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Week 22

Thursday 28/5

Three Miles North of Molkom (2008)

Three miles north of Molkom, hidden deep in the lakeside forests of Sweden, lies Angsbacka; a 21st Century playground for adults. Once a year, their gates open to a thousand international participants, placed in 'Sharing Groups' at random. A Swedish celebrity, a Californian hippy, a Finnish grandmother and a back-packing Australian rugby coach, who stumbled on the wrong party, are amongst the group that take us on an unforgettably quirky, two-week emotional roller-coaster. Firewalking, Shamanism, Tantric Sex and myriad other physical, psychological and esoteric experiences, guide our unlikely heroes towards enlightenment, love, loathing and themselves. Will they ever be the same again?

Sunday 31/5

Utomlyonnye solntsem (1994)
aka "Burnt by the Sun"

Russia, 1936: revolutionary hero Colonel Kotov is spending an idyllic summer in his dacha with his young wife and six-year-old daughter Nadia and other assorted family and friends. Things change dramatically with the unheralded arrival of Cousin Dmitri from Moscow, who charms the women and little Nadia with his games and pianistic bravura. But Kotov isn't fooled: this is the time of Stalin's repression, with telephone calls in the middle of the night spelling doom - and he knows that Dmitri isn't paying a social call...

Week 21

Thursday 21/5

Hotaru no haka (1988)

Setsuko and Seita are brother and sister living in wartime Japan. After their mother is killed in an air raid they find a temporary home with relatives. Having quarreled with their aunt they leave the city and make their home in an abandoned shelter. While their father's destiny who was a soldier is unknown the two they must depend on each other to somehow keep a roof over their heads and food in their stomachs. When everything is in short supply, they gradually succumb to hunger and their only entertainment is the light of the fireflies.


Sunday 24/5

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (2008)

Young Bruno lives a wealthy lifestyle in Pre-war Germany along with his mother, elder sister, and army Commandant father. The family re-locate to the countryside where his father is assigned to commandeer a prison camp. A few days later, Bruno befriends another youth, strangely dressed in striped pyjamas, named Shmuel who lives behind an electrified fence. Bruno will soon find out that he is not permitted to befriend his new friend as he is a Jew, and that the neighboring yard is actually a prison camp for Jews awaiting extermination.

Week 20

Thursday 14/5

Changeling (2008)

Los Angeles, 1928. A single mother returns from work to find her nine-year-old son gone. She calls the LAPD to initiate a search. Five months later, a boy is found in Illinois who fits the description; he says he's her son. To fanfare and photos, the LAPD reunite mother and son, but she insists he's not her boy. The cops dismiss her as either a liar or hysterical. When she joins a minister in his public criticism of the police, they in turn use government power to silence and intimidate her. Meanwhile, a cop goes to a dilapidated ranch to find a Canadian lad who's without legal status; the youth tells a grisly tale. There's redress for murder; is there redress for abuse of power?


Sunday 17/5

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988)

The fantastic tale of a 17th century aristocrat, his talented henchmen and a little girl in their efforts to save a town from defeat by the Turks. Being swallowed by a giant sea-monster, a trip to the moon, a dance with Venus and an escape from the Grim Reaper are only some of the improbable adventures.

Week 19

Thursday 7/5


Frozen River (2008)

After her husband takes off in their family vehicle for an unknown destination, Ray Eddy attempts to survive alone, raising two sons, Richard and James, and works part-time at Wolfmart, near Saint Lawrence River near Quebec and New York State. One day she witnesses a Mohawk woman driving their family vehicle, she follows and confronts her, finds out that the woman's name is Lila Littlewolf, and is actively engaged in smuggling illegal immigrants into the United States via a treacherous frozen river. The lure of money attracts Eddy and she decides to join forces with her new associate.


