The director and star of In the Mood for Love return to 60s Hong Kong in this sumptuous romantic sequel. “It's wonderful – a rich, glamorous and acutely human work with superb performances by Leung and the four gorgeous actresses.” — Richard Corliss, Time
Films — by Title
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36, quai des Orfèvres
Gérard Depardieu and Daniel Auteuil go head to head in this sleek cop vs cop drama, a hit in France late last year. "This stylish, relentlessly moody cop saga benefits from crackerjack scripting, intriguing motivations and excellent performances." — Variety
3-Iron
Bin-jip
A seductively unworldly and virtually wordless love story from the director of Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring. “This is a Zen comedy, full of beautifully distilled moments.” — Financial Times
4
The feral and the heavily metallic vie for dominance in this extraordinary assault on the senses, the year's most transfixingly baffling movie – which, among other things, purports to reveal the meaninglessness of the number 4.
The 5000 Fingers of Dr T
Conceived, written and designed by the legendary Dr Seuss, The 5000 Fingers of Dr T is a true cult classic and one of the strangest, most memorable musical films for children ever made. Ages 6+
9 Songs
Recalling his love affair with a mercurial American woman, a young Brit remembers the sex – and the bands they heard. Digicam cinema, noted for its explicit treatment of sex.
A
Alter Egos
Disturbingly riveting account of the true stories behind 2005 Oscar-winning animated short Ryan. Rest assured, this is no ‘Making Of’ blurb piece.
Animation for Kids 2005
This collection of films selected especially for our youngest audience promises some laughs, some frights – and some food for thought. This year’s programme is probably best suited to a slightly older age group (6-10) than previous years’.
Animation Now 2005
Our popular yearly programme of the year’s best animate shorts is one of the strongest collections in a long time, celebrating the sheer diversity of the animated art form. Including the Oscar winning Ryan.
Appleseed
Appurushido
Blonde action babe Deunan separates the robots from the bioroids in this spectacular exhibition of conventional anime character design amalgamated with state-of-the-art CG effects. “Eye-goggling.” — Screendaily
The Ax
Le Couperet
"A jet-black social comedy marbled with delectably handled close calls, The Ax puts the merciless world of downsizing, outsourcing and other capitalist trends on the chopping block." — Lisa Nesselson, Variety
B
Banana in a Nutshell
A young Chinese New Zealander and her Pakeha boyfriend seek her parents’ blessing for their marriage in Roseanne Liang’s funny and poignant documentary of cross-cultural navigation.
Battleship Potemkin
Bronenosets Potyomkin
The Auckland Philharmonia performs Edmund Meisel’s score for Sergei Eisenstein’s, Battleship Potemkin, conducted by Helmut Imig. Presented in association with The New Zealand Film Archive.
Be Here To Love Me: A Film about Townes Van Zandt
"The poignant profile of a troubled troubadour… a dignified and wistful look at the unusual life, difficult career and lasting influence of singer-songwriter Townes Van Zandt." — Variety
Bigger Than Life
James Mason plays a mild school teacher unhinged by cortisone in Nicholas Ray’s blistering expose of 50s family values. “Sharper and fiercer than ever.” — The Guardian
Bill Morrison Short Films
This selection of Bill Morrison’s mesmerising visual meditations spans more than a decade, Morrison’s short abstractions are mini histories and stories about the fleeting and unpredictable nature of cinema – and life itself.
Birth
“The eerie tale is steeped in brooding atmosphere and psychological suspense… Nicole Kidman is better than ever. Brilliant.” — David Sterritt, Christian Science Monitor
Bitter Victory
Actor Richard Burton was never more compelling on screen than as the cynical, cocksure Captain Leith in Nicholas Ray’s tale of a British commando raid into Nazi-occupied Libya.
Bombón - El Perro
The gift of a daunting Dogo Argentino show dog provides unexpected opportunities for a laid-off pump attendant in this tender-hearted tale from Patagonia.
