New Horizons 2011
Films watched on the 11 IFF New Horizons, Wroclaw, Poland
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- DirectorAsghar FarhadiStarsPayman MaadiLeila HatamiSareh BayatA married couple are faced with a difficult decision - to improve the life of their child by moving to another country or to stay in Iran and look after a deteriorating parent who has Alzheimer's disease.9/10
- DirectorChui Mui TanStarsNamronAzman HassanMislina MustaffaAzam comes back to his village, and looks for his childhood friend Ali. Ali and his wife Minah invites Azam for fishing and a mid night picnic on a small island. Towards the end of the night, they have a game of holding breath underwater for 3 minutes, and Azam is never seen again...7/10
- DirectorNuri Bilge CeylanStarsMuhammet UzunerYilmaz ErdoganTaner BirselA group of men set out in search of a dead body in the Anatolian steppes.8/10
- DirectorUrszula AntoniakStarsBien de MoorLars EidingerAnnemarie PrinsMarian, a middle aged nurse, devotes herself to her patients like a saint. Sometimes she even takes on the role of a redeemer, by helping the gravely ill to the soothing order of ultimate silence. When she gets linked to a neighbor in an act of common voyeurism, she becomes fascinated by him. Faced with the fragility of these newfound emotions, Marian surrenders to her human needs...7/10
- DirectorNoboru TanakaStarsJunko MiyashitaRenji IshibashiHiroshi ChôThe landlord of a boarding house in 1923 Tokyo, is keen on spying on the bizarre close encounters taking place beneath his roof. One day he sees a prostitute killing a customer, and decides he's found his soulmate.7/10
- DirectorJohn AkomfrahPart documentary, part personal essay, this experimental film combines archive imagery with the striking wintry landscapes of Alaska to tell the story of immigrant experience coming into the UK from 1960 onwards.5/10
- DirectorYûji TajiriStarsAtsumi KubotaYumika HayashiMikio SatôPassion fuelled examination of the 'older woman' scenario. When 28-year-old Tomomi is dumped by her boyfriend she seeks solace in the arms of 20-year-old student, Takao. A relationship develops through which Takao comes of age sexually and Tomomi discovers a side to love she has previously not known. As time passes it becomes apparent that the relationship is doomed and lust has been mistaken for love. An emotion filled yet often understated drama punctuated by frequent scenes of unbridled passion, plenty of naked flesh and the odd kinky encounter, this is Pink Cinema at its most genuine and subtle best.6/10
- DirectorJonathan CaouetteStarsJonathan CaouetteRenee LeblancAdolph DavisA documentary on Jonathan Caouette's cross-country road trip with his mentally ill mother.8/10
- DirectorJon FoyStarsJustin DuerrMarc DuerrKevin RileyAn urban mystery unfurls as one man pieces together the surreal meaning of hundreds of cryptic tiled messages that have been appearing in city streets across the U.S. and South America.7/10
- DirectorWim WendersStarsPina BauschRegina AdventoMalou AiraudoA tribute to the late German choreographer Pina Bausch, as her dancers perform her most famous creations.7/10
- DirectorGustav MachatýStarsKarel SchleichertIta RinaOlaf FjordA young woman is seduced and abandoned by a man who was invited to stay at his home by her father in a stormy night. Noticing that she is pregnant, the girl decides to leave home and start a new life.7/10
- DirectorMatthew BateStarsEddie Lee SausageMitch DepreyDaniel ClowesWhen two friends tape-recorded the fights of their violently noisy neighbors, they accidentally created one of the world's first 'viral' pop-culture sensations.8/10
- DirectorEdgar HonetschlägerStarsWilliam FerreiraYûki HiyoriTenji KamogawaWhen looking for alternative energy sources, the Japanese scientist Sekai tragically dies. Twenty years later the Brazilian mathematician Euclides continues his research. The lack of an essential component won't allow a breakthrough. Only AUN, Sekai's son, seems to hold the key to protect mankind from self-destruction. In the aftermath of the nuclear tragedy in Fukushima the film appears like a prophecy. AUN's dream-like images, complemented by music from Christian Fennesz and Ryuichi Sakamoto, lead into a fantastic and exciting world, full of brightness and darkness of life.5/10
- DirectorKim Ki-dukStarsKim Ki-dukDocumentary on director Kim Ki-Duk looking back at his film career.7/10
- DirectorThunska Pansittivorakul"The Terrorists". A black cloak of forgetting, suppressing and covering has descended on the events that took place in Bangkok in spring 2010.2/10
