A Simple Life

Ann Hui : 2011
Táo Jiě

Ah Tao has worked as an amah, a domestic servant, for the Leung family. Now, after 60 years of service, she is looking after Roger, who works in the film industry and is the only member of the family still resident in Hong Kong. One day Roger comes home from work to find that Tao has suffered a stroke. He rushes her to hospital, where she announces that she wants to quit her job and move into a nursing home. Roger researches the possibilities and finds her a room in an establishment run by an old friend. Tao moves in and begins acquainting herself with a new 'family'. Giving ever more time and attention to Tao's needs and pleasures, Roger comes to realise how much she means to him. His mother visits from California and suggests reclaiming an apartment building the family owns to provide Tao with a final home of her own. But as Tao's health begins to deteriorate rapidly, Roger slowly transforms from the detached single man to the devoted carer of an elderly servant, as if she were his own mother. Based on real people and events, a moving story of unsung heroism and everyday love. This award winning film premiered at La Biennale di Venezia 2011.

Redemption Street

Miroslav Terzić : 2012
Ustanička ulica

Dušan is the new deputy prosecutor in the Special Court for War Crimes in Belgrade. He is given the task to investigate a paramilitary formation, the First Pioneer's unit, that was operating on the battlefields in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo, where they disappeared without a trace. Dušan is determined to bring the case to an end and to show his father, a famous retired professor at the law faculty, but to his boss too, that he is capable for this job. This becomes for Dušan much more than a simple case – it becomes a personal confrontation. A political thriller, Miroslav Terzić's debut feature premiered in competition at Sarajevo Film Festival 2012, where it won the award for Best Actor.

Après mai

Olivier Assayas : 2012
Something in the Air

Paris region, in the early 1970s. Reacting to the rapid social change and political activism following the May '68 protests, eighteen-year-old student Gilles is caught up in both the political ferment and creativity of his time. Like his comrades, he is torn between a radical commitment and more personal aspirations, but above all he wants to paint and make films. From romantic encounters to artistic discoveries, which will lead them to Italy, then to London, Gilles and his friends will have to make decisive choices to find their place during some of the most defining moments of the post-war period. As the weight of reality presses down on him, issues of personal responsibility and the nature of idealism will cause him to question his actions and his hopes for the future. The film premiered in competition at La Biennale di Venezia 2012, where it won the award for Best Screenplay.

Found Memories

Júlia Murat : 2011
Histórias que só existem quando lembradas

Every morning Madalena makes bread for Antonio's old coffee shop. And every day she crosses the railroads where no trains have passed for years, cleans up the gate of the locked cemetery, listens to the priest's sermon and then shares lunch with the other old villagers. Clinging to the memory of her dead husband and living in her past, Madalena is awakened by the arrival of Rita, a young photographer who comes to the village of Jotuomba where time seems to have stopped and people are stuck in their memories and daily routines. With her homemade pinhole camera and boundary-pushing curiosity, Rita slowly endears herself to the village, imbuing it with new life while it subtly claims her own. Stories that only exist when remembered. This beautifully photographed narrative feature by documentary maker Júlia Murat is a melancholy ode to the heydays of Brazil's Paraíba Valley, once a flourishing region that prospered from its coffee plantations, now a derelict area full of empty estates, ghost towns and the stories of its remaining inhabitants.

Habermann

Juraj Herz : 2010

It is 1937, in a small village in Sudetenland. The saw mill owner August Habermann, a Sudeten German, is the biggest employer in his village and a respected and rich man. He marries Jana, a young, beautiful Czech woman. The fact that she is half Jewish does not really bother him. Habermann is not interested in politics or ideology, least of all the national socialist one. Just like his best friend, the Czech forester Brezina. In his mill, Habermann employs German and Czechs alike, he speaks both languages and is deeply attached to the country where both nationalities have lived for centuries. However, when the German army invades his town, he is forced to compromise in a futile attempt to protect Jana and his employees, setting off a chain of violent events which lead to tragedy. Based on true events, depicted in the novel by Josef Urban, the film addresses the taboo subject of the atrocities during the so-called "wild transfer" of Czechoslovakia's German population immediately after World War II.

