Tag: 1999

Director: John Sayles
Stars: David Strathairn, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Vanessa Martinez
Genre: Adventure, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA

Limbo tells the story of people trying to reinvent themselves in the Southeastern islands of Alaska. The story revolves around Joe Gastineau, a fisherman traumatised by an accident at sea years before, singer Donna de Angelo and her disaffected daughter Noelle who come into Joe’s life. When Joe’s fast-talking half-brother Bobby returns to town and asks Joe for a favor, the lives of the characters are changed forever.

Director: Yang Zhang
Stars: Jiayi Du, Zheng Fang, Bing He
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: China

A young wealthy businessman’s icy attitude toward his working-class background is about to thaw as he is forced to reconnect with his elderly father and mentally challenged younger brother, who together run a public bathhouse.

Director: Miroslav Lekic
Stars: Zarko Lausevic, Bojana Maljevic, Aleksandar Bercek
Genre: Drama
Country: Federal Republic of Yugoslavia

In attempt to find out who he is and where his roots lie, Alija Osmanovic discovers something far deeper and more important. He slowly discovers an evil that follows him as his destiny regardless of what his ancestors were called.Trying to find the reasons for this evil, he finds himself in a vicious circle. Running away from an irrational fear within him, he finds the road to his faith.

Director: Emmanuel Finkiel
Stars: Shulamit Adar, Liliane Rovère, Esther Gorintin
Genre: Drama
Country: Poland | France | Belgium

During a tour of a group of Israeli Jews of Polish origin, the bus in which Riwka is located breaks down between Warsaw and Auschwitz.

Director: Nagisa Ôshima
Stars: Takeshi Kitano, Ryûhei Matsuda, Shinji Takeda
Genre: Drama, History, Thriller
Country: Japan | France | UK

The new member of a samurai militia unit causes disruption as several of his colleagues fall in love with him, threatening to disturb the rigid code of their squad.

Director: Philippe Harel
Stars: Philippe Harel, José Garcia, Philippe Bianco
Genre: Drama
Country: France

Story of a man whose misanthropy goes out of control due to a business trip together with a colleague.

Director: Benito Zambrano
Stars: María Galiana, Ana Fernández, Carlos Álvarez-Nóvoa
Genre: Drama
Country: Spain | Canada

While waiting for her husband to recover in a hospital, a mother stays with her estranged daughter, Maria, who fled her parents rural home in Andalusia because she could no longer bear her father’s abusiveness and her mother’s passivity.

Director: Krzysztof Krauze
Stars: Robert Gonera, Jacek Borcuch, Andrzej Chyra
Genre: Drama, Crime, Thriller
Country: Poland

The Debt is a gripping thriller about two entrepreneurs who become tangled in the web of a Russian thug. Two friends begin a business venture of importing Italian scooters into Poland. With no collateral, they turn to a Russian acquaintance that offers money and support in the beginning and then inexplicably turns violent and vicious. Tension mounts as the two friends begin to understand what must be done. Based on a true story, The Debt is a terrifying tale of ordinary men pushed to their limit.

Director: Fruit Chan
Stars: Yuet-Ming Yiu, Wai-Fan Mak, Yuet-Man Mak
Genre: Drama
Country: Hong Kong

In 1997, Little Cheung is a street-wise nine-year-old boy living in a bustling neighbourhood of Hong Kong, just before the reunification with China. His parents are always working at their restaurant, so Little Cheung becomes much closer to his grandmother and her Filipino maid Armi. Little Cheung befriends Fan, a girl his age who is an illegal immigrant from China. He splits his tips with her when she helps him deliver take-outs for his father. The pair have some amusing adventures, and delight in peeing in the drinks of a troublesome thug. Against his father’s will, Little Cheung starts searching for his older brother, whom his father disowned because he became a gangster.

Director: István Szabó
Stars: Ralph Fiennes, Rosemary Harris, Rachel Weisz
Genre: Drama, History, Romance
Country: Germany | Austria | Canada | Hungary | France | UK | USA

The fate of a Hungarian Jewish family throughout the 20th century.