- DirectorKan MukaiStarsMiki HashimotoKeisuke KawatôReo MizumoriA father's debt to a loan shark leads his wife and daughter to take desperate measures.6/10
- DirectorKwang-Ju SonStarsSu-hyeon KimHwan LeeAnastasia KimA once-emerging writer, Soo-Yeon is now making a living by working as an assistant scriptwriter for a great box-office hit maker, Moh. Despite repeating cheesy stories full of stereotypical characters, Moh wants to constantly believe his film to have something new and to be based on the reality. That makes Moh as well as Soo-Yeon feel exhausted. Soo-Yeon carefully dreams to emancipate characters from story, but she realizes that her dream is only treated as a 'feminine' vanity in reality.8/10
- DirectorF.J. OssangStarsGuy McKnightElvireLionel TuaEmerging from a coma after a water ski accident in which his girlfriend Délie was killed, Stan van der Decken is informed that he is the heir of the mysterious Professor Starkov. He then embarks on a trip to the village of Las Estrellas.5/10
- DirectorSándor KardosStarsMari TörőcsikIstván Anga KaksziAlina PappA stranger comes to town in this adaptation Rainer Maria Rilke short story, and gets a job as a gravedigger - and the adoration of the local bigwig's daughter. She spends entire days with him in the cemetery garden, talking about death and dying. A plague befalls the town, sparing only a few, leaving them the task of pushing coffin-laden wagons to the cemetery. The film uses the same camera that records horse racing photo finishes; it does not provide the feeling of space like an ordinary film or photographic camera. Gravedigger lacks the illusion of movement typical of most films. Photographed images track from left to right across the screen. Deformed and fuzzy, as if shot by a trembling hand, the images look like blurred film frames, moving too slowly to create the impression of movement, sometimes forming surreal or abstract compositions. The director takes the audience to pre-Lumière cinema to experience motion picture construction (panoramas) and narration.8/10
- DirectorYulene OlaizolaStarsLuisa PardoSalomón HernándezJuan J. Reyes AcuasLuisa is 25 years old and fighting a heroin addiction. Having escaped the city she finds herself seeking repose in a fading beach resort that rests on the lush seaside hills of Veracruz, Mexico.8/10
- DirectorAki KaurismäkiStarsAndré WilmsBlondin MiguelJean-Pierre DarroussinWhen an African boy arrives by cargo ship in the port city of Le Havre, an aging shoe shiner takes pity on the child and welcomes him into his home.8/10
- DirectorLi NingWith groundbreaking honesty, performance artist Li Ning turns his life into art in this epic work of experimental documentary. For five grueling years, Li Ning documents his struggle to achieve success as an avant-garde artist while contending with the pressures of modern life in China. He is caught between two families: his wife, son and mother, whom he can barely support; and his enthusiastic but disorganized guerilla dance troupe. Li's chaotic life becomes inseparable from the act of taping it, as if his experiences can only make sense on screen. Tape shatters documentary conventions, utilizing a variety of approaches, including guerilla documentary, experimental street video, even CGI. Much like Jia Zhangke's Platform, Tape captures a decade's worth of artistic aspirations and failures, while breaking new ground in individual expression in China.7/10
- DirectorDaishi MatsunagaPyuupiru is a Japanese contemporary artist whose works are highly acclaimed in recent years. An old friend of his (hers), Daishi Matsunaga has filmed him for 8 years, ever since Pyuupiru frequented clubs wearing eccentric handmade costumes. Pyuupiru went through a gender identity disorder, broken heart and castration operation, and then he held a performance at Yokohama Triennale in 2005 as a compilation of his life experience. Pyuupiru was born as male, but he gradually realized that his body does not fit him. He tried to clear that feeling by wearing those eccentric costumes. In a short while, people started to take notice of it as pieces of art, and he started creative activity in the contemporary art world. This documentary film 'PYUUPIRU 2001-2008' follows the vicissitudes of his mind, body, and the art works that he gave birth to. Enormous amount of footage also reveals the relationships with his family, friends and his boyfriend who have always watched him with a warm look, although they had mixed feeling for the reality.7/10
- DirectorPatrick JolleyStarsMarcus LambAn experimental documentary about French poet and theatre director Antonin Artaud, who travelled to Ireland in 1937 with the aim of returning the supposed staff of St Patrick to its rightful owners.4/10
