Le Havre (2011)

Directed by
Aki Kaurismäki

Writing credits
Aki Kaurismäki

 

Marcel Marx, a former bohemian and struggling author, has given up his literary ambitions and relocated to the port city Le Havre. He leads a simple life based around his wife Arletty, his favourite bar and his not too profitable profession as a shoeshiner. As Arletty suddenly becomes seriously ill, Marcel's path crosses with an underage illegal immigrant from Africa. Marcel and friendly neighbors and other townspeople help to hide him from the police, and they arrange and pay for an illegal trip by boat to immigrate into England. The police officer in charge of finding the boy eventually finds him in the boat, but allows him to escape.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1508675/

The Turin Horse (2011)

AKA A torinói ló

Directed by
Béla Tarr
Ágnes Hranitzky

Writing credits
László Krasznahorkai
Béla Tarr

1889. German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche witnessed the whipping of a horse while traveling in Turin, Italy. He tossed his arms around the horse's neck to protect it then collapsed to the ground. In less than one month, Nietzsche would be diagnosed with a serious mental illness that would make him bed-ridden and speechless for the next eleven years until his death. But whatever did happen to the horse? This film, which is Tarr's last, follows up this question in a fictionalized story of what occurred. The man who whipped the horse is a rural farmer who makes his living taking on carting jobs into the city with his horse-drawn cart. The horse is old and in very poor health, but does its best to obey its master's commands. The farmer and his daughter must come to the understanding that it will be unable to go on sustaining their livelihoods. The dying of the horse is the foundation of this tragic tale.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1316540/

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010)

 AKA ลุงบุญมีระลึกชาติ (Thai), Lung Bunmi Raluek Chat (RTGS)

Directed by
Apichatpong Weerasethakul

Written by
Phra Sripariyattiweti (inspired by the book of)
Apichatpong Weerasethakul

Suffering from acute kidney failure, Uncle Boonmee has chosen to spend his final days surrounded by his loved ones in the countryside. Surprisingly, the ghost of his deceased wife appears to care for him, and his long lost son returns home in a non-human form. Contemplating the reasons for his illness, Boonmee treks through the jungle with his family to a mysterious hilltop cave -- the birthplace of his first life...

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1588895/

Promises Written in Water (2010)

Directed by
Vincent Gallo

Writing credits
Vincent Gallo

Promises Written in Water is a stripped down abstract romantic story of a man and a woman, both in crisis. Kevin (Vincent Gallo) is a long-time, professional assassin, specializing in the termination of life. Mallory (Delfine Bafort) is a wild, poetic, beautiful young woman confronting her terminal illness and eventual suicide. She reaches out to Kevin to take responsibility for her corpse once she passes, requesting his protection of her dead body’s dignity until her cremation. Kevin’s acceptance of this request causes uncomfortable self-reflection and changes the lens through which he views death. The film features Sage Stallone as The Mafioso.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1712563/

The White Ribbon (2009)

AKA Das weiße Band (Kindergeschichte)

Directed by
Michael Haneke

Writing credits
Michael Haneke

The memories of an unnamed elderly tailor form a parable from the distant year he worked as a village schoolteacher and met his fiancée Eva.

The setting is the fictitious Protestant village of Eichwald, Germany between July 1913 and August 1914, where the pastor, the doctor and the baron rule the roost over women, children and peasant farmers. The puritanical pastor leads confirmation classes and gives his pubescent children a guilty conscience over trivial offenses. He has them wear white ribbons as a reminder of the innocence and purity from which they have strayed. When his son confesses to impure touching, the pastor has the boy’s hands tied to the bed frame. The doctor, a widower, treats the village children kindly but sexually humiliates his housekeeper (the local midwife) and takes advantage of his teenage daughter at night. The baron, who is the lord of the manor, underwrites harvest festivities for the villagers, many of whom are the immigrant workers in his employ. He may summarily dismiss his twins' nanny Eva for no apparent reason yet defend the integrity of the farmer whose son has taken his revenge on the baron with the destruction of a field of cabbages.

