Warm Spring

Nuan Chun
a film by Wulan Tana

Seeking refuge from abusive foster parents, a seven-year-old orphaned girl runs away and finds safety under the care of a poor, illiterate old man from another village. Despite his lack of money and despite being taunted by friends, the elderly man does everything in his power to protect the young child whom he believes was delivered to him by fate.

Xiao Hua has escaped from her abusive foster parents and finds herself starved and barely conscious in a village of strangers. Though the villagers feel sorry for her, only an infirm old man is willing to take her in and provide for her care. The uneducated, elderly man is a hard worker, so he could afford to send Xiao Hua to school, even though he is barely able to support his own needs. Xiao Hua works hard at school and forms a close bond with the old man, whom she calls Grandpa, but he endures constant bitterness and betrayal from his son, Bao Zhu, and daughter-in-law, Xiang Cao, who is unable to conceive. Xiao Hua attempts to fill this void for them, but her innocence is rejected repeatedly by Xiang Cao's selfishness as she tries desperately to send Xiao Hua away.

The old man's only wish is to provide Xiao Hua with a home and a bright future and he will do anything he can to deliver his promises. While the villagers and his son don't understand what he could possibly expect from the young orphan, the old man's kindness melts away all the boundaries and gradually Xiao Hua thaws the hearts of Bao Zhu and Xiang Cao. This poignant story of selfless love is a study in patience and humility, with a stirring conclusion when the daughter-in-law must face her own intolerance and ingratitude when the truth about her husband is finally revealed.

Adapted from a true story and drawn from the real lives led by many poor, ordinary people, this heart-rending and deeply moving drama with its simple but profound message, illustrates their kindness and suffering endured for the sake of love. Writer/director Wulan Tana's first feature won her the prestigious Golden Rooster Award for Best Directorial Debut at Beijing in 2003.

Lou

A film by Belinda Chayko

Living in rural New South Wales, 27-year-old single mother Rhia is struggling to evade debt collectors and raise three young daughters, Louise, Leanne and Lani. The eldest, and hardened beyond her years, Lou blames Rhia for the departure of her father, who walked out ten months ago and hasn't been seen since. Mother-daughter relations hit bottom when Rhia takes in Doyle, her father-in-law, who is in the beginning stages of Alzheimer's. Doyle turns Lou's initial hostility around with exciting tales of his South Seas adventures. But coursing deepest in his mind are fractured memories of Annie, his late wife, and before long, Doyle sees Annie in Lou and imagines he is courting her all over again.

Eleven-year-old Lou's life was instantly turned upside down when her father walked out on her mother and two sisters. Feeling abandoned, she copes by building a protective shell around her heart – afraid to let anyone hurt her again. Lou blames her mother for her father's departure and refuses to let her get close. However, life suddenly becomes more interesting when her estranged grandfather temporarily moves in to the family's home.

Doyle brings chaos with him, not least because he is ill and befuddled – living largely in the past. In his confused state, Doyle mistakes his granddaughter for his long departed wife, showering her with attention in an attempt to win her affections. Lou, intrigued, plays along with the fantasy, using her bond with Doyle against her mother. As the game progresses, Lou begins to experience genuine care from Doyle. Her tough shell begins to be chipped away and Lou ultimately understands what it is to be loved and to place her trust in adults – in the most unexpected of circumstances.

An intimate, insightful and contemplative slow-paced drama told from a child's point of view; a child taking that step through imagination and affection to discovering a more confident self. With remarkable performances and exceptional naturalism, the film is beautifully shot in and around the cane-growing area of Murwillumbah in northern NSW, the hometown of writer and director Belinda Chayko.

The young actress and singer, Lily Bell-Tindley, who played the part of Lou opposite Emily Barclay and the late John Hurt, sadly died on 19 October 2021, aged 25.

La ciénaga

The Swamp
a film by Lucrecia Martel

Two families spend the summer in the mountains of Salta in north-western Argentina. We hear the insistent clinking of ice cubes in glasses, the scrape of metal chairs on a concrete patio; we observe people splayed in beds trying to sleep through the humidity. Before long, the crowded domestic situation in both homes strains the families' nerves, exposing repressed family mysteries, and tensions that threaten to erupt into violence.

Mecha, the family matriarch, lives in a dilapidated country retreat near La Ciénaga with her husband Gregorio and her teenage children. The humidity is stifling and the only pastime the adults can think of is to drink – constantly. One drinking session by the pool leads to a trip to the hospital, leaving the children, with no adult supervision, to their own devices – sunbathing, hunting, dancing, driving illegally, and diving in the stagnant pool. The only adults who seem to care at all are the Indian servants who are constantly being harassed by Mecha for allegedly stealing towels. What unfolds is a subtle and sly look at intimacies of a middle-class family in crisis, with the microscope artfully observing the infidelities, alliances, prejudices and secret infatuations.

