Never Say Never 2023

Never Say Never 2023

Never Say Never 2023

Never Say Never 2023
Ba jiao long zhong (original title)
1h 57m | Action, Drama, Sport | Release date: July 6, 2023 (China)

Storyline:

The movie tells the story of Xiang Tenghui who devotes all his efforts to cultivating orphans children into fighter as they have no way out in life and give them a glimmer of hope. However, as his school becomes successful, an old video of the children’s performance is brought up to the light and threaten their entire way of life.

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Gewalten 2022

Gewalten 2022

Gewalten 2022

Gewalten 2022
2h 28m | Drama | Release date: May 11, 2023 (Germany)

Storyline:

Thirteen-year-old Daniel lives with his older brother and terminally ill father in a village plagued by rural exodus. There, the young people live their lives between rare bus stops, xenophobia, unemployment, illegal dog fights and chemical intoxicants, among other things. Daniel stands between childhood and adolescence, and in the face of the indifference and stagnation of his surroundings, he becomes the victim of inhuman conditions that force him into a painful loneliness.

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All the Fires 2023

All the Fires 2023

All the Fires 2023

All the Fires 2023
Todos los incendios (original title)
1h 36m | Drama | Release date: August 6, 2023 (Switzerland)

Storyline:

Bruno, a struggling teenage pyromaniac flees the city and embarks on a journey in quest of a girl he met online who would force him to confront the death of his father and his sexuality-related uncertainties.

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Louis, enfant roi 1993

Louis, enfant roi 1993

Louis, enfant roi 1993

Louis, enfant roi 1993
2h 40m | Biography, Drama, History | Release date: April 21, 1993 (France)

Storyline:

The title of this major French costume drama means “Louis, child-king”, and indeed it’s a fascinating fresco about the formative years of the young king Louis XIV, before he became the Sun-king at Versailles. It was a dark and violent period, when the Louvre (meaning ‘wolves hunt castle’, hunting was a major aristocratic pastime), then still the somewhat gloomy royal palace, was the battle field of palace intrigues while the regency was held by queen-mother Anne of Austria but the actual head of the royal government was the aging cardinal Giulio Mazirini (‘Mazarin’), the less-known Italian successor of Richelieu, who also introduced to the court and the kingdom a host of his countrymen from whom Louis would learn the passion for Italian culture, especially music which would flourish under the direction of Lully (but that later story is another movie, “Le Roi danse”). The elaborate script sketches the story of French power politics, too complicate and devious to summarize in any detail, but mainly from the viewpoint of the immature king under maternal guardianship, who probably didn’t comprehend half of the grave troubles focusing on the strife between the official Catholic church and those claiming freedom of religion, especially for the Huguenots, but in reality mainly driven by personal and family ambitions and the grip of nobles on the kingdom at the expense of the royal power, and climaxing in a full rebellion, known as the Fronde, which forces the royal family to flee for their lives, an experience that may have decided Louis to dedicate his reign to preventing a repeat by establishing absolutism as he did. Some narration is done by Louis’s younger brother Philip, the duke of Anjou, who seems smarter but as the spare heir is condemned to life in a golden cage, overshadowed by Louis while any ‘disrespect’ for his crowned sibling is punishable on the spot by strap lashes administered on his bare behind by a servant.

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Yaaba 1989

Yaaba 1989

Yaaba 1989

Yaaba 1989
1h 30m | Drama, Romance | Release date: August 23, 1989 (France)

Storyline:

A small village in Burkina Faso. The story focuses on Bila, a ten year old boy who befriends an old woman, Sana. Everybody calls her ‘Witch’ but Bila himself calls her ‘Yaaba’ (grandmother). When Bila’s cousin Nopoko gets sick it is Sana’s medicine who saves her.

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Koi kizuna no sato 2012

Koi kizuna no sato 2012

Koi kizuna no sato 2012

Koi kizuna no sato 2012
57m | Drama | Release date: 2012 (Japan)

Storyline:

Twelve year old Osamu Hirano is in love with his classmate Rio, but he doesn’t have courage to confess his love to her. One day he learns that she is going out with Shuichi and this makes him very depressed. Shuichi is also a classmate, but unlike Osamu, he is very smart and also good at sports. Meanwhile, Osamu’s 21 year old sister Yumi, who years ago ran away to the big city of Nagoya, suddenly turns up with her fiancé, Kenji Yamaoka, a 45 year old ethnologist. Unsurprisingly, her parents have problems with Yumi’s choice of husband, particularly since he is the same age as her father and appears to have major health problems to boot. Yumi’s sudden reappearance, after years of silence, and her insistence on marrying a man more than twice her age, predictably throws the family into turmoil. Both Yumi and Osamu have problems addressing love, the deeper they fall into it, the more difficulty they have expressing their true feelings.

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Postel 1998

Postel 1998

Postel 1998

Postel 1998
1h 30m | Comedy, Drama, Mystery | Release date: January 29, 1998 (Czech Republic)

Storyline:

An erotically-charged drama by the late Park Chul-soo, intertwining stories of three characters whose joy, passion and despair played out on the same bed are tangled like a puzzle.

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Smil mand 1972

Smil mand 1972

Smil mand 1972

Smil mand 1972
1h 11m | Family | Release date: December 15, 1972 (Denmark)

Storyline:

Teenage Ole is sent to boarding school by his single mother so he can learn more about life as he goes through puberty. But he finds the other boys just have their own problems.

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The Eight Mountains 2022

The Eight Mountains 2022

The Eight Mountains 2022

The Eight Mountains 2022
Le otto montagne (original title)
2h 27m | Drama | Release date: December 14, 2022 (Belgium)

Storyline:

An epic journey of friendship and self-discovery set in the breathtaking Italian Alps, The Eight Mountains follows over four decades the profound, complex relationship between Pietro and Bruno.

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