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A devoted young woman becomes ensnared in a web of sexuality and betrayal in Jean-Pascal Hattu’s consistently unpredictable and finely wrought character study. A vividly realistic psychosexual drama, the film’s sharp emotional honesty heralds a distinct new voice from a promising young director. Hattu soon reveals that Maite’s husband Vincent is in prison for an unspecified crime, and that she has promised to wait for him and attend to his laundry (if not his conjugal needs) during his incarceration. On one of her weekly visits, Maite meets Jean, an oddly inquisitive and boldly flirtatious prison warden, and soon the two commence a joyless affair. Seemingly smitten with Maite, Jean, in a gesture of kindness to his lover, eases up on her husband behind bars; the two become pals and even engage in some homoerotic shower talk. —Robert O’Shaughnessy
The Whales of August is a 1987 film based on a play by David Berry starring Bette Davis and Lillian Gish as elderly sisters. Also in the cast were Ann Sothern as one of their friends, and Vincent Price as a peripheral member of the former Russian aristocracy. The film was shot on location on Maine’s Cliff Island. The house still stands and is a popular subject of artists on the island. The film was directed by Lindsay Anderson, his final feature film, and the screenplay was adapted by David Berry from his own play.
A lone scientist maintains an underground bunker for the coming global nuclear disaster. But after becoming prematurely isolated, he slowly begins to question his own reality and whether he is truly alone. Director Richard Mundy’s immersive psychological thriller, is a tense and unsettling nightmare you’ll never be sure you’ve woken up from.
Entirely shot on green screen, Shakespeare’s Macbeth has been reinvented by director Kit Monkman (The Knife That Killed Me) in an exciting new film adaptation. Starring Mark Rowley, (The Last Kingdom, Luther). Monkman’s unique adaptation successfully bridges the gap between theatre and film to create a wholly new type of imaginative space. This radical new adaptation puts the audience’s engagement with the story centre-stage, amplifying the theatrical context of the original and creating truly innovative and thrilling cinematic vistas, whilst maintaining the language and themes of Shakespeare’s original play. Using background matte painting and computer modelling to generate the world in which the action plays out, the green screen allows Monkman to create his vision of a multi-tiered globe in which the characters play out their various fates.
When a group of friends and colleagues tracks reclusive writer Samantha Ballard (Aleece Jones) to her remote desert house, their reluctant hostess informs them that they’ll die if they try to escape. After her ex-husband disastrously tests Samantha’s pledge, the remaining guests sink into horror. If they want to leave Fear House alive, this desperate group must act fast in writer-director Michael R. Morris’s claustrophobic spook fest.
Bold and unsentimental in its portrait of a young man who faces the destruction of the family he struggles to support, Shuttle Life (Fen Bei Ren Sheng) marks a finely crafted feature debut for short-film director Tang Seng Kiat, focusing the spotlight on Malaysian cinema after a very long time in the dark. This hard-hitting social drama features naturalistic performances from pop singer and actor Jack Tan in the main role and Taiwanese actress-director Sylvia Chang as his mentally unstable mother
Struggling ‘B’ movie Director blackmails a serial killer to be the star of his next film.
There is a long-held belief that mirrors act as gateways to another dimension. ·Some also believe the looking glass plays host to a world filled with evil spirits. Such superstition has been the basis for ancient folklore legends about haunting and possession. And one tale about a supposedly haunted mirror was picked up by the media in 2012. Both the Daily Mail and Huffington Post reported on how the owners of a recently purchased antique mirror left them dogged by bad luck, financial misery, strange sightings and death-defying illness. Now writer/director Edward Boase brings that horrifying story to the screen starring Jemma Dallender (I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE 2), Joshua Dickinson and Nate Fallows (‘Whitechapel’) as flatmates who buy the same eerie antique on ebay and set up round the clock cameras in the hopes of capturing evidence of bumps in the night. You have been warned!
The Watcher Self is an unsettling psychosexual chiller written and directed by Matt Cruse about one woman’s descent into hell. Cora (Karen French) begins her day facing the consequences of a nightmare. Struggling to maintain a normal routine, she engages in a series of emotionally detached encounters and experiences a confusing psychological connection with the strange and elusive Van (Julian Shaw). Then echoes from the past threaten to derail her tenuous state of mind, and Cora becomes increasingly dislocated from her surroundings. Is she going insane, or is it something else? The Watcher Self is about what remains when the layers of sanity are gradually stripped away… and what may or may not be real.
