City

Diego and Miguel are both in their mid-forties. They are living in a dilapidated apartment in central Havana without running water or any modern amenities. Miguel earns his money washing dishes in a privately run restaurant; he, his family and neighbours also care for Diego, who is bedridden on account of his HIV infection. While Diego tries to maintain his joie de vivre, Miguel becomes increasingly withdrawn. Only the two of them know about Miguel’s secret: he is planning to emigrate to the USA and is just waiting for his visa. More

Let’s imagine that there is a new craft, and that it is called “replacing”. Let’s imagine an unemployed man who would practice such craft every day. So much so, that he would actually work beyond measure, and that he would be, in his own way, a happy man. All he does is take on, for a few hours, the role of absentees who duck – for more or less serious reasons, their official occupation. More

Mired in the nervous desperation of Havana, Raul dreams of escaping to Miami. When accused of assault, his only option is to flee Cuba. He begs his best friend, Elio, to abandon everything and help him reach the forbidden world 90 miles across the ocean. Elio’s commitment is tested when he is torn between protecting his twin sister and his own desire to get out. More

One city, four people, many stories: Shai is new in Bombay. The young amateur photographer wants to explore her parents' home country with her camera. She meets the unapproachable artist Arun and spends a night with him. Her paths separate. And while Arun gets lost in the fateful video diaries of the unknown housewife Yasemin, Shai makes friends with the washer Munna contrary to all conventions. He leads her through the remotest corners of the pulsating and modern metropolis, falls in love and begins to dream of the impossible. More

Mariana, Martìn and the city of Buenos Aires. Martìn and Mariana live across from each other on the same block, but never meet. They pass each other, not knowing about the other’s existence. She goes up the stairs as he goes down the stairs; he gets on the bus just as she gets off the bus. They go to the same video rental shop, but a video rack separates them; they sit in the same row at the cinema, but the auditorium is dark. The city brings them together, and, at the same time, keeps them apart. More

Xiaoli, a 16 year old Shanghainese boy, has recently turned 16, in the summer of 1988. His life revolves around his one-room apartment in a beautiful brick house in the picturesque Shikumen neighborhood of Da Zhongli which he shares with his grandfather. Xiaoli's grandfather was brought up in this neighborhood, and was one of original owners of the houses, built in the 1930s by British architects. The houses were confiscated from their original owners by the government during the Cultural Revolution and made to share with lower-income families. More

Luck By Chance is a new Indian drama in a wonderful mixture of Bollywoodstile and arthouse. Written and directed by Zoya Akhtar the film featured co-producer Farhan Akhtar and Konkana Sen Sharma in the lead roles of a loving couple. Rishi Kapoor, Aamir Khan, Dimple Kapadia, Juhi Chawla, Isha Sharvani and Sanjay Kapoor feature in the supporting roles. The film is about the journey of an young actor who arrives in Mumbai and gives everything to become a movie star. More

In Tagalog, the language of the Philippines, Lola means grandmother. We are shown two grandmothers, one whose grandson is lying in the morgue, and the other who is visiting hers in prison because he is accused of killing him. We see two grandmothers in pain, one preparing a funeral, the other trying to get an alleged offender out of prison. More

Alongside the southernmost urban centre in Africa, separating city from ocean, lies an unusual strip of land. The Sea Point Promenade - and the public swimming pools at its centre - forms a space unlike any other in Cape Town.  Right here, slightly away from the hustle and bustle of the business area, life is most paraded most unapologetically in all its forms… Over-made-up power-walkers speed past homeless persons kissing above the rocks and rent boys waiting for the next pick-up. More

Once upon a time … is the best way to tell the incredible story of the adventures of the ‘mermaid’ Alisa in the Russian capital Moscow. There was a time when Alisa lived by the sea. Her life was nothing out of the ordinary. She dreamed of one day dancing in a ballet; she sang in a children’s choir and attended a special school, because, at the age of six, she suddenly stopped speaking. None of which would be noteworthy, were it not for the fact that Alisa possessed a remarkable gift: the ability to fulfil wishes. More