Sunday 10/5

Waltz With Bashir (2008)


One night at a bar, an old friend tells director Ari Folman about a recurring nightmare in which he is chased by 26 vicious dogs. Every night, the same number of beasts. The two men conclude that there’s a connection to their Israeli Army mission in the first Lebanon War of the early eighties. Ari is surprised that he can’t remember a thing anymore about that period of his life. Intrigued by this riddle, he decides to meet and interview old friends and comrades around the world. He needs to discover the truth about that time and about himself. As Ari delves deeper and deeper into the mystery, his memory begins to creep up in surreal images

Week 18

Week 18

Thursday 30/4

Waltz With Bashir (2008)


One night at a bar, an old friend tells director Ari Folman about a recurring nightmare in which he is chased by 26 vicious dogs. Every night, the same number of beasts. The two men conclude that there’s a connection to their Israeli Army mission in the first Lebanon War of the early eighties. Ari is surprised that he can’t remember a thing anymore about that period of his life. Intrigued by this riddle, he decides to meet and interview old friends and comrades around the world. He needs to discover the truth about that time and about himself. As Ari delves deeper and deeper into the mystery, his memory begins to creep up in surreal images


Sunday 3/5

Man on Wire (2008)

On August 7th 1974, a young Frenchman named Philippe Petit stepped out on a wire illegally rigged between New York's twin towers, then the worlds tallest buildings. After nearly an hour dancing on the wire, he was arrested, taken for psychological evaluation, and brought to jail before he was finally released. Following six and a half years of dreaming of the towers, Petit spent eight months in New York City planning the execution of the coup. Aided by a team of friends and accomplices, Petit was faced with numerous extraordinary challenges: he had to find a way to bypass the WTCs security; smuggle the heavy steel cable and rigging equipment into the towers; pass the wire between the two rooftops; anchor the wire and tension it to withstand the winds and the swaying of the buildings. The rigging was done by night in complete secrecy. At 7:15 AM, Philippe took his first step on the high wire 1,350 feet above the sidewalks of Manhattan James Marshs documentary brings Petits extraordinary adventure to life through the testimony of Philippe himself, and some of the co-conspirators who helped him create the unique and magnificent spectacle that became known as the artistic crime of the century.

Week 17

Week 17


Thursday 23/4

California Dreamin' (Nesfarsit) (2007)

Winner of the prestigious Cannes award Un Certain Regard in 2007, Cristian Nemescus comedy is based on a true story: a NATO train transporting military equipment is stopped in the middle of nowhere by an overzealous chief of a Romanian train station. Set against the backdrop of the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, the film explores with humor and gritty realism the impact that the arrival of the American soldiers led by Captain Jones has on the small village community. A cinematic tour de force not to be missed!


Sunday 26/4

Times and Winds (2006)

Here is an utterly involving movie about childhood, by turns mesmeric and shocking; it is as addictive as a soap opera, and mysterious as a dream.

Bes Vakit, or Times and Winds, is the fourth feature from the 48-year-old writer-director Reha Erdem, who has emerged alongside film-makers Nuri Bilge Ceylan and Fatih Akin as a Turkish director for whom film-making is an authentic art form - and his movie recalls the work of Angelopoulos or Kiarostami. This does not, incidentally, prevent it from being completely gripping.

It is set in a mountainous, austerely beautiful region of north-eastern Turkey. Three children in their early teens have much to endure, not merely the harshness of their families' day-to-day lives, gouging a living from the unrewarding soil, but a new, yet harsher reality. As membership of the adult world becomes imminent, an awful truth dawns for them all about their status. They are learning what it means to be second best, what it means to be a woman in a man's world, or to be the son who is not his father's favourite. Nascent sexual longing and the pain of a breakable heart are made a thousand times worse as the facts about their own parents' sexual lives come into focus, leading to confusion and mortification.

whole review

Week 16

Week 16

Thursday 16/4

Happiness (1998)

When a young woman rejects her current overweight suitor in a restaurant, he unexpectedly places a curse on her. The film then moves on to her sisters. One is a happily married woman with a psychiatrist husband and three kids. Unfortunately the husband develops an unnatural fascination for his 11 year old son's male classmates, fantasizes about mass killing in a park, and masturbates to teen magazines. One of his patients has an unrequited fascination for the third sister. Meanwhile the apparently stable 40 year marriage of the sister's parents suddenly unravels when he decides he has had enough and wants to live a hermit's life in Florida. Obviously, the whole movie is slightly warped in its viewpoint and certainly presents abnormal relationships among all of its parties.