Mysterious things happen. A wire is stretched between two trees causing the doctor a terrible fall from his horse. The farmer's wife dies at the sawmill when rotten floorboards give way; her grieving husband later hangs himself. The baron’s young son goes missing on the day of the harvest festival and is found the following morning in the sawmill, bound and thrashed with a cane. A barn at the manor burns down. After the steward's daughter has a violent dream about the midwife's handicapped son, the boy is attacked and almost blinded. The pastor finds his parakeet cruelly impaled after his daughter has opened the bird's cage with a letter opener in hand. The midwife commandeers a bicycle from the schoolteacher to go into town, claiming that she has evidence for the police given to her by her son. She is not seen again, and neither is her son. On the same day, the doctor's family vacates the premises, leaving his practice closed.

The schoolteacher's growing suspicions lead to a confrontation in the rectory, where he suggests to the pastor that his children have severely bullied the weaker in the village. Offended, the pastor immediately threatens him, warning that he will face disciplinary measures if he repeats his accusations again.

The film ends at the time of the declaration of war on Serbia by Austria–Hungary, with the conclusion in church on the day of a visit from the narrator's prospective father-in-law. Disquiet remains in the village but nothing has been discovered and no one accused. The narrator left Eichwald, never to return.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1149362/

Warsaw Dark (2008)

AKA Izolator

Directed by
Christopher Doyle

Writing credits
Christopher Doyle

The film concerns a young prostitute named Ojka (Anna Przybylska) who is with a Polish government official when he’s assassinated one night in Warsaw. She’s then caught by the hit-man, drugged, taken to an apartment and begins to experience a sort of personality replacement programme. Meanwhile the police try to solve the murder and track her down, following a series of number based clues that are ambiguous in origin. Ojka’s experiences locked in the rooms being tormented by this man grow ever more disturbing and masochistic as he breaks her down and she begins to lose her grip on reality.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1142803/

Autumn Ball (2007)

AKA Sügisball

Directed by
Veiko Õunpuu

Writing credits
Mati Unt (novel)
Veiko Õunpuu (screenplay)

A young writer called Mati is stalking his ex-wife, while also trying to make unsuccessful passes at other women. Augusti is a barber living a dreary bachelor life who forms a bond with little girl, but his approaches are misconstrued as pedophilia. Laura, a single mom, tears up over sappy soap operas, but refuses real-life advances from clueless men, because her ability to trust has been ruined by her violent drunk of an ex-husband. Maurer, the architect, worries about the wellbeing of humanity, but ignores his own wife Ulvi, who in turn looks for solace in the arms of a coatroom attendant named Theo. Women have always liked Theo, but due to his low social status, they don't take him seriously. All of these people might inhabit identical tower blocks, but they couldn't feel more alienated from each other if they tried.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0834170/

The Edge of Heaven (2007)

AKA Auf der anderen Seite

Director:
Fatih Akin

Writer:
Fatih Akin

Yeter's Death

Retired widower Ali, a Turkish immigrant living in the German city of Bremen, believes he has found a solution to his loneliness when he meets a Turkish prostitute, Yeter. He offers her a monthly payment to stop working as a prostitute and move in with him. After receiving threats from two Turkish Muslims, she decides to accept his offer. Ali's son Nejat, a professor of German literature, does not have time to respond to the prospect of living with a woman of "easy virtue" before Ali is stricken with a heart attack. He softens to her when he discovers that she sends shoes back home to Turkey for her 27 year old daughter and wishes that her daughter receive an education like him.

Back home from the hospital, Ali suspects that the other two may have become lovers. When his drunken demands of Yeter make her threaten to leave, he strikes her, accidentally killing her. Ali is sent to prison.

Nejat travels to Istanbul to search for Yeter's daughter, Ayten, and assume responsibility for her education. Unable to locate her through her family, he posts flyers of Yeter throughout the area in the hopes that it will lead to the daughter. When he posts a flyer in a small German language bookstore that happens to be for sale, he finds himself charmed into buying it.

Lotte's Death

A plainclothes officer loses his gun on the street during a riot. A hooded figure scoops it up and is pursued on foot by a battalion of uniformed officers, barely managing to hide the contraband on a random rooftop. This is Ayten, a member of a Turkish Communist resistance group.