Brasileirinho
This rousing celebration of choro, Brazil’s ‘original urban music’, is the year’s feel-good music documentary. “Toe-tapping, hip-swaying stuff for world-music fans.” — Variety
Bride of Silence
Hat mua roi bao lau
This evocative and sensual drama offers a zen-like contemplation of the mystery surrounding the fate of an unwed mother in 18th-century rural Vietnam.
Broadway: The Golden Age
Lovers of the Broadway musical and of the great American theatre of the 50s will be enthralled by the wealth of anecdote and reminiscence recorded here with a starry array of writers, directors and performers. “Enormously entertaining… Chock full of juicy, touching and hilarious tales.” — Playbill
Broken Flowers
Bill Murray catches up with some old girlfriends – Sharon Stone, Tilda Swinton, Jessica Lange! – in Jim Jarmusch's deadpan Cannes prizewinner. "Deliciously funny and strangely touching." — Time Out
C
Café Lumière
Kohi jikou
The great Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien has made a Japanese family drama to celebrate the centenary of the great Japanese director Ozu Yasujiro. “It is a film about happiness: something you can not see but something that Hou makes poetic, empowering and almost palpable.” — Financial Times
Channel Swimmers
Kanalschwimmer
Will they make it? This up-close documentary account of three attempts to swim from Dover to France has us rooting for the marathon swimmers, and provides full immersion in channel swimmer lore.
Chapter and Verse
New Zealander Alex Monteith’s open-ended, experimental documentary invites us to consider her images of a Northern Ireland ‘defined by the troubles’, and to listen to the eloquent voices of the troubled.
The Child
L’enfant
We’re proud to present the winner of this year’s Palme d’Or direct from the Cannes Film Festival. It’s a riveting, at times alarmingly suspenseful moral tale of a feckless young hustler whose cavalier attitude to fatherhood takes him into very deep waters indeed. “A profoundly moving and engaging realist picture.” — The Guardian
Cinévardaphoto
Three very different short films about still photography by the French New Wave’s 76-year-old doyenne. “Agnes Varda's photography is pure joy… For photo buffs and Varda fans, it's a can't-miss.” — salon.com
A Common Thread
Brodeuses
“It is a small film but one made with great craft, and control that gently seduces the audience with its sympathetic characters and human-interest drama.” — Allan Hunter, Screendaily
Crash
Adrenalised panorama of Los Angeles life with Don Cheadle, Sandra Bullock, Matt Dillon, Ryan Philippe. “Racism collides with its targets during one thirty-six-hour period in Los Angeles. Alive with bracing human drama and blistering wit… The acting is dynamite.” — Rolling Stone
Czech Dream
Cesky sen
In 2003 two Czech film students made international news when they used an arts council grant to create a huge marketing campaign for a non-existent hypermarket – and to make a film about the whole scam. This is the film!
D
Darwin's Nightmare
A jaw-dropping and scathing exposé of the ecological devastation and economic exploitation of Tanzania's Lake Victoria.
Decasia
Decasia is a jaw-dropping collage of decaying archival footage, which seems to melt, burn, drip and deteriorate before our very eyes.
A Decent Factory
Can a corporation balance profit-making and social responsibility? Cellphone giant Nokia sends their Ethics and Environmental Specialist to China to audit one of its suppliers in this revealing documentary.
Delamu
Winding through landscapes of staggering beauty, the year’s most spectacular documentary accompanies a caravan as it traverses the highest and most perilous of the world's ancient routes.
The Devil and Daniel Johnston
Sundance award-winning documentary about indie-rock cult hero and ‘crazy genius’. “Superb: a complex and balanced portrait that celebrates and reveals a character who has remained an enigma for years.” — Dave Calhoun, Time Out
DIG!
Filmmaker Ondi Timoner spent seven years documenting the criss-crossing careers of alt-rock bands, The Dandy Warhols and The Brian Jonestown Massacre, and emerged with this classic narrative of art vs. commerce.
The Digital Space 2005
The highlights in the past year of digital animation, this selection of works favouring abstraction over representation, and experimentation over application.
Double Dare
Appreciative and entertaining double portrait of veteran Hollywood stuntwoman Jeannie Epper (Wonder Woman) and Kiwi newcomer Zoë Bell (Xena, Kill Bill).