Is it possible to justify the bride kidnapping if “he” and “she” will create a happy family after that? People marry by mutual agreement and love. And it happens that they marry of parents’ interests will. But Kyrgyz people have such a custom when the bride is kidnapped. Rural herder Sagyn’s mother decides to marry her son to a modest girl Anara with parents of whom she has already come to an agreement. And he is in love with rural beauty Asyl, but who has a fiancé. More

After studying literature at Cairo University, Dunia, 23 years old, wants to become a professional dancer. She attends audition for an oriental dance contest where she recites Arabian poetry without any body movement. She explains to the perplexed jury that a woman can't move her body or evoke act of love when society ask women to hide their femininity. She is selected and meets Beshir, an intellectual and activist who will supervise her thesis on ecstasy in Sufi love poetry. Their attraction is mutual. More

Casablanca is not only a legendary film from Hollywoood, it is also a real existing city of contrast, modern and archaic at once. Kamel, is a hired killer, who recieves his orders by internet. He usually calls Souad to make love after his hits and, each time, Kenza answers the phone. She directs the traffic in the mornings around the city€™s largest traffic island. Kamel soon finds himself falling in love with her voice. Hicham, a professional hacker who dreams of going to Europe, accidentally infiltrates Kamel. More

In the capital of Burkina Faso, a band of young people tries to survive and thrive vis-a-vis the thousand and one temptations. Adventures of a band of youngsters, living in a stripped district of Ouagadougou, who seek hopes. The easy way and ingeniousness compensate for the money which often is lacking. Sadness is banished of a resolutely optimistic way of life. Plunders and odd jobs constitute the daily newspaper of this struggle for life. The ones will succeed modestly, the others will fail more or less, but a great solidarity of group remains... More

Under the encouragement of the Chinese government, the traditional way of life of the nomads of the Mongolian plains change. Once a culture with a great emphasis on raising horses on the grassy plains, they are encouraged to move into the cities to work as industrial workers. However, one family tries to resist this change, trying to raise money to send their child to school by selling yogurt. Unfortunately, this is hardly sufficient and they are forced to sell their beloved horses. More

"Be with me" consists of three stories of love vs. solitude: there is an aging, lonesome shopkeeper who doesn't believe in life any more since his wife died. But he is saved from desperation by reading an autobiographical book and meeting its author, a deaf and dumb lady of his own age. Then there is Fatty, a security guard in his fifties who lives for two things: good food and love for a pretty executive living in his block of flats. But, if it is easy to satisfy his first need winning the heart of the distant belle is a horse of another color. More

While much of Cambodia's cultural heritage was eradicated through the deaths of many artists during the Khmer Rouge era, the country's main theatrical structure, Preah Suramarit National Theatre remained standing throughout the Cambodian Civil War, even occasionally being used by the communist regime for official visits and propaganda pageants. Ironically, it was while the theatre was undergoing repairs in 1994 that it caught fire, was heavily damaged and has never been restored. More

Santiago Roman (Pietro Sibille) can't buy a refrigerator. The money he earns from taxi driving won't meet the minimum monthly payment, and when it comes to lines of credit, his status as a recently discharged sailor in the Peruvian Navy adds up to exactly nothing. Worse things have happened, and there is worse yet in store, but this latest hurt is one too many, and Santiago nearly cracks up with rage. More

Four siblings live happily with their mother in a small apartment in Tokyo. The children all have different fathers and have never been to school. The very existence of three of them has been hidden from the landlord. One day, the mother leaves behind a little money and a note, charging her oldest boy to look after the others. And so begins the children's odyssey, a journey nobody knows. Though engulfed by the cruel fate of abandonment, the four children do their best to survive in their own little world, devising and following their own set of rules. More

