The best of recent world cinema, spanning all genres and frequently challenging audience expectations.
Scheherazade, Tell Me A Story and City Of Life And Death
About Elly (Darbareye Elly)
(Country: Iran; Year: 2009; Director: Asghar Farhadi; Writer: Asghar Farhadi; Stars: Golshifteh Farahani, Taraneh Alidoosti, Marila Zare'i, Rana Azadvar, Shahab Hosseini, Saber Abbar)
A matchmaking trip to the coast leads to tragedy.
Ajami
(Country: Germany, Israel; Year: 2009; Director: Scandar Copti, Yaron Shani; Writer: Scandar Copti, Yaron Shani; Stars: Fouad Habash, Shahir Kabaha, Ebrahim Frege, Eran Naim, Scandar Copti, Ranin Karim, Youssef Sahwani, Elias Saba, Hilal Kabob, Moshe Yerushalmi, Tamar Yerushalmi)
Crime drama sees clan violence spiral out of control in Israel.
Autumn (Sonbahar)
(Country: Turkey; Year: 2008; Director: Özcan Alper; Writer: Özcan Alper; Stars: Onur Saylak, Cihan Camkerte, Yasar Güven, Serkan Keskin, Megi Kobaladze, Nino Lejava, Sibel Öz, Serhan Pirpir, Raife Yenigül),
Official Site
A cautious romance provokes reflections on the loss of the socialist dream for a disillusioned activist and former political prisoner.
City Of Life And Death (Nanjing Nanjing)
(Country: China, Hong Kong; Year: 2009; Director: Chuan Lu; Writer: Chuan Lu; Stars: Ye Liu, Yuanyuan Gao, Hideo Nakaizumi, Wei Fan, Yiyan Jiang, Ryu Kohata, Bin Liu, John Paisley, Beverly Peckous, Lan Qin, Sam Voutas, Di Yao, Yisui Zhao, Junichi Kajioka),
Official Site,
Trailer
Dramatisation of the Rape of Nanjing, seen from a dual perspective.
Eyes Wide Open (Einayim Petukhoth)
(Country: Israel/Germany/France; Year: 2009; Director: Haim Tabakman; Writer: Merav Doster; Stars: Zohar Strauss, Ran Danker, Tinkerbell Ravit Rozen, Tzahi Grad, Isaac Sharry, Avi Grayinik)
A married butcher in ultra-orthodox Jerusalem has a passionate gay love affair with an itinerant student.
The Silent Army and I Killed My Mother
I Killed My Mother (J'Ai Tue Ma Mère)
(Country: Canada; Year: 2009; Director: Xavier Dolan; Writer: Xavier Dolan; Stars: Anne Dorval, Xavier Dolan, Suzanne Clement)
A semi- autobiographical tale in which a young man explores all the things he hates about his mother.
Lebanon (Levanone)
(Country: Israel; Year: 2009; Director: Samuel Maoz; Writer: Samuel Maoz; Stars: Oshri Cohen, Michael Moshonov, Reymond Amsalem, Itay Tiran, Yoav Donat, Dudua Tasas),
Trailer
The 1982 invasion of Lebanon from the perspective of a tank and its occupants.
Pachamama
(Country: Bolivia, Japan, US; Year: 2008; Director: Toshifumi Matsushita; Stars: Christian Huaygua, Louis Mamani)
A father and son eke out a harsh existence herding llamas and trading salt around the salt plains of Bolivia.
A Room And A Half (Poltory komnaty ili sentimentalnoe puteshestvie na rodinu)
(Country: Russia; Year: 2009; Director: Andrey Khrzhanovskiy; Writer: Yuri Arabov, Andrey Khrzhanovskiy; Stars: Aleksandr Bargman, Sergei Barkovsky, Aleksei Devotchenko, Grigoriy Dityatkovskiy, Sergey Dreiden, Alisa Frejndlikh, Svetlana Kryuchkova, Aleksandr Lenkov, Nikolay Marosanov, Vladimir Rozygraev, Artyom Smola, Sergei Yursky)
A surreal portrait of poet Josef Brodsky and the postwar Soviet cultural scene.
Scheherazade, Tell Me A Story (Ehky Ya Schahrazad)
(Country: Egypt; Year: 2009; Director: Yousry Nasrallah; Stars: Mona Zakki, Mahmous Hemeda)
A former talk show host, who agrees to switch to reporting on soft women's stories to help her husband's career, uncovers real politically incendiary material in the everyday lives of ordinary Egyptian women.
She, A Chinese and About Elly
She, A Chinese (Zhongguo Guniang)
(Country: UK, France, Germany; Year: 2009; Director: Xiaolu Guo; Writer: Xiaolu Guo; Stars: Lu Huang, Wei Yi Bo, Geoffrey Hutchings, Chris Ryman, Hsinyi Liu)
Journey of self-discovery for a young Chinese woman tired of the provinces.
The Silent Army (Wit Licht)
(Country: Netherlands; Year: 2008; Director: Jean va de Velde; Writer: Jean van de Velde; Stars: Marco Borsato, Andrew Kintu, Abby Mukiibi Nkaaba, Thekla Reuten)
A middle-class African restaurant owner finds his eyes opened to the horrors going on in his country after his son's friend is kidnapped by rebel soldiers.
Soundless Wind Chime (Wu Sheng Feng Ling)
(Country: Hong Kong, Switzerland, China; Year: 2009; Director: Kit Hung; Writer: Kit Hung; Stars: Lu Yulai, Bernhard Bulling)
The paths of a restaurant worker and a petty thief cross, with romantic implications.
Women Without Men (Zanan-e bedun-e mardan)
(Country: Germany; Year: 2009; Director: Shirin Neshat; Writer: Shahrnoush Parsipour; Stars: Bijan Daneshmand, Pegah Ferydoni, Arita Shahrzad, Shabnam Toloui, Orsolya Tóth)
Four women search for freedom in Iran, 1953.