Abrir puertas y ventanas

Milagros Mumenthaler : 2011
Back to Stay

In Buenos Aires the summer is drawing to a close. Following the death of the grandmother who raised them, sisters Marina, Sofía and Violeta live alone in their family home, each trying to deal with her absence in their own way. Marina concentrates on her studies whilst looking after the household, whereas Sofía becomes obsessed by her appearance and goes out with friends. As for Violeta, she wanders around between bedroom and sitting room where, from time to time, she receives an older man. The rhythm of this period of transition and uncertainty is determined by disagreements, laughter, mean remarks and affectionate gestures. But beyond the teasing, there is the urge of each of the three sisters to separate, an urge to be different, to be unique and to find an identity beyond the experiences that bind them. Suddenly, one autumn day Violeta disappears without warning, leaving only a letter for her sisters. Winner of the Golden Leopard at Locarno Film Festival 2011.

Akam

Shalini Usha Nair : 2011

Srinivasan is a young and talented architect with a good job and a lovely girlfriend, Tara. But following a car accident in which Srini is seriously injured and scarred, Tara leaves him, and with his life shattered along with his confidence, Srini withdraws into a shell. Then he meets Ragini who is willing to accept him in spite of his physical disfigurement. They marry and spend a brief period of shared happiness, but after a while, doubts and confusion begin to creep into Srini's mind about her true identity and he is left with the suspicion that his beautiful wife is a yakshi. Examining the psyche of a man who is torn between bourgeois happiness, physical and mental pain and a rising delusional phobia, Shalini Usha Nair's first feature is a contemporary retelling of the 1967 psycho-thriller novel Yakshi by Malayattoor Ramakrishnan. Though embedded in the Malayalee psyche and firmly rooted in the culture of Kerala, the story is a glimpse into the universal phenomenon of the demonisation of female sexuality that is found in the myths of cultures around the world.

Navidad

Sebastián Lelio : 2009
Christmas

It's Christmas Eve, Aurora and Alejandro have run away to a secluded cabin in the hills outside Santiago, where she once lived and now her mother has sold with everything in it, including furniture and its many memories. She's there with the excuse of recovering some of her dead father's records. The two friends confront one another over the mysterious Luisa, a girl who has been sending Aurora love letters. Alejandro becomes jealous and paranoid about Aurora's secret relationship, and her plans to spend New Year's Eve with Luisa in Argentina. Alejandro is no longer interested in a relationship and leaves the cabin, but finds 15-year-old Alicia, unconscious in the greenhouse, running from home and searching for her father, whom she never met. Aurora persuades Alejandro to stay and the couple nurse Alicia back to health, becoming more and more intrigued by this attractive and waifish young woman – a three-way attraction simmering beneath their fascination. From now on, the three will only have each other, as orphans, each one in their own way, eventually discovering a closeness that will soothe their alienation and loneliness, even if only for the night.

Róża

Wojciech Smarzowski : 2011

Summer 1945. The end of World War II brought continuing chaos and violence for Poles living in former East Prussia, the lands that had belonged to Germany and after the war were granted to Poland. This harrowing tale of survival centres on Róża, a Masurian woman whose German soldier husband was killed in the war, leaving her alone on their farm. As a single woman she had no defence against Russian soldiers who raped as a form of revenge, nor against plundering Poles who found themselves in desperate straits. The law of the jungle had replaced the rule of law. Help arrives for Róża in the form of Tadeusz, a former officer in the Polish Home Army who survived the Warsaw uprising and is attempting to hide his identity. Against the background of a landscape devastated by war, where hope has become a propaganda tool, two people from distant worlds meet and love is born. This award winning drama explores the suffering of the Masurian population, considered traitors by everyone, and also the fate of the forlorn wartime women, who, whilst not cannon fodder were fodder for sexual abuse.

Your Beauty is Worth Nothing...

Hüseyin Tabak : 2012
Deine Schönheit ist nichts wert...