The many disturbing, and somewhat confusing images and dialogue, succeed in conveying the oppression, ills and limitations that plague the lives of the characters. This stunning 2001 debut feature from writer/director Lucrecia Martel offers a glimpse into Argentina's dysfunctional class dynamics and tortured race relations. Its striking and almost feral imagery creates a hypnotic portrait of the torpor and decadence of a decaying bourgeois society.

Maria Full of Grace

A film by Joshua Marston

María Álvarez, a bright, spirited 17-year-old, lives with three generations of her family in a cramped house in rural Colombia. Desperate to leave her job, María accepts a lucrative offer to transport packets of cocaine, which she must swallow, to the United States. Far from the uneventful trip she is promised, María is transported into the risky and ruthless world of international drug trafficking as she becomes entangled with both drug cartels and immigration officials.

Working in sweat shop-like conditions, stripping thorns from roses at a flower plantation, María's income helps support her family, including an unemployed older sister who is a single mother. But when she becomes pregnant by a man she does not love, and after unjust treatment from her supervisor, she quits work despite her family's vehement disapproval. On her way to Bogotá to find a new job, she is offered a position as a drug mule. Desperate, she accepts the risks and swallows 62 pellets of cocaine sealed with latex and dental floss and flies to New York City with her immature friend Blanca.

On arrival, María is interviewed by US customs who are suspicious of her movements but she avoids being X-rayed due to her pregnancy, and they ultimately believe her story that the father of her child paid for her air ticket. The traffickers collect María and several other mules and they are sequestered in a hotel room until they pass all the drug pellets. Fellow mule Lucy falls ill when a pellet apparently ruptures inside her and the traffickers cut her body open to retrieve the pellets she is carrying. When the traffickers leave to dump Lucy's body, María convinces Blanca to escape with her and they abscond with the drugs they have passed.

With nowhere to sleep, María goes to Lucy's sister's apartment but doesn't reveal to the sister that Lucy is dead. Soon Blanca joins her there but eventually the sister is told the truth and throws them out. Blanca and María return the drugs to the traffickers and receive their payment. María uses some of her drug money to send Lucy's body home to Colombia. Her mission having become one of determination and survival, she ultimately emerges with the grace that will carry her forward into a new life. Finally, at the airport, as she is about to board the plane with Blanca back to Colombia, María decides she must stay.

Focusing on a global economic system that promotes the exploitation of the poor, this well-crafted and very human drama is also an understated yet brutal depiction of a young girl's journey in learning to take responsibility. Joshua Marston's debut feature was the recipient of numerous international nominations and awards, including prizes at Sundance and Berlin International Film Festival.

Norwegian Wood

Noruwei no mori
a film by Tràn Anh Hung

Tokyo in the late 1960s. Students around the world are uniting to overthrow the establishment and Toru Watanabe is a quiet and serious young college student whose personal life is in tumult. After losing his best friend Kizuki when he inexplicably commits suicide, Watanabe becomes uncertain as to how he should view life, and as he looks for a new life, he enters university in Tokyo. By chance, during a walk in a park he meets Kizuki's ex-girlfriend Naoko and they grow close since they both share the same loss. At heart, Watanabe is deeply devoted to Naoko, a beautiful and introspective young woman. But as they grow even closer, their complex bond having been forged by the tragic death of their best friend, Naoko's sense of loss also grows.

After Naoko's 20th birthday, which she shares with Watanabe, she withdraws from the world and leaves for a sanatorium in the remote forested hills near Kyoto to regain some emotional stability. Watanabe is devastated by the situation, since he still has deep feelings for Naoko, but she is unable to reciprocate. He also lives with the influence of death everywhere, while Naoko feels as if some integral part of her has been permanently lost. He continues with his studies, and during the spring semester meets an attractive girl and fellow student Midori – outgoing, vivacious, supremely self-confident – who is everything that Naoko is not. Like Watanabe, Midori is in love with another, yet as they flirt with each other they are drawn together. As Naoko becomes increasingly unreachable, so Midori becomes increasingly available, but as Naoko's state of mind worsens Watanabe finds himself falling deeper in love with her. Torn between the two women in his life, Watanabe must also choose between his past and his future.

Adapted from Haruki Murakami's bestselling novel, published in 1987 and since translated into 33 languages, Norwegian Wood is a sensitive and deeply moving story of adolescent love, loss, heartbreak and mental illness, set in a time of global instability. A tender, visually exquisite film with beautiful cinematography and superb performances, featuring soundtrack music by Can and score by Jonny Greenwood.

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.

Nobody Knows

Dare mo shiranai
a film by Kore-eda Hirokazu

Four siblings live happily with their mother in a small apartment in Tokyo. The children all have different fathers and have never been to school. The very existence of three of them has been hidden from the landlord. One day, the mother leaves behind a little money and a note, charging her oldest boy to look after the others. So begins the children's odyssey, a journey nobody knows, following the daily lives of 12-year-old Akira Fukushima, his sister Kyoko, brother Shigeru, the youngest sister, 4-year-old Yuki, and then Saki, a schoolgirl drop-out who befriends Akira and does what she can to help him support the family.

