Three separate stories create a gripping yet compassionate portrait of small-town characters immersed in the intimidating, alluring, and dangerous world of big-city Johannesburg and Soweto.
African Gothic (2013)
On an isolated farm in Apartheid South Africa two lovers find themselves at risk of losing everything to a big city lawyer; they will stop at nothing to prevent him from exposing a dark family secret.
The Mudge Boy (2003)
Chronicling the troubled existence of Duncan Mudge, a 14-year-old misfit who—while vying for the attention of his vacant father—struggles to fill the void brought on by his mother's sudden death.
Deep Breath (2001)
David is a troubled city boy, being looked after by his uncle on a farm. He is initiated into the drunken partying of the village and stumbles off drunk to find his friend Matthieu and cell-playing girlfriend in the forest. There he finds a brutal and horrifying outlet that will change his life forever...
Tropical Malady (2004)
The passionate relationship between two men with unusual consequences. The film is divided in two parts. The first half charts the modest attraction between two men in the sunny, relaxing countryside and the second half charts the confusion and terror of an unknown menace lurking deep within the jungle shadows.
Koyaanisqatsi (1983)
Takes us to locations all around the US and shows us the heavy toll that modern technology is having on humans and the earth. The visual tone poem contains neither dialogue nor a vocalized narration: its tone is set by the juxtaposition of images and the exceptional music by Philip Glass.
A, B, C... Manhattan (1997)
Three NYC stories at a climax. Stories about breaking up, losing, leaving, giving away... the things or people you love, you live with, you depend on, which formed your past... The stories are about how difficult this is, how terrifying and how frightening. Yet, you HAVE to do what you have to do. The three girls are met at the turning point of their lives. The film is wonderful written, with few words and a great, exciting pace (though it takes its time and lot of it). Stop: there may be a lot of words, sometimes, but what's important is between-the-lines. The performances are marvellous. Style and location (all shot "on location") remind of this specific independent NYC style of Jarmusch, Poe, Seidelman, Silver, etc.
Dragonard (1987)
In 1747, a handsome but rebellious Scotsman named Richard Abdee is auctioned off as a slave on a Caribbean island controlled by French and British sugar-planters. When caught having sex with his owner's wife, Abdee is given 100 lashes with the dreaded "dragonard" whip. This sentence is meant to be fatal but Abdee survives and later joins in a slave revolt which puts an end to the island's era of savage whippings.
Three Godless Years (1976)
A woman fell in love with a Japanese soldier, during the Japanese Occupation in the Philippines. The whole town turned against her.
My Life as a Dog (1985)
A boy, obsessed with comparing himself with those less fortunate, experiences a different life at the home of his aunt and uncle in 1959 Sweden.
No Sign of the Wind (2013)
A family man, struggling to maintain his status as patriarch, finds himself infected by the insecurities of his wife leading to devastating consequences and tragedy.
Brother of Sleep (1995)
In the beginning of the 19th century, Johannes Elias Alder is born in a small village in the Austrian mountains. While growing up he is considered strange by the other villagers and discovers his love of music, especially rebuilding and playing the organ at the village church. After experiencing an "acoustic wonder", his eye color changes and he can hear even the most subtle sounds.
Straw Dogs (1971)
David Sumner, a mild-mannered academic from the United States, marries Amy, an Englishwoman. In order to escape a hectic stateside lifestyle, David and his wife relocate to the small town in rural Cornwall where Amy was raised. There, David is ostracized by the brutish men of the village, including Amy's old flame, Charlie. Eventually the taunts escalate, and two of the locals rape Amy. This sexual assault awakes a shockingly violent side of David.
Catch a Fire (2006)
The true story of anti-apartheid activists in South Africa, and particularly the life of Patrick Chamusso, a timid foreman at Secunda CTL, the largest synthetic fuel plant in the world. Patrick is wrongly accused, imprisoned and tortured for an attempt to bomb the plant, with the injustice transforming the apolitical worker into a radicalised insurgent, who then carries out his own successful sabotage mission.
2 or 3 Things I Know About Him (2005)
What would your family reminiscences about dad sound like if he had been an early supporter of Hitler’s, a leader of the notorious SA and the Third Reich’s minister in charge of Slovakia, including its Final Solution? Executed as a war criminal in 1947, Hanns Ludin left behind a grieving widow and six young children, the youngest of whom became a filmmaker. It's a fascinating, maddening, sometimes even humorous look at what the director calls "a typical German story." (Film Forum)
Leaving D.C. (2013)
After 20 years of living in Washington, D.C., Mark Klein seeks much-needed solace by moving to the remote wilds of West Virginia. To ease his loneliness, he sends regular video updates to members of his OCD-support group back in the city. But Mark gradually realizes that despite his new, isolated setting, he may not be alone. From the endless woods surrounding his home, something else is watching.
Candyman (1992)
The Candyman, a murderous soul with a hook for a hand, is accidentally summoned to reality by a skeptic grad student researching the monster's myth.
Flatfoot in Africa (1978)
Inspector Rizzo in Napoli gets a message from a policeman from South Africa who wants to meet him. Immediately before this meeting the South African policeman is killed. Dying he shows Rizzo a picture of his young son Bodo. Rizzo travels to Johannesburg to find out what the policeman was working on and to find Bodo.
Hideko the Bus Conductress (1941)
Okoma, a witty young woman working as a conductor in an old, rickety bus in Kōfu, Yamanashi (rural Japan), has a creative idea that could avert the dwindling number of passengers when her job and the bus company itself are at stake.
Vingslag i natten (1953)
Orphan boy and vicar's daughter fall in love but her father is strongly opposed to their relationship.
China, My Sorrow (1989)
In August 1966, the Cultural Revolution in full swing, 13-year-old Tian Ben is arrested for playing a pop record; he's sent to a remote mountain camp in Niu-Peng. There he's called "Four Eyes" and, with about 16 other older boys and men, he's made to carry muck up a mountainside, make bricks, saw logs, and sing daily to Chairman Mao of his faults. There's camaraderie among the five youths, especially with a young pickpocket named Baimao, and Tian is also drawn to a silent monk who cares for him when he falls ill and the others expect him to die. The camp is remote, so there are no fences or walls. Tian longs to escape.