In his debut feature film, Kumar Sahahani employs highly innovative forms for depicting the conflict between oppressive feudal norms and a changing industrial landscape while making female sexuality and its complex mindscape the focus. The protagonist, Taran, the younger daughter of a Rajasthani zamindar revolts against the social code set by the class system by a sexual encounter with an engineer. This film was one of the earlier and successful examples experimentation in colour during the advent of New Indian cinema.
Category: Arthouse
A more horrific and gloomy version of The Beauty and the Beast. Julie, the youngest daughter of a bankrupt merchant, sacrifices her life in order to save her father. She goes to an enchanted castle in the woods and meets Netvor, a bird-like monster. As Netvor begins to fall in love with Julie, he must suppress his beastly urge to kill her.
The story takes place in the old streets of Porto and by the banks of the Douro River. A gang of very young kids has just accepted a new member, Carlitos, a shy boy who has “played it tough” by stealing a doll in a shop. Carlitos soon has a crush on Terezinha, the only girl in the group. The trouble is that Eduardo, the gang boss, is also in love with the pretty girl. And he will not allow any rival to challenge him.
This downbeat three-part drama tells a trio of stories that focus on different aspects of America’s reaction to the war in the Persian Gulf. Fernanda Hussein is a Hispanic woman whose husband abandoned her and their children and returned to Egypt, where he was born. In the second chapter, Carlos is a soldier who returns home as a hero after serving in the Middle East. But after spending months cleaning up the bloody damage American air strikes inflicted upon the people of Kuwait, Carlos has a hard time feeling heroic about the aftermath of the war. And finally, tensions mount among the members of a wealthy New Mexico family, as teenage Raphael speaks out against the war, to the great consternation of his parents and siblings.
Freelance journalist Pierre and his friend Paul, a poet, join forces to pen a screenplay about Rosemonde, who may or not may not have shot her uncle many years earlier. Pierre pursues the facts while Paul begins to create a fictional Rosemonde — that is, until he meets her and oddly finds his creativity fading away. Meanwhile, both men become attracted to the young woman, but find it impossible to discover her true character.
Nine-year-old Vanyo often plays with wooden swords and cardboard knight’s armour. He gradually confronts the life of grown-ups. The boy is confused – why do his parents say one thing and do another? Vanyo feels increasingly lonely and, in his thoughts, he talks to the only person he trusts – his uncle Georgi. It is only with him that the boy feels happy. Together, they go to the printer’s, to rehearsals at the theatre, and they watch movies. Uncle Georgi never interrupts Vanyo’s words and questions; he treats him seriously. How is this tiny knight going to enter life without an internal armour against rudeness and egoism?
In the form of a “small theater of the world”, a history of the world from its beginnings to our day, including the errors, the incompetence, the thirst for power, the fear, the madness, the cruelty and the commonplace, in a story of five episodes.