Tag: 1998

Director: Serdar Akar
Stars: Erkan Can, Haldun Boysan, Yildiray Sahinler
Genre: Crime, Drama
Country: Turkey

Sailors want to remain in their small world, warm and cozy and full of lies, but they kidnap a prostitute from some pimps.

Director: Deepa Mehta
Stars: Aamir Khan, Nandita Das, Rahul Khanna
Genre: Drama, Romance, War
Country: India | Canada

It’s 1947 and the borderlines between India and Pakistan are being drawn. A young girl witnesses tragedy as her ayah (nanny) is caught between the love of two men and the rising tide of political and religious violence.

Director: Darren Aronofsky
Stars: Sean Gullette, Mark Margolis, Ben Shenkman
Genre: Drama, Horror, Mystery
Country: USA

A paranoid mathematician searches for a key number that will unlock the universal patterns found in nature.

Director: Michael Apted
Stars: Bruce Balden, Jacqueline Bassett, Symon Basterfield
Genre: Documentary, Biography
Country: UK

Director Michael Apted revisits the same group of British-born adults after a 7 year wait. The subjects are interviewed as to the changes that have occurred in their lives during the last seven years.

Director: Hans-Christian Schmid
Stars: August Diehl, Fabian Busch, Dieter Landuris
Genre: Thriller, Drama
Country: Germany

When the orphaned Karl Koch and his friend David start breaking into government and military computers, an acquaintance senses that there is money in computer cracking – and travels to east Berlin to try to contact the KGB.

Director: Ming-liang Tsai
Stars: Kuei-Mei Yang, Kang-sheng Lee, Tien Miao
Genre: Drama, Fantasy, Musical
Country: Taiwan | France

While never-ending rain and a strange disease spread by cockroaches ravage Taiwan, a plumber makes a hole between two apartments and the inhabitants of each form a unique connection, enacted in musical numbers.

Director: Jamil Dehlavi
Stars: Christopher Lee, Shireen Shah, James Curran
Genre: Biography, Drama, War
Country: UK | Pakistan

The story of Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan.

Director: John Curran
Stars: Peter Fenton, Sacha Horler, Marta Dusseldorp
Genre: Drama
Country: Australia

An unfocused twentysomething (Peter Fenton) moves in with a former co-worker (Sacha Holder), who is suffering from low self-esteem because of her weight, looks, and a case of eczema. Their relationship is based on unending drink, drugs, and sex. Curiously, though the two are presented in a tender and humorous light that lets the viewer get involved in concerned about their direction.

Director: Simon Shore
Stars: Ben Silverstone, Brad Gorton, Charlotte Brittain
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: UK

A tenderly romantic coming-of-age story as two boys in a British school fall in love.

Director: Ettore Scola
Stars: Fanny Ardant, Antonio Catania, Francesca d’Aloja
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: Italy | France

A multitude of characters face personal problems while having dinner in a roman restaurant.

Director: Bennett Miller
Stars: Timothy ‘Speed’ Levitch
Genre: Documentary
Country: USA

Affectionate portrait of Tim “Speed” Levitch, a tour guide for Manhattan’s Gray Line double-decker buses. He talks fast, is in love with the city, and dispenses historical facts, architectural analysis, and philosophical musings in equal measures.

Director: Hideaki Anno
Stars: Tadanobu Asano, Mitsuru Fukikoshi, Megumi Hayashibara
Genre: Drama
Country: Japan

A high school girl engages in compensated dating in order to buy an expensive ring before the day ends.

Director: Predrag Antonijevic
Stars: Dennis Quaid, Nastassja Kinski, Pascal Rollin
Genre: Drama, War
Country: USA

A hardened mercenary in the Foreign Legion begins to find his own humanity when confronted with atrocities during the fighting in Bosnia.

Director: Shôhei Imamura
Stars: Akira Emoto, Kumiko Asô, Jacques Gamblin
Genre: Comedy, Drama, History
Country: Japan | France

At the end of WWII, Japanese doctor Akagi searches for the cure for hepatitis in the prisoner-of-war camp.

