Tag: 1996

Director: Ivan Fíla
Stars: Lenka Vlasáková, Christian Redl, Hanna Schygulla
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: Czech Republic | Germany | France

51-year-old Herbert Strehlow, a furniture restorer, falls in love with 21-year-old Lea, who has not spoken a word since childhood when her father killed her mother. She bears a striking resemblance to Herbert’s dead wife. They get married, but their relationship seems doomed, until gradually each one manages to penetrate the mysterious world of the other, and they begin to realize that they are bound by a kind of spiritual relationship. For Lea it is the death of her mother, for Herbert it is the death of his first wife. His hard exterior slowly beings to thaw, and he starts to show feelings and responses that soften Lea’s initial hatred and fear of him, and which put their relationship in a more positive light.

Director: Scott Hicks
Stars: Geoffrey Rush, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Justin Braine
Genre: Biography, Drama, Music
Country: Australia

Pianist David Helfgott, driven by his father and teachers, has a breakdown. Years later he returns to the piano, to popular if not critical acclaim.

Director: Nicolas Winding Refn
Stars: Kim Bodnia, Zlatko Buric, Laura Drasbæk
Genre: Crime, Thriller
Country: Denmark

A drug pusher grows increasingly desperate after a botched deal leaves him with a large debt to a ruthless drug lord.

Director: Julio Medem
Stars: Carmelo Gómez, Emma Suárez, Karra Elejalde
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: Spain

Angel, an exterminator recently released from a mental hospital, comes to rid a small Spanish town of tiny grubs in the soil. The local wine-making industry has found these pests responsible for giving their product an “earthy” taste that has divided local opinion. While in town, Angel becomes involved with two beautiful and very different women, and impacts their lives on a grand scale. Can either of these women accept the fact that Angel travels with a “ghost” of himself, or that he routinely speaks with the deseased townspeople?

Director: John Greyson
Stars: Ian D. Clark, Marcel Sabourin, Aubert Pallascio
Genre: Crime, Drama, Fantasy
Country: Canada

When a bishop comes to a prison to hear the confession of an old friend he is forced to watch a play, performed by the inmates, about their youth together, love and betrayal.

Director: James Lapine
Stars: Donna Murphy, Jere Shea, Marin Mazzie
Genre: Drama, Musical, Romance
Country: USA

In 19th century Italy, a young soldier becomes shattered by the obsessive love of Fosca, his Colonel’s homely, ailing cousin.

Director: Majid Majidi
Stars: Hossein Abedini, Mohammad Kasebi, Parivash Nazarieh
Genre: Drama
Country: USA | Hungary

Mehrollah is a 14-year-old boy who is forced to find a job to support his family after his father dies. He travels to the southern parts of Iran, looking for work. Upon his return to his hometown, he notices certain changes in his family.

Director: Uli Edel
Stars: Alan Rickman, Greta Scacchi, Ian McKellen
Genre: Biography, Drama, History
Country: USA | Hungary

HBO biopic about the infamous “mad monk” Rasputin from the court of Czar Nicholas II in Russia.

Director: Santosh Sivan
Stars: Benaf Dadachandji, Rajkumar Santoshi, Sahil Choujar
Genre: Drama, Family
Country: India

The story revolves around a seven-year-old girl, Sasha (Benaf Dadachandji), who looses her puppy. It is about her search and the variety of people she meets.

Director: Jan Troell
Stars: Max von Sydow, Ghita Nørby, Anette Hoff
Genre: Biography, Drama, War
Country: Denmark | Sweden | Norway | Germany

Norwegian Nobel Laureate Knut Hamsun’s controversial support for the Nazi regime during WW2 and its consequences for the Hamsun family after the war.