Though engulfed by the cruel fate of abandonment, the four children do their best to survive in their own little world, devising and following their own set of rules. When they are forced to engage with the world outside their cocooned universe, the fragile balance that has sustained them collapses. Their innocent longing for their mother, their wary fascination towards the outside world, their anxiety over their increasingly desperate situation, their inarticulate cries, their kindness to each other, their determination to survive on wits and courage.

Director Kore-eda Hirokazu on the making of the film: "This film was inspired by a real event known as the "Affair of the Four Abandoned Children of Nishi-Sugamo" which took place in 1988. Born of different fathers, these children never went to school and didn't legally exist because their births were never declared. Abandoned by their mother, they lived on their own for six months. The death of the youngest girl put a tragic end to this adventure. Curiously, not one inhabitant of the building was aware of the existence of three of the children. This headline brought up various questions to my mind. The life of these children couldn't have been only negative. There must have been a richness other than material, based on those moments of understanding, joy, sadness and hope. So I didn't want to show the "hell" as seen from the outside, but the "richness" of their life as seen from the inside."

Progressing gently, the film is absorbing and beautiful in its simplicity, yet intense and powerful in the emotions it evokes. Acutely observed from the perspective of the children, it highlights unsentimentally and non-judgmentally, the different ways in which they cope with their situation, isolated from the world around them.

At the Height of Summer

Mùa hè chiều thẳng đứng
a film by Tràn Anh Hung

On the anniversary of their mother's death, three sisters in contemporary Vietnam meet to prepare a memorial banquet. Intensely close, they tell each other everything and seek each other's advice on every subject, and yet each has a secret. By the end of a turbulent period of temptations, disappointments, suspicions, separations and misunderstandings, each of them will have revealed what the tact and discretion of familial relationship has always kept hidden. The story, spatially framed by anniversaries, is set within a single month starting with the family preparing the anniversary meal in honour of their departed mother and concluding just before a similar event is about to take place in memory of their father.

It is high summer and the atmosphere is languid. The three sisters run the Café Thùy Dương, situated in a luxuriant and elegant district of old Hanoi, populated by artists and intellectuals. Youngest sister Liên slowly awakens in the apartment she shares with her brother Hai. She enjoys an emotional and physical closeness with him, allowing other people to think they are a couple. Hai is uncomfortable with this and gently discourages his little sister's display of affection. However, each morning he awakes to find Liên sleeping in his bed. At their mother's memorial gathering the sisters discuss their parents' marriage and the possibility of their mother's infidelity with a fellow student but are unwilling to admit that their parents' relationship could have been less than ideal. During the month that follows each sister's hidden relationship problems and fears are gradually revealed.

Suong, the eldest sister, is married to Quôc, a botanical photographer and they have a child, Little Mouse. Since her miscarriage four years before, Quôc has led a double life, supposedly in secret, with another woman and their young son in the remote Ha Long Bay. When he is away from her with his second family, Suong seeks refuge in an affair with Tuân. Each suffers the guilt and remorse that comes from their need to feel loved and wanted. Middle sister Khanh's husband, Kiên, is a writer struggling to finish his first novel through which he expresses his fantasies about having an affair. When Khanh tells him that she is pregnant he almost betrays her in a Saigon hotel but she believes that he has been unfaithful. Liên, also with relationship problems, is naive about sexuality and biology and whilst embracing the idea that she is pregnant after sleeping with a boyfriend just once, she continues to flirt with her brother Hai.

The film tells the stories of three women in different stages of life. The young, emotionally immature girl, who lives in a fantasy world and is beginning to explore her sexuality. Her older sister, who is married and trying to have a child, whilst worrying about her husband and the larger family. And the eldest sister, who has faced much more and looks for solutions in life that work. As the three women struggle with life on different levels, they share their problems, offering help and support to each other as an opportunity for forgiveness and growth rather than confrontation. During what becomes a pivotal month in their lives, the three sisters and their brother are forced to face the nature of their relationships.

Writer and director Tràn Anh Hung comments on the imagery of his film: "The images in the film have no documentary substance, nor do they depict the present as experienced by the characters. Rather, they are incessantly repeated images, burnished into the characters' consciousnesses. Images that the characters will keep, like secrets or recall like memories of harmony. The harmony they convey has a particular beauty, a beauty tainted by bitterness and melancholy."

Exquisitely acted and photographed, this sensuous and visually rich film is an elegant and resonant combination of mood, ravishing visuals and music, detailing and reflecting upon the everyday moments in life as pure cinematic poetry. The film premiered in the Un Certain Regard selection at Festival de Cannes 2000.