Director: James Moll
Stars: Bill Basch, Martin Basch, Randolph Braham
Genre: Documentary, War
Country: USA

In late 1944, even as they faced imminent defeat, the Nazis expended enormous resources to kill or deport over 425,000 Jews during the “cleansing” of Hungary. This Oscar-winning documentary, executive produced by Steven Spielberg, focuses on the plight of five Hungarian Jews who survived imprisonment in Auschwitz. Though these survivors recount the horrors they witnessed and endured as a result of the Nazis’ “Final Solution,” their individual triumphs are a testament to hope and humanity.

Director: Gaspar Noé
Stars: Philippe Nahon, Blandine Lenoir, Frankie Pain
Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: France

A horse meat butcher’s life and mind begins to breakdown as he lashes out against various factions of society while attempting to reconnect with his estranged daughter.

Director: Shekhar Kapur
Stars: Cate Blanchett, Liz Giles, Rod Culbertson
Genre: Biography, Drama, History
Country: UK

The early years of the reign of Elizabeth I of England and her difficult task of learning what is necessary to be a monarch.

Director: Steve Yeager
Stars: John Waters, Pat Waters, John Waters Sr.
Genre: Documentary
Country: USA

The life and times of Baltimore film maker and midnight movie pioneer, John Waters. Intercut with a 1972 interview of Waters are clips from his first films and recent interviews with his parents, his brother, Divine’s mom, actors and crew, other directors, film critics, a film curator, psychologists, and Maryland’s last censor, who shudders at the memory of Waters’s pictures.

Director: Roger Michell
Stars: Julie Walters, Ciarán Hinds, Nuala O’Neill
Genre: Drama
Country: UK

A Belfast, Northern Ireland housewife takes up the peace cause, which causes her family trouble with I.R.A. sympathizers.

Director: Ernest R. Dickerson
Stars: Courtney B. Vance, Charles S. Dutton, Kadeem Hardison
Genre: Drama
Country: USA

In 1957, black lawyer John Williams has to defend his nephew Charlie, who is accused of strangling a white boy to death. John doesn’t believe Charlie did it, and although Charlie confesses, John wants to find out the real truth.

Director: Chris Eyre
Stars: Adam Beach, Evan Adams, Irene Bedard
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA

Young Native American man Thomas is a nerd in his reservation, wearing oversize glasses and telling everyone stories no-one wants to hear. His parents died in a fire in 1976, and Thomas was saved by Arnold. Arnold soon left his family (and his tough son Victor), and Victor hasn’t seen his father for 10 years. When Victor hears Arnold has died, Thomas offers him funding for the trip to get Arnold’s remains, but only if Thomas can also go with him. Thomas and Victor hit the road.

Director: Tom Tykwer
Stars: Franka Potente, Moritz Bleibtreu, Herbert Knaup
Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Germany

After a botched money delivery, Lola has 20 minutes to come up with 100,000 Deutschmarks.

Director: Gus Van Sant
Stars: Vince Vaughn, Anne Heche, Julianne Moore
Genre: Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Country: USA

A young female embezzler arrives at the Bates Motel, which has terrible secrets of its own.

Director: Jim Shedden
Stars: Jerry Aronson, Jane Brakhage, Marilyn Brakhage
Genre: Documentary, Biography
Country: Canada

The film BRAKHAGE explores the depth and breadth of the filmmaker’s genius, the exquisite splendor of his films, his magic personal charm, his aesthetic fellow travelers and the influence his work has had on generations of other creators.

Director: Teresa Villaverde
Stars: Ana Moreira, Alexandre Pinto, Nelson Varela
Genre: Drama
Country: Portugal | France

Three homeless teenage rejects struggle to survive together. Of them, Andreia is pregnant, while Pedro and Ricardo hustle, steal and are exploited by a pornographer.

Director: Jacques Rivette
Stars: Sandrine Bonnaire, Jerzy Radziwilowicz, Grégoire Colin
Genre: Crime, Drama
Country: France

Sylvie, a 30-year-old scientist, has to dig deeper and deeper into her own background.

