Sacrifices 2002
Sunduq al-dunyâ (original title)
1h 52m | Drama | Release date: May 21, 2002 (France)
Storyline:
A tree, a house, emptiness, isolation. The head of the family, an old man, is at the point of death. He would like to give his name to one of his newborn grandsons but he does not acknowledge any of them before he dies. Three cousins without a name live in this primitive world. They seek pleasure and salvation. The first one in restraint and submission, the second in love, the third in power, violence and cruelty. The father of the second, back from war, gives the third the keys to a stronger and immense power. The tree looking upon since 1000 years contemplates what will happen in 2000 years.
Just an ordinary birthday in an ordinary Danish family consisting of father and mother and five children. The birthday is seen from the children’s point of view, i.e. the same situation is seen from different ages from baby to teenager. The aim of the film is both to entertain and cast psychological light on children at different ages.
Thanks for the Tip 1997
Gràcies per la propina (original title)
1h 57m | Comedy | Release date: November 7, 1997 (Spain)
Storyline:
The story of an odd family in which two uncles, apparently bachelors, play the role of mother and father for their two orphan nephews in the Valencia of the 1960s and 70s.
No, or The Vain Glory of Command 1990
‘Non’, ou A Vã Glória de Mandar (original title)
1h 50m | Drama, History, War | Release date: September 26, 1990 (France)
Storyline:
Episodes from entire military history of Portugal are told through flashbacks as a professorish soldier recounts them while marching through a Portuguese African colony in 1973. He easily draws his comrades into philosophical musings, and the little contingent suffers badly at the hands of the local military opposition.
Het verdriet van België 1995
TV Mini Series | Drama | 1995
Storyline:
Belgium, during the Second World War. The story of young Louis, who survives despite war, hypocrisy, lies, oppression, his collaborating father and his bitter mother, who has an affair with a German officer. Louis has a talent for writing and partly because of that he knows how to distance himself and still enjoy life.
While Erendira, a beautiful teenage girl, has a surreal mystical vision, her grandmother’s house catches on fire and burns to the ground. Her grandmother holds Erendira responsible and, in order to extract restitution from the girl, forces her into prostitution. Erendira’s surreal mystical experiences continue while her grandmother grows rich from exploiting her.
Európa messze van 1995
1h 45m | Drama, Family | 1995
Storyline:
The story starts in Romania in the last years of the Ceaucescu regime. The main character of the film is Petru, a ten-year-old Romanian boy. His world is one of action and dreams but, at the same time, presents an authentic vista of contemporary Eastern Europe. All the events are shown through his eyes. His odyssey is an amusing and grotesque tale of survival as well as a parable on the survival of the human spirit. He comes to grips with a hostile world with both humor and rage, imagination and innocence. Petru lives with his vegetarian father Mihai and his pianist mother Daniela, in a small idyllic village in the Carpathian Mountains. His best friends are his dog Ursu, with whom he shares all his joys and sorrows, and the buffalo Florica. One day the family has to leave the country for political reasons. A long journey to freedom full of thrills and adventures begins, which first leads them from Hungary to Austria. Here they are sent to a refugee camp where Petru’s parents are classified as economic refugees because they have no documents; they are be deported back to Romania. Petru flees on his own and has to encounter a number of dangerous situations. But there are also glimmers of hope when an old stationmaster and his wife from a tiny Bavarian village adopt him, nurse him back to health and enable him to integrate into a new community. But here too, the police are already on his tail.