Duck Season
Temporada de patos
“If there's such a thing as a film cruising by on pure charm, that's just what this debut feature does.” — Shane Danielson, Edinburgh International Film Festival
Dumplings
Gaudzi
The shady Auntie Mei promises eternal youth to all who eat her highly addictive, specially prepared dumplings. Soon demand exceeds supply in this sneakily spiced banquet for connoisseurs of bad taste and political incorrectness.
E
East of Eden
James Dean is at the centre of virtually every frame in Elia Kazan’s adptation of John Steinbeck’s Cain and Abel tale. His electrifying impact can still be felt 50 years later – in a beautiful new CinemaScope print on the big screen.
The Edukators
Die fetten Jahre sind vorbei
Is it possible to change the world and still have fun? Jan (hot German star Daniel Brühl), Peter and Jule, the anti-capitalist pranksters in this German hit film, say yes!
Election
Hak sewui
“To is back in prime crime form… there's enough juice left at the end for a two-generational trilogy." — Variety
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
A riveting beginner’s guide to the mind-boggling Enron crash. “Fiercely intelligent, terrifying and absurdly funny… It’s a bracing portrait of American power-lust run amok.” — Scott Foundas, LA Weekly
F
Faithless Games
Neverné hry
A beautifully acted, subtle and perceptive drama about a young married couple, both musicians, who quit city life to work in the country.
Fallen Angel: Gram Parsons
This excellent documentary profiles 60s country rock pioneer Gram Parsons. “A portrait of a spoiled, charming, emotionally crippled young man whose shoddy treatment of people was always forgotten as soon as he opened his mouth to sing." — Chicago Reader
Fiction Artists
Hundreds of clips from hundreds of films are wittily re-edited into a wicked deconstruction of Hollywood’s clichéd portrayal of the tortured artist. Supported by four of the year’s most dazzling experimental shorts.
Forty Shades of Blue
The classic triangle of old patriarch, young wife and young son plays out at the moneyed end of the Memphis music world in this year’s Sundance winner. Starring Rip Torn.
The Future of Food
“The Future of Food gets to the elemental truths about genetically modified seeds and produce.” — Laura Singara, Village Voice
G
Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence
Vast and spectacular, this dazzling anime is also rife with speculation about the meaning of cyberlife. Not for lightweights!
Girl in a Mirror
The photographs of Carol Jerrems provide an indelible record of bohemian Sydney and Melbourne in the 70s. Her indomitable spirit continues to burn in this terrific documentary portrait.
Giuliani Time
Comprehensive portrait of the notoriously autocratic mayor of New York who became the hero of 9/11. “Strips away the self-aggrandizement and analyzes the record." — Variety
Godzilla Final Wars
Gojira fainaru uozu
Japan’s answer to Kong in an insanely action packed monster miasma, overflowing with super warriors, cool weapons, snazzy aircraft and more destruction than the last three Godzilla films combined.
Grizzly Man
Self-taught naturalist, Timothy Treadwell, who spent 12 summers living in the wilds of Alaska, obsessively filming the activities of grizzly bears, is the subject of Werner Herzog’s “brilliant portrait of adventure, activism, obsession and potential madness.” — Variety
H
Hank Williams: Honky Tonk Blues
This excellent documentary contains all known footage of country music's first superstar whose classic songs continue to inspire a thousand covers. “A vital piece of historical testimony.” — Variety
Hari Om
This light and lively road movie tours the architectural and topographical splendours of Rajasthan with auto-rickshaw driver Hari Om and a beautiful French passenger.
Hell on Wheels
Höllentour
This spectacular documentary captures the astounding poetry of the world’s toughest cycling race, the century-old Tour de France – and gets in close with the 2003 German T-Mobile team.
Hidden
Caché
Tough, provocative and utterly gripping, this year’s opening night film is a psychological thriller by a filmmaker at the top of his formidable powers. Winner of the best Director Award at Cannes, Hidden is poised to be the year’s most hotly debated film.
High Tension
Haute tension
Mysterious hulking deviant pursues female college students in the most devilish cat-and-mouse chiller in years.