Returning to a “home” they hardly know after being deported from their adopted countries for minor criminal offenses, three people from very different backgrounds try to make a new life for themselves, in Jamaica in this gutsy drama from writer-director Sudz Sutherland. (TIFF)
A young immigrant is shot down while illegally crossing the border. Terrified and in shock, wounded Aryan can now mysteriously levitate at will. Thrown into a refugee camp, he is smuggled out by Dr Stern, intent on exploiting his extraordinary secret. Pursued by enraged camp director Laszlo, the fugitives remain on the move in search of safety and money. Inspired by Aryan’s amazing powers, Stern takes a leap of faith in a world where miracles are trafficked for small change…
Turkish director Hasan Karacadag is something of an unusual case. In a nation that appears uncertain how to feel about its own history with exploitation film and generally reluctant to embrace genre film – though there are obvious exceptions – Karacadag has jumped headlong into the horror pool. The director first came to attention with the J-horror influenced D@BB, a surprise hit in Turkey that allowed Karacadag to move on to the more visually ambitious – and effects heavy – effort, Semum. Both film showcased Karacadag’s growing ability to shock and terrify his audiences by taking the rich folklore of his country and pushing it to its dark extremes. And he’s at it again with D@BB: Bir Cin Vakasi. The sequel to his original hit, this latest efforts puts away the Japanese influence in favor of a more Paranormal vibe, but the underlying mythology remains purely regional with the story following a Turkish family whose home is possessed by angry jinns
A finely tuned, emotionally raw portrait of a woman’s conflicted entry into adulthood, Once Upon a Time Veronica is a thoroughly modern anti–fairy tale. Director Marcelo Gomes shows a rare ability to get under the skin — and cut close to the bone — of his emotionally vulnerable but resilient main character. Anchored by a tour de force performance from the fearless Hermila Guedes, this sensual, psychologically complex character study charts the personal and professional growth of one young woman in Recife.
Writer-director Randall Miller’s heart-achingly sweet drama centers on the unsatisfying personal life of protagonist Frank Keane (Robert Carlyle), a sensitive baker who remains deeply despondent over his late wife’s untimely death. When Frank helps a stranger (John Goodman) who’s sidelined by a fatal accident on his way to a fateful reunion, he decides to show up for the rendezvous in the man’s place. In the process, he finds hope and redemption.
Shot during the summer of 2005, this enigmatic film was the second collaboration between Saint Etienne and director Paul Kelly. It follows a young paperboy’s adventure across London’s last remaining wilderness in the Lea Valley on the eve of the Olympic development. A poetic ode to a metropolitan hinterland that has been forever changed by the impact of the 2012 Olympics games.
Young man in the prison is obsessed with a singer who is to perform in a new musical its director is currently auditioning for. He escapes and through complex and often very funny series of events ends up being the main star of the musical, only to be discovered by the police the day before the premiere…OK, enough spoilers! The story keeps going on… Lots of great dialogs, awesome music and singing, and ever-twisting story (plus, the parallels between the play’s script and the real story) makes this one of the most enjoyable Czech movies I’ve seen in years (and I’ve seen many)! Definitely check it out if you like comedy, drama, musicals, and theater.
Four stories about Finnish life intersect. In the first story, the ex- bassist Tom makes a mistake. He calls the old band mate, drum artist Monkki Mähönen renovation of this property to the wife ‘s summer home. The story starts to get “kauhuelokuvamaisia” features the Monkki and the lady of the house Stina on a collision course. The following story wannabee – motorcycle gang and its leader Jouni humiliated in the village shop. Jouni decides to avenge the humiliation robbing trade. He is a tough movie freak and draws its revenge plan inspired by the famous action movies. In the third story of the journey of the yellow press, the early days of the sixties to mid. During the film has become known for bad behavior Helsinki fantasy and sci-fi director Kurt von “Kurre” Riikonen, which rises at the center of the fourth story.