A man in need of a miracle learns that the hospital will help those who help themselves in this satiric comedy. Jesus (Augustin Mendieta) is a low-level office worker in the Bolivian government who one day suffers a heart attack and ends up with a long and unexpected stay in the hospital. Adding to Jesus' problems, his wife decides to leave him while he's in recovery, and by the time he gets out he literally has debts he could never hope to pay. However, Jesus discovers there's another patient at the hospital who has the same name - and who happens to have unlimited insurance coverage. More

It might take two viewings to grasp fully what Fernando Pérez is doing in "Suite Habana," an elusive but intermittently beautiful tone poem on film. There is virtually no dialogue. There are no story lines that build to a climax, no documentary-style voice-overs. There are just snippets from a day in Havana, so disjointed and seemingly random that it takes a while to realize that Mr. Pérez is focusing on 10 specific individuals, tracking them through 24 hours in their painfully ordinary lives. More

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Tunis in present days of 2002. After the death of her husband, Lilia's life revolves solely around her teenage daughter, Salma. Whilst she's looking for Salma late one night, attractive Lilia stumbles upon a belly dance cabaret and though initially reserved and taken aback by the culture of the place, Lilia gets consistently drawn back to it. Shy first and reserved towards the night-life-scenery she becomes friend with one of the belly dancers and is encouraged into dancing for the audience. More

A photographer who is haunted by the feeling that the gap between his life and his ideals is growing finds himself obliged to put up in his apartment a young relative who has left behind his village looking for a job aboard a ship in Istanbul to go abroad. More

Beijing today. Guei has left his village behind and has come to the city with great expectations. It takes some time, however, before he finds himself a job as a bicycle courier, earning ten yuan for each trip. Should he manage to collect six hundred yuan, he would be in a position to buy his silver mountain bike – his pride and joy – and become its owner. For this reason, Guei doesn’t ever let the odd complaint from a disgruntled customer get him down. He simply accepts it and concentrates on his work. And Lord knows, it’s hard enough. More

Dezi is a young restless taxi driver. His work brings him into contact with people whose lifestyles go far beyond his intellectual horizon, which is not true of his female acquaintances. The film follows him on his tours throughout Beijing. He is always on the move, people and places come into his life and leave it again. Dezi's journeys from one place to another or from one woman to another resemble Beijing's search for its own identity, which is somewhere between the old values and an unknown future. Ning Ying's new film effortlessly mixes the familiar and the unknown. More

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Buch und Regie: Gabriela David Mit Diego Peretti, Josefina Viton, Miguel Guerberof Argentinien 2001 - 93 Min. - 35mm Farbe More

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The Taiwanese filmmaker Edward Yang shows in his film Yi Yi - A One and a Two the life of a family in modern Taipei. NJ is a man in his mid-forties. He is married, a father of two children and successful in his job - still he is no longer happy with himself and with his life. While NJ starts seing his old flame again his mother-in-law is in a coma. It is NJ's eight year old son who guides us through everyday life of the family and who asks critical questions and surprises the spectators with his experiments in the water. More

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TGV is an express bus service between Dakar, Senegal, and Conakry, Guinea, operated by the enterprising Rambo and his assistant, Dembo. Before setting off, Rambo and his passengers are warned of the danger that lies ahead on their route. The Bassari are carrying out a revolt at the Guinea border, leading to an exodus of refugees from their villages. On hearing the news, only a dozen or so passengers decide to make the risky trip. During the arduous journey, each passenger’s motivation for making the trip is slowly revealed. More

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"I dream exactly what I live every day," a professor, bored with her mundane life, tells her therapist. But the visual evidence on screen at the start of "Madagascar" suggests that dreams are never that banal. Bicyclists crowd the street, riding to work in slow motion in a haunting, shadowy blue dawn. The 50-minute "Madagascar" has the resonance and eloquence of the best poetry, as it deftly turns an adolescent's search for identity into a metaphor for post-revolutionary Cuba. Laura is a professor at a shabby, stultifying college. More

A lot of people live in an ocupated house; after many years of quiet living, the owner of the house wants them out. They try whatever they can to avoid being put out, without sucess. But one of them thinks of a way of saving, at least, their dignity More