- DirectorJohn WatersStarsDivineDavid LocharyMary Vivian PearceNotorious Baltimore criminal and underground figure Divine goes up against a sleazy married couple who make a passionate attempt to humiliate her and seize her tabloid-given title as "The Filthiest Person Alive".6/10
- DirectorVlado SkafarStarsMiki RosSandi SalamonAfter a long separation, a father and his son spend the day fishing on the river bank. On a beautiful autumn Sunday, surrounded by the majestic countryside, they seem to be alone in the world. They must start all over again.7/10
- DirectorBéla TarrÁgnes HranitzkyStarsJános DerzsiErika BókMihály KormosA rural farmer is forced to confront the mortality of his faithful horse.10/10
- DirectorAthina Rachel TsangariStarsAriane LabedVangelis MourikisEvangelia RandouStuck in her boring factory town, twenty-three-year-old Marina is at the mercy of both her father's impending death and her distaste for other humans.6/10
- DirectorMitsuru MeikeStarsKyôko HayamiKikujirô HondaYukijirô HotaruSachiko Hanai is a call girl. One day she is caught up in a gunfight and is shot in the forehead. Instead of killing her, the bullet in her head gives her psychic powers. She also accidentally comes into possession of a cylinder containing George W. Bush's finger, whose fingerprint is designed to launch a nuclear missile, and international spies are soon chasing her.8/10
- DirectorKôji WakamatsuStarsKen YoshizawaYôko MutôRokkô TouraDuring clashes between demonstrators and police that rage on the streets of Tokyo, a young man hides in the house of his brother - a police officer. The latter is accidentally shot by his wife, which forces the young man to flee with her.6/10
- DirectorWang BingStarsYe LuRenjun LianCenzi XuIt recounts the harrowing story of life at one of Mao's camps, at the end of the fifties, where 'rightists' were sent to be 're-educated through labor'.5/10
- DirectorSheron R. DayocStarsJohn ArcillaArnalyn IsmaelMaria Isabel LopezThis film exposes the human trafficking operation and journey through the seas of Southern Philippines to neighboring Malaysia. Based on research and interviews, this dramatic narrative provides a kaleidoscope of characters hoping for a better life in Sabah, in spite of the dubiousness of the process, and uncertainty of a true job in Malaysia. It also represents a microcosm of the multi-cultural groupings of Mindanao whose diversity is bound by a common goal, an opportunity to earn a living, as they take that illegal small boat ride from their homeland to that foreign "Promised Land."7/10
- DirectorMamoru WatanabeStarsReiko ÔtsukiTomomi SaharaJun Yoshida6/10
- DirectorMasao AdachiHaruhiko AraiStarsAki SasakiHiroshi SaitôMakiko KimA young girl, already a jaded sexual veteran, embarks on an odyssey of self-discovery to find out the true reasons for her dissatisfaction and total desensitization.5/10
- DirectorYôjirô TakitaStarsKaoru KazeYûka TakemuraSerina MiyabiThe world's largest black pearl has vanished without a trace, and it's up to detective Ippei to track it down. His only clue is the mysterious words of a dying man, "Pussy Print!".8/10
- DirectorVipin VijayStarsSandeep ChattopadhyayA computer teacher, his black-magician grandfather and a female cyber-creature -- a series of pre-destined rendezvous, both on line and offline, over the shreds of mnemonic time and space, at the cleavages of various parlors of subculture -- finally the narrative images of the computer screen are drained off from the color and the texture, the images collapse down to a mere pulsating pixel, potentially to start another cycle of the story once again.3/10
- DirectorOldrich LipskýStarsKarel FialaRudolf DeylMilos KopeckýStraight shooting Lemonade Joe cleans up Stetson City, in this musical parody of early Westerns, after shooting the pants off villain Old Pistol. Joe's endorsement of Kolaloka lemonade as the refresher that assures deadly aim, convinces the Arizona sin-town to abstain from alcohol. But Trigger Whiskey maker Duke Badman's brother the devious gunslinger Hogofogo, comes to save his sibling's saloon from Joe's allies, father and daughter temperance revivalists, the Goodmans. Based on famous Czech parody novel from the 1940s and its various stage adaptations.8/10
- DirectorGiuseppe M. GaudinoIsabella SandriStarsEmanuele BuganzaFederico Tolardo3/10
- DirectorPedro AlmodóvarStarsAntonio BanderasElena AnayaJan CornetA brilliant plastic surgeon, haunted by past tragedies, creates a type of synthetic skin that withstands any kind of damage. His guinea pig: a mysterious and volatile woman who holds the key to his obsession.8/10