When Idaho Legislator Curtis Bowers wrote a “letter to the editor” about the drastic changes in America’s culture, it became the feature story on the evening news, people protested at the Capitol, and for weeks the local newspapers were filled with responses. He realized then… he’d hit on something. Ask almost anyone and you’ll hear, “Communism is dead! The Berlin Wall came down.” Thought the word communism isn’t used anymore, this film will show the ideas behind it are alive and well. Join Bowers for a fascinating look at the people and groups that have successfully targeted America’s morality and freedom in their effort to grind America down. It’s a well documented AGENDA.

Bem, Bela and Belo arrive at a new town plagued by a series of mysterious, unsolved cases which, as they discover, are caused by another youkai, one more powerful than they have ever encountered. The story will also focus on Belo’s first love, and his increasing desire to become human. In the meantime, Bem and Bela have found a way to become human, but are conflicted about whether to let just Belo turn human, or along with Belo, become humans themselves.

Eoghan is a sound-recordist who is returning to Ireland from Berlin for the first time in 15 years. His reason for returning is a job offer: to find and record places free from man-made sound. His quest takes him away from towns and villages into remote terrain. Throughout his journey, he is drawn into a series of encounters and conversations which gradually divert his attention towards a more intangible silence, one that is bound up with the sounds of the life he had left behind. Influenced by elements of folklore and archive, “Silence” unfolds with a quiet intensity, where poetic images reveal an absorbing meditation on themes relating to sound and silence, history, memory and exile.

is a story about elite high school seniors, the top 1%, who are prepared to go to extremes to get into prestigious universities. A student who has ranked number one at an esteemed school dies in a remote mountain. Finding out why and the ultimate impact of his death make up the bulk of this thriller’s elaborate narrative, whose shocking conclusion could lead us to comment, “We’ve seen a devil.” Despite a structure that freely weaves together past and present, and a cast of appealing actors including Lee David, Gung Jun and Kim Kkot-bi, the most remarkable thing about the film is the theme itself. It touches on and raises the critical issue of the demands of Korea’s education system, which are becoming more extreme and competitive by the day.

In 1945, Japan surrendered to the United States and the Second World War was over. Right? Wrong. For eighty percent of the Japanese community in Brazil, Japan had won the war and defeat was nothing more than American propaganda. The few immigrants that accepted the truth were persecuted. Some were hunted down and assassinated – by their own countrymen – causing the start of a new, private war. Dirty Hearts is a thriller and love story told by the wife of one of the fanatics dedicated to preach Japanese victory. Little by little, she watches her husband, a hard-working immigrant, become an assassin and their love story fade away.

More people are imprisoned in the United States at this moment than in any other time or place in history, yet the prison itself has never felt further away or more out of sight. This is a film about the prison in which we never see an actual penitentiary. The film unfolds a cinematic journey through a series of landscapes across the USA where prisons do work and affect lives, from an anti-sex-offender pocket park in Los Angeles, to a congregation of ex-incarcerated chess players shut out of the formal labor market, to an Appalachian coal town betting its future on the promise of prison jobs.

A love story. Theo and Frank are on the run from the British Navy in the early 1800’s. They hide in the grounds of an abandoned country house and discover it’s more than the living they’re running from.

Paralyzed at a young age, Jing (Kwai Lun-Mei) is a kind piano teacher who leads a quiet life. One day, she accuses her doctor Zhou (Chang Chen) of molesting her during a typical medical examination. Zhou is promptly arrested, charged and put on trial. The prosecutor of the case is Tim (Aaron Kwok), an idealistic lawyer who joined the law world to punish the guilty. However, as Tim’s investigator Nam (Liu Kai Chi) helps him peel back the pieces, the more complex the case becomes. Soon, Tim begins to question the truth surrounding Jing’s story.

Goldberg is short and thin. He wears glasses. He’s lonely. He’s a mediocre computer programmer that lives in Tel Aviv and spends most of his energy searching online for a girlfriend. His only friend is Audrey, his beloved female dog. Eisenberg is a thug. Tall, fat, approaching middle age and not completely sane. He spends his days slouching around Meir Park, harassing innocent bystanders and doing business with petty thieves and small-time criminals. Unfortunately the two cross paths, and Eisenberg decides that they should start hanging out. But something in his demeanor says that he wants to be much more than just friends…This is a story about random meetings with strangers that lead to anxiety and paranoia. About lonely people in the big city. About losing control.

