to Talk About Kevin

Lynne Ramsay : 2011

Eva Khatchadourian puts her ambitions and career aside to give birth to Kevin. The relationship between mother and son is difficult from the very first years. When Kevin is 15, he does something unimaginable and unforgivable in the eyes of the entire community. A once-successful travel writer, Eva now lives alone in a run-down house and works in a travel agency in a town near the prison where she visits Kevin. As she looks back at her memories of him growing up, she grapples with her own feelings of grief and responsibility. Did she ever love her son? And how much of what Kevin did was her fault? This suspenseful and emotional psychological thriller, combining a provocative moral ambiguity with a compelling narrative, explores the fractious relationship between a mother and her malevolent son.

Sanam

Rafi Pitts : 2000

In a small valley, riders pursue and kill a man. A horse thief, so his assassins claim. But for his ten-year-old son Issa, the disappearance of his father causes an avalanche of problems. With the family name stigmatised, Issa is bullied by the other children in the village. The father's death forces Issa's mother, Sanam, to abandon their home and the two move in with an aunt. Desperate to provide a life and future for her son, Sanam must consider marrying a man who could readily support the family, even though she knows she does not love him. While his mother fights to clear her husband's name, Issa is left to his own devices, and in his solitude, becomes obsessed with the horse that he insists belonged to his father. Rafi Pitts' award-winning second feature is a beautifully shot, poignant depiction of injustice and its aftermaths in a child's heart.

Wild Side

Sébastien Lifshitz : 2004

Stéphanie, a 32-year-old transsexual, returns to her hometown in order to care for her dying mother. Fifteen years ago, then still a teenager named Pierre, she left her village deep in rural France to begin a new life in Paris. Stéphanie is accompanied by her two lovers, bisexual Djamel and her new Russian boyfriend Mikhail. Whilst battling with their own inner demons they also find solace in each other's arms. Forming a true ménage à trois, they are three lost souls who share an unbreakable bond – one that is made stronger by the risqué lives they lead as street prostitutes. The visit to Stéphanie's birthplace brings out strong emotions and memories, and delving into increasingly powerful images of her early life, she is again confronted with the death of her beloved sister. Once there, she begins to unravel some of the childhood events that have made her the person she is today. A tender, compassionate and realistically portrayed film of haunting images and beautiful cinematography, with an intimate awareness of the orientations of its characters and their life together on the fringes of society.

La voz dormida

Benito Zambrano : 2011
The Sleeping Voice

Madrid, 1940. General Franco and his army have seized power. The winners are not satisfied with their victory; they want to exterminate their enemy. Every man and woman who was part of, or supported, the Resistance, or who is just suspected of it, will be hunted down and eradicated without mercy. The women's prison in Ventas is filled with prisoners of this kind. Women who fought for freedom who are now suffering repression, torture and death. Pepita leaves her home village in Cordoba in order to be near her seven-month pregnant older sister Hortensia who is facing execution (delayed until the birth of her baby) for her involvement with the Resistance movement and its charismatic leader Felipe, the father of her baby. Amid the horrors of Ventas jail, Hortensia and her fellow inmates attempt to ensure that her child will be handed over to Pepita instead of being taken away and placed in an orphanage.

Angèle et Tony

Alix Delaporte : 2011

Angèle is a young woman falling apart. She arrives at a small fishing village in Normandy, fiercely determined to reconnect with her young son, Yohan, yet also scared she's unfit to take care of him. Tony is a middle-aged fisherman who lives with his widowed mother, trapped in emotional solitude. The two meet via a personal ad, and Tony finds himself attracted to her although he dislikes her blunt ways. Angèle is forthright and rough, and her attempts to seduce him are met with surprised delight. As they form a fractured relationship, will the secret that Angèle harbours threaten their future? Alix Delaporte's award-winning debut feature is an intimate, absorbing and unconventional love story about two lost souls in search of human connection.

The Stoning of Soraya M

Cyrus Nowrasteh : 2008

Stranded in the remote Iranian village of Kuhpayeh by car trouble, journalist Freidoune Sahebjam is approached by Zahra, a woman with a harrowing tale to tell about her niece, Soraya, and the bloody circumstances of her death, by stoning, the previous day. Thus begins the remarkable account of what happened to Soraya, a kind, spirited woman whose bad marriage leads her cruel, divorce-seeking husband to conspire against her, trumping up charges of infidelity, which carry an unimaginable penalty. Moving through a minefield of scheming, lies and deceit, Soraya and Zahra will attempt to prove Soraya's innocence in a legal system stacked against her. But when all else fails, Zahra will risk everything to use the sole weapon she has left – the fearless, passionate voice that can share Soraya's story with a shocked world. Inspired by Paris-based journalist Freidoune Sahebjam's acclaimed international best-seller which first brought global attention to the real Soraya Manutchehri, who in 1986 was buried to her waist in her hometown square and stoned to death by her fellow villagers.