A Hole in My Heart
Ett hål i mitt hjärta
Lukas Moodysson, the young Swedish director of the upbeat Together and Fucking Åmål, continues down the dark road first taken in Lilya 4-Ever with this abrasive hand-held drama, seeking the glimmerings of humanity in a hell-hole of pornography.
Homegrown: Documentaries
These short New Zealand documentaries selected by the Moving Image Centre observe artists and artisans at work. We meet master craftsmen, musicians, contemporary painters, writers and sculptors and follow these passionate people through the process of creation.
Homegrown: Works on Film
This year MIC’s Homegrown selection of 35mm shorts by New Zealand filmmakers is one of the strongest in years. Full of hope and subtle drama, framed with a local perspective, these films run the gamut from black comedy to apocalypse.
Homegrown: Works on Video
This year’s selection of homegrown short films finished on video covers a range of genres from comedy and computer animation through to drama and dance. Each display a unique take on the world – through current events, imagined histories or fable-like fantasies.
Howl's Moving Castle
Hauru no ugoku shiro
This year’s centrepiece is a beauty, thanks to animation genius and long-time Film Festival hero, Miyazaki Hayao. We proudly present the New Zealand premiere screenings of his latest amazing phantasmagoria. “An entertainment full of wonder and charm.” — Variety
I
In the Realms of the Unreal
A fascinating examination of the mysterious life and the truly bizarre art of outsider artist Henry Darger.
Inside Deep Throat
How did one cheesy porn flick end up grossing $600 million, enrage the conservatives, enrapture the liberals, unite the feminists and finally bring down a President? This highly entertaining documentary has the answers.
Inside\Out
Skyscrapers quiver, identical houses slumber menacingly, fluttering colours clutter streets in this series of video-pane poems refracting images of transitory, shifting cityscapes – and more personal urban territories. A stunning collection of experimental films.
The Intruder
"[Claire] Denis is one of cinema's greatest narrative poets, and The Intruder, the story of an adventurer, is her most adventurous cinematic poem." — Amy Taubin, Film Comment
It's All Gone Pete Tong
In this send-up-cum-celebration of rave scene excess, English comedian Paul Kaye pulls out all the stops as a deranged Cockney exile who mixes his way to club-scene stardom in the über-trendy Spanish resort of Ibiza.
J
j-star 05
j-star 05 showcases the latest of promos and shorts from Japan’s finest moving image-makers. This selection of works – rarely seen outside Japan – shows that Japan continues to be a diverse and rich breeding ground for new talents.
K
The Kaipara Affair
An amazingly layered, provocative work that takes us inside the struggle of Kaipara locals to obtain government support to rescue their depleted fisheries. It’s hard to imagine the New Zealander who’d not be moved by this picture of Māori and Pakeha acting in common cause, from Barry Barclay, the director of Ngāti and Feathers of Peace.
Kekexili: Mountain Patrol
This enthralling, superbly photographed ecological thriller tells the true story of a group of volunteers pursuing poachers across the bleak expanses of Tibetan wilderness.
Kings and Queen
Rois et reine
This marvelously unpredictable tragicomedy concerns the lovely, rather enigmatic Nora and the constellation of males circling her: aging father, young son and former flame. “If there’s a more humane, joyous, tragic, life-affirming movie to be found at the moment, I’m not aware of it.” — LA Weekly
Kung Fu Hustle
Gongfu
Celebrate the opening of That’s Incredible Cinema with this once-only screening of the hilarious and breathtaking Hong Kong mega-hit on the big screen. “A kung fu parody that's also a terrific kung fu movie.” — J. Hoberman, Village Voice
L
A Labyrinth of Time
Fascinating, elegant documentary portrait of American composer Elliott Carter whose career straddles the better part of the last century.
Land Mines - A Love Story
The ever notable Dennis O’Rourke (Cunnamulla) takes us into the lives of Habiba and Shah, an Afghani couple eking out an existence in the ruined city of Kabul.
Land of the Dead
George Romero, the individual most responsible for the world's enduring affection for the undead has returned to claim his title as King of Horror. We’re stoked to be presenting the premiere of his long-awaited futuristic zombie epic on the big screen.
