CAMINO

C A M I N O (Spanish)

The Story:
Inspired by the real-life story of a captivating eleven-year-old who is faced with two completely new situations in her life: falling in love and dying.

Eleven year old Camino (Nerea Camacho) is dying in the presence of her family and several priests, physicians and interns, who spill out into the corridor. As she takes her last breaths, the young girl demonstrates a spirited and unwavering devotion to Jesus, thus proving herself to be a bastion of hope and inspiration to those who bid her farewell.

Flashback to five months as we follow the life of thirteen-year-old Camino whose happy, God-coddled life in Madrid pans out between her religious school and a home dominated by her pious but also creepily authoritarian mother Gloria (Carme Elias). Camino falls in platonic love with a boy called Cuco (Lucas Manzano), at a school theatre group. But young love is thwarted when the back pains that have been troubling her turn out to have a serious origin - and she is forced to undergo a barrage of tests, operations and radiation therapy sessions that eventually leave her bedridden, immobilised and blind.

Gloria encourages her daughter to dedicate her suffering to Jesus, and gives her bedside flowers away to another, more needy patient; Camino’s older sister Nuria (Manuela Velles), meanwhile, is living as a novitiate in an Opus Dei house where the women are cordoned off from the men - and yet act as housemaids to them. Only Camino’s weak and spiritually confused father Jose (Mariano Venancio), gives her pure affection untainted by religious dogma.

Now, as this radiant young girl experiences the joys of first love and mystery of death simultaneously, a powerful light shines down from above, illuminating the darkness and revealing the true depths of her happiness for all to see.

Starring:
Nerea Camacho, Carme Elias, Mariano Venancio, Manuela Vellés, Lola Casamayor, Ana Gracia, Pepe Ocio, Jordi Dauder, Emilio Gavira, Lucas Manzano, Claudia Otero, Miriam Raya

Directed By:
Javier Fesser

Release:
2008

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THOR AT THE BUS STOP

THOR at the Bus Stop

The Story:
Thor (Jerry Thompson) the Norse God of Lightning arrives at a suburban neighbourhood and tells a little girl Lolly(Lauryn Shelley) that he has to kill a snake in order to save the world.

As he makes his final journey through a sleepy, suburban neighbourhood on the day he is going to die fighting to save the world—and nobody cares. Thor starts a crazy chain reaction of events involving the man impaled by a traffic sign who can find no help, the swindler who finds a nice car to steal, the swindlee who is way too chill to care, the pizza delivery guy who takes way more than 30 minutes and several more and themes about goodness and the power of cool.

Starring:
Andrew Jacobsen, Joe Berry, Barrett Applegate, Chris McInroy, Jason Neistadt, Dana Bomar
Paul Besterman, Lauryn Shelley, Joel Schoenbach

Directed By:
Jerry Thompson and Mike Thompson

Release:
2009

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EMBODIMENT OF EVIL

Encarnação do Demônio (Embodiment of Evil) (Brazil)

The Story:

After forty years in prison, the evil gravedigger Josefel Zanatas a.k.a. Zé do Caixão (José Mojica Marins) is released in accordance with Brazilian Laws. Garbed in a cape and top hat, and with grotesquely long fingernails, he hooks up with faithful hunchbacked assistant Bruno (Rui Rezende), who has prepared an underground lair in one of São Paulo's slum areas for his master to hide out in. As a bonus, Bruno has rounded up four new disciples who are ready to lay down their lives to prove their loyalty to Joe.

Colonel Claudiomiro Pontes (Jece Valadão), whom it turns out Joe blinded in one eye prior to his arrest, and his wife, Lucy Pontes (Cristina Aché), the attorney who was secretly responsible for getting Joe released from prison. As you can imagine, the Colonel is none too pleased when he learns of Lucy's betrayal and beats her until she reveals Joe's whereabouts.

Meanwhile, Joe continues his quest to find the superior woman to bear him a child so that his bloodline will become eternal. He's first visited by Hilda (Cleo de Paris), a doctor who is working on blood research and is more than willing to subject herself to Joe's depravity, if it means she can prove her theories.

After he's done with Doctor Hilda, Joe sets his sights on Elena (Nara Sakarê), the niece of two blind gypsy fortune tellers who try to keep her from him. After Joe kills the two aunts, Elena offers herself to him, although while having sex with her he has a vision where he finds himself in another dimension which is a bloody, intestine -like maze.

There he is met by a figure called the Mystifier (José Celso Martinez Corrêa), who takes him to an arid, surreal landscape called Purgatory.

Meanwhile, Coronel Claudiomiro Pontes and Father Eugênio (Milhem Cortaz), decide to join forces to seek Coffin Joe and kill him once and for all.

