Ninko is a virtuous Buddhist monk who’s embarrassed to discover that he’s irresistible to many women (and some men). After a particularly troubling encounter with a masked woman, he undertakes a journey to "purify" himself, hoping that this will equip him to rebuff sexual advances. He meets the samurai Kanzo and hears of a village decimated by the rapacious mountain goddess Yama-onna, who kills men to absorb their energy. Finally Ninko has a quest to fulfill…
The Island (2006)
Somewhere in Northern Russia in a small Russian Orthodox monastery lives an unusual man whose bizarre conduct confuses his fellow monks, while others who visit the island believe that the man has the power to heal, exorcise demons and foretell the future.
Nacho Libre (2006)
Nacho Libre is loosely based on the story of Fray Tormenta ("Friar Storm"), aka Rev. Sergio Gutierrez Benitez, a real-life Mexican Catholic priest who had a 23-year career as a masked luchador. He competed in order to support the orphanage he directed.
Luther (1968)
An epic drama of the 16th Century Catholic monk Martin Luther who started the Reformation.
Bihter: A Forbidden Passion (2023)
Bihter, who is desperate for love, sees Adnan, a wealthy and respected older guy, as a way out of the stereotype that society and her materialistic mother have given her. But she soon discovers that she is not satisfied with his attention and has other needs.
Tai-Chi Master (1993)
Falsely accused for cheating in a martial arts competition, two boyhood friends are banished from their Shaolin Temple and go their separate ways. As adults, they join opposing sides in a civil war. When one betrays the other, they settle their differences mano-a-mano.
Xuan Zang (2016)
Chinese-Indian historical adventure of Xuan Zang's seventeen-year overland journey to India during the Tang dynasty in the seventh century.
Andrei Rublev (1966)
An expansive Russian drama, this film focuses on the life of revered religious icon painter Andrei Rublev. Drifting from place to place in a tumultuous era, the peace-seeking monk eventually gains a reputation for his art. But after Rublev witnesses a brutal battle and unintentionally becomes involved, he takes a vow of silence and spends time away from his work. As he begins to ease his troubled soul, he takes steps towards becoming a painter once again.
Madam (2015)
Ma-nim (Kim Jeong-ah-II) becomes a widow after her husband dies from sickness and she arrives at Bukgando to get remarried. Her new husband is a handsome and wealthy man but he is killed by a Japanese even before she spends a night with him. Ma-nim is alone in the big house once again. Everyone by her husband's side leaves and only the grandfather and slave named Bau are left behind. One day, Ma-nim notices that Bau has a way of staring at her and she is overcome by a strange feeling. She'd to oppress her desires as a woman because of her two short marriages and strict identity. Bau had never made love with a woman before but she didn't mind his gaze on her. The two of them start a forbidden love behind grandfather's back...
Latter Days (2004)
Christian, a hunky, 20-something, West Hollywood party boy gets more than he bargains for when he tries to seduce Aaron, a sexually confused Mormon missionary who moves into his apartment complex.
The Name of the Rose (1986)
14th-century Franciscan monk William of Baskerville and his young novice arrive at a conference to find that several monks have been murdered under mysterious circumstances. To solve the crimes, William must rise up against the Church's authority and fight the shadowy conspiracy of monastery monks using only his intelligence – which is considerable.
The Healing (2014)
A cinematic story of drama after the drama and war that rages on in people's hearts even after the war. The hero, an Orthodox Christian monk, finds himself on a road to spiritual healing through circumstances he could never have dreamed of. The story follows the path to spiritual uplifting, metaphorically introduced at the very beginning in the hero's walk to the secluded hermitage. The leitmotif of watering a dry, dead tree, repeated throughout the film, illustrates the absurdity of the monk's faith. The permanent paralysis of the characters after the torment of war invokes forgiveness as the only means to ultimate healing.
W Wolinski (2024)
After the Charlie Hebdo shooting events by the hand of jihadist terrorists David wants to bring on stage a play based on the late satyrical cartoonist George Wolinski's comicbook strips, but he struggles to finds cohoperation from institutional figures. He then agrees to direct in a small provincial town a stage play about an apulian folk dance, the Pizzica. Masterminding to disguise the original planned one, with its sexually explicit nature, into the accorded one he will gain the complicity of the curious cast hired on the spot. The start of the rehearsals will arouse excited consensus either censure which will lead to a growing boycott of the staging.
Black Death (2010)
As the plague decimates medieval Europe, rumours circulate of a village immune from the plague. There is talk of a necromancer who leads the village and is able to raise the dead. A fearsome knight joined by a cohort of soldiers and a young monk are charged by the church to investigate. Their journey is filled with danger, but it's upon entering the village that their true horror begins.
Agony: The Life and Death of Rasputin (1981)
Russian monk Grigori Rasputin rises to power, which corrupts him along the way. His sexual perversions and madness ultimatly leads to his gruesome assasination.
Drift (2001)
Fifteen-year-old Sammy has recently become aware of desires she awakens in men but one man to whom she is herself attracted is her older brother Jacob. With an institutionalized father and a mother neither sibling has seen for years, Jacob provides for the household through his trade in meat declared unfit for human consumption. This situation has sufficed for years but the dedication with which Jacob watches over his little sister leaves her no room to mature as a woman...
The Organ (1965)
The Organ is a drama set in the times of the wartime Slovak State. A young Polish deserter and gifted organist finds shelter from the fascists in a Slovak Franciscan monastery. He gets into a conflict with the local organist and choir leader, a man limited in his world views and spiritual values. The collision of talent and beauty with pettiness and closed-mindedness leads to envy and ill will, which draw young Felix away from his temporary hiding place and back to the dangers of war.
Of Gods and Men (2010)
French drama based on the 1996 kidnapping and killing of seven monks in Algeria. A group of Trappist monks reside in the monastery of Tibhirine in Algeria, where they live in harmony with the largely muslim population. When a bloody conflict between Algeria's army and Muslim Jihadi insurgents disrupts the peace, they are forced to consider fleeing the monastery and deserting the villagers they have ministered to. In the face of deadly violence the monks wrestle with their faith and their convictions, eventually deciding to stay and help their neighbours keep the army and the insurgents at bay.
Before the Rain (1994)
The circularity of violence seen in a story that circles on itself. In Macedonia, during the war in Bosnia, Christians hunt an ethnic Albanian girl who may have murdered one of their own. A young monk who's taken a vow of silence offers her protection. In London, a photographic editor who's pregnant needs to talk it out with her estranged husband and chooses a toney restaurant.