Late Bloomer
Osoi-hito
This belligerent Japanese indie about the multi-handicapped Sumida, who develops a crush on his new teenage caregiver, offers a satisfying lack of anything patronisingly feel-good or life-affirming.
Le Pont des Arts
Compelling and eccentric, this boldly stylized film elucidates the unfulfilling love lives and fledging vocations of two young couples in 70s Paris.
The League of Gentlemen’s Apocalypse
"A definite contender for this year’s award for best film within a film about a struggle to make a film out of a TV series." — Time Out
Life Is a Miracle
Zivot je cudo
A brilliantly choreographed extravaganza, complete with lovesick donkey and home-invading bear, Life Is a Miracle marks the overdue return to the screen of Balkan maestro Emir Kusturica (Black Cat, White Cat).
Little Bits of Light
Intimate, acutely observant filmmaking with true emotional power, Campbell Walker’s superbly acted digital feature concerns a young couple’s struggle to survive one partner’s crushing bouts of depression.
Little Sky
El cielito
Tender, suspenseful, beautifully observed tale of the bond that develops between a young Argentinian farmhand and the farmers’ neglected baby.
Look at Me
Comme un image
A sharply observed drama of celebrity and its casualties set in the Parisian publishing and music worlds. “A delightful metropolitan comedy… this is a French triumph.” — The Guardian
Look Both Ways
“The astonishing debut feature of Sarah Watt interweaves animation and real-life drama to portray some very human responses to barely fathomable events.” — Melbourne International Film Festival
The Lost World
The Jurassic Park of great-grandpa’s day, moviedom’s first major foray into creature animation. Accompanied by a dynamic original score by Sydney-based New Zealand composer and pianist Jan Preston.
Love, Speed and Loss
A documentary portrait of New Zealand motor racer Kim Newcombe, best remembered as the New Zealander who came second in the 1973 World 500 Grand Prix Championship and for the Konig bike he built himself using the engine from an outboard motor.
The Lusty Men
Nicholas Ray’s rodeo classic centres on the complex triangle of a former rodeo champion (the incomparable Robert Mitchum), his cowboy protegé, and the cowboy's wife. “A fine chunk of Americana… containing one of Mitchum's finest performances.” — Elliott Stein, Village Voice
M
Machuca
"Machuca... is both sweet and stringent, attuned to the wonders of childhood as well as its cruelty and terror." — A.O. Scott, NY Times
Mad Hot Ballroom
Ballroom dancing teams from three New York public elementary schools prepare for competition. This irresistible picture of the civilising power of music, dance and inspired teaching may leave you hankering to move the kids to Manhattan.
The Magician
A sardonic Melbourne hitman allows a filmmaker to follow him around as he gets away with murder in this droll, pitch-black mockumentary.
The Man from Laramie
We’re delighted to present one of the landmark westerns of the 1950s in a superb new restoration. Starring Jimmy Stewart.
Mana - Beyond Belief
From the Shroud of Turin to Graceland, this superbly filmed world tour of venerated objects is like Koyannisqatsi without the bombast, exuding instead a gentle, inquisitive wit.
Me and You and Everyone We Know
Funny, poignant and fresh as paint, Miranda July’s prize-bedecked drama burrows into suburbia to illustrate a classic conundrum: children long to become adults, and adults yearn for the irresponsibility of youth.
The Men Who Would Conquer China
In-depth and highly entertaining documentary account of partnership between two successful entrepreneurs: a pushy New York investment banker and a savvy Hong Kong businessman.
Minginui
A remarkable and disquietingly aestheticised documentary portrait of the North Island forestry town of Minginui, offering an eerily beautiful picture of torpor, isolation and decay – and of Maori culture enduring on the land, inhabiting the detritus of a western economy.
Mondovino
“A fascinating picture on wine as business and pleasure, poetry and philosophy, a way of life and a form of colonialism.” — Philip French, The Observer
Monster Road
An exploration into the work and the mind of unique Bruce Bickford, a Seattle based animator whose obsessive brilliance with clay-mation will leave you gobsmacked.