Starring:

Jose Mojica Marins, Jece Valadão, Adriano Stuart, Milhem Cortaz, Rui Resende, José Celso Martinez Corrêa, Cristina Aché, Helena Ignez, Debora Muniz, Thais Simi, Cleo De Paris, Nara Sakare, Giulio Lopes, Eduardo Chagas, Luís Melo, Raymond Castile.

Directed By:

José Mojica Marins

Release:

2008

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ZERO BRIDGE

zero bridge

The Story:
On the outskirts of Srinagar, Dilawar (Mohamad Imran Tapa) , 17, lives with his stern uncle Ali (Ali Mohammad Dar) and dreams of being reunited in Delhi with the mother who abandoned him. Deeply unhappy as his uncle's apprentice, Dilawar resorts to petty thievery.

One day Dilawar steals a purse from an attractive twenty-something woman named Bani (Taniya Khan) only to discover she works at a shipping company Ali does business with. Bani doesn't recognize Dilawar and the two strike up a friendship; he learns she's recently returned to India after receiving a degree in physics in the United States, and she wants to quit her job and return to America.

Finding a kindred spirit, Dilawar brings Bani into his homework-for-hire business, although she doesn't realize the math and physics problems she helps him solve aren't his own homework

Starring:
Mohamad Imran Tapa, Taniya Khan, Ali Mohammad Dar, Mohsin Maqbool Zargar, Burhan Qadfir, Hafeeza Langoo, Shaheena Langoo, Afrooza Langoo, Houmira Tapa, Owaise Qayoom Bhat, Khurshid Ahmad Tarabaji.

Directed By:
Tariq Tapa

Release:
2008

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OWL AND THE SPARROW

owl and the sparrow (cú và chim se sẻ) (Vietnamese)

The Story:
In modern-day Saigon, three lonely strangers form a unique family.

Thuy (Han Thi Pham) is an orphan from the countryside who decides to run away from her stern uncle at the bamboo factory and try her luck in the big city. That is, until she packs her bags to run away into the city. Now forced to survive on her own, she first sells postcards then flowers on the streets.

Lan (Cat Ly), the flight attendant, arrives at Ho Chi Minh airport on a five day layover, checking into the same family-run hotel every week. The hotel girls wonder why she's alone, but Lan only tells them that she's just hard to understand. She doesn't tell them that she's having a secret affair with the airline pilot.

Hai (The Lu Le) , a zookeeper living on the park grounds in a shack, is nursing a broken heart after his fiancé left him. He lives only for his animals now, until the zoo director tells him that his beloved elephant will soon be shipped off to an Indian zoo.

In four days, Thuy will play matchmaker to these lonely hearts in hopes of forming a surrogate family. The only thing that might stop her are city authorities who want her in an orphanage and an overbearing uncle (Nguyen Hau) tracking her down in the big city.

Starring:
Cat Ly, Le The Lu, Pham Thi Han, Nguyen Hau, Hoang Long

Directed By:
Stephane Gauger

Release:
2007

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ROUGH CUT

ROUGH CUT - Yeonghwanun Yeonghwada (영화는 영화다) (South Korea)

The Story:
Su-ta (Kang Ji-hwan) is an aggressive, arrogant star who naturally ends up playing violent gangster-like roles. His tendency to throw the occasional punch in real life too probably only bolsters his fame, but when he seriously injures another actor on the set of his new film, controversy erupts and the production is suspended. Strangely enough, none of the other available actors seem willing to.

Meanwhile, Gang-pae (So Ji-sub) is the real thing. Despite his young age, he has risen to the No. 2 position in an organized crime ring. Effortlessly effective as a fighter, he is often called upon to solve the gang's trickiest problems. In his free time, however, he often sneaks off alone to watch movies, and when he runs into Su-ta by chance in a room salon, he confesses to a lifelong wish to become an actor. fill the now-vacant role of his adversary.

The conversation between Su-ta and Gang-pae (their names are a playful pun on the words "star" and "gangster") is anything but cordial: Su-ta's machismo and Gang-pae's cool mix like oil and water.

But, desperate, Su-ta will eventually come back to Gang-pae and ask him to co-star in the film. Gang-pae agrees, but with one condition: instead of simulated blows, they will fight for real in front of the camera. Su-ta accepts the condition and they get ready for the real match.

Starring:
Ji-seob So, Ji-hwan Kang, Soo-hyun Hong, Yong-tae Song, Hie-jin Jang

Directed By:
Jang Hoon

Release:
2008

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JOHNNY MAD DOG

JOHNNY MAD DOG (France)

The Story:
Two teenagers are caught up in the melee as rival ethnic factions turn their Congolese city into a bloody battleground.