Sunday 19/4

Nothing Is Private (2007)

Against the backdrop of the first Gulf War, Jasira Maroun is 13, physically well developed but naïve and unable to say no. As puberty arrives, her mother sends her from Syracuse to Houston to her curt, up-tight, Lebanese-born father. Over the next few months, Jasira must navigate her father's strict indifference, her discovery of sexual pleasure, the casual racism of a neighbor boy and her classmates, the sexual advances of the boy's father, the proffered friendship of a pregnant neighbor, and her attraction to Thomas, an African-American classmate whom her father forbids her to see. Things happen to her, but can she take responsibility and control, or is tragedy inevitable?

Week 15

Thursday 9/4 - A Swedish Love story/En kärlekshistoria (1970), 115 min.


Roy Andersson's feature film debut is a sunny, optimistic work that has drawn comparison to early films by Ingmar Bergman. Two adolescents meet and fall in love during the peak of an idyllic Swedish summer. Oblivious to social boundaries, they innocently create their own milieu, expecting little from the adults around them.




Sunday 12/4 - Involuntary/De ofrivilliga (2008), 98 min.


It's almost summer in Sweden and minor indiscretions and misbehavior abound. Leffe likes to show off for his friends and play salacious pranks, especially when he's drinking. Meanwhile, a righteous grade-school teacher doesn't know where to draw the line: she insists her fellow educators need a bit of instruction. Then there are two young teenage girls who like to pose for sexy photos and to party, but one night in a park, one of them is found passed out drunk by a complete stranger.

Week 14

Thursday - Milk
Sunday - Mystic River

Week 13

Week 13

Thursday 26/3

Let the right one in (2008)

A fragile, anxious boy, 12-year-old Oskar is regularly bullied by his stronger classmates but never strikes back. The lonely boy´s wish for a friend seems to comes true when he meets Eli, also 12, who moves in next door to him with her father. A pale, serious young girl, she only comes out at night and doesn´t seem affected by the freezing temperatures. Coinciding with Eli´s arrival is a series of inexplicable disappearances and murders... One man is found tied to a tree, another frozen in the lake, a woman bitten in the neck. Blood seems to be the common denominator - and for an introverted boy like Oskar, who is fascinated by gruesome stories, it doesn´t take long before he figures out that Eli is a vampire. But by now a subtle romance has blossomed between Oskar and Eli, and she gives him the strength to fight back against his aggressors. Oskar becomes increasingly aware of the tragic, inhuman dimension of Eli´s plight, but cannot bring himself to forsake her. Frozen forever in a twelve-year-old´s body, with all the burgeoning feelings and confused emotions of a young adolescent, Eli knows that she can only continue to live if she keeps on moving. But when Oskar faces his darkest hour, Eli returns to defend him the only way she can...



Sunday 29/3

Eden Lake (2008)

Nursery teacher Jenny and her boyfriend Steve, escape for a romantic weekend away. Steve, planning to propose, has found an idyllic setting: a remote lake enclosed by woodlands and seemingly deserted. The couple's peace is shattered when a gang of obnoxious kids encircles their campsite. Reveling in provoking the adults, the gang steals the couple's belongings and vandalizes their car leaving them completely stranded. When Steve confronts them, tempers flare and he suffers a shocking and violent attack. Fleeing for help, Jenny is subject to a brutal and relentless game of cat-and-mouse as she desperately tries to evade her young pursuers and find her way out of the woods.

Week 12

Week 12

Thursday 19/3

Son of Rambow (2007)

As the summer sun shines down on England in the early 1980s, two boys who couldn't be more different are brought together by a mutual love of cinema and a desire to emulate their favorite action movie icon. Will Proudfoot (Bill Milner) is a well-mannered schoolboy being raised in an ultra-religious community that deplores such corruptive distractions as television and seeks to maintain its purity by severely limiting contact with the outside world. In order to exorcise his creative inner demons, Will has taken to sketching imaginative drawings and complex illustrations. Lee Carter (Will Poulter) is the school terror, a rampaging hellion whose overaggressive behavior has made him an endless source of frustration to the faculty, and a source of fear to his fellow classmates. As fate would have it, Will is in the school hallway avoiding exposure to the classroom television when a fed-up teacher ejects Lee from the classroom. Though at first it appears as if Lee is about to torment timid Will just as he does the rest of the student body, the two form a tight bond after Will convinces Lee to view a bootleg copy of Rambo: First Blood. When Lee informs Will that he wants to shoot a homebrewed version of the violent action film for an upcoming amateur filmmaking contest, a sudden streak of rebellion prompts his sheltered classmate to readily agree. As the summer wears on the two boys set out to create the ultimate no-budget action movie, but their grand vision hits an unexpected hitch when a busload of French exchange students arrive at the school and the leader of the pack attempts to hijack the production.