When her cell is raided, she flees Turkey and takes up a new identity with political allies in Bremen, Germany. However, even there, she has a falling out when she is unable to pay her debts, and thus finds herself on the street with barely a euro to her name. Her mother's number is lost, so she lives illegally and searches for her in local shoe shops.

Lotte, a university student, offers to help her with food, clothes, and a place to stay—a gesture which is not particularly welcomed by her mother, Susanne. Ayten and Lotte become lovers and Lotte decides to help Ayten search for her mother. The quest is cut short when a traffic stop exposes Ayten's illegal status and she attempts a claim of political asylum. Despite Susanne's financial support, Germany rules that Ayten has no legitimate fear of political persecution. She's deported and immediately imprisoned.

Lotte is devastated. She travels to Turkey to try to free Ayten, but quickly realizes how little hope there is, as she is facing 15 to 20 years in jail. Susanne pleads with her to think of her future and return home. When Lotte refuses, her mother refuses to assist her further. Lotte gravitates to Nejat's bookstore and ends up renting a spare room from him.

Finally granted a prison visit with Ayten, Lotte follows her imprisoned lover's request and retrieves the handgun Ayten acquired in the riot. But Lotte's bag, with the gun inside, is snatched by a crew of boys that she chases through their neighborhood. When finally she finds them in a vacant lot, one of the boys is inspecting the gun. She demands he return it, but he points it at her and fires, killing her instantly.

On The Other Side

Upon his release, Ali is deported to Turkey, returning to his property in Trabzon on the Black Sea coast.

After her daughter's death, Susanne goes to Istanbul to see where her daughter had been living the past few months. She meets Nejat and reads her daughter's diary; she decides to take on her daughter's mission of freeing Ayten from prison. Susanne's visit to Ayten—an offer of forgiveness and support—leads the younger woman to exercise her right of repentance. As a result, she wins her freedom.

Susanne asks Nejat about the story behind a Bayram they notice, learning that it commemorates Ibrahim's sacrifice of his son Ishmael. She comments that there is the same story in the Bible, where Abraham is asked to sacrifice his son Isaac. Nejat reminisces about being scared by the story as a child and asking his father if he would sacrifice him if God told him to. When asked by Susanne what his father's answer was, Nejat told her that "He would make God his enemy in order to protect me". Removing the poster of Yeter from the shop's noticeboard, Nejat now journeys to Trabzon to reconcile with his father, asking Suzanne to look after his shop while he is gone.

Susanne offers Ayten a place to stay with her at Nejat's house. Nejat's father is out fishing when he arrives, so he waits for him on the beach in Trabzon.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0880502/

The Mourning Forest (2007)

AKA Mogari no mori

Directed by
Naomi Kawase

Writing credits

Naomi Kawase

The film centers around a 70-year-old man with senile dementia who is living in an old age home in Japan. The Mourning Forest is a sensitive film tracing a senile old man's quixotic pilgrimage to his wife's grave in a forest interlocking a mystical relationship with nature. An old man with depleting memory is cared for by a young woman Machiko, a new nursing recruit, at the retirement/old age home. But her name, which has similar syllables to the name of his wife Mako, who died 33 years before, triggers a passion in him to visit her grave in a forest.

On the 33rd anniversary, according to Japanese Buddhist beliefs, the departed must travel to the land of Buddha — somewhat like the Roman Catholic Christian belief of the dead reaching heaven /hell after a stay in purgatory. The time has come for the couple to part forever unless he bids farewell soon before the anniversary.

The first part of the film introduces the viewer to the two main characters--the nurse and the nursed. Both have suffered personal loss and are grieving — the nurse has lost a child for which her husband holds her responsible; the nursed has lost his wife and evidently never remarried and keeps writing letters to his dead wife that must be "delivered." The nurse dominates the first part. We view the two figures chasing each other between rows of tea bushes, their heads clearly visible over the verdant green landscape. There is warmth of the sun. There is an allusion to life.

