The Tibetans refer to the Dalai Lama as 'Kundun', which means 'The Presence'. He was forced to escape from his native home, Tibet, when communist China invaded and enforced an oppressive regime upon the peaceful nation. The Dalai Lama escaped to India in 1959 and has been living in exile in Dharamsala ever since.
Scarlett, Shanghai & Me (2020)
A story about coming to the end of your journey as an expat in China, told through the lens of the films that inspired us.
Yves Saint Laurent (2014)
A look at the life of French designer Yves Saint Laurent from the beginning of his career in 1958 when he met his lover and business partner, Pierre Berge.
SoulMate (2016)
The films spans two decades as the story unfolds in a series of flashbacks that begin when Qiyue and Ansheng were just thirteen. The two became inseparable until they met a boy who ended up tearing their lives apart.
Monos (2019)
On a faraway mountaintop, eight kids with guns watch over a hostage and a conscripted milk cow.
Mountains (NaN)
After a tragedy, Atel finds himself stuck on a series of mountains… with a familiar voice somehow communicating with him.
The Story of Liubao (1957)
Lin Jin, a solider of the New Fourth Army, stayed in Liubao village with his Army. During Lin Jin's stay, he fell in love with a local girl, Ermeizi. However, he had to leave Liubao with his troops for several years. Lin Jin and Ermeizi lost contact during the war after Lin Jin had left Liubao. Years later, Jin returns to Liubao where he finds Ermeizi again.
Hua Mulan (1997)
This animated feature retells the great legend of the Chinese heroine better known as Hua Mulan -the daughter of an ill, bed-ridden General. Hua Mulan will wage several triumphant battles in her father's name before finally winning the war and meeting the love of her life, who will in turn discover her to be a very beautiful girl.
Head On (1998)
Nineteen-year-old Ari confronts both his sexuality and his Greek family. Ari despises his once-beloved parents, former radical activists, for having entombed themselves in insular tradition. Ari is obsessed with gay sex, although he does make an unenthusiastic attempt to satisfy the sister of one of his best friends. While all of this is going on, he's facing problems with his traditional Greek parents, who have no clue about his sexual activities.
The Story of '72 (2018)
An aloof and a distant man learns the true meaning of' home' and also learns to see the women in his life in a new light before leaving his earthquake shattered country.
Fasten Your Seatbelts (2014)
Elena and Antonio seem not to be made for each other. They are too different in terms of character, life choices, worldview, and the way they relate to others. They are total opposites. However, they are overwhelmed by a mutual attraction they're trying hard to avoid; but to which they succumb to.
Song of Tibet (2000)
The story of Yeshe Dolma, and her turbulent marriage to a proud warrior, Jiacuo, across half a century.
For the Coyotes (2015)
Wendell is trying to make peace with his earthly deterioration in the face of late-stage cancer. His son Josh is fighting it, fleeing it, denying it. After a five year estrangement, father and son are now thrown together in a remote cabin enveloped in the vibrant, buzzing, crawling redwood forest of Northern California. As Wendell forgives himself of his own inadequacies, Josh releases years of pain and anger, borne from living under the rigid principles of his father, a renowned Buddhist teacher who for decades pretended to be anything but the deeply flawed, selfish man he really was....but is he still? Human connection, obligation, illusion, enlightenment, love and fear -- it's all up for grabs in this meditative, probing, tender story of inevitability.
Gladiator (2000)
In the year 180, the death of emperor Marcus Aurelius throws the Roman Empire into chaos. Maximus is one of the Roman army's most capable and trusted generals and a key advisor to the emperor. As Marcus' devious son Commodus ascends to the throne, Maximus is set to be executed. He escapes, but is captured by slave traders. Renamed Spaniard and forced to become a gladiator, Maximus must battle to the death with other men for the amusement of paying audiences.
Dogville (2003)
When a beautiful young Grace arrives in the isolated township of Dogville, the small community agrees to hide her from a gang of ruthless gangsters, and, in return, Grace agrees to do odd jobs for the townspeople.
Cold of Kalandar (2016)
Mehmet is a man living with his family in a mountain village in the Black Sea region. He earns his living by breeding a few animals, while passionately looking for a mineral reserve on the mountains, but his pursuit is seen useless by his family. Devastated by vain efforts, his hope is renewed with a competition. Mehmet will attend the bull fight held in Artvin, but he returns from Artvin completely lost, once again. This simple story pictures the naive portrait of a touching life, a life struggle in hardship and the relationship between nature, animals and human beings.
Sissi: The Young Empress (1956)
Sissi is now the empress of Austria and attempts to learn etiquette. While she is busy being empress she also has to deal with her difficult new mother-in-law, while the arch-duchess Sophie is trying to tell the emperor how to rule and also Sissi how to be a mother.
My Own Private Idaho (1991)
In this loose adaptation of Shakespeare's "Henry IV," Mike Waters is a hustler afflicted with narcolepsy. Scott Favor is the rebellious son of a mayor. Together, the two travel from Portland, Oregon to Idaho and finally to the coast of Italy in a quest to find Mike's estranged mother. Along the way they turn tricks for money and drugs, eventually attracting the attention of a wealthy benefactor and sexual deviant.
A Thousand Years of Good Prayers (2007)
The film follows Mr. Shi, a retired widower from Beijing. When his only daughter, Yilan, who lives in Spokane, Washington and works as a librarian, gets divorced, he decides to visit her to help her heal. However, Yilan is not interested. She tries keeping an emotional distance but when this finally fails she begins physically avoiding her father. He confronts her about an affair with a married Russian man and she, in turn, lets loose about all the gossip she'd heard as a young girl about his alleged affair with a female colleague back in China.