Johnny Mad Dog, (Christophe Minie) is a 15-year-old boy and a member of the Death Dealers militia as he patrols the city with his Uzi, looting, raping and killing, eager to prove himself a man.

Laokole (Daisy Victoria Vandy) is a 13-year-old teenage girl who dreams of one day becoming an engineer, flees home ahead of the marauding militias. She istrying to take her younger brother Fofo and crippled father (whom she pushes in a wheelbarrow) from their village to the relative safety of the city.

Their paths cross on several occasions, but their first meeting sparks an unexplained act of compassion from Johnny.

Starring:
Christopher Minie, Daisy Victoria Vandy, Dagbeh Tweh, Barry Chernoh, Mohammed Sesay

Directed By:
Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire

Release:
2008

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FRENCH FILM

FRENCH FILM

The Story:
Journalist Jed Winter (Hugh Bonneville) is preparing to interview the celebrated French auteur film-maker Thierry Grimandi (Eric Cantona), a self-appointed expert on the nature of love. Jed is quick to dismiss Grimandi's theories of love and romance as pretentious nonsense, irrelevant to real people in real life relationships.

But when his long-term girlfriend, Cheryl (Victoria Hamilton) refuses to marry him and instead forces him into couple counselling, Jed begins to realise that his own emotions aren't as straightforward as he once believed. Even his best friend Marcus (Douglas Henshall) wants to talk less about football and more about love as the truth about his relationship with perfect girlfriend Sophie (Anne-Marie Duff) gradually emerges.

Starring:
Anne-Marie Duff, Hugh Bonneville, Victoria Hamilton, Douglas Henshall,Eric Cantona

Directed By:
Jackie Oudney

Release:
2008

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SPINING INTO BUTTER

SPINING INTO BUTTER

The Story:
Sarah Daniels (Sarah Jessica Parker) taught in a Lancaster school and developed deep prejudice against minorities, especially blacks. When she finds out about a vacancy in Belmont College in Vermont, She decided to re-locate there.

She gets hired in Belmont College.Once there, she does not disclose her prejudice about blacks and settles down to teach her students.

But when Simon Brick (Paul James), an African-American and model student who begins receiving racist threats, including an anonymous note warning him to go back to Africa.

As the controversy rages and angry rhetoric escalates, worsening threats continue to be made against Simon. In a public-relations panic, the university president (James Rebhorn) and fellow deans (Miranda Richardson and Beau Bridges) who has already labeled her as a 'minority liaison person', asks Sarah to prepare a ten point list to resolve racism.

A rock is thrown through his window, and the college turns itself inside out to uncover the culprit. The local news media, led by an African-American anchor, Aaron Carmichael (Mykelti Williamson), become involved. And a forum, intended to air grievances and calm everyone down, opens a Pandora’s box of resentments.

Starring:

Sarah Jessica Parker, Mykelti Williamson, Beau Bridges, Miranda Richardson, James Rebhorn, Victor Rasuk, Richard Riehle

Directed By:

Mark Brokaw

Release:

2007

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SPARROW

Sparrow (Man Jeuk / 文雀) (Hong Kong)

The Story:

Professional “sparrow” Kei (Simon Yam) and the real thing, as a bird flies into his apartment while he’s readying for another day’s work lifting wallets on the streets. Over breakfast at their regular diner, Kei’s colleagues — Bo (Lam Ka-tung), Sak (Law Wing-cheong) and Mac (Kenneth Cheung), all take it as a bad omen, and they’re soon proved right.

Kei’s hobby is photographing people and places with his vintage Rolleiflex camera, and into his lens that day flits Chung Chun-lei (Kelly Lin), an elegant but distracted young Mainlander who seems perpetually on the run. Like a bird herself, she’s gone as soon as she appears.

She subsequently entrances the hard-gambling Bo at a casino where,she proves Bo’s match in the pickpocket stakes. Soon, the entire quartet is fascinated by the firefly femme, who seems to compulsively come on to them before vanishing again.

Finally, Chun-lei makes her big play for Kei, whom she knows is a professional pickpocket as she’s been studying him from an apartment opposite. Intrigued, Kei & Co. end up meeting her rich sugar-daddy, Mr. Fu (Lo Hoi-pang), with whom they have their own score to settle, and agree to an elaborate gamble that will free Chun-lei from Fu’s grasp.

Starring:
Simon Yam, Kelly Lin, Lam Ka-tung, Lo Hoi-pang, Law Wing-cheong, Kenneth Cheung.

Directed By:

Johnnie To

Release:

2008

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