The Unpolished

Pia Marais : 2007
Die Unerzogenen

Stevie, a wild but fiercely intelligent 14-year-old girl, must cope with the instabilities of her drop-out parents. Whilst they spend their days getting high, hooking up deals and escaping their responsibilities, Stevie takes control of her own life, making the journey towards maturity and independence that her parents ought to have made years ago. When they decide to move to a small provincial town in Germany, Stevie attempts to start a normal life, trying to make a good impression. But before long, she discovers that her parents have once more resorted to illegal means as a way of supporting their leisurely lifestyle. As friends and hangers-on of her parents fill their new home, the chaos starts to worsen. It is in this atmosphere of physical and emotional decay that Stevie must now start to define herself and perhaps even break free. An unflinching study of a child caught up in a complicated adult world, and the consequences of a counterculture gone bad.

Future Lasts Forever

Özcan Alper : 2011
Gelecek Uzun Sürer

This visually stunning road movie follows a young Turkish woman's voyage to find her Kurdish lover who has left to take up the fight of his people. Sumru, an ethnomusicologist armed with a tape recorder, sets out to find and record the elegies, or testimonies, of Kurdish survivors of Turkish atrocities. These are eloquently delivered, mostly by women whose men have been killed, often right before their eyes. In the city of Diyarbakır, Sumru meets another man, Ahmet, who shares her interests and soon the two find themselves spending more and more time together. But the underlying reason for Sumru's trip is to trace Harun, the man who claimed her heart. Now she finds herself having to confront the agony from her own past as she draws ever closer to solving the mystery of her lover's disappearance.

True Women for Sale

Herman Yau : 2008
Sing kung chok tse yee: Ngor but mai sun, ngor mai chi gung

Lai Chung-Chung is a cocaine-addicted yet good-natured street walker whose fortune teller predicts an important day in her near future. As she works hard to save for a dentistry process to prepare for the big day, she catches the eye of a photographer and his journalist girlfriend, and through the personal interest story of her life, the burden of Chung's past is revealed. Wong Lin-Fa, a woman from mainland China, has married Kin, a middle-aged construction worker, in the hope of gaining Hong Kong residency. Upon hearing that Kin died in a work accident, Lin-Fa travels to Hong Kong, pregnant with his child, expecting to collect an abundance of condolence money from Kin's family. But labelled as a golddigger and kicked out by the family, she moves into Kin's apartment in a building that is full of prostitutes, including Chung. A touching story of two women in the grassroots of Hong Kong society, struggling to survive and haunted by the demons in their respective pasts.

Once Upon a Time in Anatolia

Nuri Bilge Ceylan : 2011
Bir zamanlar Anadolu'da

Life in a small town is akin to journeying in the middle of the steppes: the sense that something new and different will spring up behind every hill, but always unerringly similar, tapering, vanishing or lingering monotonous roads. Through the night, three cars carry a small group of men – a police officer, a doctor, a prosecutor, grave diggers, soldiers, gendarmerie forces, and two brothers, homicide suspects. They travel around in the rural surroundings of the Anatolian town Keskin, in search of a body buried somewhere there. Kenan, one of the suspects, leads the police officer from one fountain to another, unable to recall where he and his brother buried the body. In the darkness and with the visual indistinctness of the landscape, each spot looks pretty much the same as any other. An insightful and quizzical meditation on the subtle rhythms and contradictions of human interaction, the film was co-winner of the Grand Prix at Festival de Cannes 2011.

Wreckers

D R Hood : 2011

Dawn and David have moved back to the village where he grew up to start a family. Their relationship seems idyllic, but getting pregnant is proving difficult and adding to the strain of building their perfect home. Out of the blue, David's younger brother Nick appears. A soldier on leave, Nick sleepwalks and is prone to dark moods, yet Dawn is affected by her brother-in-law's vulnerability, and they start to spend an increasing amount of time together. Gradually, buried incidents from the brothers' shared history start to reveal themselves, forcing Dawn to confront the question of whether she really knows her husband at all. A moment of anger pulls Dawn into the web of guilt. Now, like David, she has something to hide. Dictynna Hood's debut feature is an evocative, beautifully shot drama examining the fragile relationship between truth, intimacy and betrayal.

Dictado

Antonio Chavarrías : 2012
Childish Games

Daniel receives an unexpected visit from an old childhood friend, Mario, who begs him to urgently come and meet his daughter. Feeling uncomfortable, Daniel does his best to get out of the awkward situation and puts the strange incident behind him. When Daniel reads of Mario's suicide in the newspaper, his wife Laura suggests they pay their respects at the funeral. There, they meet his seven-year-old daughter, Julia. Heartbroken that the child is now orphaned, Laura convinces Daniel that they take Julia into their care temporarily until a foster family is found. Laura quickly bonds with Julia, pulling the young girl out of her cocoon of mourning. Longing for a child of her own, Julia represents what has been missing in the childless couple's life. But the mysterious Julia's presence soon begins to have an adverse effect on their relationship when Daniel feels threatened by some of the little girl's simplest actions. Ominous childhood memories of Mario and his sister Clara come creeping back inside his head, as a growing sense of isolation engulfs Daniel and he slowly loses control to the fears that he thought had been buried long ago.

