Eye For Film >> Festivals >> London >> 2011 >> World Cinema
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Let The Bullets Fly and Dragonslayer
Acacias (Las Acacias)
(Country: Argentina, Spain; Year: 2011; Director: Pablo Giorgelli; Writer: Pablo Giorgelli, Salvador Roselli; Stars: Germán de Silva, Hebe Duarte, Nayra Calle Mamani)
A truck driver agrees to transport a woman and her baby, not anticipating the change it may bring to his quiet life.
Asshole (Gandu)
(Country: India; Year: 2010; Director: Qaushiq Mukherjee; Writer: Kaushik Mukherjee, Surojit Sen; Stars: Anurata Basu, Joyraj Bhattacharya, Rituparna Sen, Shilajit Majumder)
A young, Bengali, wannabe rapper slides into drugs and porn to escape reality and discover his dream.
Abu, Son of Adam
(Country: India; Year: 2011; Director: Salim Ahamed; Stars: Salim Kumar, Zarina Wahab, Nedumudi Venu, Kalabhavan Mani)
An aged Indian couple decide to sacrifice everything to make a once in a life-time Hajj (pilgrimage) to Mecca.
Alms of the Blind Horse
(Country: India; Year: 2011; Director: Gurvinder Singh; Stars: Samuel John, Mal Singh, Sarbjeet Kaur)
Director Gurvinder Singh, supported by the late and legendary Mani Kaul as Creative Producer, takes us into a little-seen image of modern rural Punjab.
AnDa Union: From the Steppes to the City
(Country: UK; Year: 2011; Director: Tim Pearce, Sophie Lascelles, Marc Tiley)
A rare glimpse into the forgotten land of Inner Mongolia and its unique sounds revitalised by the band AnDa Union, whose global concerts and eventual homecoming we follow.
Darwin and Better This World
Asmaa
(Year: 2011; Director: Amr Salama; Writer: Amr Salama; Stars: Hend Sabry, Maged El Kedwani, Hani Adel, Ahmed Kamal)
A powerful and inspiring real-life story about an Egyptian widow with HIV who battles to overcome society's prejudices and receive proper treatment.
Back To Stay (Abrir Puertas y Ventanas)
(Country: Argentina; Year: 2011; Director: Milagros Mumenthaler; Writer: Milagros Mumenthaler)
Subtle portrayal of the everyday lives of three sisters living in their grandmother’s house since her death.
Beauty (Skoonheid)
(Country: South Africa, France, Germany; Year: 2011; Director: Oliver Hermanus; Writer: Oliver Hermanus, Didier Costet; Stars: Deon Lotz, Charlie Keegan, Michelle Scott, Albert Maritz, Sue Diepeveen, Roeline Daneel, Drikus Volschenk, Morné Visser, Leon Kruger, Robin Smith, Jeroen Kranenburg, Tinarie Loots van Wyk, Jan Hendrik Opperman, Marion Holm, Shaun Rossouw), Trailer
Winner of the Queer Palm at Cannes 2011, a disturbing and provocative examination of one man's damaging self-hatred.
Better This World
(Country: US; Year: 2011; Director: Katie Galloway, Kelly Duane de la Vega; Writer: Katie Galloway, Kelly Duane de la Vega; Stars: Brad Crowder, David McKay, Brandon Darby), Official Site
A dramatic story of idealism, loyalty, and betrayal that reveals a great deal about the culture of protest and the paranoia of post-9/11 America.
Children Who Chase Lost Voices From Deep Below
(Country: Japan; Year: 2011; Director: Makoto Shinkai)
Makoto Shinkai's anime will appeal to Ghibli fans as young Asuna gains entry to the underground land of Agartha.
Mitsuko Delivers and Otelo Burning
Darwin
(Country: Switzerland, US; Year: 2011; Director: Nick Brandestini; Writer: Taylor Segrest; Stars: Monty Brannigan, Nancy Brannigan, Ryal Steele, Hank Jones, Connie Jones, Penny Hagan, Susan Pimentel, Shirley Steele, Myriam LeMarchand, Kathy Goss, Michael Laemmle, Dell Heter)
Evocative documentary about a ghost town in Death Valley, California, with a scant population of just 35.