The news that his first wife was pregnant with a child when they separated some ten years ago comes to official photographer Cao Depai (Li Xuejian) like a thunderbolt out of the blue. Now she is dead, and the son that he never knew was found wandering the streets. He is afraid to tell his new wife about this extra mouth to feed, and at first he attempts to house the lad at his darkroom. However, the boy sneaks visits to his father's current home frequently in order to play with his step-siblings, and eventually they are discovered together. More

A young man living in a cold southern village in South America, decides to start a trip looking for his father. By doing this he discovers unexpected facts about his Latin American essence. More

Flora Gomes tells a tragicomic love story in a colourful, poignant and loving way. Young Yonta is growing up in Bissau, the capital of Guinea-Bissau in West Africa, a country that won independence less than 20 years ago. All day long, she thinks of no one else but Vicente, a friend of her parents and a former freedom fighter. Vicente, however, has no interest in Yonta whatsoever. And she, in turn, pays no attention whatsoever to Zé, a young man who worships her. More

A great day for Joe: he has graduated from his bachelor degree with honors. He wants to study medicine in France. At the Ministry of Education in Ouagadougou, unable to satisfy his request, he is advised to address the ministry. This is followed by a string of administrative proceedings, leading to delays, anomalies. And also, the fact that in Burkina Faso – as anywhere else in the world – it’s connections that set the bureaucratic machine in motion. More

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Mohamed Malas was born in 1945 in Syria's Kuneitra, not far from the border with present-day Israel, which destroyed the important Kuneitra traffic junction in the Six-Day War. Now Malas flashes back to the time between 1936 and 1967. In Al Leil he depicts the childhood of a boy who, as an adult, reconstructs the footsteps of his father, the times of constant absence. One day he hadn't appeared at all after having fought for democracy for years and hardly found time for his family, for his private life. The boy grew up with his mother. More

Mira, a young woman from Russia, comes to Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, to visit her father, a player who often loses and finally even has to give away Mira to an old man. But Daler, a young player, falls in love with Mira and simply abducts her into his rather weird world. Daler is the boss of the local, thoroughly rotten aerial cableway. Its faded yellow cabins are suitable for every cargo: tourists as well as for hay, beer crates, stolen goods and even as a love-home for a clandestine rendez-vous. More

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An ageing father waits, in vain, at the bus stop for his son Raghu, a student at the University of Trivandrum, who is supposed to be coming home for the holidays. The elderly Chakyar’s eager happiness slowly turns to disappointment and then anxiety. After several days with no news of Raghu, his family learn that the police have arrested him for singing revolutionary songs at the university’s annual fête. Chakyar goes to the capital, hoping to find support from the Minister of Internal Affairs, and is soon joined by his daughter, who does not, however, share his optimism. More

In this revealing African comedy-drama that contrasts the hectic life in Accra, the capital of Ghana, with the relative peace of Kukurantumi, a rural town, a truck driver makes runs between the two locations with few problems until he is forced to replace his truck. In order to raise the money to get a new vehicle, he sells some stolen watches and promises his daughter in marriage to a rich merchant. More

Angelopoulos was born and grew up in Athens. The Athens that starts from the Acropolis and extends to the small Byzantine churches of the old quarter, the remains of the neo-classical homes, the quiet squares, the apartment buildings, the narrow streets, the vehicles, the pedestrians. It is not a city but the stage on which a drama is being played out, as, of course, is the rest of Greece in the films of Angelopoulos. More specifically, a tragedy made up of treasured memories, stories and personal experience. More

Senegalese filmmaker Ababacar Samb says, «Jom is a Wolof word which has no equivalent in English or French, Jom means courage, dignity, respect. It is the origin of all virtues.» To celebrate the concept, Samb uses the griot as the nexus of multiple stories and Senegal’s collective memory. To inspire striking workers, the griot tells of a legendary prince, Dieri Dior Ndella, who sacrificed his life during colonialism, and Koura Thiaw, an entertainer who took up the cause of oppressed domestics in the 1940s, both becoming heroes to their people. More

