Dernier Soleil 2021
1h 8m | Action, Drama | Release date: June 24, 2021 (France)
Storyline:
Somewhere in the north-east of France.. Éric, penniless man who lives in his car, rejects his son Esteban, 10 years old, autistic and living under the care of his uncle. Because of another carelessness of his father, Esteban is kidnapping by two gangsters. Eric, devastated, is determined to do what’s necessary in order to raise the ransom. He plunges into the city’s ghetto in hopes of saving his son.
El camino 1964
1h 35m | Drama | Release date: 1964 (Spain)
Storyline:
Daniel el Mochuelo (‘Little Owl’) is a boy who must leave his village to go study in the city. During the days leading up to his departure, Daniel and his inseparable friends Roque el Moñigo (‘Cowpat’) and Germán el Tiñoso (‘Mangy’) play, pull pranks, and observe the peculiar words of adults which is a clear portrait of life in a small Spanish village during the Franco regime.
Germania anno zero 1948
1h 18m | Drama, History, War | Release date: February 2, 1949 (France)
Storyline:
Edmund, a young boy who lives in war-devastated Germany after the Second World War, must do all kinds of work to help his family get food and survive. One day he meets one of his former teachers and hopes to get support from him, but this man’s ideas don’t lead Edmund into a clearer or safer way of living.
The Secret of Roan Inish 1994
1h 43m | Drama, Family, Fantasy | Release date: February 3, 1995 (United States)
Storyline:
10-year-old Fiona is sent to live with her grandparents in a small fishing village in Donegal, Ireland. She soon learns the local legend that an ancestor of hers married a Selkie – a seal who can turn into a human. Years earlier, her baby brother washed out to sea in a cradle shaped like a boat; someone in the family believes the boy is being raised by the seals. Then Fiona catches sight of a naked little boy on the abandoned Isle of Roan Inish and takes an active role in uncovering the secret of Roan Inish.
A Dog of Flanders 1999
1h 40m | Family, Drama | Release date: August 27, 1999 (United States)
Storyline:
Poor, but happy, young Nello and his grandfather live alone, delivering milk as a livelihood, in the outskirts of Antwerp, a city in Flanders (the Flemish or Dutch-speaking part of modern-day Belgium). They discover a beaten dog (a Bouvier, a large sturdy dog native to Flanders) and adopt it and nurse it back to health, naming it Patrasche, the middle name of Nello’s mother Mary, who died when Nello was very young. Nello’s mother was a talented artist, and like his mother, he delights in drawing, and his friend Aloise is his model and greatest fan and supporter.
The Railway Children 1970
1h 49m | Drama, Family | Release date: December 22, 1970 (United Kingdom)
Storyline:
In Edwardian England, the story of the Waterbury family is told largely from the perspective of the three offspring and by oldest, teenage daughter Bobbie. Their loving and relatively affluent family life in suburban London, financially supported by father Charles’ job as a government bureaucrat, includes both parents being a present and welcome part of their children’s activities. Their existence is upended when on Christmas evening 1904, Charles is whisked away without warning by two men. Subsequently, the remaining family is forced to move, they renting a rundown and drafty house, Three Chimneys, in the rural village of Oakworth, Yorkshire. While the three children know that they are now poor by their existence, all their Mother has told Bobbie is that Father is not dead, that he will someday return to them when he is able, and for Bobbie and the others not to ask questions about what happened to him. The three are now forced to find a way to occupy their time while Mother tries to earn pocket money by writing and selling stories, many of their activities which are centered on the railway near their house and the railway tunnel a few miles away from the village station. Their life along the railway at least addresses one of the complaints the three had about their life in London, that not much ever happened, which is not the case along the railway as they get into one adventure after another. In the process, they learn to enjoy life in their new situation, which includes the friendship and admiration of many of the villagers in all the Waterburys’ inherent kindness and generosity. But the question still remains, at least for the three children, of what happened to Father.
Le Colosse aux Pieds d’Argile 2022
1h 31m | Drama | Release date: April 30, 2023 (France)
Storyline:
Sébastien is a former rugby player and a true colossus. Between 12 to 16, he seemed to be a child with the happy demeanor typical of his native Southwest region. But this joie de vivre was actually a smokescreen intended to protect his family’s harmony. During those four years, Sébastien was a victim of rape. For four years, he suffered in silence because his abuser was none other than a close friend of his parents, loved by all. Thirty years later, Sébastien remains unable to come clean. His demons are destroying him. He wavers between his need for revenge and his desire to ensure that no one else will have to live through what he has. After Sébastien meets a kid, a wounded little giant like the child he once was, and reconnects with the girl he didn’t know how to love as a teenager, he is compelled to make the right choice – justice… But at what cost?
Sparta 2022
1h 41m | Drama | Release date: May 5, 2023 (Austria)
Storyline:
Sparta is a 2022 drama film directed by Ulrich Seidl. It depicts an Austrian man named Ewald who is a non-offending pedophile and teaches judo to boys in Romania. The film is the second in a diptych; the other film, Rimini, centres on Ewald’s brother.