The second part inverses the situation. The nursed dominates the nurse. The nursed tricks the smart young woman as he trudges to his wife's grave. Whether the spot is really her grave or not is of little consequence — the act of undertaking the pilgrimage is of consequence as he has to deliver his letters to his wife before 33 years of her death are completed. The forest covers the human figures. There is cold, darkness and mystical overflowing streams that threaten hypothermia. There are definite allusions to death and regeneration. In an interview to a news agency, Kawase said "After the two enter the forest, the forest becomes the force that supports them. It watches over the two of them, sometimes gently, sometimes more strictly." The films title roughly translates to "Forest of Mogari" and at the end of the film the director states the meaning of the term "mogari." Mogari means "the time or act of mourning." Unlike "Away from Her", "Mourning forest" is a film on understanding the richer complexities of life and death. "Running water never returns to its source," says the old man Shigeki to his nurse, words of solace for a young woman to look afresh at her marriage after losing a child. "If sad things happen, you shouldn't be sad about them or fight them, but vow to make the world a better place for children still to be born. That's my message," Kawase told the Reuters news agency At the Cannes festival, director Kawase said she made Mourning Forest because "her grandmother was becoming slightly senile, and today such people are looked down upon somewhat, and pitied, forgetting that it could happen to us someday." Kawase said she hoped viewers would learn kindness and a new way of handling difficulties -- which she said could help people around the world overcome religious and cultural differences. The nurse strips off her clothes to provide warmth to her ward and protect him from hypothermia — an action that would seem unusual to Western sensibilities. There is no sex here; mere practical help in time of need. There are streams that suddenly flood as if they have a life of their own and emerge as a silent character in the film.

There is one Japanese film that is somewhat similar in spirit and content — the 1983 Cannes Golden Palm winner Shohei Imamura's "Ballad of Narayama", where an active and useful old woman is forced to make a last trip up a mountain to fulfill local traditions and her consequent interactions with younger generations in the village.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1016205/

The Man from London (2007)

AKA A Londoni férfi

Directed by
Béla Tarr
Ágnes Hranitzky

Writing credits
Georges Simenon (novel)
Béla Tarr (screenplay)
László Krasznahorkai (screenplay)

The Man from London concerns a middle-aged railway pointsman, Maloin (Miroslav Krobot), who lives in a decrepit apartment in a port town with his highly-strung wife Camélia (Tilda Swinton) and his daughter Henriette (Erika Bók). One night while in his viewing tower at the port's rail terminus, Maloin witnesses a fight on the dockside. One of the shady combatants is knocked into the water along with the briefcase he carries; when the other flees the dark quayside, Maloin makes a clandestine descent from the tower and retrieves the briefcase, which he finds full of sodden English banknotes. Maloin conceals the money and tells no-one of what he has seen. The next morning, he visits a tavern where he plays chess with the barkeep (Gyula Pauer). On his way home, he stops by the butcher's where his daughter works, and finds to his indignance that they have her washing the floor. Later, from the window of his apartment, he notices Brown (János Derzsi) watching him from below. At dinner, Maloin is increasingly irascible, addressing Henriette brusquely and arguing with Camélia. Meanwhile Brown searches the water at the dock's edge without success before noticing the watchtower overlooking the quayside, and Maloin within.

Later at the tavern, a police inspector from London named Morrison (István Lénárt) discusses with Brown the matter of the stolen money. Morrison claims to be working on behalf of a theatre owner named Mitchell, a theatre owner from whose office safe the £55,000 was stolen. Morrison proposes that Brown, being intimately familiar with Mitchell's office, is the only man he knows that was capable of making away with the money without raising alarm. Morrison indicates that Mitchell cares only that the money is returned swiftly, and is even prepared to offer a two night's theatre takings in exchange. When Morrison mentions having visited Brown's wife and asks what he should tell Mitchell, Brown leaves the room under a pretense and slips out a side door. Nearby playing chess with the barkeep, Maloin has overheard the conversation.

Maloin calls to the butcher's and drags Henriette from the store against her will and over the protestations of the butcher's wife (Kati Lázár). He brings her to the tavern for a drink, where he overhears the barkeep telling another patron the story of Brown's meeting with the inspector, revealing that Morrison had called the local police when Brown absconded. Though Henriette refuses her drink, Maloin buys her an expensive mink stole. They return home to the consternation of Camélia, who cannot comprehend why Maloin has ruined Henriette's chances of a job and spent what little savings the family had on the extravagant stole. During Maloin's shift the next night he is visited by Morrison, who questions him as to the previous night's events as the body of the drowned man is retrieved from the quayside below.