The Day He Arrives
(Country: South Korea; Year: 2011; Director: Hong Sangsoo; Writer: Yu Junsang, Kim Sangjoong, Song Sunmi, Kim Bokyung)
Hong Sangsoo's latest bulletin from the sex-war is a typically wry and droll account of a man visiting Seoul to look up old friends and running into new ones. But is this his version of Groundhog Day?
Dendera
(Country: Japan; Year: 2011; Director: Daisuke Tengan; Writer: Daisuke Tengan; Stars: Ruriko Asaoka, Mitsuko Baisho, Yoko Yamamoto, Mitsuke Kusabe)
A sequel to The Ballad of Narayama by Imamura's son Daisuke Tengan: the old women sent up the mountain to die instead plan a revenge attack on the village below.
Dragonslayer
(Country: USA; Year: 2011; Director: Tristan Patterson; Stars: Josh 'Skreech' Sandoval), Official Site, Trailer
Documentary following a year in the life of skateboarder Josh ‘Skreech’ Sandoval.
The Dish And The Spoon
(Country: USA; Year: 2011; Director: Alison Bagnall; Writer: Alison Bagnall, Andrew Lewis; Stars: Greta Gerwig, Olly Alexander, Eleonore Hendricks, Amy Seimetz, Adam Rothenberg)
Alison Bagnall's witty and delightful feature depicts the disarmingly affecting adventures of a truly odd couple.
Acacias and On The Ice
Eternity
(Country: Thailand; Year: 2010; Director: Sivaroj Kongsakul; Writer: Sivaroj Kongsakul; Stars: Wanlop Rungkamjad, Namfon Udomlertlak, Prapas Amnuay)
Winner of a Tiger Award in Rotterdam, Sivaroj Kongsakul's superbly beautiful debut chronicles a rural courtship…and frames it in the context of the husband's early death.
The Forgiveness Of Blood
(Country: USA, Albania; Year: 2011; Director: Joshua Marston; Writer: Joshua Marston, Andamion Murataj; Stars: Tristan Halilaj, Refet Abazi, Zana Hasaj, Erjon Mani, Luan Jaha, Çun Lajçi, Veton Osmani, Zefir 'Bep' Bushati, Selman Lokaj, Kol Zefi, Sindi Lacej, Ilire Vinca Celaj, Esmeralda Gjonlulaj, Elsajed Tallalli, Ibrahim Ymeri)
An Albanian family are caught in a blood feud.
Flying Fish
(Country: Sri Lanka; Year: 2011; Director: Sanjeewa Pushpakumara; Writer: Sanjeewa Pushpakumara; Stars: Chaminda Sampath Jayaweera, Gayesha Perera, Rathnayaka Marasinghe)
Three stories from the Sri Lankan civil war (all with violent endings) are interwoven in Sanjeewa Pushpakumara's coolly modernist, non-partisan debut. Best Director prize, St Petersburg.
Goodbye
(Country: Iran; Year: 2011; Director: Mohammad Rasoulof; Writer: Mohammad Rasoulof; Stars: Leyla Zareh, Hassan Pourshirazi, Behname Tashakor, Sima Tirandaz, Roya Teymorian)
When your country starts treating you like you don't belong, then it's time to leave.
Hard Labour
(Country: Brazil; Year: 2011; Director: Juliana Rojas, Marco Dutra; Writer: Juliana Rojas, Marco Dutra; Stars: Helena Albergaria, Marat Descartes, Marina Flores, Naloana Lima, Gilda Nomacce)
Horror meets social observation in this understated debut feature from Brazilian filmmakers Juliana Rojas and Marco Dutra.