Confessions

Kokuhaku
a film by Tetsuya Nakashima

Yuko Moriguchi is a middle school teacher whose four-year-old daughter is found dead. Her life shattered, she finally returns to her classroom only to become convinced that two of her students were responsible for her daughter's murder. With the police having dismissed the child's death as an accident, Yuko puts into motion an intricate plan of revenge and psychological warfare designed to utterly destroy the lives of the two killers and to force them to realise the impact of their actions.

In the classroom an unruly mob of teenage students are having their milk break. As their teacher speaks they pay little attention, focusing more on throwing the cartons around, bullying one another, gossiping, or sending text messages. She announces that she is to quit teaching at the end of the month. She then speaks of how she became pregnant by her fiancé, Dr Sakuramiya, a dedicated and respected teacher who was diagnosed with AIDS. They had then chosen not to marry as it would be better for the child to have no father, than to have to live with the stigma. While he had later died, both she and their daughter, Manami, were lucky since neither of them had contracted the disease.

As a single mother, when Manami turned one year old, Yuko returned to teaching and would bring her daughter to the school crèche. At the age of four Manami was found drowned in the school pool and although it was considered an accident, Yuko knows that two of the students in her present class had murdered the child. Without naming them, she makes their identities clear to the other pupils and tells the class that under the juvenile penal code minors are not criminally responsible and therefore cannot be punished for their crime. So she has decided to take matters into her own hands and has injected her former lover's HIV-positive blood into the milk that the guilty pair have just been drinking. The classroom erupts into chaos. One of the two boys, Shuya Watanabe, is an intelligent child but has a sociopathic reputation among the students who say that he devises experiments to cruelly torture animals. The other student, Naoki Shimomura, is a weak-willed loner who has fallen under Shuya's manipulative spell. As Yuko finishes her confession each boy responds to the news in a very different way.

Following further confessions and perspectives of students and parents which fill in events before and after Yuko's testimonial, we later see that conscience-free Shuya continues his attendance at school where he is taunted, beaten and abused by his classmates. Naoki however, believing he is lethally infected, locks himself away in isolation, refusing to speak, eat or wash, watched over by his over-protective mother who will not accept that her child could have done anything wrong. Equally in the dark is the young and naive, new class teacher Yoshiteru Terada, who believes in befriending the students and trying to be one of them, but he too is manipulated by Yuko. Also drawn into the revenge tragedy is the schoolgirl Mizuki Kitahara, who has her own obsession with death and murder, and is also bullied for taking the side of Shuya. Increasingly, the dark, obsessive nature of the children is revealed and as the hysteria mounts, Yuko's revenge plan twists and turns to bring about the ultimate destruction of the lives of her daughter's murderers. The sound of something important disappearing forever. Her plan is made all the more awful by the fact that it relies so coldly upon the latent callousness and sadism of her class to unwittingly carry it out.

This unique, brilliantly crafted and devastating film is based upon the award-winning debut novel by Kanae Minato. Director Tetsuya Nakashima draws superb and utterly convincing performances from the young cast. His masterly use of dramatic camera angles, focus shifts and slow motion, innovative cinematography and the dynamic inclusion of hypnotic soundtrack music, creates a sense of cold bleakness and emotional distance, but with a stunning visual beauty. Focusing on the different characters and their own mini-confessions, the film unflinchingly explores the arrogance and cruelty inherent in the human psyche and its propensity to prey upon the weak and defenceless.

The Hunter

Shekarchi
a film by Rafi Pitts

Ali Alavi has recently been released from prison and makes the most of his return, amidst much talk of the upcoming elections and promises of political change. Working as a night watchman in a Tehran factory now means that he is at least able to support his loving wife, Sara, and their six-year-old daughter, Saba. Ali tries to spend the most time possible with them, but needing also to escape the stress of urban living he retreats to his favourite pastime of hunting in the secluded forest to the north of the city.

One day, Ali comes home from work to discover that Sara and Saba have disappeared. Realising that there's no point in waiting for them any more, Ali decides to go to the police. But there's chaos at the police station and it takes hours for him to get any information. Finally, he is told that his wife was caught up in a shoot-out with demonstrators and was killed. His daughter Saba, however, is still missing.

Ali's search for his daughter drives him to distraction and ends in horror when her dead body is eventually discovered, pushing him over the edge. Desperate for revenge, in broad daylight overlooking the busy city's surrounding highways, Ali randomly shoots and kills two policemen with his hunting rifle. The police mount a ground and air search operation as Ali heads out of the city. After a high-speed chase in dense fog along a country road his car crashes and he flees into the northern forest where he is captured by two police officers. Ali is resigned to his fate and watches quietly as the arguing policemen lose their way in the woods. In such a remote landscape as this, situations become complicated and the line between hunter and hunted is difficult to define.

