27 Down(1974)

27 Down

Direction & Screenplay: Avtar Krishna Kaul
Cast: M K Raina, Rakhee, Rekha Sabnis, Om Shivapuri
Cinematography: Apurba Kishore Bir
Music: Bhuban Hari

Avtar Krishna Kaul's only feature film, which was finished shortly before he died trying to save someone from drowning.

 Anna (Om Shivpuri) and his son, Sanjay (M.K. Raina) live in a small town. Anna is a train-driver and works for the Railways. One day his train meets with an accident and he his right leg gets paralyzed. When Sanjay grows up, Anna gets him a job with the Railways as a Ticket Checker. Sanjay gets accustomed to his job so much that he starts more and more time on the train then in his house. During his travels he comes across a young lady passenger, Shalini (Raakhee). They meet often and explore having a relationship. Thinking that Shalini wants to marry him, he accompanies her to meet her grandfather and two siblings. He is shocked when Shalini introduces him as a married man, working as her co-worker. Sanjay, in disbelief, must find out why Shalini lied about this marital status and his employment with the Railways. His father finds out about his affair with Shalini, and arranges his marriage with another girl from the village. Sanjay, reluctantly marries but is unable to get Shalini out of his mind and heart. Written by rAjOo (gunwanti@hotmail.com)

Chicken with Plums (2011)

Chicken with Plums (2011)

Director: Vincent Paronnaud | Marjane Satrapi
Country: France | Germany | Belgium
Runtime: 1 hour, 31 minutes

From the directors of Persepolis comes another enchanting film adaptation of a graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi. Chicken with Plums follows the last days of a talented musician’s life as he desperately seeks to replace his beloved instrumental, the violin. The year is 1958, the city Tehran. Celebrated violinist Nasser Ali Khan has an unexpected encounter with a longlost love, but she fails to recognize him. He returns home, has an argument with his wife and, most troublingly, discovers that his prized violin has been broken. He’s unable to replace it, can’t conceive of life without the consolation of music, and soon finds that he can’t get out of bed, where he lies locked both in dreams about his childhood and projections of his own children’s futures. His reveries lay somewhere between fantasy and oblivion, and quickly assemble into a kind of thriller, riddled with flashbacks and flash-forwards (as well as a vision of a naked Sophia Loren), that illuminates his peculiar persona and the source of his despair.

Based on the graphic novel by Iranian-born author Marjane Satrapi, Chicken with Plums marks the second instalment of a trilogy that began with Persepolis. Like that Academy Award®–nominated film, Chicken with Plums is co-directed by Vincent Paronnaud and Satrapi herself, whose transition from comics to movies is accompanied by a refreshing and imaginative approach to visual storytelling. The work draws upon innovations that span the entire history of cinema, from the striking shadows of German Expressionism to the punchy colour palette of early Technicolor films. Unlike its predecessor, Chicken with Plums is more live-action than animated, but it too is blazingly alive with visual flair.

Zenne Dancer (2012)

Zenne Dancer (2012)

Director: Caner Alper | Mehmet Binay
Country: Turkey
Runtime: 1 hour, 45 minutes


 “ZENNE DANCER” is the story of a trio of unlikely friends: AHMET – a boy from eastern Turkey born into a repressively conservative family; CAN (Djan) – a flamboyant male belly dancer (Zenne) nurtured by a loving and fiercely protective mother; and DANIEL – a wounded German war photographer who chances upon these interesting yet contrasting boys in Istanbul, a city bidding to become the ‘European Capital of Culture’ in 2008. Throughout the film, the audience is exposed to the humiliations endured by gays who are banned from serving in the Turkish army on the grounds that they are “sexually deviant” and therefore unfit to serve. Yet in order to be exempted, gays are required to provide photographs showing themselves engaged in passive sexual intercourse with a male partner. Some are forced to undergo invasive anal examinations in order to prove that they are gay. As the story unfolds, the audience also learns about Daniel’s scarring experiences in war-torn Afghanistan. Daniel’s western outlook inadvertently accelerates Ahmet’s looming death. Can’s fury and anguish find an outlet in his eerily graceful yet oddly asexual dances that punctuate the film.

