New International Cinema

Stilles Chaos (Caos Calmo)
Director: Antonio Luigi Grimaldi, I 2008, 105 min, 35 mm, colour, GS
Actors: Nanni Moretti, Valeria Golino, Alessandro Gassman, Roman Polanski


A businessman’s life takes a dramatic turn: having saved a woman from drowning one morning he learns about his wife’s fatal accident. From then he drives his daughter to school every day, falls into the routine of waiting for her, always watching the same people and developing daily rituals. He starts questioning his whole life. Nanni Moretti excels in the lead and as coauthor.




Caótica Ana (Chaotic Ana)
Director: Julio Medem, E 2007, 96 min, 35 mm, colour, GS
Actors: Manuela Velles, Charlotte Rampling, Matthias Habich


Leaving her native island of Ibiza young painter Ana joins the Madrid art scene. Getting involved in chaotic city life, encountering love and separation Ana is on the lookout for her identity and aim. Julio Medem sticks to his favourite subjects: life as a fl eeting continuity, the interwining of destinies and the power of love.




Der Fremde Sohn (Changeling)
Director: Clint Eastwood, USA 2008, 141 min, 35 mm, colour, GV, german premiere!
Actors: Angelina Jolie, John Malkovich, Jeffrey Donovan


Los Angeles, 1928: On a Saturday morning in a working-class suburb, Christine says goodbye to her son, Walter, and leaves for work. When she comes home, she discovers he has vanished. Months later, a boy claiming to be the nine-year-old is returned. But this boy is not Walter...




Die Klasse (Entre les murs)
Director: Laurent Cantet, F 2008, 128 min, 35 mm, colour, GS
Actors: François Bégaudeau, and others


François prepares for a new year at a high school in a tough neighbourhood, armed with the best intentions. Cultures and attitudes often clash in the classroom, a microcosm of contemporary France. Teenaged students' difficult behaviour can jeopardize any teacher's enthusiasm for the low-paying job.




Fear(s) of the Dark (Peur(s) du noir)
Director: Blutch/Charles Burns/Marie Caillou/Pierre di Sciullo/Lorenzo Mattotti/Richard McGuire, F 2007, 85 min, 35 mm, bw, ES


"Fear(s) of the dark" is in the tradition of the conceptual episodic film of the 60ies. Six of the leading underground comic artists have treated the fear of the dark in this film and have interpreted the title literally: the episodes range from the 50ies Pulp Horror, mysterious creatures, ghosts, a dog owner, fear in the head to getting lost in a mysterious house.




Female Agents (Les Femmes de l'ombre)
Director: Jean-Paul Salomé, F 2008, 120 min, 35 mm, colour, ES
Actors: Sophie Marceau, Julie Depardieu, Moritz Bleibtreu


1944: A group of French nurses under the command of Louise (Sophie Marceau) is sent on a rescue mission. Using all their chances successfully at first, they do not take into account the German SS officer Heindrich (Moritz Bleibtreu).

A war film full of action, but at the same time seriously describing the contradictions between perpetrators and victims.




Flavour of Girlhood
Director: Kang Li, China 2008, 93 min, 35 mm, colour, ES, international premiere!
Actors: Hu Sang, Liang Jingke, Yu Xialing


Qingxiang, after her mother died, has lived a tough life with her father HE Xiutin. When she gets to know that her father wants to marry again, she can't accept the idea and moves to her grandmother. Later, as a young teacher, she meets Dawei. Realising the meaning of love, she begins to understand.




It's a free world
Director: Ken Loach, GB 2007, 96 min, 35 mm, colour, GS
Actors: Kierston Wareing, Juliet Ellis, Leslaw Zurek


When ambitious Angie loses her job once again, she founds her own agency looking after unemployed and asylum seekers. But soon she starts to exploit her position of power. Director Ken Loach, tells a fascinating story of the dark side of the British economic miracle and again presents a political and sociocritical cinema.




Louise-Michel
Director: Gustave Kervern/Benoët Delépine, F 2008, 90 min, 35 mm, colour, GS
Actors: Yolande Moreau, Bouli Lanners, Mathieu Kassovitz


A factory somewhere in French Picardie. One day, machines, offices, everything has been cleared off during the night. The management is on the loose. The female workers discuss: How to spend the poor compensation? Louise has the best idea: to hire a professional hitman to kill the boss!