Director: Léa Pool
Stars: Karine Vanasse, Pascale Bussières, Predrag ‘Miki’ Manojlovic
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: Canada | Switzerland | France

In the year 1963, an awkward thirteen-year-old girl comes of age during her escapism into the world of cinema, with potentially dangerous results.

Director: Matthew Barney
Stars: Norman Mailer, Matthew Barney, Anonymous
Genre: Drama
Country: USA

Larger in scale, darker in tone, and much more lavishly produced than the previous installments, “Cremaster 2,” is an epic avant-garde western built around classic themes but laced with an intricate (and often whimsical) symbolic framework.

Director: José Luis Cuerda
Stars: Manuel Lozano, Fernando Fernán Gómez, Uxía Blanco
Genre: Drama
Country: Spain

For Moncho, it’s an idyllic year: he starts school, he has a wonderful teacher, he makes a friend in Roque, he begins to figure out some of the mysteries of Eros, and, with his older brother, a budding saxophone player, he makes a trip with the band from their town in Galicia. But it’s also the year that the Spanish Republic comes under fire from Fascist rebels. Moncho’s father is a Republican as is the aging teacher, Don Gregorio. As sides are drawn and power falls clearly to one side, the forces of fear, violence, and betrayal alter profoundly what should be the pleasure of coming of age.

Director: Lynne Ramsay
Stars: Tommy Flanagan, Mandy Matthews, William Eadie
Genre: Drama
Country: UK | France

An unabashed kid navigates the filthy world of 1973 Glasgow, preoccupying himself with the equally poor youth around him.

Director: Pablo Trapero
Stars: Luis Margani, Adriana Aizemberg, Daniel Valenzuela
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: Argentina

The portrait of a man and his attempts to make things up with life after losing his job.

Director: Sebastian Schipper
Stars: Frank Giering, Florian Lukas, Antoine Monot Jr.
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: Germany

Three friends from Hamburg spend one last night on the town before one of them leaves the city forever.

Director: Jane Campion
Stars: Kate Winslet, Harvey Keitel, Julie Hamilton
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA | Australia

Ruth’s been brainwashed by a guru in Delhi, India. Her parents in Sydney hire a specialist in reversing this. Ruth is tricked to return to Australia and is isolated in an outback cabin with the specialist. It gets messy.

Director: Kimberly Peirce
Stars: Hilary Swank, Chloë Sevigny, Peter Sarsgaard
Genre: Biography, Crime, Drama
Country: USA

A young man named Brandon Teena navigates love, life, and being transgender in rural Nebraska.

Director: Eyal Sivan
Stars: Adolf Eichmann, Gideon Hausner, Gabriel Bach
Genre: Documentary
Country: Israel | France

The incredible trial of an appallingly ordinary man. Drawn entirely on the 350 hours of rare footage recorded during the trial of Adolf Eichmann, in 1961, in Jerusalem, this film about obedience and responsibility is the portrait of an expert in problems resolving, a modern criminal. The film is inspired from the controversial book by Hannah Arendt : “Eichmann in Jerusalem, report on the banality of evil”.

Director: Michel Deville
Stars: Albert Dupontel, Valérie Dréville, Dominique Reymond
Genre: Drama
Country: France

This is a story about the world of a doctor called Bruno Sachs.He wrote a book called ‘La Maladie DE Sachs’ in which he describes his consultations with different patients.

Director: Roko Belic
Stars: Richard Feynman, B.B. King, Kongar-ol Ondar
Genre: Documentary
Country: Vietnam | USA

San Francisco bluesman and composer, Paul Peña makes a musical pilgrimage to the land of Tuva.

Director: Tony Bui
Stars: Ngoc Hiep Nguyen, Ngoc Minh, Phat Trieu Hoang
Genre: Drama
Country: Vietnam | USA

An American in Ho Chi Minh City looks for a daughter he fathered during the war. He meets Woody, a child who’s a street vendor, and when Woody’s case of wares disappears, he thinks the soldier took it. Woody hunts for him. A cyclo driver, Hai, gives a ride to Lan, a hotel call girl, and starts waiting for her daily; he falls in love with her and tries to break through her tough veneer. Kien An, a young woman, takes a job harvesting lotuses in the ponds of Teacher Dao, a reclusive man who has leprosy. Her singing awakens him from depression, and he asks her to write down poetry he has composed. The characters’ paths cross in small ways, around flowers and kindnesses.

