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Tom Masterick, a dock worker, is wrongfully convicted of a murder charge. His death sentence is commuted to a long prison term. When released as an old man, he vows to find the real killer.
rarefilmm | The Cave of Forgotten Films Posts
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Impressionable Irish teen Goretti Friel begins a romance with an older boy named Ciarán. In love but naïve about such practical concerns as birth control, devoutly Roman Catholic Goretti ends up with an unwanted pregnancy. When Ciarán is jailed by the British army, and shows little desire from prison to uphold his parental responsibilities, the pressures of unanticipated motherhood begin to unravel the 15-year-old teen’s emotional stability.
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A man in his new home, surrounded by boxes that he finds unable to unpack, delivers an extended monologue on indecision, regret and dislocation. Originally created for television, Akerman’s film reflects on deep feelings of isolation and mundanity that run throughout her work.
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Toson Shimazaki’s 1906 novel Hakai was a pioneering piece of social realism tackling the thorny issue of the burakumin, the descendants of feudal era ‘untouchables’ who remained on the very lowest rung of the Japanese caste system, subject to virulent prejudice and virtual apartheid. The protagonist, Raizo Ichikawa, refuses to accept his lot in life, and, bound by his father’s dying wish that he conceal his lowly beginnings, takes a job as a teacher in a regular school. Still, the example of a famous burakumin writer and activist makes him consider that his people’s lot will not be improved by such subterfuge, and he becomes consumed by a desire to confess his true identity.
István Szabó reveals a lesser-known side to the public in this work, which strings together eight shorts of Budapest into a single movie. In the piece interpretable as a declaration of love addressed to the capital there are numerous motifs that are also to be found woven through the director’s major features, first and foremost Szerelmesfilm (Love Film), Tűzoltó utca 25. (25 Fireman’s Street) and Budapesti mesék (Budapest Tales). Besides allowing the viewer to marvel at the cityscape from 50 years ago in a series of fast-moving images, the film is still primarily about Szabó’s Budapest: his observations, his impressions, his imagination.
La Madonna di Theo Eshetu is a video reinterpretation of the figure of the Madonna and the way in which she was represented in Renaissance art. The narratives and symbolic values with which she was associated are transformed into a reflection on the luminous and temporal qualities of video-art.
Fire Eyes sheds light on the anguish and trauma caused by Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), a harmful practice affecting millions of women and girls worldwide. Drawing on the filmmaker’s own experience of undergoing the procedure at the age of 13, the film explores how this deeply rooted tradition, justified by notions of purity and chastity, perpetuates patriarchal control over women’s sexuality and freedom. Through the voices of its victims, it exposes the lasting scars of a practice that continues to fuel oppression, violence and stigma across parts of Africa, the Middle East and Asia.
Jazz singer and writer George Melly takes a nostalgic trip through front rooms and backstreets as he reminiscences about the influence of Dada and Surrealism on his early life.
A terrified young man is running away from the mysterious man in a black coat and a bowler hat. He finds the asylum in the nearby mental hospital, where the doctor takes care of him. However, one cannot escape from his fate.
While travelling through the countryside, a young man named Ivan is drawn to an isolated castle feared by the local villagers. There he encounters Sibila, a mysterious young widow, and becomes captivated by her as well as by the strange music echoing through the castle. But as he grows increasingly entangled in her world, he begins to realize that the place harbors a dark secret.
Prison discharges Hans into the inhospitable freedom of a cold Munich winter. As a stranger, he strays through familiar streets and bars and tries unsuccessfully to contact old friends. Eventually he takes a plane to a friend in Berlin, fleeing from invisible enemies, on the way to an indeterminate destination.
A send-up of the bawdy life of Romantic composer/piano virtuoso Franz Liszt, with ubiquitous phallic imagery and a good portion of the film devoted to Liszt’s “friendship” with fellow composer Richard Wagner. The film begins during the time when Franz would give piano performance to a crowd of shrieking teenage fans while maintaining affairs with his (multiple!) mistresses. He eventually seeks Princess Carolyne of St. Petersburg (at her invitation), elopes, and, after their marriage is forbidden by the Pope, he embraces the monastic life as an abbé.