The first feature film ever produced in Mail, Baara (The Porter) is about a young man caught in the growing political and economic tensions of urban Africa. Balla Diarra is a worker in the capital city of Bamako who struggles to survive on his meagar income. After his friend is murdered by an unfeeling factory boss, he must confront increasingly violent choices. Set in a modern city rather than a mythical past or traditional village, Baara offers a portrait of African life not often seen on the American screen. More

During an excursion, a family from the big city discovers an old farmhouse. They spend their holidays there and would love to buy the house. The owner, an old farmer, seems to agree, only he wants to determine the time of the sales himself. In the meantime, the two children become friends with the old farmer. Tom Milne writes in Time Out: "After five years of political disgrace, Jiří Menzel was still cautious and skilfully avoided any dangerous engagements or interpretations in Seclusion Near a Forest. More

THE TOWN―its denizens like to call it that―is little more than an ugly array of sheet metal and tar paper shacks thrown together on ground closely resembling the city dump. Nevertheless, despite its appearance, the community would seem to be akind of dreamland for its inhabitants who, albeit their hand-to-mouth existence, seek happiness in their own strange and varied ways. First, there is the woman who feverishly prays that her feebleminded son will be cured: The boy, an adult, spends his waking hours either drawing pictures of or pretending he is operating streetcars. More

When, in 1947, a portion of Punjab province was assigned to the newly created Pakistani State, Albert Mayer began planning a new capital for the portion which remained in the possession of India. Le Corbusier had been responsible since the 1950s for general planning and, more particularly, for large-scale buildings typical of the governmental sector. A year after the death of Le Corbusier, Alain Tanner began shooting his film in a city still partially under construction, or even, in certain places, at the planning stage. More

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Kingo Gondo, executive director of the National Shoe Company, meets with three other executives from the same firm in his beautiful Yokohama mansion. Their purpose is to change the production policy of the company: Instead of making expensive footwear, long famous for good quality and durability, they would switch to a low-cost mass-produced line of shoes and thus increase sales and income. But to make this change, the president must be eased out of office. More

Melodrama and thriller, social drama and love story in one, the masterly feature film by the Egyptian director Youssef Chahine, made in 1958, is located entirely on the station grounds. The old Madbouli is the owner of a kiosk at Cairo's main railway station. One day he finds a half-starved, poor man at the edge of the tracks. Madbouli feels sorry for the sad-looking, limping farmer Kenaoui and hires him as a flying newspaper salesman. At work, Kenaoui meets the beautiful Hanouma every day, who also earns her living at the station by supplying travellers with lemonade drinks. More

The Hirayamas travel from their hometown of Onomichi to Tokyo tovisit their adult children. But the younger generation make them feelmore in the way than welcome. It also emerges that their son’s career asa doctor and their daughter’s as a hairdresser are nowhere near as successfulas the couple were led to believe from afar. The only one whoreally makes an effort to spend time with them is their daughter-in-law,Noriko, the widow of the Hirayama’s son who went missing in the war. More

Yoshii, his wife and their two sons, Ryoichi and Keiji, move into a Tokyo suburb. The head of Yoshii’s department lives nearby. When he invites Yoshii’s family and all the children in the neighbourhood to a film show at his house, Ryoichi and Keiji are thrilled to discover their father on the screen. But when he starts pulling all sorts of faces to please his boss and thereby – in the eyes of his sons – embarrasses himself in front of everyone, the two boys’ world is in tatters. Upon returning home, they demand an explanation for his undignified behaviour. More

Can you find happiness in the big city? The young hat maker Natascha, who lives with her grandfather in a suburb covered in winter snow, has to commute by train from the village to Moscow to deliver her creations to the extravagant Irene's hat shop. For the administration, Irene claims Natascha to be her subtenant in order to be able to have more living space. The clumsy railway official woos the lovely country girl with his ravishing smile. But she enters into a fictitious marriage with the provincial Ilya in order to get him a room in Moscow. More