The next day at the tavern, Morrison meets Brown's wife (Agi Szirtes), and tells her that Brown is under suspicion for the theft and for the murder at the quayside. He asks for her help in finding him and repeats to her Mitchell's offer to Brown, but she remains silent. At home, Henriette tells Maloin she found a man in their hut at the seaside, and in fear locked the door and ran home. An agitated Maloin tells her not to tell anyone, and leaves for the hut. He unlocks the door, and receiving no response to his calling Brown's name, steps inside, closing the door behind. Minutes later he re-emerges, breathing heavily. After pausing to compose himself, he locks the door and leaves. In the next scene, Maloin presents the briefcase to Morrison in the tavern, and asks him to arrest him, confessing to having killed Brown an hour ago. Morrison leaves with Maloin for the hut, dismissing the frenzied inquiries of Brown's wife about her husband and handing the briefcase to the barkeep on the way out. Brown's wife follows the men to the hut, and emerges weeping with Brown moments later. Back at the tavern, Morrison prepares two envelopes with a small portion of the recovered money in each. One he leaves with the grieving widow to whom he apologises and wishes well, while the other he gives to Maloin, telling him that his case was one of self-defence. As he is preparing to leave, Morrison advises Maloin to go home and forget the whole affair. The camera focuses on the expressionless face of Brown's wife momentarily before fading to white.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0415127/

To Each His Own Cinema (2007)

AKA Chacun son cinéma ou Ce petit coup au coeur quand la lumière s'éteint et que le film commence

Directed by
Theodoros Angelopoulos (segment "Trois Minutes")
Olivier Assayas    (segment "Recrudescence")
Bille August (segment "The Last Dating Show")
Jane Campion (segment "The Lady Bug")
Youssef Chahine (segment "47 Ans Après")
Kaige Chen (segment "Zhanxiou Village")
Michael Cimino (segment "No Translation Needed")
Ethan Coen (segment "World Cinema")
Joel Coen (segment "World Cinema")
David Cronenberg (segment "At the Suicide of the Last Jew in the World in the Last Cinema in the World")
Jean-Pierre Dardenne (segment "Dans l'Obscurité")
Luc Dardenne (segment "Dans l'Obscurité")
Manoel de Oliveira (segment "Rencontre Unique")
Raymond Depardon (segment "Cinéma d'Eté")
Atom Egoyan (segment "Artaud Double Bill")
Amos Gitai (segment "Le Dibbouk de Haifa")
Alejandro González Iñárritu (segment "Anna")
Hsiao-hsien Hou (segment "The Electric Princess House")
Aki Kaurismäki (segment "La Fonderie")
Abbas Kiarostami (segment "Where is my Romeo?")
Takeshi Kitano (segment "One Fine Day")
Andrey Konchalovskiy (segment "Dans le Noir")
Claude Lelouch (segment "Cinéma de Boulevard")
Ken Loach (segment "Happy Ending")
David Lynch (segment "Absurda") (special edition)
Nanni Moretti (segment "Diaro di uno Spettatore")
Roman Polanski (segment "Cinéma Erotique")
Raoul Ruiz (segment "Le Don")
Walter Salles (segment "A 8 944 km de Cannes")
Elia Suleiman (segment "Irtebak")
Ming-liang Tsai (segment "It's a Dream")
Gus Van Sant (segment "First Kiss")
Lars von Trier (segment "Occupations")
Wim Wenders (segment "War in Peace")
Kar Wai Wong (segment "I Travelled 9000 km To Give It To You")
Yimou Zhang (segment "En Regardant le Film")

 

A 2007 French anthology film commissioned for the 60th anniversary of the Cannes Film Festival. The film is a collection of 34 short films, each 3 minutes in length, by 36 acclaimed directors. Representing 5 continents and 25 countries, the filmmakers were invited to express "their state of mind of the moment as inspired by the motion picture theatre".