Commenting on the ambiguity of the narrative, writer and director Rafi Pitts explains: "The film concentrates on hunting down to explore the pressure of a time bomb society. The 'hunter' could obviously be seen as the leading character Ali, but there can also be other interpretations. Keeping things open to interpretation is an important element of my filmmaking. As a director, I try to give as many meanings as possible. My job is to question. I don't believe in trying to give answers."

A searing indictment of political corruption, The Hunter is a tense, compelling and beautifully shot minimalist thriller, set against the background of social unrest in Iran.

Before Sunset

A film by Richard Linklater

Nine years have passed since Jesse and Céline met on a train and spent a single night together in Vienna. Since then, Jesse has written a novel, "This Time", inspired by his encounter with Céline, and the book has become a bestseller in the United States. He has returned to Europe to promote the book and the last stop on his tour is at the Shakespeare and Company bookshop in Paris. As Jesse talks with his audience, we see in flashbacks his memories of their night in Vienna which have clearly remained with him throughout the ensuing years.

Three journalists are present at the bookstore, interviewing Jesse: a romantic who is convinced the book's main characters meet again; a cynic who is convinced that they don't; and a third one who, despite wanting them to meet again, remains doubtful they actually do. As Jesse speaks with his audience his eyes wander towards the window and to his utter surprise he sees Céline standing there, smiling at him.

When the presentation is over, the bookstore manager reminds him he has a plane to catch and must leave for the airport in a little more than an hour, so as with the first meeting, Céline and Jesse's reunion is constrained by time. Again they are forced to make the best of the little time they have together, and their conversations become ever more personal, beginning with the usual themes of work and politics and then, with ever increasing passion, approaching their love for each other, just as their time together is running out. Earlier in their conversation, they broach the subject of why they did not meet as promised six months after their first encounter. Jesse had returned to Vienna, as promised, but Céline did not, because her grandmother had died suddenly and the funeral took place on the date set for their meeting. Because they had never exchanged addresses, they were unable to contact each other, which resulted in their missed connection.

As they talk, each reveals what has happened in their life since first meeting. Both are now in their early thirties. Jesse, now a writer, is married and has a son. Céline works for an international environmental agency, lived in New York for a time, and has a boyfriend who is a photojournalist. It becomes clear in the course of their conversation that both are dissatisfied to varying degrees with their lives. Jesse reveals that he only stays with his wife out of love for his son. Céline says that she does not see her boyfriend very much because he is so often on assignment. Their conversation as they traverse Paris takes place in various venues, including a café, a garden, a bateau mouche, and Jesse's hired car for his stay in Paris. Their old feelings for each other are slowly rekindled, even with moments of tension and regret over the missed meeting, as they realise that nothing else in their lives has matched their one prior night together in Vienna. Jesse eventually admits that he wrote the book in the distant hope of meeting Céline again one day. She replies that the book brought back painful memories for her.

As their time together draws to a close they arrive at her apartment. Earlier Céline had told Jesse that she plays the guitar and he persuades her to play one song before he has to leave. The song Céline sings for him is about their brief encounter nine years ago and reveals through the lyrics that he is still the only one she loves. Jesse then plays a Nina Simone CD on the stereo system. Céline dances by herself to the song "Just in Time" as Jesse watches her. As Céline imitates Simone, she mutters to Jesse, "Baby ... you are gonna miss that plane". Jesse smiles whilst nervously fidgeting with his wedding ring and ambiguously responds, "I know", leaving us to decide whether or not he stays this time.

Jesse and Céline are characters of real life, effected by their decisions good or bad, making compromises, sometimes insecure, a little scarred, but still holding on to memories and dreams of perfect moments. She had a different life after the encounter than he did. While he still longs for Céline in his heart, he did move on. She longs for Jesse in her heart, and to this day cannot find anyone to replace his purity. But now there is more at stake, for they are nine years older, have made their share of mistakes, feel imprisoned by responsibilities, and must confront their shortcomings and problems. Whilst they are still on a journey they are no longer certain that their destination is the right one – they are unsure whether they can change direction, or even if they should, but afraid of what will happen if they don't. Where Sunrise captured the immediacy and urgency of perfect youthful love, Sunset reflects beautifully on the aftermath of that perfection.

Before Sunrise

A film by Richard Linklater

A young man and woman meet by chance on a train in Europe and embark on a spontaneous romantic evening together in Vienna, walking around the city and getting to know each other. In the course of their 14-hour relationship, the two share in their love for the unrehearsed and their appreciation for the unexpected as they explore in a powerful meeting of hearts and minds. But as they find themselves being drawn closer, both know that this will probably be their only night together.

Jesse, a young American, and Céline, a French student, meet on a train travelling from Budapest to Vienna. Jesse is going to Vienna to catch a flight back to the United States, whereas Céline is returning to university in Paris after visiting her grandmother. They soon become immersed in conversation about themselves, relationships and life experiences, and sensing that they are developing a connection, Jesse asks Céline to disembark with him. He has to catch a flight early in the morning and does not have enough money to rent a room, so he suggests they roam around the city together for the night. Céline, already developing similar feelings for Jesse and wishing to continue their conversation, agrees.