Machan
Director: Uberto Pasolini, I/D/CL 2008, 109 min, 35 mm, colour, GS
Actors: Dharmapriya Dias, Gihan de Chickera, Dharshan Dharmaraj


A group of desperate slum dwellers, living on the margins of society under impossible pressures, find an invitation to a handball tournament in Bavaria to be the answer to their prayers, a one way ticket to the West and the wealth that will solve all their problems.




O'Horten
Director: Bent Hamer, N/D/F 2007, 90 min, 35 mm, colour, GS
Actors: Baard Owe, Espen Skjønberg, Ghita Nørby


Odd Horten, after 40 years of being a correct and reliable train-driver on the Oslo-Bergen line, misses his final ride because he oversleeps. This marks the start of an unbelievable Odyssee, where he has all sorts of adventures.

With humour and melancholy director Bent Hamer tells of the twists and turns of life in this wonderfully laconic masterpiece.




Stilles Licht (Stellet Licht)
Director: Carlos Reygadas, MEX/NL/F/D 2007, 127 min, 35 mm, colour, ES
Actors: Cornelio Wall, Maria Pankratz, Miriam Toews


It begins with one of the most incredible sunrises in film history. Accompanied by archaic sounds of domestic animals, the day starts for a family of Mennonites, religious sectarians who once emigrated to Mexico still living according to 19th century rules. Farmer Johan, father of six children, has to bear a heavy cross because he loves another woman against God’s laws.




The Oxford Murders
Director: Álex de la Iglesia, E/F 2008, 107 min, 35 mm, colour, engl. OV
Actors: Elijah Wood, John Hurt, Leonor Watling, Julie Cox


An old lady is murdered in Oxford. Her body is discovered by two men who meet for the second time at that moment: Seldom, a prestigious professor of logic, and Martin, a young student who just arrived hoping to study with him. It quickly becomes clear that this is the first in a series of murders.




The Wackness
Director: Jonathan Levine, USA 2008, 99 min, 35 mm, colour, OV
Actors: Ben Kingsley, Josh Peck, Famke Janssen


Levine presents mixed up High School graduate Luke and disillusioned psychiatrist Squires: a couple of drifters through New York's Grunge, Hip Hop and Marihuana scene. Great images of the Big Apple and fantastic actors: Ben Kingsley and Josh Peck (Audience Award at Sundance).




Three Monkeys (Üç Maymun)
Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan, TR/F/I 2008, 109 min, 35 mm, colour, GS
Actors: Yavuz Bingol, Hatice Aslan, Rifat Sungar


The politician Servet runs over a person on a lonely road at night. He asks his driver Eyüp to take the blame and go to prison. While Eyüp serves his sentence, Servet starts an affair with his attractive wife, which in turn his son cannot abide. Ceylan shows how the family decides to play blind, deaf and dumb to problems that could tear them apart.




Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?
Director: Morgan Spurlock, USA/F 2008, 93 min, 35 mm, colour, OV
Actors: Morgan Spurlock, Alexandra Jamieson


Spurlock sets his sights on the USA's biggest enemy. Armed only with a hasty round of survival training and a camera, he searches the Middle East's mosques, malls, schools and caves for him. From Egypt to Pakistan, he interviews ordinary people with results that are both funny and thought provoking.




White Night Wedding
Director: Baltasar Kormakur, IS 2008, 96 min, 35 mm, colour, ES, german premiere!
Actors: Hilmir Snaer Guonason, Margret Vilhjalmsdottir, Laufey Eliasdottir


On the eve of his wedding day middle-aged professor Jon faces crucial decisions. With a pretty ex-student - now his young bride - on his hands he steers into a complete nightmare with an evil mother-in-law, a totally drunk barefoot witness and a revengeful ex-wife. With loans from Tchekhov's "Ivanov" Kormárkur presents a typical Northern-European mixture of tragedy and comedy.




Milky Way (Tejút)
Director: Benedek Fliegauf, H 2007, 82 min, 35 mm, colour, without dialogue


Following the musical style of "ambient" "Milky Way" creates a dense atmosphere and bizarre images, offering the viewer the possibility to become completely absorbed in his thoughts.

In ten long, uncut shots a static camera shows ten different spaces where people, carefully choreographed, interact and merge with the background to a filmic tableau of impressive visual aesthetics.




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