This Is Not A Film and Dendera
HERE
(Country: US; Year: 2011; Director: Braden King; Writer: Braden King, Dani Valent; Stars: Ben Foster, Lubna Azabal, Alla Sahakyan, Narek Nersisyan, Nick Wagner, Ruzanna Shar, Armen Hayrapetyan, Garik Chepchyan, Vahag Stepanyan, Yvette Ghazaryan, Kchachatryan Davit, Aivart Amikyan, Ara Hakobyan, Vahan Hoveyan, Karapet Aleksanyan), Official Site
On assignment to create a new, more accurate satellite survey of Armenia, an American cartographer forms a powerful bond with an Armenian expatriate and art photographer.
Karen Cries on The Bus
(Country: Colombia; Year: 2011; Director: Gabriel Rojas Vera; Writer: Gabriel Rojas Vera; Stars: ngela Carrizosa Aparicio, Mara Anglica Snchez, Juan Manuel Daz)
Karen leaves her husband and finds herself in this smart, confident debut-feature from a new voice in Colombian filmmaking.
Last Days Here
(Country: USA; Year: 2011; Director: Don Argott, Demian Fenton)
The trials of Bobby Liebling, lead singer with doom metal merchants Pentagram.
Let The Bullets Fly
(Country: China, Hong Kong; Year: 2010; Director: Jiang Wen; Writer: Zhu Sujin, Shu Ping, Jiang Wen; Stars: Jiang Wen, Chow Yun-Fat, Ge You, Carina Lau, Hu Jun)
Jiang Wen's rumbustious comedy-adventure, set in the 1920s, is an Eastern Western. Chow Yun-Fat, Ge You and Jiang himself star as the three unscrupulous men vying for control of Goose Town: fun performances, and lots of flying bullets.
Magic Trip
(Country: USA; Year: 2011; Director: Alison Ellwood, Alex Gibney; Stars: Ken Kesey, Neal Cassady, The Merry Band of Pranksters)
Ken Kesey and his Merry Band of Pranksters trip across America.
Asshole and Beauty
Medianeras
(Country: Argentina, Germany, Spain; Year: 2011; Director: Gustavo Taretto; Writer: Gustavo Taretto; Stars: Pilar Lpez de Ayala, Javier Drolas, Ins Efrn, Rafa Ferro, Carla Peterson)
A romantic comedy with a nod to Woody Allen's Manhattan where boy fails to meet girl across the crowded cityscape of twenty-first century Buenos Aires.
Mitsuko Delivers (Hara ga kore nande)
(Country: Japan; Year: 2011; Director: Yuya Ishii; Writer: Yûya Ishii; Stars: Riisa Naka, Aoi Nakamura, Ryo Ishibashi)
Mitsuko is in her ninth month of pregnancy, but that doesn't stop her taking the lead when all around her are floundering. Yuya Ishii's breathless comic drama has satire, brio and originality to burn.
Mourning
(Country: Iran; Year: 2011; Director: Morteza Farshbaf; Writer: Anahita Ghazvinizadeh; Stars: Kiomars Gity Sharareh Pasha, Amirhossein Maleki)
An Iranian boy goes on a road trip with his deaf relatives after his own parents mysteriously leave in the middle of the night and are killed in an accident.
Mr Tree
(Country: China; Year: 2011; Director: Han Jie; Writer: Han Jie; Stars: Wang Baoqiang, Tan Zhuo)
Produced by Jia Zhangke and a double prizewinner in Shanghai, Han Jie's strikingly original film follows a small-town loser who botches his own marriage but becomes a savant to his mining village in North-east China.
My Back Page
(Country: Japan; Year: 2011; Director: Nobuhiro Yamashita; Writer: Kosuke Mukai; Stars: Satoshi Tsumabuki, Kenichi Matsuyama, Shiori Kutsuna, Takuya Yamauchi)
A rookie journalist in 1969 falls under the spell of a charismatic student radical (Kenichi Matsuyama), only to realise that he's capable of murder. Nobuhiro Yamashita and his cast recreate the political turmoil of the period with awesome credibility.