Director: Bille August
Stars: Maria Bonnevie, Ulf Friberg, Pernilla August
Genre: Drama
Country: Sweden | Denmark | Norway | Finland | Iceland

The beginning of the 20th century. Gertrud and Ingmar are in love with each other. While Ingmar is away during the winter, a religious wave spreads in the area. Also Gertrud becomes a follower of the new Christian belief. The new priest is very mesmerizing and he wants his followers to emigrate with him to Palestine. Ingmar’s sister decides to follow him and sells the home which has been the family’s for centuries. The only way for Ingmar to save it is to marry the daughter of the man who buys it, Barbro. With Ingmar married to another, Gertrud cannot stay and follows the others to Palestine. However, Ingmar does not love Barbro. He is still in love with Gertrud and eventually follows her.

Director: Stephen Frears
Stars: Colm Meaney, Donal O’Kelly, Ger Ryan
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: UK | Ireland | USA

Set in the fictional Dublin suburb of Barrytown, Bimbo is a baker who loses his job after being made redundant. Bimbo then acquires the help of his best friend, Larry, to set up a successful burger van.

Director: Satoshi Isaka
Stars: Tadanobu Asano, Keiko Unno, Akira Hirai
Genre: Crime, Drama
Country: Japan

A small and intrusive reporting crew are reporting on the actions of a man who monitors transmissions in a documentary they are filming. When suddenly a weapon is introduced the nerd and the events turn tupsy turvy and the results are not sublime.

Director: Leon Ichaso
Stars: René Lavan, Mayte Vilán, Miguel Gutiérrez
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: Dominican Republic | USA

Gustavo is a young Havana Communist who believes in the revolution; he hopes for a scholarship to study aeronautical engineering in Prague. But his faith in the new Cuba is tested: his father, a psychiatrist, can make four times as much playing piano at a hotel for foreigners; his sweetheart, Yolanda, wants a career as a dancer and longs for the riches of Miami; his younger brother Bobby simply wants to play rock music, and as a result is in constant trouble with the authorities. When Bobby takes a shocking step of revolt and Gustavo is refused service at a foreigners-only bar, the contradictions in his resolve to become a “new man” push him to the breaking point.

Director: Geoffrey Sax
Stars: Paul McGann, Eric Roberts, Daphne Ashbrook
Genre: Adventure, Drama, Sci-Fi
Country: USA | UK

The newly-regenerated Doctor takes on the Master on the turn of the millennium, 31 December 1999.

Director: Andrew Kotting
Stars: Andrew Kotting, Eden Kotting, Benji Ming
Genre: Documentary
Country: UK

When British filmmaker Andrew Kotting decided to tour the perimeter of Great Britain with his grandmother Gladys and his daughter Eden, he brought a film crew along. The result is this often humorous and picturesque documentary.

Director: Zvonimir Maycug
Stars: Miran Javorovic, Vedrana Likan, Roswitha Mir
Genre: Drama
Country: Croatia

A traveling accordionist and superintendent of an old castle lives in an unhappy marriage, with a grown up daughter and has a sister-in-law who has been in love with him for years. During a trip, he meets young journalist (Mato Pavelic)and falls madly in love. His visit to the old castle tears the family apart, resulting in tragedy.

Director: Sharunas Bartas
Stars: Alex Descas, Yekaterina Golubeva, Piotr Kishteev
Genre: Drama
Country: Portugal | France | Germany | Lithuania

Silent Lithuanian film about a woman visiting a Fayre.

Director: Ulrich Seidl
Stars: Ernst Schönmann, Franz Holzschuh, Erich Wögerer
Genre: Documentary
Country: Austria

In conurbations where hundreds of thousands live alongside one another, in the era of a highly technological society, in which communication has never played such a significant role, man has become lonely. Disappointed by his fellow human beings, he turns to animals. Dogs and other domestic animals serve him as companions, life partners, cuddly objects and bedfellows.

Director: Bertram Verhaag
Stars: Jane Elliott, Martin Luther King
Genre: Documentary
Country: USA | Germany

In only 15 minutes with some 30 people Jane Elliott manages to build up a realistic microcosmos of society today with all its phenomena and feelings. As already known from the ill reputed Milgram experiment, even participants who knew the “rules” are unable to remain uninvolved. What starts as a game turns into cruel reality which causes some participants’ emotions to erupt with unforeseen intensity.