À moi seule

Frédéric Videau : 2012
Coming Home

A young woman sits at a remote bus stop looking at the image of a missing girl. It is her own photograph. Eight years ago, Gaëlle was kidnapped and shut away from the world. Now she has to cope with her traumatic experience and her strange new-found liberty. The film takes us back in time to witness her incredible struggle for survival. Gaëlle crouches in a windowless cellar. She waits and waits for her kidnapper to appear. Since he is her only interlocutor she must somehow find a way to connect with him. As she attempts to establish a relationship slowly the balance of power begins to change. The young girl starts bossing her tormentor, complaining about his long working hours and demanding to be taken out on trips by car at night. After her release she still finds herself left to her own devices, since nobody close to her knows how to behave with someone who has spent half their young life in captivity.

Tomboy

Céline Sciamma : 2011

A family with two daughters, 10-year-old Laure and 6-year-old Jeanne, moves to a new suburban neighbourhood during the summer holidays. With her Jean Seberg haircut and tomboy ways, Laure is immediately mistaken for a boy by the local kids, and decides to pass herself off as "Mikael", a boy different enough to catch the attention of leader of the pack Lisa, who becomes smitten. At home with her parents and girlie younger sister, she is Laure; hanging out with her new pals and girlfriend, she is Mikael. Finding resourceful ways to hide her true self, Laure takes advantage of her new identity, as if the end of the summer would never reveal her unsettling secret. Céline Sciamma's award-winning second feature is a contemporary coming-of-age story observing relationships between children, children and parents, and the significance of gender identity in social interaction from an early age.

Une vie meilleure

Cédric Kahn : 2011
A Better Life

Yann and Nadia fall in love. He is a trained chef though unemployed and she's a waitress. On an impulse they buy an old crumbling lakeside building in the woods outside Paris to renovate and open as a restaurant. It seems that their dreams have come true. However, funding for their project is hard to obtain so they purchase additional loans, but soon their means are insufficent to pay the interest. As the project gets delayed, Yann and Nadia's financial difficulties worsen. An opportunity of temporary work comes and Nadia travels to Montréal, leaving Yann to look after her nine-year-old son, Slimane, during her absence. Yann tries desperately to find the money to join her in Canada but when Nadia disappears without a trace, Yann is on his own.

Un lac

Philippe Grandrieux : 2009
A Lake

The film takes place in a land of which we know nothing, one of darkness, snow and dense forests, somewhere in the North. A family lives in an isolated house near a lake. Alexi, the brother, is a woodcutter who supports the family by logging. An ecstatic, prey to frequent and violent epileptic seizures, he is entirely at one with the nature that surrounds him. He adores his younger sister, Hege, perhaps excessively. Their blind mother, their father and their little brother are the silent witnesses to their overwhelming love. But the arrival of a stranger to help with the logging sets off tremors that dislocate the delicate balance of family relationships. Exploring the foundations of desire and the boundaries of love, a dream-like and emotional fable of otherness and solitude, and the reconciliation of the two.

La fille du puisatier

Daniel Auteuil : 2011
The Well Digger's Daughter

Set in the sun-drenched Provençal countryside at the outbreak of World War II, a father is torn between his sense of honour and his deep love for his eldest daughter when she conceives the child of a wealthy shopkeeper's son. As she cuts across the fields to take her father his lunch, Patricia meets Jacques Mazel. She is 18, he is 26. She is pretty, with the fine manners of a young lady; he is a fighter pilot and a handsome young man. A full moon will do the rest on their second meeting. There won't be a third rendez-vous as Jacques is sent to the front. Meanwhile, Patricia finds herself pregnant and the boy's rich parents accuse her of blackmail. Patricia and her father, the well-digger, will alone have the joy of welcoming her child. A joy that the Mazels will soon envy and seek to share when Jacques goes missing in action.

Las Acacias

Pablo Giorgelli : 2011

Truck driver Rubén picks up Jacinta, a young mother carrying her five-month-old daughter Anahí. Rubén is driving with his cargo of timber from Asunción del Paraguay to Buenos Aires, and he's agreed to take these extra passengers across the border for his boss. He's a man of few words and his dour, unsmiling expression remains fixed on the road as he ignores the woman and child in the cab next to him. For Jacinta this is clearly going to be a long journey, despite her efforts to engage the taciturn Rubén. But gradually the strained atmosphere gives way to conversation, and then to trust and affection as they begin to express genuine feelings for each other. This development is aided by little Anahí who warms to Rubén, making it impossible for him not to reciprocate. Beautifully photographed, with delicate lighting and natural sound, an enchanting and emotionally rich masterpiece of contemporary "slow cinema".

Agua fría de mar

Paz Fábrega : 2010
Cold Water of the Sea

On a winter holiday, Mariana and Rodrigo drive to the Costa Rican coast where he has to sell a property. There, they find a seven-year-old girl Karina, late at night and in the middle of nowhere. She tells them she ran away from home. They try to help her but Karina is unforthcoming and in the morning has disappeared, gone back to rejoin her family. The brief encounter has a disorienting effect on Mariana, setting off an existential crisis. This visually stunning, powerful and contemplative debut feature examines a young woman's inner turmoil shown through the reckless actions of a small, wilful girl.