Director: Michael Glawogger
Stars: n/a
Genre: Documentary
Country: Austria | Switzerland

A look at the people who live precariously, but with an unusual level of resourcefulness and imagination, in four gigantic urban agglomerations: Mumbai, New York City, Moscow and Mexico City.

Director: Marilou Diaz-Abaya
Stars: Cesar Montano, Joel Torre, Jaime Fabregas
Genre: Biography, Drama, History
Country: Philippines

Jose Rizal’s life and works are recounted through a series of non-linear flashbacks which reflect on various aspects of his life – as writer, propagandist, lover, friend, brother, doctor, and the man that inspired a revolution.

Director: Mike Nichols
Stars: John Travolta, Emma Thompson, Kathy Bates
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: UK | USA | France | Germany | Japan

A man joins the political campaign of a smooth-operator candidate for President of the U.S.

Director: Bille August
Stars: Liam Neeson, Geoffrey Rush, Uma Thurman
Genre: Crime, Drama, History
Country: UK | Germany | USA

Valjean, a former criminal, has atoned for his past and now finds himself in the midst of the French Revolution, avoiding a law-obsessed policeman hell-bent on capturing him.

Director: Alex Proyas
Stars: Rufus Sewell, Kiefer Sutherland, Jennifer Connelly
Genre: Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: Australia

A man struggles with memories of his past, which includes a wife he cannot remember, and a nightmarish world, no one else seems to be waking up from.

Director: Peter Lichtefeld
Stars: Joachim Król, Outi Mäenpää, Peter Lohmeyer
Genre: Comedy, Romance, Crime
Country: Germany | Finland

Hannes is a beer-truck driver in Dortmund. His biggest dream is to win the first prize at the International Time-Table Contest in Inari (Finland). When his new boss cancels his extra holidays to go there, Hans goes mad… On his journey to Finland by train, followed by the police, he meets lot of folks and the love of his life.

Director: David Riker
Stars: Anthony Rivera, Joseph Rigano, Miguel Maldonado
Genre: Drama
Country: USA

The stories of four Hispanic immigrants living in New York City.

Director: Karim Traïdia
Stars: Jaap Spijkers, Monic Hendrickx, Rudi Falkenhagen
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: Netherlands

Polish deceived woman hides from pimps on a Dutch farm, and shares an intriguing romance with the farmer.

Director: Nicole Garcia
Stars: Catherine Deneuve, Jean-Pierre Bacri, Emmanuelle Seigner
Genre: Crime, Drama
Country: France

Realising a dishonest deal has been found out a diamond merchant commits suicide, leaving the gems in question for his wife. Knowing the business from the time before drink largely took over her life, she decides to sober up and sell them herself. Though they attract much interest, no-one legitimate will touch them. As she tries to get her present life straight the lure of the stones means she may have to confront the past as well.

Director: Francis Veber
Stars: Thierry Lhermitte, Jacques Villeret, Francis Huster
Genre: Comedy
Country: France

A few friends have a weekly fools’ dinner, where each brings a fool along. Pierre finds a champion fool for next dinner. Surprise.

Director: Craig Monahan
Stars: Hugo Weaving, Tony Martin, Aaron Jeffery
Genre: Thriller, Crime, Drama
Country: Australia

A duel between a suspected murderer and a detective pressed by people who want results. But whose skin is really wanted.

Director: Maya Angelou
Stars: Alfre Woodard, Al Freeman Jr., Mary Alice
Genre: Drama
Country: USA

Rosa Lynn sends her druggie daughter Loretta and her children Thomas and Tracy away from the big city to live with their uncle Earl in the ancestral home in rural Mississippi. Earl puts Loretta to work in his restaurant, Just Chicken, while also telling them about the generations of their family, the Sinclairs, dating back to their time in slavery before the the Civil War.