“ZENNE DANCER” has been inspired by the true story of Ahmet YILDIZ, who was murdered for being gay at the age 26 by his own father in 2008.

Silent Sonata (2010)

Silent Sonata (2010)

Director: Janez Burger
Country: Slovenia 
Runtime: 1 hour 14 minutes






 A man stays alone with his children in a half demolished house in the middle of a desolate field. His wife has just been killed by a grenade in a military battle. He is expecting a new attack. Instead a wandering caravan called Circus Fantasticus stops by the house. They bring along the dying director of the circus. Is it possible for anything beautiful to happen in a landscape of war and death? Can life go on? Is it possible to realize that death does not exist?

Into the Abyss (2011)

Into the Abyss (2011)

Director:Werner Herzog
Country: USA | UK | Germany
Runtime:107min


In his fascinating exploration of a triple homicide case in Conroe, Texas, master filmmaker Werner Herzog probes the human psyche to explore why people kill-and why a state kills. In intimate conversations with those involved, including 28-year-old death row inmate Michael Perry (scheduled to die within eight days of appearing on-screen), Herzog achieves what he describes as "a gaze into the abyss of the human soul." Herzog's inquiries also extend to the families of the victims and perpetrators as well as a state executioner and pastor who've been with death row prisoners as they've taken their final breaths. As he's so often done before, Herzog's investigation unveils layers of humanity, making an enlightening trip out of ominous territory.

The Old Man Who Read Love Stories(2001)

The Old Man Who Read Love Stories

Director: Rolf de Heer
Country: Netherlands | France | Spain | Australia 
Runtime: 109 min




 The Old Man who Read Love Stories is one of those rare experiences you as a film audience will ever receive. It is a wonderful movie with excellent acting with Richard Dreyfuss as the all dominating force. Hugo Weaving shows why he is one of the worlds greatest character actors with his portrayal as the very loving and slightly lazy dentist. The story is really not important as it is the acting that really puts this film on the map. I don't mean this in a negative way, mind you!The plot is simply not that important once you hear the rusty voice of Dreyfuss doing a marvelous Spanish accent. The same goes for Weaving.

Monsieur Lazhar (2011)

Monsieur Lazhar (2011)

Director:Philippe Falardeau
Country:Canada

Bachir Lazhar, an Algerian immigrant, is hired to replace an elementary school teacher who died tragically. While the class goes through a long healing process, nobody in the school is aware of Bachir's painful former life; nor that he is at risk of being deported at any moment. Adapted from Evelyne de la Cheneliere's play, Bachir Lazhar depicts the encounter between two distant worlds and the power of self-expression. Using great sensitivity and humor, Philippe Falardeau follows a humble man who is ready to transcend his own loss in order to accompany children beyond the silence and taboo of death. Written by micro_scope

La source des femmes(2011)

La source des femmes(2011)

Director: Radu Mihaileanu
Country: Belgium
Runtime: 1 hour, 59 minutes

 Romanian-born filmmaker Radu Mihaileanu offers up another certifiably crowd-pleasing slice of world cinema in The Source (La Source des Femmes), a modern-day fable exploring female empowerment in the Arab world. Never one for subtlety, the writer-director tosses everything he can into this two-hour-plus humanist couscous, stirring in a mix of songs, sentiments and socio-religious questions set beneath breathtaking North African landscapes, and carried by a strong central performance from actress Leila Bekhti. Like his previous films, The Source boasts an Arthouse for Beginners appeal that could reach broad audiences beyond Europe. Beautifully photographed amongst the harsh light of the dry, desert landscapes, The Source frequently feels like a musical and the women constantly burst into song as a way of expressing their feelings and grievances.