Moolaadé
In this stirring film by the 81-year-old father of African cinema, the defiant wife of an elder in a West African village refuses to allow four girls to undergo the traditional initation rite. “It makes a powerful statement and at the same time contains humor, charm and astonishing visual beauty.” — Roger Ebert
Murderball
“Powered by a fantastic subject and real-life characters who would be difficult to invent, Murderball is a blast and a half.” — Robert Koehler, Variety
My Summer of Love
Heady with the joys and dangers of mutual infatuation, this award-winning British film sweeps us up in the passionate holiday friendship of two 16-year-old girls.
Mysterious Skin
Gregg Araki’s punk cartoon-book approach to directing live action is remarkably right for this bracingly direct film about getting over child abuse.
N
The New Oceania
Shirley Horrocks’ portrait of novelist, poet and educator Albert Wendt provides insight into a charismatic, intellectual Pacific man who continues to make a very real difference.
Night Watch
Nochnoy dozor
A spectacular and wickedly convoluted saga of vampire wars in 21st-century Moscow. "This audacious film takes every element of horror, fantasy and action genres and emerges with something completely innovative.” — Los Angeles Film Festival
O
Occupation: Dreamland
Embedded with the US Army in Falluja, this intimate portrait of young soldiers in the occupying force is a potent antidote to the recruitment ads.
Omagh
This gripping docudrama about the aftermath of a 1998 car bombing in Northern Ireland derives its dramatic power from the determination of a diverse bunch of survivors to identify the perpetrators and bring them to justice.
On Dangerous Ground
Robert Ryan, a brutal city cop who plays dirty, is sent to the country to cool off in Nicholas Ray’s striking rural film noir, also starring the peerless Ida Lupino as the woman who awakens his better instincts.
The Ordeal
Calvaire
Breathing new life into the ‘car trouble leaves protagonist stranded’ formula, this perverse film twists conventions and delivers one creepy and funny Gothic horror.
Overnight
A stunning rags-to-rags morality tale about a blowhard who blew a once-in-a-lifetime Hollywood deal.
P
Palindromes
Todd Solondz (Happiness) puts the terminally uncool at the centre of his sick comic pictures of American suburbia. This time it’s 12-year-old Aviva whose sole ambition in life is to have a baby. “A demented screwball dream.” — Entertainment Weekly
Paradise Now
Al-Jenna
The two young Palestinian suicide bombers at the centre of this provocatively adrenalised film are hardly the fundamentalist zealots of legend. Paradise Now wracks up the suspense, compounding their moral panic with our own terror of impending detonation.
Party Girl
A gangland lawyer and a lounge singer/call girl rebel against their underworld ‘family’ in this stunningly stylized Technicolor film noir. Rare screening of this hard-to-see cult classic.
Pin Boy
Parapalos
This candid portrait of working life and camaraderie in a Buenos Aries bowling alley is a fine example of new Argentinian cinema.
Protocols of Zion
“From street crazies who think ‘Jewmerika’ and ‘Jew York’ are run by people like ‘Jew-liani,’ to Nazi skinheads [and] Black Muslim prison inmates… [documentarian Marc] Levin pursues the issue of anti-Semitism straight into the murky places where it festers and blooms.” — Variety
Pusher II
With Blood on My Hands – Pusher II
Gaunt and tattooed, simultaneously threatening and oddly tender, Mads Mikkelsen excels as the skinhead anti-hero of Danish prodigy Nicolas Winding Refn’s tense and stylish underworld action movie.
Q
The Queen of Sheba's Pearls
In Colin Nutley's sweet comic hymn to Englishness, the hushed, proper, rather sad household of a country vicarage is brought back to life after World War II by the arrival of a beautiful mysterious 'foreigner'.
R
Rebel Without a Cause
“Nicholas Ray’s 1955 troubled-teen drama refuses to age any more than its martyred lead tearaway James Dean’s star ever dimmed… It’s a bleak and tumultuous film, but searing.” — Time Out
Ring of Fire: The Emile Griffith Story
The death of a boxer in 1962 is the focus for an intelligent, many-faceted consideration of brutality, machismo and sport. “An amazing story” — NY Times
Rize
The Official Festival Closer is a brilliant new documentary by David LaChapelle, which exuberantly demonstrates the rise of Krumping a startling new hip-hop dance subculture, which has grown beneath the mass-media’s radar.
