Love, Money, Love (2000)

Love, Money, Love (2000)

 Director: Philip Gröning
 Country: Germany
 Runtime: 2 hours, 7 minutes


 L'amour, l'argent, l'amour: a discourse, you should think, on the economy of love. Which it is and is not. It narrates and relates economy and love, but very soon moves outside any established economical orders. The story seems, at first sight, deeply rooted in cliché. We have a whore with the name, of all names, Marie and we have David. a young man with a right arm in plaster and no job. She asks him if he wants to sleep with her, but he has no money. From which results love, in a way. She takes him home, we see them awake naked, together, but he didn't sleep with her. I will leave, he says, but he does not say where. Will you come, he asks, and she wouldn't know why. But they go, they leave Berlin, in her car, they go somewhere, they drift along, you see streets and trees, faces and landscapes, cityscapes and lights in superimposition and it's in these superimpositions (with the additional layer of music by The Velvet Underground and Calexico and other kinds of beautiful melancholy) that you realize that cliché is only to what you can, if you wish, reduce what you see. But then you have to ignore that you see so much more than cliché, or less. ~ Ekkehard Knörer

Gummo (1997)

Gummo (1997)

Director: Harmony Korine
Country: USA
Runtime: 89 min



 Constructing this film through random scenes, director Harmony Korine abruptly jettisoned any sort of narrative plot, so here we go: Solomon and Tummler are two bored teenage boys who live in Xenia, Ohio. A few years ago, a tornado swept through it, destroying more than half the town and killing the same amount, including Solomon's father. The film, from there, chronicles the anti-social adventures these two boys have. These include sniffing glue, killing cats, having sex, riding dirtbikes, listening to black metal, and meeting a cavalcade of quirky, bizarre, and scary people. These include a man who pimps his mentally ill wife to our anti-heroes, three sisters who play with their cat and practice becoming strippers, a black midget fending off the sexual advances of a troubled man (played by the director Harmony Korine), a 12-year-old gay transvestite who is also a cat killer, Solomon's mother who seems to be the only glimpse of sanity, two foul-mouthed six-year olds, and most importantly, a nymphlike skateboarder who walks around town wearing pink rabbit ears.

Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (2011)

Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (2011)

 Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan
 Country: Turkey | Bosnia and Herzegovina
 Runtime: 150 minutes



 A group of men including a police officer, a doctor, a district attorney, drivers, civil servants, grave diggers, gendarmerie forces and two homicide offender brothers drive through on rural Anatolian steppes in a single night at a town named Keskin in search of a body buried under an unknown location.The killer leads the police officer from one fountain to another because at the time of the crime he was intoxicated thus he can not recall specifically where he and his mentally challenged brother buried the body. Anatolian steppes' similarity and indistinguishable physical appearance does not help the killer nor the policeman in their quest because every fountain they arrive is pretty much same with the prior one.

The film received the Cannes Film Festival's second most prestigious award, the Grand Prix, in a shared win with the film The Kid with a Bike by the Dardenne brothers and has been selected as Turkey's official submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

Eastern Drift (2010)

Eastern Drift (2010)

Director: Sharunas Bartas
Country: Lithuania
Runtime: 1 hour 47 minutes




Gena is under no illusions about his situation. In the prologue of the film, he briefly sketches out his life in a monotone voiceover: growing up without parents, receiving an "education" from his criminal uncle, initial protection money rackets in the wake of privatizations in the crumbling Soviet Union, later international drug dealing. His enemies are numerous but not easy to recognize; "life is short, the greater part of it already over". Although there is only a small chance that Gena will be able to trade in his nomadic existence between Asia and Europe for a "normal life", he takes the plunge anyway. A frantic chase across Europe thus ensues. Heading west, presumably towards the sun.

El Cairo, 678 (2010)

El Cairo, 678 (2010)

DIRECTOR :Mohamed Diab
Country: Egipt
Runtime: 100 min.

 Cairo 678 shows a disturbing verisimilitude to uncover the story of three women from different social class are united in their quest for justice to the difficult situation that causes daily sexual harassment in Egypt.

