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Contemporary World Cinema


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Contemporary World Cinema

These are the best films from every corner of the earth: Australia, Romania, Brazil and all the places in between.

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22nd of May

Koen Mortier

Belgium/The Netherlands/Germany


Africa United

Debs Gardner-Paterson

United Kingdom

Africa United tells the extraordinary story of three Rwandan children and their bid to achieve their lifelong dream – to take part in the opening ceremony of the 2010 Football World Cup in Johannesburg.


Aftershock

Feng Xiaogang

China

The most successful Chinese movie of all time, Aftershock is based on the novel of the same name by Chinese Canadian author Zhang Ling. An intimate epic, the film sweeps across three crucial decades in recent Chinese history and ...


All About Love

Ann Hui

Hong Kong, China

All About Love takes a rare look at not only the lives of queer women, but also the challenges of creating a family. Ann Hui expertly balances the serious themes of motherhood, sexuality and discrimination, rarely addressed in Ho...


Anything You Want

Achero Mañas

Spain

Four year-old Dafne's life is unhinged when her mother Alicia suddenly dies. Her father Leo tries to be both father and mother to her, but Dafne really just wants her mom. Leo strives to be just that, and in the process, nearly l...


Bad Faith

Kristian Petri

Sweden

On her way home from work Mona finds the victim of a serial killer. She is shocked but the experience triggers something within and her fascination becomes obsession. She decides to find the killer on her own. Her hunt leads to v...


Behind Blue Skies

Hannes Holm

Sweden

In Hannes Holm's beautiully crafted Behind Blue Skies, Bill Skargard stars as a young man on the cusp of manhood who escapes his troubled home to work at a summer resort, but somehow finds himself embroiled in one of the most sca...


Black Ocean

Marion Hänsel

Belgium, France, Germany

Three young boys aboard a French naval vessel in 1972 take part in nuclear tests in Mururoa, in the Pacific. Black Ocean explores about the relationships of the men on board who are confronted with discipline, violence, solitude ...


Blessed Events

Isabelle Stever

Germany

37 year-old Simone decides to go out alone on New Year’s Eve. The next morning, she wakes up next to a stranger, and a few weeks later discovers that she’s pregnant. When she runs into the stranger again she is surprised by his r...


Break Up Club

Barbara Wong

Hong Kong

Barbara Wong captures the mood of Hong Kong's young generation and delivers an ultra-modern romantic comedy about the end of one's innocence and the understanding that love is ultimately about the sacrifices one must make. Jaycee...


Carancho

Pablo Trapero

Argentina, South Korea, France, Chile

Sosa (Ricardo Darin) is a lawyer who haunts hospital waiting rooms hoping to represent the victims of traffic accidents in insurance claims. When he falls in love with ambulance medic Lujan, he tries to leave this dark business b...


Chico & Rita

Fernando Trueba, Javier Mariscal, Tono Errando

Spain, United Kingdom

Oscar-winning director Fernando Trueba teams up with famed designer, Javier Mariscal to create an epic animated love story that occurs around the time of the Cuban Revolution.Highlighting a pivotal moment in the evolution of jazz...


Crying Out

Robin Aubert

Canada

Three generations of men from the same family drunkenly careen across the Québécois countryside in an emotionally powerful journey through the past from one of Québec’s most intriguing young filmmakers.


Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame

Tsui Hark

China

Based on the iconic figure of Di Renjie, a legendary minister of state in the Tang Dynasty (618 - 907 AD) who was known for his ability to solve the most complicated cases, Tsui Hark's Detective Dee (Andy Lau) is a uniquely appea...


The Edge

Alexey Uchitel

Russia

The arrival of a decorated war hero takes a Siberian labour camp by storm. After assuming control of the region’s only steam engine, he sets out to find a ghost engine on a nearby island populated by an undead girl with a railway...


Even the Rain

Icíar Bollaín

Spain, France, Mexico

Filmmaker Sebastian (Gael Garcia Bernal) travels to Bolivia to shoot a film about the Spanish conquest of America. He and his crew arrive during the tense time of the Cochabamba water crisis. The lines between past and present, f...