sunday 22/3

Encounters at the End of the World (2007)

Werner Herzog takes his camera to Antarctica where we meet the odd men and women who have dedicated their lives to furthering the cause of science in treacherous conditions. A scientist studies neutrinos, which are everywhere, yet elusive; he likens them to spirits. A researcher's nighttime performance art includes contorting her body into a luggage bag. A survival guide teaches his students to survive white-out conditions by wearing cartoon-face buckets over their heads. Animal researchers milk mother seals as part of their study. Volcanologists offer advice on what to do when a volcano erupts. A pipefitter shows us the anomaly in his hands that he says are a sign he descended from Atzec royalty. A former Colorado banker drives what he has christened Ivan the Terra Bus. An underwater diver shows his colleagues DVDs of apocalyptic sci-fi films like Them! (1954). And -- though Herzog declares he's not "making another film about penguins" -- we meet a penguin researcher who answers the filmmaker's questions about homosexuality and insanity in his subjects. We also meet an individualist penguin, who breaks away from the other birds to run toward the mountains, facing certain death.

Week 11

Thursday 12/3

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (2008)

In 1939 London, Miss Guinevere Pettigrew (played by Ms. McDormand) is a middle-aged governess who finds herself once again unfairly dismissed from her job. Without so much as severance pay, Miss Pettigrew realizes that she must for the first time in two decades seize the day. This she does, by intercepting an employment assignment outside of her comfort level as social secretary. Arriving at a penthouse apartment for the interview, Miss Pettigrew is catapulted into the glamorous world and dizzying social whirl of an American actress and singer, Delysia Lafosse (Ms. Adams). Within minutes, Miss Pettigrew finds herself swept into a heady high-society milieu and, within hours, living it up. Taking the social secretary designation to heart, she tries to help her new friend Delysia navigate a love life and career, both of which are complicated by the three men in Delysias orbit; devoted pianist Michael (Mr. Pace), intimidating nightclub owner Nick (Mr. Strong), and impressionable junior impresario Phil (Mr. Payne). Miss Pettigrew herself is blushingly drawn to

Sunday 15/3

Gomorra (2008)

Matteo Garrone's Gomorrah is a dense, sprawling exposé of the corruption plaguing the communities of Naples and Caserta in modern-day Italy. The all-powerful Camorra syndicate influences the lives of even the most innocent citizens. In a manner similar to The Wire, Garrone tells his story from many different angles, resulting in a complicated narrative that often feels novelistic. In many cases, the revolving stories never overlap or intersect. While that may be jarring to those viewers who are used to having their strings tied neatly for them by a film's conclusion, Garrone's decision results in an experience that feels much more honest and true. We witness the syndicate's impact from the top down and from the inside out, following a cavalcade of characters who are all trying in their own ways to escape the deadly world in which they live. Based on the book by Roberto Saviano, Garrone's crime epic is a powerful indictment of the corruption that is running rampant in Italy. His decision to present such a wide spectrum of characters enables him to show just how deeply everyone is impacted by this terrifying, unchecked display of criminal power. Cinematically, he employs a dizzying array of styles in order to further establish the frighteningly ungoverned atmosphere that pervades this community. Gomorrah succeeds as both visceral entertainment and thoughtful social commentary.

Week 10

Thursday 5/3

Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008)

Two young Americans spend a summer in Spain and meet a flamboyant artist (Javier Bardem) and his beautiful but insane ex-wife (Penelope Cruz). Vicky (Rebecca Hall) is straight-laced and about to be married. Cristina (Scarlett Johansson) is a sexually adventurous free spirit. When they all become amorously entangled, the results are both hilarious and harrowing.