Director: Kenneth Branagh
Stars: Kenneth Branagh, Julie Christie, Derek Jacobi
Genre: Drama
Country: UK | USA

Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, returns home to find his father murdered and his mother remarrying the murderer, his uncle. Meanwhile, war is brewing.

Director: Kôhei Oguri
Stars: Sung-Ki Ahn, Christine Hakim, Jun Hamamura
Genre: Drama
Country: Japan

Ever since an accident in the mountains outside town, Takuji’s slept in a coma; his neighbors care for him as new events occur every day.

Director: Theo van Gogh
Stars: Renée Fokker, Peer Mascini, Roeland Fernhout
Genre: Drama
Country: Netherlands

A bartender watches with amusement as two strangers meet and duel verbally in his bar. Katya, a former dancer, is trying to forget the death of her young daughter. Pom, a comedian known for his verbal thrust and parry, tries to charm, shock and disgust his date in turn.

Director: Chi-Ngai Lee
Stars: Takeshi Kaneshiro, Kelly Chen, Michael Wong
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: Hong Kong

Where is the end of the world? A rich girl diagnosed with leukemia wants to follow a sailor friend to St Kilda, Scotland to find out…but first she must search him out, who is missing.

Director: Chris Smith
Stars: Randy Russell, Matt Collier, Ed English
Genre: Drama
Country: USA

American Job is a narrative film about Randy Scott, a youth caught in the dismal confusion of living and working in the world of minimum wage. American Job follows main character Randy Scott through a number of low wage jobs: factory worker, fast food dishwasher, third shift inventory specialist, motel room custodian and telemarketer. We live with Randy through these jobs and witness the pain, absurdity and sheer boredom of minimum wage work.

Director: Caroline Link
Stars: Sylvie Testud, Tatjana Trieb, Howie Seago
Genre: Drama, Music
Country: Germany

Since the earliest days in her childhood Lara has had a difficult but important task. Both her parents are deaf-mute and Lara has to translate from sign-language to the spoken word and vice versa when her parents want to communicate with other people. Getting older and more mature she becomes interested in music and starts to play clarinet very successfully. However her parents are deaf, they cannot share Lara’s musical career. The day comes when Lara has to decide between her parents and her own ambitions.

Director: Volker Schlöndorff
Stars: John Malkovich, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Gottfried John
Genre: Drama
Country: Germany | France | UK

Frenchman Abel Tiffauges likes children, and wants to protect them against the grown-ups. Falsely suspected as child molester, he’s recruited as a soldier in the 2nd World War, but very soon he is taken prisoner of war. After shortly serving in Goerings hunting lodge, he becomes the dogsbody in Kaltenborn Castle, an elite training camp for German boys. Completely happy to take care of these children, he becomes a servant of Nazism, catching boys from the area as supplies for the camp.

Director: Yavuz Turgul
Stars: Sener Sen, Ugur Yücel, Sermin Hürmeriç
Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Turkey | France | Bulgaria

Baran the Bandit, released from prison after 35 years, searches for vengeance and his lover.

Director: Olivier Assayas
Stars: Maggie Cheung, Jean-Pierre Léaud, Nathalie Richard
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: France

A Chinese movie actress, in France to star in a remake of “Les Vampires”, finds petty intrigues and clashing egos on the set.

Director: Robert Lepage
Stars: Patrick Goyette, Marie Brassard, Peter Stormare
Genre: Crime
Country: Canada | France | Germany

Lucie Champagne is given the role of the victim, Marie-Claire, in a film of a true, unsolved murder. By coincidence, Lucie’s neighbour Francois, was Marie-Claire’s boyfriend. He is a suspect in the continuing investigation and is unsure of his own innocence although he has an alibi from his previous girlfriend, Claude. Francois’ polygraph (lie detector) test proves inconclusive and while he awaits his second test, Lucie’s film is completed with its own ideas on who killed Marie-Claire.

Director: Nikos Grammatikos
Stars: Nikos Georgakis, Giorgos Evgenikos, Vangelis Mourikis
Genre: Drama
Country: Greece

The story follows the sporadic reunions of six friends during the seven-year period of their integration into society.