"Fayza" (played by Bushra), a conservative mother of two, struggling to find real justice while at the other end of town "Seba" (played by Nelli Karim), a wealthy jewelry designer victim of a gang attack teaches other women to defend themselves from these acts. For its part, "Nelly" (played by Nahed El Seba'i) amateur monologist, is suffering the condemnation of the entire country by being the first Egyptian to file a sexual harassment suit.

One of them decides to take matters into and emerges as a hero ghostly bullies stabbed in the groin. Later she will join the other two women who become their idol to realize that such violence can change things. "Essam", an apathetic investigator will take the case of the stabbings, which has caused a stir in Cairo and this trio will finally just.

Women engage in a discussion of which there is a striking clash of views on sexual harassment, which reveals the underlying class resentment. Nelly is pressured by her family to withdraw the complaint and is in a dead end to having to choose between her fiancé and justice. Meanwhile, the unexpected birth of first child Essam causes a change in his attitude toward women and toward the case.

Cairo 678 The film offers a thorough analysis of cause and effect of this epidemic that shows the fatal consequences of silence and acceptance of denial as a solution, while revealing an intriguing dark side of Egypt that the world has barely seen.

Viudas (2011)

Viudas (2011)

Director: Marcos Carnevale 
 Country: Argentina
Runtime: 100 min







 Widows will tell the story that begins when a woman (Borges) receives a call that tells about the terrible accident suffered by her husband. In desperation, the lady comes to the scene and found her husband dying in the arms of a much younger woman. You will discover the double life of his partner and enter into a relationship with her lover captive in the context of a black comedy.

Stuck on Christmas (2010)

Stuck on Christmas (2010)

Director: Iulia Rugina
Country: Romania
Runtime: 37 minutes







It's Christmas Eve in a small mountain train station and no train is coming since all the tracks are blocked with snow. Four people are waiting for a train that doesn't show up. They don't know each other, how long it's going to take or if they will ever reach their destinations. But as the hours pass, Madalina, Cristi, Ozana, Alex share the absurd, the despair and the hope. Because they are accidentally stuck here. Because no one knows when it will end. And because it's Christmas.

Seawards Journey (2003)

Seawards Journey (2003)

Director: Guillermo Casanova 
Country: Uruguay-Argentina
Runtime:73min

It's a Sunday morning 1963 in a bar in a town of Minas. Rataplan, the sweeper, Quintana, the undertaker, Seven and Three Ten, the seller of lottery Aquino and her dog, waiting for Rodriguez, who's going to take you to see the sea for the first time.The Basque, his foreman, reluctantly accompanies them. Fresh from the capital, an elegant Unknown joins the entourage at the last minute. Along the journey, the sun, in the ramshackle truck Rodriguez, the six characters will reveal his particular way of living and feeling surrounded by green landscapes of the mountains to the coast and the unknown sea ...
The trip to the Sea is based on the story of the same name of the author Juan José Morosoli Minuano, first published in 1952. Uruguayan director Guillermo Casanova (with the collaboration of Julio Cesar Castro "Juceca" in the dialogues) made this kind of "road movie" Creole on six characters starting from a small town in the interior to meet the sea.
For the filming, the team consisting of about 50 people, including technicians and actors, he moved to the city of Minas, the capital of the Department of Lavalleja to 122 km from Montevideo on Route 8.In the first four weeks were filmed scenes involving landscapes Lavalleja saws and locations in the cities of Mines and Aiguá Maldonado, 153 km from Montevideo with reconstruction of the Route 13 era (the film is set in 1963) . In the last week were shot in Atlantis Mdeo 45 km. Route Interbalnearia, Costa Azul and Parque del Plata, the scenes of the resort and the beach.
The journey to the sea was one of the awards in 1999 FONA also support Ibermedia Program in 2001. It is the first feature film by Guillermo Casanova, and it has won the top prize at the 29th Latin American Film Festival of Huelva and a special prize of the Official College of Architects of Huelva.