Twelve-year-old Veysel, who came to Vienna from Turkey with his parents, feels like a stranger in his new country. At school he doesn't understand the language, and at home his family is on the verge of crisis. The one bright spot on Veysel's horizon is his great love Ana, a classmate who knows nothing of his feelings. Only when Veysel meets his neighbour Cem, who teaches him how to say a poem in German for school, does he work up the courage to recite this to Ana, his secret love. The film draws on the contrast between the idyllic notions that fill the boy's head and the difficult living conditions within an immigrant community trying to integrate, whilst constantly under threat of deportation. Writer/director Hüseyin Tabak's graduation project from the Vienna Film Academy premiered in competition at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2012.

La dame de trèfle

Jérôme Bonnell : 2009
The Queen of Clubs

Aurélien and Argine have never managed to part ways. Orphans in their late twenties searching for an identity. The bond between brother and sister remains child-like since they have always lived together and never come to terms with the loss of their parents. Aurélien secretly supplements his income by selling off stolen metal. One night, his accomplice Simon suddenly arrives. Wanted by the police, he demands money and starts threatening them. After a brief struggle Aurélien accidentally kills Simon in self-defence and leaves the body in a ditch. It's the beginning of things spiralling out of control for Aurélien, the encounter with his own violence.

Il Mare

Lee Hyun-seung : 2000
Siworae

Kim Eun-ju moves out of her beautiful seaside home named Il Mare. She leaves a card in the mailbox, asking the next occupant to forward any mail to her new address in the city. Han Sung-hyun, an architecture student, receives her card but is puzzled since he is the first and only person to live in the house, and the card is dated two years in the future. Believing it to be a joke or a wrong delivery, Sung-hyun leaves a letter in reply, telling her so and reminding her that it is 1997 not 1999. After an exchange of correspondence, Eun-ju and Sung-hyun, realising that they are separated by two years of time but can somehow communicate through the mailbox, begin to form a friendship through their letters. Gradually they are attracted to each other and decide that they should try to meet in person. However, they are about to discover that many things can happen to one's life during the course of two years.

J'attends quelqu'un

Jérôme Bonnell : 2007
Waiting for Someone

Louis is a divorced café proprietor living in a town in Ile de France. He flirts with every woman he bumps into, but doesn't develop any deeper relationship with them, except a growing affection for Sabine, the prostitute he sees regularly at a local hotel. His sister Agnès is a teacher, and is apparently happily married to Jean-Philippe, but he works very hard and doesn't seem to have been giving her all the affection she needs recently. She bumps into Stéphane, a young man recently returned to the town whom she knew as a child. He is obsessively interested in a young family who live nearby. The three story-lines running in parallel observe and gradually explore the hidden feelings and desires of each of these characters. Will any of them find happiness?

Le chignon d'Olga

Jérôme Bonnell : 2002
Olga's Chignon

Julien and his sister Emma lost their mother nearly a year ago. They're still living in Beauce with their father, Gilles, in the house where they were born. The emptiness left by death is painful to bear, yet they can't manage to speak openly about it with each other. Each deals with the shared tragedy in a very different way in order to find a new balance in their life. The younger son, still a child, is confused and uncertain; the working daughter takes some of the responsibilities of her mother, whilst coping with her own problems growing up; and the widowed father, adrift and tormented by memories, is looking for new relationships. The small town, emptied of its inhabitants who have gone on vacation, seems abandoned. As the summer draws to a close, Julien aimlessly wanders the streets until one day he encounters Olga, a beautiful young woman who works in a bookshop. Secretly, without confiding even in his close childhood friend Alice, he tries everything he can to get closer to the object of his affection.

Lal Gece

Reis Çelik : 2012
Night of Silence

A convoy of cars, decorated horsemen and the sound of drums and shawms. Men dance, illuminated by the flames from torches. Women dance apart from the men. This is a traditional wedding in a remote part of Turkey. It's an arranged marriage, neither the bride nor the groom were given a choice. What happens when a much older man is married to a young girl? This quiet, intimate film tells the tragic story of an unusual wedding night. The groom has recently been released from prison, having spent most of his life behind bars on account of two honour killings. This marriage is meant to put an end to a blood feud that has lasted many years. After the ceremony, he finds himself alone with his bride, lifting her veil he looks into the frightened face of a fourteen-year-old girl. He tries to be nice to her, and gentle, but he is a desperate, broken man. She hesitates and tries to use other distractions to get through the night. Night passes and dawn arrives, bringing the relatives with it, all of whom are waiting for the stained bed sheet that will prove that everything is as it should be. Winner of a Crystal Bear award at Berlin International Film Festival 2012.

