2001-2010

  • Nai-Hoi Yau – Gun chung AKA Eye in the Sky (2007)

    2001-2010CrimeHong KongNai-Hoi YauThriller

    Plot summary: (from Variety.com)
    A Hong Kong police surveillance unit finds itself caught up in the rough-and-tumble of underworld violence in smart action-thriller “Eye in the Sky,” helming debut of longtime Johnnie To scripter Yau Nai-hoi. Well-received at its world preem in Berlin’s Forum, and stuffed with To regulars on both sides of the camera, this looks to have a similar fest and distribution arc to the best of To’s own signed movies, and will be welcomed by the same aficionados.Read More »

  • Pablo Larraín – Fuga (2006)

    2001-2010ChileDramaPablo Larraín

    Quote:
    Young composer Eliseo is struggling to finish his “Macabre Rhapsody.” Haunted by a traumatic childhood he is sent to a mental institution. In the outside world, a struggling music student discovers the fragments of Eliseo’s lost symphony and slyly passes off the masterful composition as his own.

    Chilean filmmaker Pablo Larraín’s talent didn’t go unnoticed by Hollywood, who chose him to direct the portrait of America’s first lady, Jackie. We’re thrilled to launch a retrospective of his six films made in Chile with his little-seen debut—a twisted tale of insanity and infernal classical music.Read More »

  • Nobuhiko Obayashi – Tenkosei: Sayonara anata AKA Switching – Goodbye Me (2007)

    2001-2010AsianDramaJapanNobuhiko Obayashi

    A self-remake of multi-award winning 1982 film by director Obayashi Nobuhiko, “Tenkousei” is about two junior high student switching body. A very unique, experimental film.Read More »

  • João Moreira Salles – Santiago (2007)

    2001-2010BrazilDocumentaryJoão Moreira Salles

    Quote:
    In 1992, Brazilian filmmaker João Moreira Salles shot his family’s elderly former butler reminiscing about his past and his interests with a view to a documentary he never completed; 15 years later, he attempts a second pass at the footage and realises why he couldn’t have finished it at the time. Not so much a documentary as an almost theoretical deconstruction of the form, but a truly dazzling one in its surprising accessibility that makes it as much about its maker as about its subject.Read More »

  • Yigal Bursztyn – Etsba Elohim AKA Out of the Blue (2008)

    2001-2010ComedyDramaIsraelYigal Bursztyn

    This is a little like an extended but half-serious variation on the “Uptown Girl” song video where the working-class guy meets the beautiful model from the billboard. But a few more people are involved. Here, the guy is married and his daughter has a crush on the weatherman. The weatherman wants to marry the cosmetics queen from the billboards. The cosmetics queen kind of likes the guy’s sidekick. The sidekick kind of likes the guy’s daughter, although she’s in high school and the age difference would raise anyone’s eyebrows. The movie is a nice character study about accepting or denying who we really are and what we really want. It’s missing an anchor character in the middle with whom the audience could identify, but the eccentrics are obviously what interested the filmmakers. Real-life cosmetics queen Pnina Rosenblum was a good enough sport to allow her own home to be used as the home of the fictional character based on herself.Read More »

  • Yair Hochner – Yeladim Tovim AKA Good Boys (2005)

    2001-2010CrimeDramaIsraelYair Hochner

    17-year-old Meni wears only the most fashionable clothes, interested in music, loves the cinema and works as a rent boy. He had a baby from Mika, a young drug addict prostitute. He has an adoptive mother who is also a trans-gender prostitute and clients that contact him on his cell-phone. One night he meets Tal, also a hustler and they decide to spend the night together. During that night their lives get a new meaning, but can the little hope change the life they are used to from early age? In the morning they decide to meet later at the club. Until the awaited meeting, both of them will have to deal with their weary routine of clients, marginalised people and unexpected events.Read More »

  • Dror Zahavi – Sof Shavua B’Tel Aviv AKA For My Father (2008)

    2001-2010DramaDror ZahaviIsrael

    A suicide bomber becomes dependent on the kindness of strangers when his explosives won’t detonate, giving him time to meet some of the people he’s targeting.Read More »

  • Matt Dillon – City of Ghosts (2002)

    2001-2010DramaMatt DillonThrillerUSA

    A con man flees to Southeast Asia when an international scam he was involved in goes sour. Suspecting he’s been double-crossed by his long-time mentor, he sets off to Cambodia for his promised cut. What he finds there is a mysterious and hostile environment where even the most polished criminal can end up on deadly ground.Read More »

  • Juliusz Machulski – Pieniadze to nie wszystko AKA Money Is Not Everything (2001)

    2001-2010ComedyJuliusz MachulskiPoland

    A 50-year old philosopher-turned-businessman wants to give up his business in the wine industry and just live off the wealth he has accumulated. He has a car accident though, and ends up in a liquidated state farm. He’s taken hostage by fans of the cheap wine his company makes. The social helper present in the farm comes up with the mediating idea of giving him a month to create a company and take the ex-farmers out of unemployment. After all, he publicly boasted one only needs a good idea to create a company….Read More »

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