The Forgiveness Of Blood and Superheroes
The Natural Phenomenon of Madness
(Country: Philippines; Year: 2011; Director: Charliebebs Gohetia; Writer: Charliebebs Gohetia; Stars: Jess Mendoza, Opaline Santos, Ces Aldaba, Regina Valenzuela, Patrick Esteban)
Ex-editor Charliebebs Gohetia offers a startlingly fresh take on a broken relationship, first from the woman's point-of-view, then from the man's. Sharp, visually arresting and very grown-up, it's unlike any other Filipino indie.
Natural Selection
(Country: USA; Year: 2011; Director: Robbie Pickering; Writer: Robbie Pickering; Stars: Rachael Harris, Matt O'Leary, John Diehl, Jon Gries)
Winner of a number of key awards at SXSW this year, Robbie Pickering's debut feature marks him as a filmmaker to watch, and his cast as stars in the making.
The Nobel Thief
(Country: India; Year: 2011; Director: Suman Ghosh; Writer: Suman Ghosh; Stars: Mithun Chakraborty, Soumitra Chatterjee, Harsh Chhaya)
A poor and nave villager discovers the stolen Nobel Prize gold medal of Bengali hero Rabindranath Tagore and heads to Kolkata in the hope of returning it.
Nouka Dubi
(Country: India; Year: 2011; Director: Rituparno Ghosh; Writer: Rituparno Ghosh; Stars: Raima Sen, Jishhu Sengupta, Prosenjit Chatterjee, Riya Sen)
A Tagorean tale of love lost and mistaken identities in upper class, early 20th Century Kolkata.
Old Dog
(Country: China (Tibet); Year: 2010; Director: Pema Tseden; Writer: Pema Tseden; Stars: Lochey, Drolma Kyab, Tamdrin Tso)
Pema Tseden's quest to create a new Tibetan cinema takes another leap forward with this droll/tragic tale of conflicts between a shepherd and his heavy-drinking son…particularly over their pet Nomad Mastiff.
A Simple Life and HERE
On The Ice
(Country: US; Year: 2011; Director: Andrew Okpeaha MacLean; Writer: Andrew Okpeaha MacLean; Stars: Josiah Patkotak, Frank Qutuq Irelan, Teddy Kyle Smith, Adamina Kerr, Sierra Jade Sampson), Official Site
After a fight in which their friend is killed, two Alaskan teenagers try to cover up what happened and keep their mutual secret.
Otelo Burning
(Country: South Africa; Year: 2011; Director: Sara Blecher; Writer: James Whyle, Sara Blecher; Stars: Jafta Mamabolo, Thomas Gumede, Sihle Xaba, Tshepang Mohlomi)
Three friends discover surfing as an escape from the violence of late-apartheid South Africa.
Ostende
(Country: Argentina; Year: 2011; Director: Laura Citarella; Writer: Laura Citarella; Stars: Laura Paredes, Julin Tello, Santiago Gobernori, Debora Dejtiar, Julio Citarella)
Rohmer and Hitchcock prove telling reference points in this tale of a voyeurism set in a sleepy Argentine seaside town.
Policeman
(Country: Israel; Year: 2011; Director: Nadav Lapid; Writer: Nadav Lapid; Stars: Yiftach Klein, Yaara Pelzig, Michael Mushonov)
A member of an elite Israeli anti-terrorist unit finds his world turned upside down when he encounters an act of shocking violence by an extremist Jewish group.
Restless City
(Country: US; Year: 2011; Director: Andrew Dosunmu; Writer: Eugene M. Gussenhoven; Stars: Danai Gurira, Mohamed Dione, Osas Ighodaro, Anthony Okungbowa, Lenore Thomas, Babs Olusanmokun, Stephen Tyrone Williams, Ger Duany, Maduka Steady, Aspen Steib, Zoey Martinson, Ese Daniel Ovueraye, Dee Dee Moss, Beverly Hugo, Sky Grey)
An African immigrant survives on the fringes of New York City. Music is his passion, life is a hustle and falling in love is his greatest risk.