Sunday 8/3

It's a Free World... (2007)

Angie may not have much formal education, but she's got energy, wit and ambition, and she's in her prime. She's been messed about in the past and she's fed up. She has a point to prove. This is her moment. Angie sets up a recruitment agency with her flat-mate Rose, working in a twilight zone between gangmasters, employment agencies and the migrant workers they place. This is a tale set against the reality of the Anglo Saxon miracle of flexible labour, globalisation, double shifts and lots of happy, happy, happy consumers: Us.

Week 9

Thursday 26/2

Expired (2007)

Man or woman, the sight of a dark-suited municipal employee dolling out parking violations stirs a primal hate in all but the most enlightened souls. And the heroine of EXPIRED, the meter maid Claire, knows it. The film revolves around Claire, a kind soul who resents having to enforce the law at all times, and Jay, an angry Traffic Officer who loves his job, being the perfect outlet for his anger and frustrations. Coming both from a place of despair and loneliness, Jay and Claire meet and engage in a tumultuous relationship which will eventually teach them that love can spread his magic seeds of redemption and hope, even in the darkest and most perverted of all affairs. And don't forget to put money in the meter!!!


Sunday 1/3

The Other Boleyn Girl (2008)

Adapted from author Philippa Gregory's historical novel of the same name, director Justin Chadwick's atmospheric period drama follows the fierce competition between sisters Mary (Scarlett Johansson) and Anne Boleyn (Natalie Portman) to win the affections of Tudor king Henry VIII (Eric Bana). Anne and Mary Boleyn are under pressure from their father and uncle to help maintain the family's rich legacy and ensure their further prosperity by winning the affections of none other than the king of England (Eric Bana). But life in the royal court is far different than it was in the countryside where these two sisters were raised, and before long their bid to earn the love of the king has transformed two once-happy sisters into bitter rivals. At first, it appears that Mary has triumphed in winning the king's favor by becoming his mistress and bearing him an illegitimate child. Despite her early success, however, Mary has underestimated just how clever and cunning her sibling can truly be. Not only does the relentless Anne manage to edge aside her sister in the eyes of King Henry, but she also succeeds in averting his gaze from his wife, Queen Catherine of Aragon, as well. Mary is driven by genuine affection for King Henry, while her sister Anne has only kept up the charade in a desperate bid to become the queen of England. Now, the growing chasm between two sisters is mirrored on a larger scale as England becomes divided more than ever before. As the consequences of their actions threaten to alter the course of an entire nation, these two sisters will ultimately discover that the only place they will find true strength and loyalty is in family, and that no matter what the consequences they will forever be bound by blood

Week 8

Thursday 19/2

At five in the afternoon (2003)


"At five in the afternoon comes death," claims a haunting snatch of poetry in this equally haunting picture from Iranian director Samira Makhmalbaf. One of the first feature films to emerge from post-Taliban Afghanistan (making it a worthy companion piece to Siddiq Barmak's excellent Osama), this follows Noqreh (Agheleh Rezaie) as she struggles to redefine her role as a woman despite the protestations of her cranky, conservative father (Abdolgani Yousefrazi). Yet with death and misery everywhere, freedom seems an unlikely luxury

Sunday 22/2

Blind Shaft (2003)

Two Chinese coal miners have hit upon the perfect scam: murder one of their fellow mine workers, make the death look like an accident, and extort money from the boss to keep the incident hushed up. For their latest "mark," they choose a naive teenager from a small village, and as they prepare to carry out their newest plan, things start to get complicated

Week 7


Thursday 12/2

Mamma Mia! (2008)


Set on a colorful Greek island, the plot serves as a background for a wealth of ABBA songs. A young woman about to be married discovers that any one of three men could be her father. She invites all three to the wedding without telling her mother, Donna, who was once the lead singer of Donna and the Dynamos. In the meantime, Donna has invited her backup singers, Rosie and Tanya.



Sunday 15/2

Brideshead Revisted (2008)

Do not worry Vicky Chirstina will come!

The memoirs of Captain Charles Ryder who is stationed at Brideshead Castle during WWII and remembers his involvement with the owners of the Brideshead estate: the aristocratic yet Catholic Flyte family and in particular brother and sister Sebastian and Julia.

Week 6

Thursday 5/2

Righteous Kill (2008)

Two veteran New York City detectives work to identify the possible connection between a recent murder and a case they believe they solved years ago; is there a serial killer on the loose, and did they perhaps put the wrong person behind bars?