Set in a mountain village in an unnamed country (most likely Morocco; the Arab dialect spoken is Moroccan), the film tells the story of a group of village women who, fed up with the unwillingness of the men to help them with the straining task of fetching water from a mountaintop source each day, decide to organize a 'love strike': no more sex until the men either help with the water haul or arrange for running water to come to the village. At the forefront of this 'revolution' is Leila, wife of the village's school teacher Sami. An outsider in the village (she was not born there), and married to a progressive husband, Leila urges the women to fight for a better life. Not all the women want to go against tradition, and it earns her the scorn of her mother-in-law, so it is only with help from the well-respected widow Mother Rifle that Leila manages to organize the strike. As if the opposition of both the men and the more conservative women is not enough, things are complicated by a journalist coming to the village, who turns out to be a former sweetheart of Leila before she was married off to Sami. This puts her at risk of losing one of her strongest allies, her husband.

Hors Satan (2011)

Hors Satan (2011)

Director: Bruno Dumont
Country: France
Runtime: 105 min

 

In a sleepy French farming village, a mysterious stranger appears to the teenage Elle. She is distraught at the abuse she receives from her stepfather and so the stranger takes a shotgun and shoots the stepfather. The stranger lives out in the open. She begins to follow him everywhere. She desires him but he does not want her back. He beats up a guard who is pestering her to go out with him. The stranger also appears to have the ability to heal.

. . . . . . . . . . .

"With every film he makes, Dumont seems to delve deeper into a humanity that, in its connection to nature in all its mystery and force, is a deeply conflicted one. In "Hors Satan", the division of what is good and evil and how it relates to the man we encounter at the start of the film, is somewhat less clear-cut.
We know nothing of the origins or nature of this man, not even his name. Since very few words are spoken either, everything must be gleaned from his face – and what a fascinating face it is. At times, there is a satanic look in his features, but there is also something of an appearance of the traditional image of Jesus in his appearance. The questions raised by this duality are intensified when we see him genuflect to the sunrise and take in the glory of the landscape, his hands cupped in offering or for receiving of grace, and when he is called upon by another woman in the community whose daughter is ill and seems to be demonically possessed. The ambiguity, I’m sure, is intentional. The traditional understanding of the concepts of good and evil are meaningless here – you might as well ask (and in a way you are) whether nature itself is good or evil.
Much of this is very familiar Bruno Dumont material and it’s filmed in his usual style. "Hors Satan" is made up of long silent scenes, very little dialogue, non-professional characters chosen for the earthiness of their appearance and lack of conventional beauty (yet striking and even beautiful in their own way), with images of strong violence and disturbing scenes of a sexual nature. With such emphasis placed on inexpressive faces, the use of non-professional actors, a preponderance of near-religious significance and solemnity (albeit in an unconventional, paganistic manner), there are clear parallels here not only to Bresson, but also to Dreyer, particularly "The Passion of Joan of Arc" and, certainly in the opening and closing scenes, with "Ordet".

Dumont however has his own philosophical outlook that is completely different from Bresson and Dreyer, and a visual vocabulary that is also very much his own and often very striking indeed. "Hors Satan" is not easy viewing and it’s not pleasant viewing – but then you probably knew that already. It is however an immensely powerful film that deepens the themes and the body of work of one of the most distinctive and uncompromising film directors in France and the world today." (Ciné-vu)

The Fairy (2011)

The Fairy (2011)
Director: Dominique Abel, Fiona Gordon

Country: France | Belgium
Runtime: 1 hour 29 minutes








 Dom works the night shift in a small hotel near the industrial sea port of Le Havre. One night, a woman arrives with no luggage and no shoes. Her name is Fiona and she tells Dom that she is a fairy that can grant him three wishes. Fiona makes two of his wishes come true then mysteriously disappears. Dom. who has fallen in love with her by then, searches for her everywhere.