The bar in an old Pennsylvania steel town, housed with many of life’s losers and disillusioned men, is the main setting for this slice-of-life film. Michael Madsen is the bar owner, who is deep in debt to the town’s book-maker and loan shark Burt Young. Chris Penn is one of the bar’s main inhabitants as he hides from his failing marriage to Mary Stuart Masterson. The bartender’s sister (Virginia Madsen) is about to be married, and her former fiancé (Tom Sizemore) shows up in town, after leaving her at the altar years before. Con man James Belushi runs a con on Perry to steal the money for the wedding caterer. As every plot in this multi layered story seems to be at it’s worst, things look up because of an unlikely hero.

The story takes place in LA, in the house of four housemates, three women, MJ, Frankie and Amanda, and an homosexual, Banks. MJ is the kind of girl to whom money means everything and to whom others mean almost nothing. Frankie is a social worker and Amanda, a painter. Banks is an unfortunate actor. The problem is that Frankie is deeply in love with Taylor, and he loves her back, but he’s sleeping with MJ, for sex. MJ will become more and more jealous of Frankie as days flow…

The ostensibly simple story of a sympathetic veteran teacher giving Italian lessons to a weekly class of diverse immigrants is given infinitely more depth and complexity by the manner in which director Daniele Gaglianone renders his story. Blurring the lines between fact and fiction, truth and artifice, and between documentary and drama, Gaglianone has created a film within a film. You see the apparent artifice of Gaglianone’s crew using professionals, including the noted film actor Valerio Mastandrea as the teacher, interlinked with ‘real’ immigrant protagonists, studying the language to improve their chances of employment and of gaining a permanent residence permit. Thus in the course of the lessons there is simultaneously the painful and upsetting relation of the students’ personal stories but also humour, as they interact and share their humanity, bridging cultural differences, united in their striving to make a better life for themselves. (Source: LFF programme)

Before Spartacus struck down his first opponent in the arena, there were many gladiators who passed through the gates onto the sand.’Spartacus: Gods of the Arena’ tells the story of the original Champion of the House of Batiatus: Gannicus, in a more ruthless time before Spartacus’ arrival where honor was just finding its way into the arena.

John Rancour – an aging, corrupt detective on the run for murdering a fellow police officer in cold blood. With enemies on both sides of the law wanting him dead – Rancour has no choice but to seek help from the very man that exposed his crimes and sent him into exile – journalist Tyler Chase. Rancour takes Tyler captive, forcing him to tag-along on a one-night race against time to expose and eradicate the system of corruption that he helped create in his years on the force. Complicating matters further is Rancour’s former partner and best-friend, Detective Frank Hanaway, who wants nothing more than to stop the pair from making it through the night alive. As the night wears on and the bodies begin to pile up in their wake, Tyler starts to believe that there is more to John Rancour and his motives than he originally accused; and that the people and places he witnesses could lead to a bigger story than he ever thought possible. Written by Jordan Brown

Based on a real-life story, this drama focuses on a small group of Allied soldiers in Burma who are held captive by the Japanese. Capt. Ernest Gordon (Ciaran McMenamin), Lt. Jim Reardon (Kiefer Sutherland) and Maj. Ian Campbell (Robert Carlyle) are among the military officers kept imprisoned and routinely beaten and deprived of food. While Campbell wants to rebel and attempt an escape, Gordon tries to take a more stoic approach, an attitude that proves to be surprisingly resonant.

Weed. Marijuana. Grass. Pot. Whatever you prefer to call it, America’s relationship with cannabis is a complicated one. In his directorial debut, hip hop pioneer Fab 5 Freddy presents an unparalleled look at the racially biased history of the war on marijuana. A range of celebrities and experts discuss the plant’s influence on music and popular culture, and the devastating impact its criminalization has had on Black and Latino communities. As more and more states join the push to legalize marijuana, this documentary dives deep into the glaring racial disparities in the growing cannabis market.

The story of Stargate SG-1 begins about a year after the events of the feature film, when the United States government learns that an ancient alien device called the Stargate can access a network of such devices on a multitude of planets. SG-1 is an elite Air Force special operations team, one of more than two dozen teams from Earth who explore the galaxy and defend against alien threats such as the Goa’uld, Replicators, and the Ori.

Ruth and her beautiful sister Eileen come to New York’s Greenwich Village looking for “fame, fortune and a ‘For Rent’ sign on Barrow Street”. They find an apartment, but fame and fortune are a lot more elusive. Ruth gets the attention of playboy publisher Bob Baker when she submits a story about her gorgeous sister Eileen. She tries to keep his attention by convincing him that she and the gorgeous, man-getting Eileen are one and the same person.

A commercial diver is stranded on the seabed with only five minutes of oxygen supply, but with no chance of rescue for more than 30 minutes. With access to amazing archive, this is the true story of one man’s impossible fight for survival.