Sunday 8/2

In Bruges (2008)

The Irish hit-men Ken and Ray are sent by the Londoner mobster Harry Waters to the medieval Belgium city of Bruges in Christmas after an awry job in London. Ray, in his first assignment, was sent to murder a priest in a church, and he accidentally shot a boy in the head. While Ken enjoys the historic city, Ray, who is in inner conflict due to the death of the boy, feels completely bored and misses his home. Ray meets the small time drug-dealer and crook Chloë, who sells drug to the cast and crew of a movie that is filmed in Bruges, and has an incident with a Canadian tourist and later with Chloë's boyfriend. Meanwhile Harry, who has an stringent code of principles, orders Ken to kill his protégée Ray.

Week 5

Wednesday 28/1

Visit the Filmgroup at the Novisch Fair and buy a membership card for the spring semester!

Thursday 29/1

Wall·E(2008)

In a distant, but not so unrealistic future, where mankind has abandoned earth because it has become covered with trash from products sold by the powerful multi-national Buy N Large corporation, WALL-E, a garbage collecting robot has been left to clean up the mess. Mesmerized with trinkets of earth's history and show tunes, WALL-E is alone on Earth except for a sprightly pet cockroach. One day, Eve, a sleek (and dangerous) reconnaissance robot, is sent to earth to find proof that life is once again sustainable. WALL-E falls in love with Eve. WALL-E rescues Eve from a dust storm and shows her a living plant he found amongst the rubble. Consistent with her "directive" Eve takes the plant and automatically enters a deactivated state except for a blinking green beacon. WALL-E, doesn't understand what has happened to his new friend, but true to his love, he protects her from wind, rain, and lightening, even as she is unresponsive. One day a massive ship comes to reclaim Eve, but WALL-E, out of love or loneliness hitches a ride on the outside of the ship to rescue Eve. The ship arrives back at a large space cruise ship, which is carrying all of the humans who evacuated earth 700 years earlier. The people of earth ride around this space resort on hovering chairs which give them a constant feed of TV and video chatting. They drink all of their meals through a straw out of laziness and/or bone loss, and are all so fat that they can barely move. When the auto-pilot computer, acting on hastily given instructions sent many centuries before, tries to prevent the people of earth from returning, by stealing the plant, WALL-E, Eve, the portly captain, and a band of broken robots stage a mutiny.

Sunday 1/2

Wanted(2008)


A young man finds out his long lost father is an assassin. When his father is murdered, the son is recruited into his father's old organization and trained by a man named Sloan to follow in his dad's footsteps.

The anxious, clumsy and abused office clerk Wesley Allan Gibson has a hell and boring routine life: his obese boss humiliates him all the time and his girlfriend betrays him with his colleague and best friend during working period. When he meets the sexy Fox, Wesley is informed that his father was a professional killer that belonged to an ancient organization called Fraternity and killed by the skilled and powerful Cross, a hit-man that has betrayed the Fraternity. Wesley learns that his anxiety actually is a manifestation of his latent abilities and he joins the society under the command of Sloan. Trained by Fox, he changes his personality and attitude, being prepared to face the dangerous Cross and find a hidden secret.

Week 4

Thursday 22/1
Foreign Land(1996)

Paco, a young Brazilian looking for a way to get to Spain, is offered a job as a courier to Lisbon by Igor, a black market dealer who assures him that when he gets to Lisbon he'll be given enough money to get there by his contact, Miguel. Meanwhile, Miguel's girlfriend, Alex, begins searching for a way back to her native Brazil, to no avail. Unfortunately, when Paco gets to Lisbon, Miguel is dead, the package he was supposed to deliver is stolen, and he finds himself on the run from his employers. Looking for anything to help him figure out what has happened, he runs into Alex, and both of them decide to try to get back to Brazil before they are caught by Igor and his gang.


Sunday 25/1

The Fox and the Child(2007)

A young girl of about 10 years lives in a solitary peasant's house on the edge of the jurassic mountains in the East of France. One day in autumn, when she is on her way to school through the forest, she observes a hunting fox. Of course, the fox flees from her, but the girl feels a strong desire to meet the fox again.