Director: Chang-dong Lee
Stars: Kyung-gu Sol, Yeo-jin Kim, So-Ri Moon
Genre: Drama
Country: South Korea | Japan

Consists of five phases of a man’s life about why he committed suicide in the end.

Director: Damien O’Donnell
Stars: Om Puri, Linda Bassett, Jordan Routledge
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: UK

In early 1970s England, a Pakistani father finds the authority he has previously maintained challenged by his increasingly Anglicized children.

Director: Janez Burger
Stars: Jan Cvitkovic, Natasa Burger, Janez Rus
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: Slovenia

Dizzy is a perennial student living in a small double room in a hostel. He never seems to study, but spends his time sleeping, watching TV, and drinking. Marko, a studious freshman from the country, is assigned to the other bed in the room, and he is soon joined by his young, very pregnant, girlfriend Ana. Meanwhile, Dizzy’s girlfriend Marina is trying to get Dizzy to make a commitment, but he would prefer to continue his idle ways.

Director: Louis Bélanger
Stars: Gabriel Arcand, Sylvie Moreau, Hélène Loiselle
Genre: Crime, Drama, Romance
Country: Canada

A mother who supports her child with a credit card scam and an accused rapist meet and form a unique bond.

Director: Nanette Burstein, Brett Morgen
Stars: Sam Doumit, Martin Goldman, Harry Keitt
Genre: Documentary, Drama, Sport
Country: USA

The story of three young boxers and their coach who is determined to guide them in a positive direction in and out of the ring.

Director: Jean-Pierre Améris
Stars: Maud Forget, Lou Doillon, Robinson Stévenin
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: France

Delphine is a sweet innocent young girl, her new best friend pulls her into a world where she falls in love with a local pretty boy. Working her hardest to make him love her drags her into prostitution.

Director: Yimou Zhang
Stars: Minzhi Wei, Huike Zhang, Zhenda Tian
Genre: Drama
Country: China

In a remote mountain village, the teacher must leave for a month, and the mayor can find only a 13-year old girl, Wei Minzhi, to substitute. The teacher leaves one stick of chalk for each day and promises her an extra 10 yuan if there’s not one less student when he returns. Within days, poverty forces the class troublemaker, Zhang Huike, to leave for the city to work. Minzhi, possessed of a stubborn streak, determines to bring him back. She enlists the 26 remaining pupils in earning money for her trip. She hitches to Jiangjiakou City and begins her search. The boy, meanwhile, is there, lost and begging for food. Minzhi’s stubbornness may be Huike and the village school’s salvation.

Director: Yuan Zhang
Stars: Lin Liu, Bingbing Li, Yeding Li
Genre: Drama
Country: Switzerland | Italy | Hong Kong

Tao Lan and Yu Xiaoqin are teenage stepsisters. They go to the same high school, sleep in the same bedroom, but couldn’t be more different. The first is wild, a bit of a vagabond, while the other is diligent and studies hard. One day Yu Xiaoqin steals money from her father and puts the blame on Tao Lin, who accidentally kills her sister while attempting to prove her innocence, and is put in jail. 17 years later, a woman by now, she is allowed out and is escorted by a guard to find her home long demolished. The two go to the new address of the ageing parents, and the guard becomes an eyewitness to the difficult reunion and the girl’s remorse, the anxiety and fear of the mother and the stepfather’s silent struggle to rise above his pain and find forgiveness.

Director: Michael Polish
Stars: Michael Polish, Mark Polish, Michele Hicks
Genre: Drama
Country: USA

Conjoined twins have their relationship tested when a woman takes interest in one of them.

Director: Joe Johnston
Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Chris Cooper, Laura Dern
Genre: Biography, Drama, Family
Country: USA

The true story of Homer Hickam, a coal miner’s son who was inspired by the first Sputnik launch to take up rocketry against his father’s wishes.