Rolling Family
Familia rodante
Family chaos takes to the road in this amiable comedy from Argentina. “Slyly funny… a multi-generational road movie proving that the family that travels together unravels together.” — Nigel Andrews, Financial Times
S
The Sea Inside
Mar adentro
Javier Bardem is superb in this year’s Oscar winner for Best Foreign Language Film, the true story of Ramón Sampedro, who famously fought the Spanish government for the right to end his life.
Sedition
The Suppression of Dissent in World War II New Zealand
Russell Campbell’s documentary tells the stories of New Zealanders who stuck to their passionate anti-war commitment through World War II – and the draconian government crackdown on their dissent.
Shake Hands with the Devil: The Journey of Roméo Dallaire
“This is a deeply engaging portrait of a remarkable man and a brutally frank indictment of the West’s moral cowardice.” — Reece Pendleton, Chicago Reader
Shanghai Dreams
Qinghong
Winner of the Jury Prize at Cannes this year, Shanghai Dreams unfolds around two teenage girls who don’t want to leave the tough country town they’ve grown up in.
Shape of the Moon
Key forces at work in contemporary Indonesian society become palpable through the experiences of one small family group in this prize-winning documentary.
Sisters in Law
In West Cameroon old values are being challenged in the courts by two inspiring women in the Judiciary. A fascinating, rousing picture of change, documented by Kim Longinotto (Divorce Iranian Style).
Sorceress of the New Piano
Margaret Leng Tan, charismatic diva of the avant-garde piano provides a seriously enlightening crash course in her repertoire in this highly entertaining documentary portrait. “Mesmerising.” — Michael Nyman
Steamboy
This long awaited anime extravaganza from the forces behind the epochal Akira takes place in a breathtaking vision of the future, as it might have been dreamt up in the Victorian heyday of steam power.
T
The Take
Filmmaker Avi Lewis introduces his documentary (co-authored with Naomi Klein) following the efforts of laid-off Argentinian workers to occupy and restart factories abandoned after the 2001 economic collapse.
Tarnation
At 31, drawing from movies he’d been making since age 11, Jonathan Caouette put together this extraordinary picture of his traumatic life-to-date. The year’s most written-about, exhaustively analysed and argued over documentary.
Tell Them Who You Are
Famed (and famously cantankerous) cinematographer and activist Haskell Wexler submits ungraciously to the shrewd documentary scrutiny of his photojournalist son.
The Tenth District Court: Moments of Trial
10e Chambre, instants d'audiences
Various petty felons and their defenders confront a formidably sensible magistrate – and she metes out French justice in this fascinating fly-on-the-wall courtroom documentary.
They Live By Night
This darkly poetic tale of outlaw lovers on the run is a black-and-white crime classic.
Three Dollars
New Aussie hit from the director of The Bank follows an idealistic young couple from student romance in the 80s to social realities 20 years on.
Three... Extremes
Japan’s Miike Takashi (Audition, Visitor Q), Korean Cannes winner Park Chan-wook (Old Boy) and Hong Kong’s Fruit Chan (Hollywood, Hong Kong) join forces to showcase their considerable skills in this creepy anthology triptych.
Thumbsucker
Lou Pucci took the Best Actor Award at the Berlin Film Festival for his performance in this gentle satire of suburban family angst. He plays 17-year-old Justin Cobb, who tries half-heartedly to ‘fix’ his oral obsession by replacing it with a host of interesting alternatives, including Ritalin.
Tony Takitani
Elegantly stylised adaptation of celebrated Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami’s strange story about a solitary illustrator who tastes fulfilment with a woman who can never have too many clothes.
Touch the Sound
Beautifully crafted documentary and “ear-opening” performance film with percussionist Evelyn Glennie.
Tug of Love
Riveting documentary about the parental abduction of children, a frequent and alarming occurrence in a world where international marriages – and separations – are on the rise.