Isabelle, HR of a large cruise company, made the mistake of choosing her boss as a lover. Before embarking on the maiden voyage of the new flagship of the fleet, though, he decided to disembark from their relationship! Some women take their revenge by poison, firearm, or slander. Isabelle chooses Remy a flamboyant, unemployed ne’er-do-well who flunked out in life on land, but after all is said and done, might have better luck at sea… She recruits him as leader of her plot and on this Palace of the Seas, Remy will first prove to be the worst nightmare of the CEO and Richard, the Cruise Director…then, little by little, he will change his life and that of all those who cross his path…
First-time directors Andrew Yorke and Kevin Michael invite you on an experimental cinematic journey through the lives of troubled youth in troubling times. When a pregnant women is found dead in a warehouse, all signs point to suicide. But a freelance journalist gets a tip that an eyewitness with a different story is ready to talk. Yorke and Michael immerse viewers into a world beyond normal youthful indiscretion, one that’s dark and safely self-contained until pressures from mainstream society shatter everything. Videotape is a raw, powerful exploration of the darker side of human nature, with crucial questions screaming to be answered.
The fourth film of firefighter-turned-director Yang Shupeng, Blood of Youth follows a young hacker named Su Ang (Oho Ou), who anonymously tips off the police about the remains of a woman buried in the woods near the city of Hangzhou. Detective Zhang (Zhang Yi) discovers the victim was beaten to death almost two decades ago, and starts investigating the events that lead to her death.
There is a long night when Hugo, a civil servant, is sitting on the stairs of the Ministry where he works. He can’t face going home. The images of the mysterious 8 mm films he found in António’s house after he passed away keep coming back to his mind. Hugo remembers the day when Antonio, his superior at the Ministry, told him that he was going to die. Indirectly, Antonio seemed to want to tell him something about Hugo himself. Hugo’s desire to understand what had remained unsaid between the two of them, triggers other memories from the past. Hugo unexpectedly thinks back on the last time he saw the woman he loved, Adriana, and relives once more what he feels has been his unlived life.
Is an Australian drama film directed by Alkinos Tsilimidos and released in 1994. Based on a play of the same name, written by Ray Mooney, the film details the early life of contract killer Christopher Dale Flannery and is set inside Melbourne’s HM Prison Pentridge’s maximum security H Division.[1] Filming was undertaken at HM Prison Geelong. Dale, a remandee, is awaiting a court hearing and yet to be sentenced, highlighting the horrific injustice of the repeated beatings he’s subjected to. Gradually Dale becomes indifferent to the bashings and horrors of prison life and develops an alternative, subversive way to exist and express his rage. As Dale walks defiantly from the prison in the last scene to be tried, the failure of the correctional system to produce docile, disciplined bodies pulls its last punch. Even if the system has enframed Dale he has maintained his sanity and his voice.
In the Republic of Belarus, Europe’s last remaining unreconstructed Communist dictatorship, the Belarus Free Theatre risks censorship, imprisonment and worse to stage their provocative and subversive plays in secret performances at home and to critical acclaim abroad. Director Madeleine Sackler goes behind the scenes with this group of gutsy performers as they brave a renewed government crackdown on dissenters in 2010.
The film is dedicated to the first steps of mankind on the path of space exploration and direct the fate of the first cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. The main motif – the fight for the right to be first: the competition in the first cosmonaut, competition in missile technology, the confrontation of superpowers – the USSR and the USA. In the first group of astronauts were selected from three thousand fighter pilots across the country. In twenty of the legendary got the best of the best. Which of them will fly first, no one knew. In this way, had to contend not only with the pull of the earth …
A kindergarten principal finds a series of morbid cartoons drawn by a docile pupil. A porn actor struggles to rise to the occasion while filming his first porno. A middle-aged nightclub bouncer faces off with a rebellious teenage stripper. Director Ken Kwek tells three iconoclastic stories in a short film that pitches political correctness out the window of Singapore mainstream cinema.
Part film, part baptism, in BLACK MOTHER director Khalik Allah brings us on a spiritual journey through Jamaica. Soaking up its bustling metropolises and tranquil countryside, Allah introduces us to a succession of vividly rendered souls who call this island home. Their candid testimonies create a polyphonic symphony, set against a visual prayer of indelible portraiture. Thoroughly immersed between the sacred and profane, BLACK MOTHER channels rebellion and reverence into a deeply personal ode informed by Jamaica’s turbulent history but existing in the urgent present.