Director: Stan Brakhage
Stars: n/a
Genre: Short
Country: USA

An experimental short film from the Persian series made by Stan Brakhage.

Director: Benoît Mariage
Stars: Benoît Poelvoorde, Morgane Simon, Bouli Lanners
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: France | Belgium | Switzerland

Dreaming of more than his routine life, a father pushes his 15 years old son to break a world record: opening and closing a door 40,000 times in 24 hours.

Director: Roland Suso Richter
Stars: Kai Wiesinger, Götz George, Karoline Eichhorn
Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Germany | USA

The famous Nazi-Doctor Dr. Josef Mengele – the “death angel of Auschwitz”, who killed more than 300.000 people – comes back from his hide out in Argentina to Germany as a 87 year old man. He must stand up in front of a court for his crimes. The young solicitor Peter Rohm has to defend him. But Peter Rohm – himself an expert on Josef Mengele and his crimes – feels unable to do this. When he decides to take on the case he endangers not only the relationship to his wife but also their lifes. A fictional story around the non-fictional person of Josef Mengele who died in 1979.

Director: Danièle Huillet, Jean-Marie Straub
Stars: Gianni Buscarino, Vittorio Vigneri, Angela Nugara
Genre: Drama
Country: Italy | France | Germany

A man returns to visit his native Sicily after living in New York for a long time. He learns about the Sicilian way of life from stylized conversations with an orange picker, his fellow train passengers, his mother, and a knife-sharpener.

Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Stars: Emin Ceylan, Muzaffer Özdemir, Fatma Ceylan
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: Turkey

This is a movie within movie, which is almost recursive, i.e., the movie inside looks like director Ceylan’s previous movie, Kasaba. It is about the movie director, Muzaffer, going back to his hometown to make a movie using a cast of local people. While Muzaffer is around, his mother complains about simple health problems, his father is in a legal fight against the government for his land, his cousin gets out of his job to help Muzaffer who promises him to find a job in Istanbul, and his little cousin Ali tries to carry an egg in his pocket for 40 days so that he’ll get the watch of his dreams. In the meantime, they get to form the cast for Muzaffer’s movie as well.

Director: Gavin O’Connor
Stars: Janet McTeer, Kimberly J. Brown, Jay O. Sanders
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA

A woman and her daughter have been constantly moving from town to town for years, but their newest home might be different from all the others.

Director: Yimou Zhang
Stars: Ziyi Zhang, Honglei Sun, Hao Zheng
Genre: Drama, History, Romance
Country: China

Prompted by the death of his father and the grief of his mother, a man recalls the story of how they met in flashback.

Director: Norman Jewison
Stars: Denzel Washington, Vicellous Shannon, Deborah Kara Unger
Genre: Biography, Drama, Sport
Country: USA

The story of Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, a boxer wrongly imprisoned for murder, and the people who aided in his fight to prove his innocence.

Director: Max Färberböck
Stars: Maria Schrader, Juliane Köhler, Johanna Wokalek
Genre: Biography, Drama, Romance
Country: Germany

In 1943 Berlin, a Nazi officer’s wife meets and starts a passionate affair with a Jewish woman.

Director: Stan Brakhage
Stars: n/a
Genre: Short
Country: USA

An experimental short film from the Persian series made by Stan Brakhage.

Director: Kátia Lund, João Moreira Salles
Stars: Nilton Cerqueira, Carlos Luis Gregório, Paulo Lins
Genre: Documentary
Country: Brazil | Spain

Documentary about urban violence in Brazil, especially in Rio de Janeiro. Policemen, drug dealers, and shantytown dwellers get trapped into a daily war that knows no winners.

Director: Giuseppe Piccioni
Stars: Margherita Buy, Silvio Orlando, Carolina Freschi
Genre: Drama
Country: Italy

The rumpled owner of a dry-cleaning firm joins forces with a nun to care for an abandoned baby.