Director: Tian-Ming Wu
Stars: Li Chen, Zhaoji Jia, Zhigang Zhang
Genre: Drama
Country: China | Hong Kong

Wang Bianlian is an aging street performer known as the King of Mask for his mastery of Sichuan Change Art in a true story. His wife left him with and infant son over 30 years ago. The son died from illness at age 10. This left Wang a melancholy loner aching for a male descendent to learn his rare and dying art. A famous master performer of the Sichuan Opera offers to bring him into his act, thus giving Wang fame and possible fortune, but Wang opts for staying the simple street performer. Then, one night after a performance he is sold a young boy by a slave trader posing as the boy’s parent. “Grandpa” finds new joy in life as he plans to teach “Doggie” (an affectionate term often used for young children in China) his art. All is well until Doggie is found out to really be a girl.

Director: Mohsen Makhmalbaf
Stars: Shaghayeh Djodat, Hossein Moharami, Rogheih Moharami
Genre: Drama, Mystery, Romance
Country: Iran | France

When an old couple washes their gabbeh – a type of Persian rug – a young woman magically appears and tells them her life story.

Director: Kelly Makin
Stars: Dave Foley, Bruce McCulloch, Kevin McDonald
Genre: Comedy
Country: Canada | USA

A pharmaceutical scientist creates a pill that makes people remember their happiest memory, and although it’s successful, it has unfortunate side effects.

Director: Robert Altman
Stars: Jennifer Jason Leigh, Miranda Richardson, Harry Belafonte
Genre: Crime, Drama, Music
Country: France | USA

A pair of kidnappings expose the complex power dynamics within the corrupt and unpredictable workings of 1930s Kansas City.

Director: Matthew Barney
Stars: Marti Domination, Gemma Bourdon Smith, Kathleen Crepeau
Genre: Short, Fantasy, Musical
Country: USA

An experimental short film from the Cremaster series which alludes to the position of the reproductive organs during the embryonic development process.

Director: Tata Amaral
Stars: Paulo Vespúcio, Leona Cavalli, Lígia Cortez
Genre: Drama
Country: Brazil

Dalva, a young hairdresser, is leaving for Miami to receive a prize. Her journey is interrupted, when her former boyfriend, Victor, makes her a captive in her own house.

Director: Denys Arcand
Stars: Lorne Brass, Gaston Lepage, Benoît Brière
Genre: Drama
Country: Canada

In Montreal, the wanderings of two urban homeless, Marcel, an old timer and Joseph, who just landed in the big city. Both philosophers and resourceful nice bums roam the streets of the metropolis in search of Stanley, the only friend of Marcel and who has not been heard of since a long time. Throughout their adventures, the two men forged an unbreakable friendship. Will they find Stanley before it’s too late?

Director: Franco Piavoli
Stars: Patrizio Girardi, Emanuela Cobelli, Laura Carnevali
Genre: Drama
Country: Italy

Semi-documentary without comment portraying Castellaro Lagusello, a small town in Northern Italy.

Director: Dirk Rijneke
Stars: Ari de Weerd
Genre: Documentary, Short
Country: Netherlands

Where Joris Ivens realized his ‘study of mechanical movement’ in 1928, the bridge keeper of the Koningshaven Hefbrug now thrones high above the city and the river, passing his last working days.

Director: Nae Caranfil
Stars: Charlotte Rampling, Mircea Diaconu, Florin Calinescu
Genre: Comedy
Country: France | Romania

A desperate husband chases a bus full of beautiful women headed for Paris, France.

Director: Arturo Ripstein
Stars: Regina Orozco, Daniel Giménez Cacho, Sherlyn
Genre: Crime, Drama, Romance
Country: Mexico

The life of a man who preys on unsuspecting women for a living is changed when he finds an accomplice in the woman who loves and controls him.