Bizalom

István Szabó : 1980
Confidence

In World War II Hungary, hard-bitten resistance fighter János Biró and naive young mother Katalin are thrown together in an attempt to escape the Nazis. Compelled to pose as husband and wife under false names to hide their connections to the anti-Nazi resistance, they are forced into a strange intimacy. Terrified of discovery, the couple are wary of all those around them, even of each other, and must regard everyone as a potential informant. As their individual loyalties are challenged, their relationship begins to change, calling into question the emotional certainties of their normal lives, and forcing them to reassess who they really trust. This profoundly moving, award-winning film delicately, yet powerfully, explores the nature of our trust and faith in others under exceptional circumstances.

The Other Side of Sleep

Rebecca Daly : 2011

Arlene, a sleepwalker since childhood, wakes one morning surrounded by sinister woods. But something is different this time, because she lies next to a dead girl and someone watches from the trees. Or was this awakening from the sleepwalking maybe just another dream? A few hours later Arlene is at work in the local factory of the small Irish rural town she grew up in. When news reaches the factory staff that the body of a 17-year-old girl named Gina has been found in the woods, Arlene immediately channels her own mother's mysterious disappearance, twenty years ago. Increasingly drawn to the girl's family, the accused boyfriend and grieving sister, Arlene barricades herself in at night, depriving herself of sleep. Deep in emotional turmoil, her sleeping and waking realities soon blur, as the community searches to find the killer. And all this time someone is watching her. Drawing from haunting recollections of her own teenage years in Sussex, Rebecca Daly's dark thriller debut feature premiered at the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs at Festival de Cannes 2011.

De jueves a domingo

Dominga Sotomayor : 2012
Thursday till Sunday

It all begins on a Thursday when nine-year-old Lucía and five-year-old Manuel go on vacation with their parents to the north of Chile. It all ends on a Sunday. It's the children's distant and fragmented outlook on this possible last family trip. This Chilean road movie is set entirely in and around the car belonging to a middle-class family on a four-day trip to the north of Chile. It will be their last journey as a family. We occasionally catch a glimpse of marital problems, but the crisis is largely implicit. For instance, we often only see the backs of the silent parents' heads, seen from the perspective of the children in the back seat, who only have a partial idea of what is going on. The journey that starts so cheerfully with all kinds of games in the car quickly acquires melancholy undertones. The children only want to go to the beach, while the father is heading for a new life in another apartment and the mother primarily yearns for a place which no longer exists, where everything remains the same as it was.

Captive

Brillante Mendoza : 2012

A group of armed and masked men belonging to the Muslim Abu Sayyaf group burst into a hotel on an island resort and kidnap twelve foreign guests. The attack was intended to target employees of the World Bank, but they have already left the resort. The abductees are tourists and Christian missionaries who are now forced on a gruelling foot march through the Philippine jungle. Together, the hostages and the kidnappers find themselves having to cope with the trials of nature. Gradually, the climate of fear, prejudice and hatred evolves into a strange, symbiotic relationship. The contours begin to blur, certainties are called into question. Nothing seems to be the same any more.

Io sono Li

Andrea Segre : 2011
Li and the Poet

Shun Li works in a textile factory in the outskirts of Rome in order to get her papers and enable her eight-year-old son to come to Italy. She is suddenly transferred to Chioggia, a small city-island in the Veneto lagoon, to work as a bartender in a pub. Bepi, a Slavic fisherman, nicknamed "the Poet" by his friends, has been a regular at that little pub for years. Their encounter is a poetic escape from solitude, a silent dialogue between cultures that are different, yet not more distant. It is an odyssey into the deep heart of a lagoon, which can be both the mother and cradle of identities, which never keep still. But the friendship between Shun Li and Bepi upsets both the Chinese and local communities, who interfere with this new voyage, which they are perhaps simply too afraid of. The moving story of an impossible friendship between two poetic souls that cultures oppose. Winner of the LUX Prize 2012.