Director: John Boorman
Stars: Brendan Gleeson, Adrian Dunbar, Sean McGinley
Genre: Biography, Crime, Drama
Country: UK | Ireland

The real-life story of Dublin folk hero and criminal Martin Cahill, who pulled off two daring robberies in Ireland with his team, but attracted unwanted attention from the police, the I.R.A., the U.V.F., and members of his own team.

Director: Anand Tucker
Stars: Emily Watson, Rachel Griffiths, James Frain
Genre: Biography, Drama, Music
Country: UK

The tragic story of world renowned classic cellist Jacqueline du Pré, as told from the point of view of her sister, flautist Hilary du Pré-Finzi.

Director: Peter Jones
Stars: Angela Lansbury, Esther Williams, Arlene Dahl
Genre: Documentary, History
Country: USA

The history of color photography in motion pictures, in particular the Technicolor company’s work.

Director: Stefan Ruzowitzky
Stars: Simon Schwarz, Sophie Rois, Lars Rudolph
Genre: Drama, Mystery
Country: Austria | Germany

Austria, a little farming valley. Beginning of the century. When one of the farmers is found murdered one day, his labourers know of nothing, but are relieved, as the tyranny has ended. Then, something new happens for the first time in history: The farm workers inherit the whole farm together, as the farmer himself was childless. Now, conflicts come up, as nobody is the boss and nobody has to obey.

Director: Samira Makhmalbaf
Stars: Massoumeh Naderi, Zahra Naderi, Ghorban Ali Naderi
Genre: Drama
Country: Iran | France | Netherlands

After twelve years of imprisonment by their own parents, two sisters are finally released by social workers to face the outside world for the first time.

Director: Hal Hartley
Stars: Martin Donovan, PJ Harvey, Dave Simonds
Genre: Comedy, Fantasy
Country: France | USA

The end of the millenium has taken on a certain significance in modern day prophecies. What happens if Jesus Christ has second thoughts about the Apocalypse? It is December 31, 1999 and New Year’s Eve takes on new meaning when the Devil, Jesus Christ, and Christ’s assistant Magdelina discuss and debate the end of the world, the opening of the seven seals, and the essence of being human.

Director: Shin’ya Tsukamoto
Stars: Shin’ya Tsukamoto, Kirina Mano, Tatsuya Nakamura
Genre: Crime, Drama, Sci-Fi
Country: Japan

A man sees his life changed forever when his fiancee shoots herself. Baffled, he wants by all means to obtain such a weapon of destruction and he finds himself caught in the middle of a violent group of young vicious punks. They first beat him severely and then he seeks revenge with his fist, then with a gun. Everything from then on is a complete downward spiral.

Director: Ted Demme
Stars: Denis Leary, Ian Hart, Jason Barry
Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Canada | USA

A small-time hoodlum is divided between his conscience and loyalty to his boss when his cousin is murdered.

Director: Srdjan Dragojevic
Stars: Dusan Pekic, Milan Maric, Dragan Bjelogrlic
Genre: Comedy, Crime, Drama
Country: Federal Republic of Yugoslavia | Germany

This film follows two Belgrade youths on their rise to gangster legends in a decaying society.

Director: Michel Ocelot, Raymond Burlet
Stars: Doudou Gueye Thiaw, Maimouna N’Diaye, Awa Sene Sarr
Genre: Animation, Adventure, Family
Country: France | Belgium | Luxembourg

In a troubled African village, an unusual baby is born.

Director: Garin Nugroho
Stars: Sarah Azhari, Deni Christantra, Christine Hakim
Genre: Crime, Drama
Country: Indonesia

The Indonesian society is seen through a middle-aged lady’s eyes in her daily encounters with the street children who work and live off the harsh and sleazy world of adults.

Director: Jeong-hyang Lee
Stars: Eun-ha Shim, Sung-Jae Lee, Sung-Ki Ahn
Genre: Comedy, Romance
Country: USouth Korea

Two strangers with very little in common, find themselves forced to live together.