The First Grader

Justin Chadwick

United Kingdom

In a remote Kenyan primary school hundreds of children are jostling for a chance for the free education newly promised by the Kenyan government. One new applicant causes astonishment when he knocks on the door of the school: Maru...


The Fourth Portrait

Chung Mong-Hong

Taiwan

The Fourth Portrait casts a sobering look at the troubling issues of domestic violence, and the difficult family dynamics that are born of marriages of convenience.


Home for Christmas

Bent Hamer

Norway, Germany, Sweden

Norwegian veteran Bent Hamer (Kitchen Stories) returns with this film, a look at fractured families at Christmastime. As with his earlier work, the film shuttles smartly between serious drama and the gently absurdist comedy Hamer...


How I Ended This Summer

Alexei Popogrebsky

Russia

Two meteorologists are isolated on an artic island. When the two-way radio transmits some bad news that requires a middleman, it’s up to the young intern to inform his veteran colleague. Only problem is, he never seems to find th...


The Human Resources Manager

Eran Riklis

Israel, Germany, France, Romania

A tragi-comedy centered on the HR manager of Israel's largest industrial bakery, who sets out to save the reputation of his business and prevent the publication of a defamatory article.


The Hunter

Rafi Pitts

Iran

Recently released from prison, Ali makes the most of his reunion with his wife and young daughter, amidst much talk of the upcoming elections and promises of change. When tragedy strikes, Ali takes matters into his own hands and ...


I Am Slave

Gabriel Range

United Kingdom

From the award winning team behind Death of a President and The Last King of Scotland, and inspired by real life events, I Am Slave is a controversial thriller about London’s shocking slave trade, and one woman’s fight for freedo...


Jucy

Louise Alston

Australia

Jackie and Lucy are best friends who spend all their time together, but not everyone approves of their "womance." Accused of being weird and co-dependent, they set out to prove their maturity. Jackie gets the guy and Lucy gets th...


Lapland Odyssey

Dome Karukoski

Finland, Sweden, Ireland

Three unemployed young men set off on a desperate journey to locate a digital conversion box in the north of Finland. Wildy funny, Dome Karukoski's Lapland Odyssey is a Finnish cousin to Harold and Kumar and Fubar.


Late Autumn

Kim Tae-Yong

South Korea

Anna is on her way to Seattle to attend her mother's funeral while on a special weekend release from prison. On the bus, she meets Hoon, a "companion for hire" for lonely, older women. Both are running away but both find somethin...


Leap Year

Michael Rowe

Mexico

Laura Lopez lives a lonely existence in her Mexico City apartment. Her few guests are men that she picks up at night for some anonymous sex. When she meets Arturo, what begins as some light slapping quickly turns into more extrem...


Life, Above All

Oliver Schmitz

South Africa, Germany

After the death of her newborn sister, 12 year-old Chanda learns of a rumour that spreads like wildfire through her small, dust-ridden village near Johannesburg. When it destroys her family and forces her mother to flee. Chandra ...


The Light Thief

Aktan Arym Kubat

Kyrgyzstan, Germany, France, Netherlands

A funny and touching portrait of small-town politics in a rapidly globalizing world that follows Svet-ake, an electrician in a small Kyrgyz village who has been stealing electricity to help the impoverished local residents. When ...


Mamma Gógó

Fridrik Thor Fridriksson

Iceland

Icelandic master Fridrik Thor Fridriksson returns with this disarmingly honest, semi-autobiographical portrait of a filmmaker's relationship with his ailing mother. Simultaneously poignant and funny, Mamma Gógó is fuelled by comp...


Matariki

Michael Bennett

New Zealand

A violent tragedy has a harrowing impact on an already fragile marriage.


The Matchmaker

Avi Nesher

Israel

In 1968 Haifa, a teenage boy gets a summer job with a Holocaust survivor who makes ends meet by brokering marriages and smuggling goods. Throughout the summer, the mysterious matchmaker takes the boy on a dangerous coming of age ...


Meek's Cutoff

Kelly Reichardt

USA

It's 1845 and a wagon team of three families have hired a guide to take them on the Oregon Trail and over the Cascade Mountains. They become lost and while suffering from hunger, thirst and fear, they encounter a Native American ...