Director: Coline Serreau
Stars: Coline Serreau, Vincent Lindon, James Thierrée
Genre: Comedy
Country: France

The “Green Planet” belongs to another solar system. Through the simplicity of their lifestyle those who live there are a real step ahead of us: they spend their time concentrating their knowledge, strength and energy on the development of their minds and bodies in a natural environment which they dearly preserve and care for. Once a year, they gather in the crater of a dormant volcano to decide which planets they ought to send messengers to. There are volunteers for every planet except Earth, which is considered too polluted and too dangerous. One woman alone, Mila, decides to go there to seek out her identity, as Osam the old sage has revealed to her that she was conceived there during a previous trip by her father.

Director: Keith Gordon
Stars: Nick Nolte, Sheryl Lee, Anthony J. Robinow
Genre: Drama, Romance, War
Country: USA

An American spy behind the lines during WWII serves as a Nazi propagandist, a role he cannot escape in his future life as he can never reveal his real role in the war.

Director: Claire Denis
Stars: Grégoire Colin, Alice Houri, Jacques Nolot
Genre: Drama
Country: France

A brother and sister reunite after time apart. But the sister is pregnant, which could either bring the siblings together or tear them apart.

Director: Tom Hanks
Stars: Tom Hanks, Liv Tyler, Charlize Theron
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Music
Country: USA

A local Pennsylvania band scores a one hit wonder in 1964 and rides the star-making machinery as long as they can, with lots of help from its manager.

Director: Éric Rohmer
Stars: Melvil Poupaud, Amanda Langlet, Gwenaëlle Simon
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: France

A shy maths graduate takes a holiday in Dinard before starting his first job. He hopes his sort-of girlfriend will join him, but soon strikes up a friendship with another girl working in town. She in turn introduces him to a further young lady who fancies him. Thus the quiet young lad finds he is having to do some tricky juggling in territory new to him.

Director: Jim Klein
Stars: Jim Klein, Renee Montagne, Bradford Snell
Genre: Documentary
Country: USA

How the American auto industry engineered the demise of city public-transit systems.

Director: Alan Berliner
Stars: Alan Berliner, Oscar Berliner
Genre: Documentary
Country: USA

A portrait of the director’s father, searching for the extraordinary in the subject’s seemingly normal existence.

Director: Francisco J. Lombardi
Stars: José Luis Ruiz Barahona, Ana Risueño, Diego Bertie
Genre: Crime, Drama, Romance
Country: Spain | Peru | Germany

Passion, criminal instincts an traditions melt together in this film, that shakes our conception of crime.

Director: Jean-Luc Godard
Stars: Madeleine Assas, Ghalya Lacroix, Bérangère Allaux
Genre: Comedy, Drama, War
Country: Switzerland | France

Jean-Luc Godard’s densely packed rumination on the need to create order and beauty in a world ruled by chaos is divided into four distinct but tangentially related stories, including the attempts by a young group of idealists to stage a play in war-torn Sarajevo and an elderly director’s efforts to complete his film.

Director: Shunji Iwai
Stars: Hiroshi Mikami, Chara, Ayumi Itô
Genre: Crime, Drama
Country: Japan

The struggles of a group of immigrant outcasts living in an alternative-future, xenophobic Japanese metropolis.

Director: Aki Kaurismäki
Stars: Kati Outinen, Kari Väänänen, Elina Salo
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: Finland | Germany | France

The recession hits a couple in Helsinki.

Director: Trevor Nunn
Stars: Helena Bonham Carter, Richard E. Grant, Imogen Stubbs
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: Ireland | UK

Shakespeare’s comedy of gender confusion, in which a girl disguises herself as a man to be near the count she adores, only to be pursued by the woman he loves.

Director: Cheryl Dunye
Stars: Cheryl Dunye, Guinevere Turner, Valarie Walker
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: USA

Cheryl is young, Black, and lesbian, working in Philadelphia with her best friend Tamara and consumed by a film project: to make a video about her search for a Black actress from Philly who appeared in films in the 30s and was known as the Watermelon Woman. Following various leads, Cheryl discovers the Watermelon Woman’s stage name and real name and surmises that the actress had a long affair with Martha Page, a White woman and one of Hollywood’s few female directors. As she’s discovering these things, Cheryl becomes involved with Diana, who’s also White. The affair strains Cheryl’s friendship with Tamara. More discoveries bring Cheryl (and us, her audience) to new realizations.