Director: Jonathan Demme
Stars: Robyn Hitchcock, Deni Bonet, Tim Keegan
Genre: Documentary, Music
Country: USA

In this film, director Jonathan Demme documents a live performance by Robyn Hitchcock, an English singer-songwriter.

Director: Erick Zonca
Stars: Élodie Bouchez, Natacha Régnier, Grégoire Colin
Genre: Drama
Country: France

The lives of two dissimilar girls turned out in different ways.

Director: Lucian Pintilie
Stars: Costel Cascaval, Dorina Chiriac, Gheorghe Visu
Genre: Crime, Drama, Romance
Country: France | Romania | Italy

The Bucharest’s suburb, a torrid summer day. Norica, a waitress and Mitu, a swineherd, meet and tease each other and starts a beverage competition. Their relationship is not just a one-night stand. It would end with a marriage, if Norica wouldn’t want to marry Gili, her 50’s boss and boyfriend, and if Mitu wouldn’t have to make two years of military service. Mitu’s passion for Norica will make him to get in trouble: drove by his obsession for her, he makes something unforgettable. The society’s resorts start moving and hunting the couple.

Director: Ebrahim Hatamikia
Stars: Parviz Parastui, Reza Kianian, Habib Rezaei
Genre: Action, Drama, Romance
Country: Iran

The Glass Agency is the story of a war veteran living in post war Iran. It depicts veterans who are suffering from social problems after the war. Society does not understand them and the standard social norms are not in harmony with their personalities.

Director: Fenton Bailey, Randy Barbato
Stars: Michael Alig, Gitsie, James St. James
Genre: Documentary, Biography
Country: USA

Documentary film exploring the rise of Club Kid legend Michael Alig and his fall in 1996 when he murdered his drug dealer/roommate Angel Melendez.

Director: Aleksey Balabanov
Stars: Sergey Makovetskiy, Dinara Drukarova, Anzhelika Nevolina
Genre: Comedy, Drama, History
Country: Russia

Dariya the maid getting a boy to touch her large breast is just one incident that occurs when Yohan and Victor infiltrate two families, forcing young Liza and blind Ekaterina to appear in porn, but they are not so innocent themselves.

Director: Jin-ho Hur
Stars: Suk-kyu Han, Eun-ha Shim, Goo Shin
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: South Korea

Hahn Suk-Kyu suffers from a fatal disease. He meets Shim Eun-Ha and falls in love with her. What will be the fate of this love – will it be a tragic ending?

Director: Kirk Jones
Stars: Ian Bannen, David Kelly, Fionnula Flanagan
Genre: Comedy
Country: UK | Ireland | France | USA

When a lottery winner dies of shock, his fellow townsfolk attempt to claim the money.

Director: Goran Paskaljevic
Stars: Aleksandar Bercek, Vojislav ‘Voja’ Brajovic, Bogdan Diklic
Genre: Drama
Country: Federal Republic of Yugoslavia | Republic of North Macedonia | France | Greece | Turkey

Random Belgrade citizens interact with each other in a night full of crime, frustration, betrayal and revenge.

Director: Tamara Jenkins
Stars: Natasha Lyonne, Alan Arkin, Bryna Weiss
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA

In 1976, a lower-middle-class teenager struggles to cope living with her neurotic family of nomads on the outskirts of Beverly Hills.

Director: Marshall Herskovitz
Stars: Catherine McCormack, Rufus Sewell, Oliver Platt
Genre: Biography, Drama, Romance
Country: USA

A Venetian courtesan becomes a hero to her city, but later becomes the target of an inquisition by the Church for witchcraft.

Director: Stavros Tsiolis
Stars: Yannis Zouganelis, Argyris Bakirtzis, Sakis Boulas
Genre: Comedy
Country: Greece

End of July, and it’s holiday time. Panos and Michalis are brothers-in-law from Thessaloniki and run a small business together. Brimming over with high spirits, they leave for Thasos to meet their families. In the vicinity of Lake Volvi, their brief encounter with a young bar woman delays them. Panos, who is madly in love with her, attempts to commit suicide, and Michalis is forced to strike camp by the lake. Antonis, the third brother-in-law, who is concerned about their delay, comes around to find out what has happened, only to fall himself for one of the nurses treating Panos. He forgets about everything else and goes with her to the casino, where he wins on the roulette tables. Their relationship, naturally, does not reach fruition. Antonis reunites with Panos and Michalis, and they all start afresh for Thasos, but on the spur of the moment they decide to stop over at a hotel. Since their women can wait for them, they might just never go back.