Director: Andrew Shea
Stars: Noble Willingham, Jim Holmes, David Steen
Genre: Drama
Country: USA

A foul-mouthed and bigoted boat salesman in rural South Carolina is targeted for ruthless and never-ending telephone terrorism by a mysterious man claiming to be his son…

Director: Takashi Koizumi
Stars: Akira Terao, Yoshiko Miyazaki, Shirô Mifune
Genre: Drama
Country: Japan | France

During a downpour, a generous ronin and his supporting wife are stranded at a country inn. The ronin comes to the attention of a lord who wants to hire him as an instructor for his men, who treat the ronin with disrespect.

Director: Eric Valli, Michel Debats
Stars: Thilen Lhondup, Gurgon Kyap, Lhakpa Tsamchoe
Genre: Drama
Country: France | Switzerland | UK | Nepal

An aging chief’s last stand, lessons for the new, and the education of a young chief-to-be played against harsh Nature in Nepal’s Dolpo. When his son dies returning from Tibet’s salt lakes, Tinle blames Karma, his son’s friend, refuses to give Karma his blessing as the new chief, and organizes a rival caravan to take the salt to lower Nepal to trade for grain. He, a few old men, his son’s widow, his grandson, and his second son, a monk, set out on the arduous journey.

Director: Barry W. Blaustein
Stars: Terry Funk, Mick Foley, Jake Roberts
Genre: Documentary, Biography, Sport
Country: USA

A heartfelt documentary focusing on the day-to-day lives of professional wrestlers, some on the rise, some on the wane, and others fighting for their lives.

Director: Eric Mendelsohn
Stars: Barbara Barrie, Bob Dishy, Edie Falco
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA

A lonely, but talented teacher enjoys a flirtation with the (married) principal of the school, who returns her affections, but is hampered by his family members. Whilst the teacher and principal can steal their fleeting moments during an eclipse.

Director: Robert Altman
Stars: Glenn Close, Julianne Moore, Liv Tyler
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA

Conflict arises in the small town of Holly Springs when an old woman’s death causes a variety of reactions among family and friends.

Director: Bertrand Tavernier
Stars: Philippe Torreton, Maria Pitarresi, Nadia Kaci
Genre: Drama
Country: France

Daniel is schoolmaster of a kindergarten in a small French town. The local economy, which depended entirely on coal production, has been mired in a depression ever since the mines were closed. When their parents fall into utter discouragement or even poverty because of prolonged unemployment, the children suffer the consequences.

Director: Majid Majidi
Stars: Hossein Mahjoub, Mohsen Ramezani, Salameh Feyzi
Genre: Drama, Family
Country: Iran

The story of Mohammed, a blind Iranian boy and his father, Hashem, who is always oscillating between accepting his son as he is and abandoning him, as he represents a burden for him, after the loss of his wife.

Director: Martin Scorsese
Stars: Martin Scorsese
Genre: Documentary
Country: Italy | USA

World-renowned director Martin Scorsese narrates this journey through his favorites in Italian cinema.

Director: Jasmin Dizdar
Stars: Thomas Goodridge, Faruk Pruti, Tony Peters
Genre: Comedy, Drama, War
Country: UK

In London, during October 1993, England is playing Holland in the preliminaries of the World Cup. The Bosnian War is at its height, and refugees from the ex-Yugoslavia are arriving. Football rivals, and political adversaries from the Balkans all precipitate conflict and amusing situations. Meanwhile, the lives of four English families are affected in different ways by encounter with the refugees; one of the families improbably becomes involved with a Balkan refugee through the England vs. Holland match.

Director: Stan Brakhage
Stars: n/a
Genre: Short
Country: USA

An experimental short film from the Persian series made by Stan Brakhage.

Director: Marcelo Masagão
Stars: Franz Reichelt
Genre: Documentary
Country: Brazil

A fascinating and poetical collage of countless images from the 20th century with the purpose of revealing matters of life and death during the era and its many social, cultural and political transformations, with the director making several statements on several issues, combining fact and fiction to compose his powerful mosaic of images along with the magnificent music of Wim Mertens. A true work of art that dares to make several questions about the human condition, its contradictions and ironies.