Turtles Can Fly
Lakposhtha ham parvaz mikonand
This latest film from Iranian Kurdish director Bahman Ghobadi immerses us in the life of a Turkish/Iraqi border refugee camp, where scrambling hordes of orphaned children await the US invasion.
Tyrannical Love
This digital romantic comedy set in Pakuranga announces the arrival of Scott Boswell whose abundant talents are happily evident in every jocular frame. His deftly balanced comic exploration of love and friendship bespeaks a natural flair for reveling in the formulaic, while hitting on a few home truths.
U
U-Carmen eKhayelitsha
The 19th-century opera Carmen transfers triumphantly to the high-octane contemporary illegal beer halls, cigarette factories, drug smuggling gangs and police academies of the Black South African township of Khayelitsha. Best Film Award, Berlin Film Festival 2005.
Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson
“Even those with a passing knowledge of the tumultuous career of the first black heavyweight boxing champion will be amazed by the depth and range of detail in Burns' irresistibly engrossing study.” — Variety
Up and Down
Horem pádem
The latest tragicomedy from he director of Cosy Dens and Divided We Fall. "The rollicking social comedy continues the director's interest in adaptability and its discontents, then ups the ante by setting the story in the shape-shifting post-Communist present." — Entertainment Weekly
W
Wall
Mur
Arab-Jewish filmmaker Simone Bitton surveys the impact on both sides of the wall designed to divide Arab West Bank territories from Jewish communities.
wavelength 05
Dedicated to exploring innovative, visually progressive music videos with rarely screened promos and directors’ cuts, onedotzero has trawled the globe and unearthed exciting new work, producing this programme of distinctive visions from both established masters and the new emerging talents.
The Wayward Cloud
Tian bian yi duo yun
The most-talked about film at this year’s Berlin Film Festival. Festival regular Tsai Ming-liang delivers a film that fluctuates wildly between broad camp tomfoolery and a desolate view of pornography.
Whisky
Connoisseurs of the deadpan and the droll are invited to check out the Uruguayan sock factory movie. “A pint-size pleasure.” — NY Times
The White Diamond
Werner Herzog’s stirring, lyrical documentary about Graham Dorrington, an English engineer who explores the South American rainforest canopy from a silently floating airship.
The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill
Fascinating, moving portrait of San Franciscan Mark Bittner and his relationship with the wild parrots who flock around his leafy neighbourhood.
The Woodsman
“The Woodsman, a serious and thoughtful drama on a hideously difficult subject, deserves the warmest praise and the widest possible audience.” — Anthony Quinn, The Independent
The World
Shijie
"We are in the hands of a master… his imagery is so boilingly alive that we come away from it feeling exhilarated rather than depressed." — David Chute, LA Weekly
World Mirror Cinema
Welt Spiegel Kino
In a marvellous mix of found footage, we’re invited to speculate about the lives and imaginations of passers-by in old documentary footage of street scenes from Vienna, Surabaya and Porto.
Y
Yes
Ravishing the eye and the ear, funny, political and ebulliently literate, Sally Potter’s best film since Orlando exalts in the romantic adventure of crossing class and culture. Joan Allen and Sam Neill are perfect as a London society couple whose stale marriage is disrupted by her tempestuous affair with a Lebanese immigrant worker.
Yesterday
“Told with the pared-down simplicity of an African folktale… this plaintive story of an afflicted mother's urge to secure a better future for her daughter is a deeply affecting humanist drama that addresses AIDS with gentle eloquence.” — Variety
Yuri Norstein Retrospective
This incredibly rich programme showcases the work of the remarkable animator Yuri Norstein. Exquisitely rendered and drawing deeply from the well of folklore and literature, these films are as unmistakably Russian as the work of Tolstoy or Tarkovsky.
Z
Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession
An evocative chronicle of the rise and fall of the TV programmer whose cable channel pumped a diet of art, cult, unreleased and otherwise under-the-radar movies into the Los Angeles area from 1974 to 1989 and influenced a generation of filmmakers.
The Zoo
One-man documentary team, New Zealander Hayden Campbell shows us the daily scramble of life in the West Bank town of Qalqiliya through the eyes of Palestine’s one and only zookeeper.