Comrades in Dreams 2006

This documentary valentine to the pleasures of cinema looks at four independent theatre owners in very different parts of the world who dedicate their lives to showing films. Anup traverses India with his cinema tent, which bursts at the seams when he shows his latest hit. Han Yong-sil runs a propaganda cinema in agrarian North Korea and wants to improve people's lives. Lassane and his friends have risked everything to set up an open-air cinema in Burkina Faso, the world's poorest country. And in Wyoming we meet Penny, whose cinema has been an integral part of her small town's social life for generations. Director Uli Gaulke was once a projectionist, and his passion for celluloid is evident in this labour of love, shot on beautiful 35mm film and employing a large amount of dolly, crane and tracking shots. An affectionate ode to independent cinema owners the world over that demonstrates the universal and unifying power of movies, and draws us into the hearts and souls of these very different individuals in the way that only great cinema can.