During the following months, she spends most of her free time in the forests, exploring the nature, observing many different animals, but above all searching for the fox. Yet, she never sees the fox again before winter comes. During the winter, already knowing how to distinguish the tracks various animals leave in the snow, she follows fox's traces far across the fields, through woods and thickets. Still, she does not find the fox, but instead, she is terrified by the howling of wolves close by. In panic, she tries to run home, but seriously hurts her ankle during her flight.

The film does not explain how she manages to get back home at all; maybe, she
manages to walk despite her injury, maybe her parents miss her, search for her and carry her back. In any case, the healing of her injured leg takes all the rest of the winter. She cannot leave the house any more, but spends lots of time reading books about the wild animals of the woods, above all about foxes.

Week 3

Thursday 15/1

In Memory of Me(2007)


Andrea is an intelligent, handsome young man who seems to have everything necessary to succeed. But the worlds infinite possibilities have only confused him. In this disoriented state, he undertakes the novitiate, a period of spiritual training leading to priesthood. Within the large religious community of novices, Father Superiors and retired priests, Andrea discovers more than a simple world of semi-silence and prayer. The monastery becomes a mysterious universe where every look, every sound, reveals intrigue as the novices are encouraged to denounce one anothers shortcomings. Daily routines, rituals and readings are marked by constant surveillance and questioning, as the novices struggle to lose themselves on behalf of God.

Andreas attention turns to the nervous Fausto, obviously tormented and not a strong public speaker. Andrea is also shaken by his encounters with zealous novice Zanna, who rebelliously accuses the novitiate and the Church itself of using Gods Word to gain power and influence. In comparison, Andrea begins to profoundly feel he is merely feigning faith.

Despite strong support from the Father Superior, Andrea flounders on his mystical test of absolute faith. As his frustration for solid answers grows, he risks to abandon the Order like others before him

Sunday 18/1

My Brother is an Only Child(2007)


Two brothers come of age in the 1960s in a town south of Rome. Manrico is handsome, sometimes feckless, a leftist making the revolution. His younger brother Accio ("Bully") is a seminarian when the story beings, soon home studying Latin and joining the Fascists. Francesca, an aristocratic student, becomes Manrico's lover and Accio's friend. Over the next ten years, these three experience family, love, attraction, politics, and the challenges of adult responsibility. Subplots include Nastri, a father figure and political guide to Accio, Nastri's wife Bella who guides Accio in other ways, and the brothers' parents and sister, who are dazzled by Manrico's charm while depending on Accio.

Week 2

FIRST FILMGROUPSCREENINGS FOR THIS YEAR!

Thursday 8/1

The Visitor (2007)

In a world of six billion people, it only takes one to change your life. In actor and filmmaker Tom McCarthy’s follow-up to his award winning directorial debut The Station Agent.
Sixty-two-year-old Walter Vale is sleepwalking through his life. Having lost his passion for teaching and writing, he fills the void by unsuccessfully trying to learn to play classical piano. When his college sends him to Manhattan to attend a conference, Walter is surprised to find a young couple has taken up residence in his apartment. Victims of a real estate scam, Tarek, a Syrian man, and Zainab, his Senegalese girlfriend, have nowhere else to go. In the first of a series of tests of the heart, Walter reluctantly allows the couple to stay with him.

Touched by his kindness, Tarek, a talented musician, insists on teaching the aging academic to play the African drum. The instrument’s exuberant rhythms revitalize Walter’s faltering spirit and open his eyes to a vibrant world of local jazz clubs and Central Park drum circles. As the friendship between the two men deepens, the differences in culture, age and temperament fall away.

Sunday 11/1

The Band's Visit (2007)

THE BAND'S VISIT, is a subtle, heartfelt, and humane work that goes a long way toward dissolving the incredibly complex cultural divide that continues to plague the Middle East. When the Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra flies from Egypt to Israel to perform at the opening of an Arab culture center, they are left stranded at the airport. Their leader, Tewfiq, orders the handsome violinist, Khaled, to solve their predicament, but it turns out that he's gotten the wrong information. By that time, it's too late. All eight members are left standing alone in a quiet desert town far from their intended destination with no way to get where they need to go. Tired, hungry, and confused, they find shelter at a restaurant run by the pretty but brash Dina.