Return
(Country: USA; Year: 2011; Director: Liza Johnson; Writer: Liza Johnson; Stars: Linda Cardellini, Michael Shannon, John Slattery, Talia Balsam, Emma Rayne Lyle)
A thoughtful consideration of American life during wartime that avoids polemical analysis in favour of presenting a touching human story with credible integrity.
Silver Bullets
(Country: USA; Year: 2011; Director: Joe Swanberg; Writer: Joe Swanberg; Stars: Kate Lyn Sheil, Ti West, Amy Seimetz, Joe Swanberg, Jane Adams)
The prolific Joe Swanberg debates whether cinema matters.
A Simple Life
(Country: Hong Kong; Year: 2011; Director: Ann Hui; Writer: Susan Chan, Yan-Lam Lee; Stars: Deanie Ip, Andy Lau, Wang Fuli, Qin Hailu, Anthony Wong)
An existential drama about how two people’s relationship survives after one of them has a stroke.
Superheroes
(Country: US; Year: 2011; Director: Michael Barnett; Writer: Michael Barnett, Theodore James; Stars: Master Legend, Mr Xtreme, Zetaman, TSF, Apocalypse Meow, Conundrum, Thanatos, The Dark Avenger)
Ordinary folk by day, caped crusaders by night; a look into the lives of real life superheroes.
Stateless Things
(Country: South Korea; Year: 2011; Director: Kim Kyung-Mook; Writer: Kim Kyung-Mook; Stars: Paul Lee, Saebyuk Kim, Im Hyung-kook, Hyunjoon Yeom)
Kim Kyung-Mook's sparky indie feature crosscuts between the lives of two young men, one an illegal immigrant from North Korea stuck in dead-end jobs, the other the kept boy of a married businessman stifling in a swanky apartment.
The Student
(Country: Argentina; Year: 2011; Director: Santiago Mitre; Writer: Santiago Mitre, Mariano Llinas; Stars: Esteban Lamothe, Romina Paula, Ricardo Flix, Valeria Correa)
An intriguing political allegory set in the wheeler-dealing world of Argentine student politics.
The Sun-beaten Path
(Country: China (Tibet); Year: 2011; Director: Sonthar Gyal; Writer: Sonthar Gyal; Stars: Yeshe Lhadruk, Lo Kyi, Kalzang Rinchen)
Cinematographer Sonthar Gyal's debut feature is a Tibetan road movie: a young man burdened with grief and guilt travels back to his rural home, mostly on foot…and learns a lot about himself and others along the way.
This Is Not A Film (In Film Nist)
(Country: Iran; Year: 2011; Director: Jafar Panahi, Mojtaba Mirtahmasb; Writer: Jafar Panahi; Stars: Jafar Panahi, Igi, Mrs. Gheirat, Mojtaba Mirtahmasb, Rakhsan, Sima, Micky, Hasan, Jafar Panahi, Igi, Mrs. Gheirat, Mojtaba Mirtahmasb, Rakhsan, Sima, Micky)
Jafar Panahi's postcard from Iran.
Uncle Kent
(Country: US; Year: 2011; Director: Joe Swanberg; Writer: Joe Swanberg, Kent Osborne; Stars: Kent Osborne)
A pothead cartoonist in Los Angeles spends a weekend trying to sleep with his visiting house guest – a woman from New York, who he met on Chatroulette.
Without
(Country: USA; Year: 2011; Director: Mark Jackson; Writer: Mark Jackson; Stars: Joslyn Jensen, Ron Carrier)
A young woman battles with a recent tragedy whilst caring for an elderly man in this haunting, claustrophobic drama.
Yatasto
(Country: Argentina; Year: 2011; Director: Hermes Paralluelo; Writer: Jimena González Gomeza, Hermes Paralluelo, Ezequiel Salinas)
A compelling documentary charting the adventures of a trio of teenager cardboard collectors on the outskirts of the Argentine city of Crdoba.
59th New York Film Festival early bird highlights Futura, Jane By Charlotte, James Baldwin: From Another Place and The Velvet Underground
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