Vracenky 1991
Vracenky 1991
1h 34m | Drama | Release date: November 1, 1991 (Czechoslovakia)
Storyline:
In the fifites the 10 year old boy Honza lives with his single mother in Prague. The mother is a dedicated communist in the beginning but she changes her mind when a show trial is held. She speaks about her dissatisfaction with the government and is immediately arrested. Honza is given to another family.
Tenkiller 2022
Tenkiller 2022
1h 32m | Drama | Release date: November 18, 2022 (United States)
Storyline:
One year after the tragic death of his best friend, an eighteen-year-old machinist struggles with the split of his parents and the violent way of life surrounding him.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Wendigo 2001
Wendigo 2001
1h 31m | Horror, Mystery, Thriller | Release date: January 23, 2001 (United States)
Storyline:
George is a high-strung professional photographer who is starting to unravel from the stress of his work with a Manhattan advertising agency. Needing some time away from the city, George, his wife Kim, and their son Miles head to upstate New York to take in the winter sights, though the drive up is hardly relaxing for any of them. George accidentally hits and severely injures a deer that ran onto the icy road; after George stops to inspect the damage, he’s confronted by an angry local named Otis who flies into a rage, telling George that he and his fellow hunters had been tracking the deer for some time. An argument breaks out, which leaves George feeling deeply shaken. When George and Kim arrive at their cabin, they discover that it’s next door to Otis’ property, and they soon find that a dark and intimidating presence seems to have taken over the cottage. Since, when they stopped at a store en route to the cabin, a shopkeeper told Miles about the legend of the Wendigo, a beast from Indian folklore who is half-man, half-deer, and can change itself at will, the child begins to wonder if the creature might have something to do with his family’s sudden misfortune.
Birds Without A Nest 1996
Birds Without A Nest 1996
Ptitsy bez gnyozd (original title)
1h 29m | Biography, Drama | Release date: 1996 (Belarus)
Storyline:
A film based on Belarusian poet Larisa Geniyush’s memoir. Despite living through the difficult times and being in emigration, she fought for freedom in her homeland and expressed devotion to the nation and it’s language.
