The Police 1990
1h 25m | Comedy, Crime, Drama | Release date: September 16, 1990 (United Kingdom)
Storyline:
Edgar is a nice, normal, clever 11-year-old – and he’s had enough of being bullied. He organises the other children into a police force, and they set out to bring justice to the school. Their law-and-order game is such a success there are no more ‘criminals’. But the story takes a sinister turn when an unpopular teacher publicly humiliates Edgar and he decides revenge is rightfully his.
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.
Astrakan 2022
1h 44m | Drama | Release date: February 8, 2023 (France)
Storyline:
David Depesseville takes a largely observational approach to the story of young Samuel (Mirko Giannini), a traumatized orphan on the cusp of teenagehood trying to adjust to life with his new, rural foster family, headed by the overwhelmed but sympathetic Marie (Jehnny Beth) and the violent Clément (Bastien Bouillon). With an elliptical approach, Depesseville gently touches upon Samuel’s difficulties coming to terms with his remote substitute parents and brothers, his sexual awakening with the girl next door, and, most disturbingly, the improper attention Marie’s troubled brother seems to devote to the boys. With a gentle, unhurried, but compelling style, Depesseville transports the viewer into the boy’s mundane world, while, in a bold stylistic move, also offering the possibility for the child’s spiritual transcendence.
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.
Before I Change My Mind 2022
1h 29m | Drama | Release date: August 10, 2022 (Switzerland)
Storyline:
The year is 1987, and the place is Alberta, Canada. For Robin (Vaughan Murrae), their first day at a brand-new school is full of dread, for Robin knows that the first question they will be asked is, “Are you a boy or a girl?” Robin defies simple gender labels, and their appearance immediately attracts the attention and curiosity of Carter (Dominic Lippa), a boy who spends most of his time getting into or causing trouble. But while Carter’s interest may initially come with a sharp tongue, Robin is equally curious about him and spends time forging a new and close friendship with Carter. Meanwhile, the girls surrounding Robin find them impossible to pigeonhole, much to their frustration, but one, Izzy (Lacey Oake), sees an opportunity for experimentation. However, Izzy has also caught Carter’s eye, and an uneasy early teenage love triangle soon develops that is less about gender or sexuality and more about one simple question, “Who Am I?
Garbura 2022
1h 53m | Drama | Release date: September 24, 2022 (Spain)
Storyline:
Antonio and Nikola are inseparable friends who live across the road from each other, and share a love of pyrotechnics and mobile phones. Their families have been in dispute for years over an easily resolvable problem: the water that flows from the top house to the bottom house. The boys’ friendship, as they are about to enter puberty, is put to the test at Christmas time when their families uncover much more dangerous secrets and interests, and the water just carries the hate of the adults to the children. Debut film.
Mamma Roma 1962
1h 46m | Drama | Release date: September 22, 1962 (Italy)
Storyline:
With a fervent yearning for respectability and enough money to buy herself a brand-new life in Rome, the uninhibited, fearless, determined former streetwalker Mamma Roma renounces her ignominious past to reunite with her loafing 16-year-old son Ettore. Free at last from her disgusting pimp and ex-lover Carmine, Roma is bent on making an honest living running a humble vegetable stall, but a malicious extortion scheme and the equally insidious menace of exposure threaten to put an end to her zealous aspirations for a decent bourgeois existence. For his own sake, Ettore must be spared the violence of the adult world; nevertheless, can a lone single mother protect her only son from the same snares that wounded her youth?
Among the Cinders 1984
1h 44m | Drama | Release date: July 1985 (United States)
Storyline:
Author Maurice Shadbolt went before the cameras to play father to the main character, in this adaptation of his acclaimed coming of age novel. Teen Nick is estranged from his family, and blaming himself for his Maori mate’s climbing death. He runs away to his straight talking grandfather – who takes him bush – and loses his virginity to Sally (a first film role for Rebecca Gibney).
Rolltreppe Abwärts 2005
1h 11m | Drama | Release date: August 3, 1990 (West Germany)
Storyline:
13-year-old Joham lives with his single mother and her boyfriend somewhere in a poor area of modern Germany. Having no pocket money, he sometimes resorts to petty theft. His older buddy incites him to bigger thefts, and in the end the boy gets caught…