After visiting a few landmarks in Vienna, they share a kiss at the top of the Wiener Riesenrad Ferris wheel at sunset and start to feel a romantic connection. As they continue to roam, they begin to talk more openly with each other, with conversations ranging from topics about love, life, religion, and their observations of the city. Céline tells Jesse that her last boyfriend broke up with her six months ago, claiming that she "loved him too much". When questioned, Jesse reveals he had initially come to Europe to spend time with his girlfriend who was studying in Madrid, but they had broken up when she was avoiding him while he was there. He decided to take a cheap flight home out of Vienna, but since it did not leave for two weeks he bought a Eurail pass and had been travelling on trains around Europe.

When they are walking alongside the Donaukanal they are approached by a man who, instead of begging, offers to write them a poem with a word of their choice in it. Jesse and Céline decide on the word "milkshake", and are soon presented with the beautiful and very appropriate poem, Delusion Angel. In a traditional Viennese café, Céline begins to play a game whereby they stage fake telephone conversations with each other, playing each others' friends they pretend to call. Céline reveals that she was ready to get off the train with Jesse before he convinced her. Jesse reveals that after he broke up with his girlfriend, he bought a flight that was not much cheaper, and all he really wanted was an escape from his life. Within these conversations each is free to express their feelings for the other in a more truthful and less self-conscious way than they would by making direct statements.

They admit their attraction to each other and how the night has made them feel, though they understand that they probably will not see each other again when they leave. They simply decide to make the best of what time they have left, ending the night in an implied sexual embrace. Early the following morning they make their way to the railway station for Céline to catch her train to Paris. The moment when they must part finally arrives with a sudden and very emotional goodbye, but with them agreeing to meet at the same place in six months time. Céline boards her train and Jesse walks out of the station to get his bus to the airport.

A portrait of two strangers, both in search of love, who make a romantic, intellectual, and spiritual bond with one another. Questions about fate and the transitory nature of relationships are raised, then left open for us to ponder. Full of wonderfully amusing, touching and insightful moments of bittersweet poignancy, Jesse and Céline's connection is built on a natural chemistry. Although the narrative is entirely dialogue-driven, much also relies upon their body language, subtle facial expressions, and the silences between the characters. The absolute beauty of it lies in its perfection as a simple love story – of two lives suddenly thrown together in the midst of reality, and the ensuing night of simple love that follows.

April Story

Shigatsu monogatari
a film by Shunji Iwai

Uzuki Nireno is a young Japanese girl who is leaving her home in the northern countryside of Hokkaido to go to the college of her choice at Musashino University in western Tokyo. She has just boarded the train that will take her away from everything familiar to her. Her family stand on the platform waving goodbye, the doors close and the train pulls out of the station. Uzuki now enters a new world full of possibility, with great expectation and some trepidation.

On arrival in Tokyo she makes her way to the empty apartment that will be her home. As she explores its rooms and lies down on the floor, its internal bleakness emphasises her isolation in a new environment which she must now make her own. At this moment it is contrasted with the beauty outdoors of the bustling tree-lined streets that surround the apartment building, where Spring sakura blossoms now fall like the snowflakes she left behind in Hokkaido. It is April, the start of the academic year and of new beginnings. Soon the removals team arrive and fill her rooms with packing cases and pieces of furniture, bringing a sudden but necessary chaos into her new living space. Uzuki begins the task of unpacking and then goes out to explore her neighbourhood.

Being very shy and a little introverted, at first Uzuki is very insecure and nervous about her new situation. Everything appears so unfamiliar and she finds herself making all the wrong choices when trying to both adapt and to be herself. At college, her self-introduction in class goes badly and she is disappointed at her lack of social skills. Whilst it is really of little importance to her classmates, Uzuki is crushed.

In the refectory she is approached by an austere and rather pushy girl, Saeko, who wants to enrol her in the fly-fishing club. Desperately wanting to make new friends and not wishing to refuse the first offer of friendship, she agrees to try it, despite having no real interest in the sport. Just as things appear to be going well, her lack of pop-culture knowledge makes it difficult for her to communicate with the other members, and she later discovers that Saeko's enthusiasm to enrol her was simply due to the new reels being awarded to members for recruiting friends. Uzuki also endures several unwanted approaches from men, first at a cinema when watching a samurai classic, and later from a senior student at the fishing club when he attaches a hook to the front of her cardigan.

But in between her attempts to socialise with her fellow students, she makes several visits to a bookshop and gradually her singular hope and purpose, the very reason she has chosen to study at Musashino, is revealed to us. When she was in high school she fell in love with a boy named Yamazaki, a year above her. Too shy ever to approach him, Uzuki had kept secret her feelings for him, but when she discovered he was studying at the university and working in a bookshop, she knew at once what she must do. On each visit to the bookshop she makes disguised enquiries about opening and closing times in order to establish when Yamazaki will next be working in the shop. Finally her chance comes and she orchestrates an opportunity to get his attention but he responds to her only as a customer. Just as she is beginning to despair, he recognises her from high school and begins asking her all the questions about herself that she has been longing to answer.