Director: Ken Loach
Stars: Peter Mullan, Louise Goodall, Gary Lewis
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: UK | Germany | France | Spain

Two thirtysomethings, unemployed former alcoholic Joe and community health worker Sarah, start a romantic relationship in the one of the toughest Glasgow neighbourhoods.

Director: Theodoros Angelopoulos
Stars: Bruno Ganz, Isabelle Renauld, Fabrizio Bentivoglio
Genre: Drama
Country: France | Italy | Greece | Germany

Famous writer Alexander is very ill and has little time left to live. He meets a little boy on the street, who is an illegal immigrant from Albania, and goes on a journey with him to take the boy home.

Director: Radwan El-Kashef
Stars: Hamdy Ahmed, Fayza Amasaib, Abla Kamel
Genre: Drama
Country: Egypt

This film is an exploration of what happens to places in general, and people in particular, once the menfolk abandon an Egyptian village to investigate the greener-grass on the proverbial ‘other side’. The womenfolk, those too old and those too young are left behind… and as the years pass, only letters return, telling tales of loneliness and hard-times. A young man, Ahmed, grows-up under these surroundings and has to deal with being the de-facto man-in-charge; when several of the migrant workers return one day, everyone has to come to terms with things being forever changed.

Director: Barbara Sonneborn
Stars: Xuan Ngoc Nguyen, Barbara Sonneborn
Genre: Documentary, War
Country: USA

In this film made over ten years, filmmaker Barbara Sonneborn goes on a pilgrimage to the Vietnamese countryside where her husband was killed. She and translator (and fellow war widow) Xuan Ngoc Nguyen explore the meaning of war and loss on a human level. The film weaves interviews with Vietnamese and American widows into a vivid testament to the legacy of war.

Director: Kim Longinotto, Ziba Mir-Hosseini
Stars: n/a
Genre: Documentary
Country: Iran | UK

A documentary about real divorce cases in Iran’s tribunals.

Director: Alexandra Isles
Stars: Morgan Freeman, Rosetta LeNoire, Dick Campbell
Genre: Documentary
Country: USA

A documentary look at the confluence of the Red scare, McCarthyism, and blacklists with the post-war activism by African Americans seeking more and better roles on radio, television, and stage. It begins in Harlem, measures the impact of Paul Robeson and the campaign to bring him down, looks at the role of HUAC, J. Edgar Hoover and of journalists such as Ed Sullivan, and ends with a tribute to Canada Lee. Throughout are interviews with men and women who were there, including Dick Campbell of the Rose McLendon Players and Fredrick O’Neal of the American Negro Theatre. In the 1940s and 1950s, anti-Communism was one more tool to maintain Jim Crow and to keep down African-Americans.

Director: Steve Humphries
Stars: Dervla Kirwan, Martha Cooney, Christina Mulcahy
Genre: Documentary, History
Country: UK

Interlocking interviews of 4 women interred in various Magdalene asylums and/or orphanages because of out-of-wedlock pregancies, being sexually assaulted, or just being “too pretty” (believe it or not).

Director: Valeriy Todorovskiy
Stars: Chulpan Khamatova, Dina Korzun, Maksim Sukhanov
Genre: Comedy, Crime, Drama
Country: Russia | France

Alyosha has a gambling problem and his girlfriend becomes a stripper to help pay off his debt.

Director: Ken Burns, Lynn Novick
Stars: Edward Herrmann, Philip Bosco, Julie Harris
Genre: Documentary, Biography, History
Country: USA

A biography of the life and work of the American architect.