Director: Jon Reiss
Stars: Moby, Lord T. Byron, McGuinnes
Genre: Documentary, Music
Country: USA

This is a documentary film about the history of the U.S. rave scene which includes a fantastic soundtrack. Both the film and soundtrack capture the people and the music that shaped the underground subculture around electronic music in America. Featured soundtrack artists include: Moby, Keoki, The Crystal Method, DJ Spooky, Roni Size, Psychic TV, and a host of others.

Director: Yesim Ustaoglu
Stars: Nazmi Kirik, Newroz Baz, Mizgin Kapazan
Genre: Drama
Country: Turkey | Netherlands | Germany

Mehmet, a young Turkish man newly migrated from the village Tire, takes a job searching for water leaks below the surface of the streets of Istanbul. Due to a strange set of events, he is mistaken for a Kurd, imprisoned, and brutally beaten. Upon his release a week later, he becomes an outcast marked as a Kurd, losing his apartment, his job, and eventually his girl friend, Arzu. When a Kurdish friend, Berzan is killed in a street protest triggered by a hunger strike, Mehmet takes a trek to return the body to Berzan’s home village near the Iraqi border, and learns why so many Kurds are refugees.

Director: Laurent Cantet
Stars: Jalil Lespert, Jean-Claude Vallod, Chantal Barré
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: France | UK

The 35-hour work week has all of France in its thrall. This film turns it into a feature about economic and familial politics. Frank, a business school graduate, returns to his provincial hometown to take a management position in the factory where his father has been working for 30 years. First Frank makes the mistake of actually asking the workers on the assembly line for their opinions. Then upper management manipulates his findings to lay off employees. This creates a huge rift, not only between labor and management, but between father and son. A human morality tale that evokes paternal and filial love, and illustrates the personal risk behind political ideas.

Director: Allan Moyle
Stars: Liane Balaban, Tara Spencer-Nairn, Mary Walsh
Genre: Comedy
Country: Canada

A gifted teenager dreaming of life beyond her small town becomes inspired when a 15-year-old girl from New York moves in next door.

Director: Kevin Macdonald
Stars: Michael Douglas, Ankie Spitzer, Jamal Al Gashey
Genre: Documentary, History, Sport
Country: Switzerland | Germany | UK

The Palestinian terrorist group Black September holds Israeli athletes hostage at the 1972 Summer Olympic Games in Munich.

Director: Barry Levinson
Stars: Adrien Brody, Bebe Neuwirth, Joe Mantegna
Genre: Drama, Music, Romance
Country: USA

Baltimore, Fall 1954: Schools implement the new integration law. Ben finds the “colored” girl in his class cute – upsetting his Jewish mom and granny. Ben talks to her while his brother looks for his WASP dream girl.

Director: Raoul Ruiz
Stars: Catherine Deneuve, Emmanuelle Béart, Vincent Perez
Genre: Drama, Romance, War
Country: France | Italy | Portugal

A lush, elegant epic taking us on a time-swirling trip down the infinitely complex labyrinth that is Marcel Proust’s memory lane.

Director: Patricia Rozema
Stars: Frances O’Connor, Jonny Lee Miller, Alessandro Nivola
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: UK

At 10, Fanny Price, a poor relation, goes to live at Mansfield Park, the estate of her aunt’s husband, Sir Thomas. Clever, studious, and a writer with an ironic imagination and fine moral compass, she becomes especially close to Edmund, Thomas’s younger son. Fanny is soon possessed of beauty as well as a keen mind and comes to the attention of a neighbor, Henry Crawford. Thomas promotes this match, but to his displeasure, Fanny has a mind of her own, asking Henry to prove himself worthy. As Edmund courts Henry’s sister and as light shines on the link between Thomas’s fortunes and New World slavery, Fanny must assess Henry’s character and assert her heart as well as her wit.

Director: Wim Wenders
Stars: Compay Segundo, Ibrahim Ferrer, Rubén González
Genre: Documentary, Music
Country: Germany | USA | UK | France | Cuba

Aging Cuban musicians whose talents had been virtually forgotten following Castro’s takeover of Cuba, are brought out of retirement by Ry Cooder, who travelled to Havana in order to bring the musicians together, resulting in triumphant performances of extraordinary music, and resurrecting the musicians’ careers.