As she leaves the shop, a downpour begins and Yamazaki offers her an umbrella from several that have been left behind by customers. At first she refuses and leaves, but having had time to think about it while on the steps of the art gallery, she returns to the bookshop to accept his offer. Uzuki and Yamazaki stand outside in the rain each sheltering under an umbrella and her moment arrives when she asks him if he is still in a band, adding that he was famous. While Yamazaki dismisses it by asking "I was?", Uzuki replies with such sincerity, "With me". As the emotional tension rises during their exchange in the torrential rainstorm, Uzuki at last makes her declaration of love, and seeing that it has been understood and accepted, the magic of first love begins to unfold.

Capturing a few moments in the life of a girl who is not only changing her outward surroundings but also following her inward desires, this gentle, engaging and very beautiful story touches us with its portrayal of the fragile, transitory moments we have all known.

Chocolat

A film by Claire Denis

In a remote town in Cameroon lives a sole white family during the last days of France's African colonies. Marc Dalens, the often-travelling regional administrator; his wife Aimée, who does her best to stave off frustration and boredom with household activities; and their young daughter France, who cultivates a special and loving friendship with the native servant boy Protée. But as France and her mother attempt to move past the established boundaries between themselves and the native Africans, the family's ordered world is threatened with chaos when a plane full of strangers makes a forced landing nearby, its arrival unleashing a torrent of simmering resentments, racism and repressed passions.

The disastrous effects of French colonialism are examined through the paradigm of a young girl's coming of age in French West Africa. As France, a woman travelling alone in Cameroon, slips into a dreamy and distant flashback to her childhood days, scenes of a transient existence come into focus. France's father, a district governor, and her fragile mother are living a relatively peaceful if somewhat strained existence when a small plane carrying a gaggle of French imperialists and their entourage makes an emergency landing near their house. An ex-seminary drifter, a white plantation owner and his African concubine, and a newly-wed couple are forced to stay with the family, causing tensions and troubles that were bubbling barely below the surface to silently erupt. Sexual tensions, as well as social and class struggles, explode, with expansive vistas of Cameroon as an astonishing yet innocent backdrop. The heat, the landscape, and the underlying and eroticised tension converge as the noble and austere houseboy, Protée, becomes the focus of France's memories and regrets.

Claire Denis's beautifully photographed first feature from 1988, a loosely autobiographical story adapted from her childhood memories, observes closely yet non-judgmentally through gestures and glances, the intricate nature of relationships in a decaying colonial society.

La niña santa

The Holy Girl
a film by Lucrecia Martel

Set in La Salta in north-western Argentina, sixteen-year-old schoolgirl Amalia lives with her mother, the manager of a shabby hotel which is hosting a medical conference. When a stranger makes a crude pass at her in a crowded street, Amalia later discovers that the man is in fact one of the distinguished conference attendees, Dr Jano, who is staying at her family's hotel. She is upset but takes his inappropriate action as a sign that her faith has given her a mission.

Inés, a young Catholic teacher, is leading a group of girls in choir practice. After rehearsals the girls get together to discuss faith and vocation. The subject of discussion is the student's "mission" and how they can recognise the signs that point to God's calling. Amalia and her best friend, Josefina, whisper secretly about kissing, constantly making references to the teacher's alleged love affairs. Josefina is from a conservative family who live not far from the now run-down Hotel Termas where Amalia lives with her mother Helena, a divorcée, and the rest of her family.

While Amalia is standing in a crowd watching a musician in the street, Dr Jano makes a lewd advance. Initially shocked, Amalia proceeds to stalk him, and consumed by the heady combination of her fervent religious education and burgeoning sexuality, she resolves to save the respected doctor's soul but finds herself caught in a confusing web of frustration, desire and anticipation. Never sure whether she is erring on the side of sin or vocational service, she embarks on a mission that brings both their worlds to the brink of collapse.

Amalia's story is partly about an adolescent girl's discovery of her sexual vulnerability and the sexual power she possesses. Lucrecia Martel describes her film as one which explores good and evil – not the battle between them, but the difficulty distinguishing one from the other. She also comments on comparisons between medicine and holiness – both can lead to good, both can corrupt. The director's remarkable second feature, in which the story unfolds in glimpses and whispered conversations as an intimate series of minimalist vignettes, is an enigmatic and absorbing study of the temptation of good, and the evil that it causes.

Glorious 39

A film by Stephen Poliakoff

Set between present-day London and the idyllic Norfolk countryside during the glorious summer of 1939, just before the outbreak of the Second World War.