Director: Al Pacino
Stars: Al Pacino, Alec Baldwin, Kevin Spacey
Genre: Documentary, Drama
Country: USA

Director Al Pacino juxtaposes scenes from Richard III, scenes of rehearsals for Richard III, and sessions where parties involved discuss the play, the times that shaped the play, and the events that happened at the time the play is set. Interviews with mostly British actors are also included, attempting to explain why American actors have more problems performing Shakespearean plays than they do

Director: Leon Gast
Stars: Muhammad Ali, George Foreman, Don King
Genre: Documentary, Sport
Country: USA

A documentary of the 1974 heavyweight championship bout in Zaire, “The Rumble in the Jungle,” between champion George Foreman and underdog challenger Muhammad Ali.

Director: Vladimír Michálek
Stars: Bolek Polívka, Veronika Zilková, Petr Kavan
Genre: Drama
Country: Czech Republic

Father Holy, a village priest, battles against the state and religious bureaucracies of 1980s Czechoslovakia in his fight to raise money for a new church roof. Permeated by his love for the villagers, his encounters are marked by his good humor. In his losing battle against Church and State, Holy is ordered to be transferred away from his parish and his allies. The Czech-American, Milena Jelinek, adapted this moving story from the the novel The Forgotten Light, by the 1930s Czech writer/poet and Catholic priest Jakub Deml.

Director: Murilo Salles
Stars: Priscila Assum, Silvio Guindane, Larry Pine
Genre: Drama
Country: Brazil

Two children flee together with a grown up from a slum in Rio because this older person has had problems with the local drug lord. They end up in the house where a rich American lives with his daughter.

Director: Heddy Honigmann
Stars: n/a
Genre: Documentary
Country: Netherlands

A documentary on Brazil’s relationship with the poetry of Carlos Drummond de Andrade, and to their own sexuality.

Director: Alejandro Agresti
Stars: Vera Fogwill, Nicolás Pauls, Fernán Mirás
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: Argentina | Netherlands

This is Buenos Aires, its characters, its history, its reality. A complex movie for a complex city, depicted in the character’s language, and in their relationship with the present and the past. This is a story of contrasts, offered by a despair choir of characters: the old couple who hire a young woman to record city’s present images, because they “don’t get out much now”, the boy who finds out the real story about his parents out of a coincidence… this and the others are all illustrations of actual Buenos Aires.

Director: Yôichi Higashi
Stars: Mieko Harada, Keigo Matsuyama, Shogo Matsuyama
Genre: Drama, Family, Fantasy
Country: Japan

Tells of the childhood of nine-year-old twins in a rural village in Japan after World War 2. Includes the boys’ relationships with their schoolteacher mother, civil servant father, elderly landlord, a rough new boy at the school, and three mysterious spirits in the form of old women.

Director: Hirokazu Koreeda
Stars: Hiroshi Sekine, Miwa Sekine, Taku Sekine
Genre: Documentary
Country: Japan

This documentary follows the life of a man who has a disability which prevents him from forming new memories. The vital importance of human memory is revealed through his daily interactions with his family and the filmmakers.

Director: Liv Ullmann
Stars: Pernilla August, Max von Sydow, Samuel Fröler
Genre: Biography, Drama
Country: Sweden

Five conversations frame a flawed marriage in this film written by Ingmar Bergman about his parents. Guilt-ridden wife Anna (Pernilla August) divulges an extramarital affair to a priest, her uncle Jacob (Max von Sydow). He presses her to confess her sins to her husband, Henrik. As the film moves back and forth in time, the notion of truth is tested. Tomas, the lover, and Henrik will find that Anna’s confessions do not absolve anyone, and have the power to inflict more pain.