MODRA

Ingrid Veninger

Canada

In this authentic portrait of teenaged self-discovery, recently-dumped seventeen-year-old Lina and free spirit Leco travel to visit Lina's extended family in the quirky town of Modra, Slovakia.


My Joy

Sergei Loznitsa

Germany, Ukraine, The Netherlands

Truck driver Georgy sets out on a provincial Russian motorway for a routine delivery but a series of chance encounters see his journey spiral out of control. A roadside police check, a war veteran and a young prostitute lead him ...


Neds

Peter Mullan

United Kingdom, France, Italy

Set in 1970s Glasgow, this film tells the story of a shy and intelligent young boy who, through a series of circumstances, turns into a NED - a non-educated delinquent. Attending a new school, he becomes increasingly violent and ...


A Night for Dying Tigers

Terry Miles

Canada

The night before Jack goes to prison for five years, his family gets together at their ancestral home for a farewell dinner. What begins as a civil, if not joyful, reunion quickly devolves into a morally questionable whirlwind of...


Of Gods and Men

Xavier Beauvois

France

Based on a true incident where a group of monks were killed by Islamic fundamentalists in Algeria in 1995, we follow the spiritual lifestyle of the priests, their interaction with the locals and the events that lead up to the con...


Oki's Movie

Hong Sangsoo

South Korea


Outbound

Bogdan George Apetri

Romania

Matilda, a feisty woman-child with a sordid past, is out on prison leave. Are twenty-four hours enough to make up for her mistakes and skip out of the country in time for a brand new life?


Route 132

Louis Bélanger

Canada

A powerful drama directed by acclaimed veteran Louis Bélanger, Route 132 focuses on a man who loses a loved one and embarks on a journey in an attempt to rediscover his roots and come to terms with his grief.


Sensation

Tom Hall

Ireland

Sensation details the relationship between Tipperary farmer Donal Duggan and a veteran Kiwi escort. They begin as client and call girl, evolve into something like lovers, then business partners and finally co-defendants.


Silent Souls

Aleksei Fedorchenko

Russia

When Miron's beloved wife Tanya passes away, he asks his best friend Aist to help him say goodbye according to the rituals of the Merya culture, an ancient Finno-Ugric tribe from Lake Nero. The two men set out on a road trip thou...


Small Town Murder Songs

Ed Gass-Donnelly

Canada

A modern, gothic tale of crime and redemption about an aging police officer from a small Ontario Mennonite town who hides a violent past until a local murder upsets the calm of his newly reformed life. The film stars Peter Storma...


The Solitude Of Prime Numbers

Saverio Constanzo

Italy

Two youngsters discover that they are doomed to live parallel lives, always linked but never joined. One has to deal with the effects of a serious skiing accident while the other must come to grips with negligence that led to the...


State of Violence

Khalo Matabane

South Africa, France

In his follow-up to Conversations on a Sunday Afternoon, Khalo Matabane delivers a potent drama about a South African corporate leader whose past as a violent revolutionary comes back to threaten him.


Tender Son- The Frankenstein Project

Kornél Mundruczó

Hungary, Germany, Austria

Long ago, a young man fathered a child without ever knowing what became of him. Now 17, his son Rudi returns home hoping to reunite with his family after years spent in an institution. A terrible event soon changes everything and...


Three

Tom Tykwer

Germany

Returning to the rule-breaking freedom of early films like Run Lola Run, Tykwer introduces a sophisticated Berlin couple who both start affairs with the same man, putting them on a collision course.


Tracker

Ian Sharp

United Kingdom, New Zealand

An ex-Boer war guerrilla in New Zealand is sent out to bring back a Maori accused of killing a British soldier.


White Irish Drinkers

John Gray

USA

In this coming of age story set in 1975 working-class Brooklyn, two teenage brothers living with their abusive father and their well-meaning but ineffective mother are caught up in a life of petty crime.


Womb

Benedek Fliegauf

Germany, Hungary, France

Rebecca has waited twelve long years to be reunited with her childhood sweetheart, only to loose him again in a fatal accident. The only difference is, now she can bring him back from the dead.


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