The First Grader (2010)

The First Grader (2010)

 Director: Justin Chadwick
 Country:  Kenya
Runtime: 103 min




In a small, remote, mountaintop primary school in the Kenyan bush, hundreds of children are jostling for a chance for the free education newly promised by the Kenyan government. One applicant causes astonishment when he knocks on the door of the school. He is Maruge (Oliver Litondo), an old Mau Mau veteran in his 80s, who is desperate to learn to read at this late stage of his life. He fought for the liberation of his country and now feels he must have the chance at the education so long denied—even if it means sitting in a classroom alongside six-year-old children.
Moved by his passionate plea, head teacher Jane Obinchu (Naomie Harris) supports his struggle to gain admission, and together they face fierce opposition from parents and officials who don't want to waste a precious school place on such an old man.
Full of vitality and humor, the film explores the remarkable relationships Maruge builds with classmates some 80 years his junior. Through Maruge's journey, we are taken back to the shocking untold story of British colonial rule 50 years earlier, when Maruge fought for the freedom of his country and eventually ended up in the extreme and harsh conditions of the British detention camps.
The First Grader is a heartwarming and inspiring true story of one man's fight for what he believes is his right in order to overcome the burdens of his past. It is a triumphant testimony to the transforming force of education.

Pumzi (2009)

Pumzi (2009)
Director:Wanuri Kahiu
Country: South Africa | Kenya
Runtime:21 min

 

Pumzi, Kenya’s first science fiction film, imagines a dystopian future 35 years after water wars have torn the world apart. East African survivors of the ecological devastation remain locked away in contained communities, but a young woman in possession of a germinating seed struggles against the governing council to bring the plant to Earth’s ruined surface.

Filmmaker Wanuri Kahiu takes her sci-fi short Pumzi to Sundance this year.
Photo: Chris King

The short film, which will compete in screen at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, “started off as a small script about what kind of world we would have to be if we had to buy fresh air,” writer/director Wanuri Kahiu told Wired.com in a Skype interview.
Like recent standouts District 9 and Sleep Dealer, the short film taps into Third World realities and spins them forward for dramatic effect. But to produce Pumzi, Kahiu looked to the past, as well as the future.
She researched classic 1950s films to create her movie’s futuristic sets, comparing the processes of matte painting and rear-screen projection with indigenous African artwork.
“We already have a tradition of tapestries and functional art and things like that, that loan a backdrop for films,” Kahiu said.
Made with grant money from Focus Features’ Africa First short film program, the Goethe Institut and the Changamoto arts fund, Pumzi will share the screen with two other films as part of Sundance’s New African Cinema program.
Mentors from Focus Features introduced Kahiu to South African producers, including Simon Hansen, who worked with Neill Blomkamp on Alive in Joburg, the predecessor to last year’s sci-fi smash District 9. Kahiu said she hopes Blomkamp’s blockbuster will attract attention to other African films.

Kenya, frequently used for location shooting, boasts experienced crews but little funding. “You just hustle,” Kahiu said. “There is no set funding option. You borrow against banks, you do anything that you can to make your film.”
Distribution is another difficulty. While Kahiu hopes to offer Pumzi online, the Kenyan infrastructure is too underdeveloped to effectively distribute the film in her country. Meanwhile, directors in the country have been watching the prolific film community in neighboring Nigeria for inspiration.
“Nollywood has its own distribution network and Kenya is slowly copying and picking up that very grass-roots distribution route,” Kahiu said.
Focus Features granted Kahiu complete control of her film. After producing commissions for African networks and retaining no rights, she helped create Dada Productions. Her first feature-length movie, From a Whisper, a dramatization built around the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in Nairobi and Dar Es Salaam, garnered five African Academy Movie Awards.
Kahiu’s future plans include expanding Pumzi to feature length as well as nurturing her local film community.
“I would like to work and build an industry, so that everyone walks away well-paid, with great hours,” Kahiu said. “Just a humane society, of sorts.”