Director: Chantal Akerman
Stars: Juliette Binoche, William Hurt, Stephanie Buttle
Genre: Comedy, Romance
Country: France | Germany | Belgium

A psychoanalyst in NYC exchanges apartment with a woman in Paris. When his patients show up, they talk to her and then pay. He returns early to NYC and becomes a patient.

Director: Cédric Klapisch
Stars: Jean-Pierre Bacri, Jean-Pierre Darroussin, Catherine Frot
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: France

An upper middle-class French family celebrates a birthday in a restaurant. In one evening and during one meal, family history, tensions, collective and separate grudges, delights, and memories both clash and coalesce.

Director: Sergei Bodrov
Stars: Oleg Menshikov, Sergey Bodrov, Susanna Mekhraliyeva
Genre: Drama, War
Country: Russia | Kazakhstan

Two Russian soldiers, one battle-seasoned and the other barely into his boots and uniform, are taken prisoner by an anxious Islamic father from a remote village hoping to trade them for his captured son.

Director: Jaco Van Dormael
Stars: Srdjan Dragojevic
Genre: Comedy, Drama, History
Country: Federal Republic of Yugoslavia

During the war in Bosnia, two childhood friends eventually become enemies, as the tragic and devastating circumstances of the war put them on the opposite sides and expose the most gruesome and cruel aspects of the human nature.

Director: Jaco Van Dormael
Stars: Daniel Auteuil, Pascal Duquenne, Miou-Miou
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: Belgium | France | UK

An unusual and wonderful friendship develops between a busy but unhappy salesman and a resident of a mental asylum.

Director: Jane Campion
Stars: Nicole Kidman, John Malkovich, Barbara Hershey
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: UK | USA

An American girl inherits a fortune and falls into a misguided relationship with a gentleman confidence artist whose true nature, including a barbed and covetous disposition, turns her life into a nightmare.

Director: Greta Schiller
Stars: Juliet Stevenson, Maureen All, Gillian Hanna
Genre: Documentary
Country: UK

Female artists, writers, photographers, designers, and adventurers are settled in Paris between the wars.

Director: Greta Schiller
Stars: Juliet Stevenson, Maureen All, Gillian Hanna
Genre: Documentary
Country: UK

Female artists, writers, photographers, designers, and adventurers are settled in Paris between the wars.

Director: Lee Lew Lee
Stars: Mumia Abu-Jamal, Dennis Banks, Marlon Brando
Genre: Documentary
Country: USA

This four hour documentary looks for the exotic in the everyday life observed in just one city, the filmmaker’s own Amsterdam.

Director: Johan van der Keuken
Stars: Julika Marijn
Genre: Documentary
Country: Netherlands

This four hour documentary looks for the exotic in the everyday life observed in just one city, the filmmaker’s own Amsterdam.

Director: Sophie Calle, Greg Shephard
Stars: Sophie Calle, Greg Shephard
Genre: Documentary, Biography, Romance
Country: USA

French Artist Sophie Calle and American Photographer Greg Shephard’s autobiographical account of their road trip across America. Both hide behind their cameras as they make the mythical journey westward from New York to California in Greg’s troubling convertible. The couple stop in a Las Vegas Drive-Thru wedding chapel and decide to get married, in order to save their shaky relationship, with their cameras recording everything.

Director: Didier Le Pêcheur
Stars: Marie Trintignant, Maria de Medeiros, Christian Charmetant
Genre: Comedy
Country: France | Portugal

When novelist Alessandro Battavia commits suicide, a taxi driver named Evangile and her brother Nord believe they are characters imagined in a novel, probably one written by God. Because they see their lives as “merde,” they go in search of God to get their story rewritten. Along the way, believing everything is imaginary anyway, they shoot people, rob pharmacies, and tie up the residents of places they squat. They also gather a taxi full of eccentrics, including a priest, Battavia’s suicidal widow, and a policewoman; various couples pair off. Soon life imitates art: the events and ellipses seem lifted from modern fiction as the group’s quest for God continues. What’s real?

Director: Aleksandr Sokurov
Stars: Aleksandr Sokurov
Genre: Drama, Short
Country: Russia | Japan

A short film by Aleksandr Sokurov which provides a surreal visual experience.