At a time of great uncertainty and high tension, the story revolves around the formidable Keyes family, minor English gentry who are keen to uphold and preserve their very traditional way of life. The eldest sibling, Anne, is a budding young actress who is in love with Foreign Office official Lawrence, but her seemingly perfect life begins to dramatically unravel when she stumbles across secret recordings of a sinister plot by the pro-appeasement movement.

While trying to discover the origin of these recordings, connections are revealed which lead to the deaths of close friends and Anne finds herself swept into a web of dark secrets and in increasing danger from a powerful and menacing enemy. As war breaks out Anne discovers the truth and flees to London to try to confirm her suspicions, but she is caught and interned in the family's London house. With her most precious certainties destroyed and unable to trust even those closest to her, she comes to realise the full extent of her own betrayal and vulnerability.

A tense psychological thriller set against the political turmoil in Britain leading up to WWII, exploring the duplicity and ruthlessness of the section of upper-class English society that was desperate to appease Hitler in order to preserve its own way of life.

Read My Lips

Sur mes lèvres
a film by Jacques Audiard

Carla Behm is an overworked secretary in the busy office of a Paris-based property development company. Loyal and hardworking, she is unable to bear the limitations of her job and is hoping for a career promotion. Although confident of her own abilities, she is consistantly bullied and under-appreciated by her male colleagues. She is also deaf and can only hear people speak with the help of hearing aids. Partly due to the isolating nature of her disability, she has no social life beyond babysitting for her friend Annie who thrills Carla with tales of her sexual exploits. Carla has developed the ability to lip-read and much of her private life is filled with solitary time as she eavesdrops on conversations from a distance, while longing for a relationship with a man for herself.

When work at the office begins to overwhelm her, Carla's boss suggests she contacts a temp agency to supply an assistant. The agency sends Paul Angeli for Carla to interview and it becomes immediately clear that Paul has none of the required skills for office work as he is a recently released criminal currently on parole, but he is desperate for the job. Carla is immediately attracted by his scruffy and feral appearance, and hires him. She trains him in routine office duties and also covers for his lack of experience. One morning she arrives to find Paul has been sleeping each night in an office closet so she finds him a flat in an unfinished apartment block belonging to the company. When he tries to express his gratitude by making a clumsy pass at her Carla rebuffs him, preferring to introduce him at a party to show her friends how she too can have a boyfriend.

At the office, a senior salesman allows Carla to do all the work on a new contract and then manages to snatch it away from her just as she is ready to make the presentation and gain some credit to work up into a better position. Carla responds by blackmailing Paul into stealing the file and protecting her so she can close the contract herself. Paul is then tracked down by Marchand, a crime boss who demands under physical threat that Paul work for him in his nightclub to repay a loan, and when Paul is forced to agree he finds solidarity from Carla who falsifies the work records so that it will appear that he is working at the office. But then Paul discovers that Marchand is planning a bank robbery and he gets Carla involved by using her lip-reading skills to gain information and ultimately find a large cache of stolen money.

Carla's impaired hearing and the sense of her spatial and psychological isolation in a world without sound is portrayed with a subtle realism. The evolving relationship between Carla and Paul is the real subject of the film, as the labyrinthine plot develops into an engaging and suspenseful crime thriller. The story is an unstinting examination of a collaboration between two damaged people who manipulate and deceive each other, while skirting around their obvious and deep mutual attraction.

La vallée

The Valley (Obscured by Clouds)
a film by Barbet Schroeder

When Viviane, a chic diplomat's wife, meets an intriguing adventurer and his hippie friends in the wilds of Papua New Guinea different worlds collide. The group, led by enigmatic visionary Gaetan, convince Viviane to join their expedition in search of a mysterious uncharted valley which they believe to be Paradise. Their journey becomes a quest for origins.

Viviane is an uncomplicated young woman married to the French Consul in Melbourne. Her interest in native artefacts leads her to Papua New Guinea in search of the near-extinct Bird of Paradise feathers, which she plans to send back for sale in Paris boutiques. At the coastal town of Lae she meets Olivier, a young adventurer who is about to leave with some friends on an expedition into bush country. Gaetan, the head of the expedition, reveals his secret goal is to discover an unknown valley in the phantom regions of the island, which even on recent maps is just a blank spot annotated "Obscured by cloud". Only the natives suspect its existence but do not dare to explore it, for it is there that the gods live.

Despite her initial misgivings, Viviane joins the expedition to find her feathers. She wavers between doubt and fascination, hesitates about continuing and gradually discovers other visions of life outside her own. Her exposure to the lush environment, Papuan rites and instinctual love, pushes her further than her companions. As the search continues into the unexplored regions, the horses are abandoned and the expedition is stripped to the essentials. At the point of exhaustion, with return impossible, the mists clear and they see a valley, but not in this world.

Barbet Schroeder's striking second feature, a cult classic from 1972, famously features the wondrous soundtrack by Pink Floyd.