King Jack 2015
1h 21min | Adventure | 26 February 2016 (UK)
Storyline:
Jack is a fifteen year-old boy stuck in a run-down small town. Trapped in a violent feud with a cruel older bully and facing another bout of summer school, Jack’s got all the problems he can handle. So when Jack’s aunt falls ill and his runty younger cousin must stay with him for the weekend the last thing Jack wants to do is look after him. Unfortunately no one really cares what Jack wants. Set over a hazy summer weekend, King Jack is a tough and tender coming of age story about friendship and finding happiness in bleak surroundings.
Kiss me softly 2012
Kus me zachtjes (original title)
16min | Short, Comedy, Drama | 2012 (Belgium)
Storyline:
17 year old Jasper lives in a very grey, small town. In his family, he cannot be himself. Jaspers dad is a singer, named Lukkie Luk. All the attention in the family goes to his career. Jasper searches a way to handle this and is faced with the typical questions in the live of an adolescent. Questions that will not be answered when he stays in his own routine.
All Things Fair 1995
Lust och fägring stor (original title)
2h 10min | Drama, Romance, War | 3 November 1995 (Sweden)
Storyline:
Malmö, Sweden during the Second World War. Stig is a 15 year old pupil on the verge of adulthood. Viola is 37 years old and his teacher. He is attracted by her beauty and maturity. She is drawn to him by his youth and innocence, a god-sent relief from her drunk and miserable husband. They start a passionate and forbidden relationship – but it has consequences they never could have expected.
House on Chelouche Street 1973
Ha-Bayit Berechov Chelouche (original title)
1h 50min | Drama | 1973 (Israel)
Storyline
The film tells the story of a Sephardi family of Egyptian Jewish immigrants from Alexandria that settle in 1947 Tel Aviv. The family consists of a 33-year-old widowed wife, Clara, (played by Gila Almagor, one of the most prominent actresses in Israel for the last three decades) and her four children. They live in a working-class neighborhood surrounded by their extended family, including Clara’s mother Mazal, Clara’s uncle Rafael, and Sultana, his wife. The plot centers on the firstborn, Sami, his transition from a shy 15-year-old to a working man and an activist in the “Irgun” (a resistance movement that acted mainly against the military forces of the British), and the romantic attachment he develops with a 25-year-old Russian immigrant librarian (Michal Bat-Adam, now a director). In addition to this, Clara struggles between social pressure to take a husband and her own complex feelings surrounding this, complicated by another Sephardi Egyptian, played by Yosef Shiloach, who has strong feelings for her. The movie is a vivid and very credible description of the lives of Sephardi immigrant families on the eve of the declaration of the state of Israel, as well as the escalating violence between British forces and the local populace, as well as Palestinian Arab violence towards Jews.
Strayed 2003
Les égarés (original title)
1h 35min | Drama, Romance, War | 20 August 2003 (France)
Storyline
June 1940. German troops are advancing on Paris. Odile, a widowed teacher, succumbs to the widespread panic and, with her two children, joins the exodus from the city. Philippe is on the cusp of adolescence, Little Cathy knows only that they are going South. After fifty kilometres, a German plane attacks, decimating the helpless refugees. Odile and her children lose everything. A shaven-headed youth appears from nowhere and leads them away from the carnage. His name is Yvan, he’s seventeen years old. Cut off from the rest of the world and living in confined quarters, Odile and Yvan find themselves confronted with their own desires
Murmur of the Heart 1971
Le souffle au coeur (original title)
1h 58min | Comedy, Drama | 28 April 1971 (France)
Storyline:
Storyline
This is a jolly coming-of-age story about a 14-year-old boy named Laurent Chevalier who is growing up in bourgeois surroundings in Dijon, France. This is France in the mid-1950s rather than America in the 1990s. Thus, Laurent is unharmed by events which would irreparably shatter the self-esteem of a modern American adolescent: he gets drunk, he smokes, he has sex, he is smothered by his mother, he is ignored by his father, a priest makes a pass at him, he gets rheumatoid fever, etc. There’s enough scandalous behavior in this film to make 100 made-for-TV movies, and yet this is a very happy and oddly innocent tale. Continue reading →
The tragicomic tale of Bjørn, 17, who suffers from a contracted foreskin. First, his dad indiscreetly enlightens poor Bjørn about the ailment, which runs in the family. Then, we follow Bjørn through medical examinations, a surgical procedure and healing. Bjørn has always been insecure around girls and paralysed by performance anxiety. He now hopes the procedure will change all that – especially because he is fascinated by his big sister’s beautiful best friend, a curious witness to his travails who has been continuously updated about every intimate detail by his blabbermouth sister. Ultimately, it is up to Bjørn to realise that conquering pretty women takes more than just working equipment.