Director: Carlos da Silva, George Sluizer
Stars: Diogo Infante, Maria d’Aires, Huub Stapel
Genre: Comedy
Country: Portugal | Netherlands

A Portuguese immigrant in Holland dies in an accident and is buried in a cemetery in Amsterdam. Soon he discovers that his soul won’t rest in peace until his body is laying down in his fatherland. This way he decides to go to Portugal to convince his sister to travel to Amsterdam and bring back his body. The only problem is that the only way for him to be seen or heard by the living is appearing in their dreams.

Director: Édouard Molinaro
Stars: Fabrice Luchini, Manuel Blanc, Sandrine Kiberlain
Genre: Adventure, Comedy, History
Country: France

The life story of the titular Beaumarchais, playwright and adventurer, who gets himself into numerous different scrapes and romantic encounters in 18th Century France.

Director: Hsiao-Hsien Hou
Stars: Jieh-Wen King, Kuei-Ying Hsu, Annie Shizuka Inoh
Genre: Crime, Drama
Country: Taiwan | Japan

A glimpse at the lives of two petty criminals in Taipei.

Director: Peter Duncan
Stars: Judy Davis, Sam Neill, F. Murray Abraham
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: Australia

Few knew that Stalin spent his last night in the arms of a young Australian woman. Few still knew that their “love-child” brought Australia to the brink of civil war. Until now.

Director: Jacques Audiard
Stars: Mathieu Kassovitz, Anouk Grinberg, Sandrine Kiberlain
Genre: Drama, Comedy
Country: France

Set in France at the end of World War II Albert Dehousse finds out his father wasn’t a war hero and his mother is a collaborator. He leaves his wife and goes to Paris. Gradually he inveigles himself with the resistance movement. They trust him and he helps them trace collaborators.

Director: Arnaud Desplechin
Stars: Mathieu Amalric, Emmanuelle Devos, Emmanuel Salinger
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: France

Paul Dedalus is at a crossroads in his life. He has to make several decisions; should he complete his doctorate, does he want to become a full professor, does he really love his long-standing girlfriend, or should he re-start with one of his other lovers? Is he avoiding the despairing life his father can’t escape from ?

Director: Peter Ho-Sun Chan
Stars: Maggie Cheung, Leon Lai, Eric Tsang
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: Hong Kong

Two Chinese-mainlanders living in Hong Kong form a close friendship. Over the years this grows into love, but there are obstacles.

Director: Vinko Bresan
Stars: Vlatko Dulic, Ljubomir Kerekes, Ivan Brkic
Genre: Comedy, War
Country: Croatia

Although being one of the first movies to take humoristic approach towards violent break-up of Yugoslavia, this motion picture is partly based on real events that took place in September of 1991. Few months after Croatia seceded from Yugoslavia, Federal military installations are still present with previously recruited Croatian boys trapped inside. One such installation is a garrison on a small Dalmatian island, commanded by Major Aleksa Milosavljevic. Besieged by local militia, Major Aleksa threatens to blow up ammunition depots with half an island in case of any hostile action. During the stalemate, art historian Blaz Gajski comes from Zagreb in order to rescue his son from the barracks.

Director: Jan Svankmajer
Stars: Petr Meissel, Gabriela Wilhelmová, Barbora Hrzánová
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: Czech Republic | Switzerland | UK

Six people unknowingly form a cycle of masturbation as they each cause others to privately indulge in their fetishes.

Director: Mira Nair
Stars: Naveen Andrews, Sarita Choudhury, Indira Varma
Genre: Crime, Drama, History
Country: USA | India | UK | Japan | Germany

Two female friends become sexual rivals at maturity.

Director: Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne
Stars: Jérémie Renier, Olivier Gourmet, Assita Ouedraogo
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: Belgium | France | Luxembourg | Tunisia

Roger uses his son Igor to ruthlessly traffic and exploit undocumented immigrants. When one of the immigrants is killed, Igor is guilt-ridden and wants to care for the dead man’s family against his father’s orders.