Director: Robert B. Weide
Stars: Robert De Niro, Steve Allen, Honey Bruce Friedman
Genre: Documentary, Biography, Comedy
Country: USA

Comedian Lenny Bruce struck a subversive chord in an era of change in America. After getting his start as a conventional stand-up comic, Bruce’s increasingly iconoclastic act transformed him into a leading figure of the 1960s counterculture. This is his story.

Director: Liz Garbus, Wilbert Rideau, Jonathan Stack
Stars: Bernard Addison, Burl Cain, George Crawford
Genre: Documentary
Country: USA

Documentary depicting day to day life in Angola Prison mostly from an inmate’s perspective. Interviews are with several inmates including one with a life sentence who is about to die.

Director: Joan Chen
Stars: Xiaolu Li, Lopsang, Zheng Qian
Genre: Drama
Country: Hong Kong | USA | Taiwan

Young teen girl Xiu Xiu is sent away to a remote corner of the Sichuan steppes for manual labor in 1975 (sending young people to there was a part of Cultural Revolution in China). A year later, she agrees to go to even more remote spot with a Tibetan saddle tramp Lao Jin to learn horse herding.

Director: Kaige Chen
Stars: Li Gong, Fengyi Zhang, Zhou Sun
Genre: Drama, History, Romance
Country: China | Japan | France

In pre-unified China, the King of Qin sends his concubine to a rival kingdom to produce an assassin for a political plot, but as the king’s cruelty mounts she finds her loyalty faltering.

Director: Nikita Mikhalkov
Stars: Julia Ormond, Oleg Menshikov, Aleksey Petrenko
Genre: Comedy, Drama, History
Country: Russia | France | Italy | Czech Republic

At the turn of the century, a young Russian cadet falls in love with an American beauty, endangering his career and even their lives.

Director: Olivier Assayas
Stars: Mathieu Amalric, Virginie Ledoyen, François Cluzet
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: France

A story about the transition from late youth to early maturity, the film follows several friends and lovers as they come to make decisions on how to live their lives–getting a job more in harmony with ones ideals, committing to a lover, giving up a lover that no longer loves you: a film about grown-ups growing up.

Director: Julio Medem
Stars: Najwa Nimri, Fele Martínez, Nancho Novo
Genre: Drama, Mystery, Romance
Country: Spain | France

In cold Lapland Finland, under the eternal midnight sun, two ardent lovers reunite once again after a long period apart, governed by a powerful and eloquent circular motif woven by destiny, faith, and love. Can they deny their destiny?

Director: Emir Kusturica
Stars: Bajram Severdzan, Srdjan ‘Zika’ Todorovic, Branka Katic
Genre: Comedy, Crime, Romance
Country: Federal Republic of Yugoslavia | France | Germany | Austria | Greece

Matko and his son Zare live on the banks of the Danube river and get by through hustling and basically doing anything to make a living. In order to pay off a business debt Matko agrees to marry off Zare to the sister of a local gangster.

Director: Aleksey German
Stars: Yuriy Tsurilo, Nina Ruslanova, Mikhail Dementev
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: Russia | France

Military doctor General Klenski is arrested in Stalin’s Russia in 1953 during an anti-Semitic political campaign accused of being a participant in so-called “doctors’ plot.”

Director: Steven Soderbergh
Stars: George Clooney, Jennifer Lopez, Ving Rhames
Genre: Comedy, Crime, Drama
Country: USA

A career bank robber breaks out of jail, and shares a moment of mutual attraction with a U.S. Marshal he has kidnapped.

Director: Geoff Posner, David Tyler
Stars: Steve Coogan, Simon Pegg, Julia Davis
Genre: Documentary, Comedy
Country: UK

Steve Coogan brings five of his characters to the stage.

Director: Penelope Spheeris
Stars: Stephen Chambers, Flea, Gary Fredo
Genre: Documentary, Music
Country: USA

The Decline of Western Civilization III is a 1998 documentary film that follows the gutter punk lifestyle of homeless teenagers.