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0973844/

Syndromes and a Century (2006)

AKA Sang sattawat

Directed by
Apichatpong Weerasethakul

Written by
Apichatpong Weerasethakul

 
The film is a tribute to the director's parents and is divided into two parts, with the characters and dialogue in the second half essentially the same as the first, but the settings and outcome of the stories are different. The first part is set in a hospital in rural Thailand, while the second half is set in a Bangkok medical center.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0477731/

Battle in Heaven (2005)

AKA Batalla en el cielo

Directed by
Carlos Reygadas

Written by
Carlos Reygadas

Marcos (Marcos Hernández) is a working class man in Mexico, employed by "the general." Marcos learns that the baby that he and his wife kidnapped for ransom had accidentally died. The remainder of the film follows a despondent Marcos, seemingly haunted by the moral and/or legal implications of his actions.

Marcos stands next to his wife Berta (Berta Ruiz) at the subway as she sells clocks and sweets at a stand. He travels to the airport to meet the "general's" upper-middle class daughter, Ana (Anapola Mushkadiz) whom he has known since she was a child. Ana orders Marcos to take her to the "boutique" where she works in the sex trade. While driving, Marcos is very distracted, and at one point stalls the car. Ana recognises that something is wrong, but Marcos claims he's distracted only because of his wife's supposed ill health.

Ana invites Marcos into the "boutique" so that he can have sex with one of her "friends." Marcos is apparently not aroused by the "friend." The friend tells Ana that Marcos would prefer her instead. Ana goes to talk to Marcos, and reminds him that they have known each other since her childhood. Marcos then reveals that he and his wife kidnapped a baby but the baby died before they could collect any ransom. Ana seems to remain composed at hearing this news.

Back home, Marcos has sex with his wife, Berta. They seem united in their sorrow regarding the dead baby. Marcos tells Berta that he told Ana about the kidnapped baby, indicating that the confession brought him relief. Berta, upset, demands that he make sure that "the princess" does not tell anyone. The next day, Marcos visits Ana. She seems annoyed by his visit, but drives him to her place where they have sex. Ana advises Marcos to turn himself in to the police.

Marcos, Berta, their son, and a few friends (including the mother of the dead baby, who does not know who took her child, nor that it has died) go out to the countryside. Marcos tells Berta that he is going to turn himself in. She asks him to wait until after the pilgrimage (which is in honor of the Lady of Guadalupe), an event that Marcos had earlier shown disdain for. Marcos seems to agree with his wife. Marcos' mental state seems to worsen. Instead of driving back with his party, he treks through the countryside. He reaches a peak with Christian crosses, overlooking a valley. Marcos buries his face in his hands.

Marcos visits Ana at her home. He tells her that he will turn himself into the police that day. She gives him a goodbye kiss. Marcos leaves the apartment. He pees his pants, goes back to the apartment and fatally stabs Ana.

The police become aware of both the attack on Ana and the death of the baby, and are in search for Marcos. Marcos seems to have joined the pilgrimage to the Basilica, at first on foot, and then on his knees. Someone places a hood over his face, but Marcos continues to hobble forward. The hood becomes increasingly stained with blood as he makes his way into the Basilica during the church service.

Eventually the pilgrims are gone, and the Basilica is vacant. The police allow Berta to go in to see her husband. She touches him on the head and he collapses.

Not counting the opening and ending credits, the film begins and ends with Ana giving Marcos oral sex.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0387055/

Samaritan Girl (2004)

AKA Samaria

Directed by
Ki-duk Kim

Writing credits
Ki-duk Kim

In an early episode of Kim Ki-duk’s Samaritan Girl (2004), the adolescent Jae-yeong (Min-jeong Seo) tells her classmate and best friend Yeo-jin (Ji-min Kwak) the tale of an Indian prostitute named Vasumitra whose clients, as the curious legend goes, became devout Buddhists after their sexual encounter with her. It is an innocuous topic of conversation that takes on an inherently disagreeable tone within the context of their troubling activity, as the demure Yeo-jin helps the more uninhibited Jae-yeong apply make-up in preparation for a rendezvous with an older client, a transactional “date” arranged by Yeo-jin on her friend’s behalf (albeit using her own name) through an online chat. The fanciful Jae-yeong interprets the anecdotal spiritual awakening as a testament to Vasumitra’s feminine prowess, and it is this naive belief in sexuality’s nurturing, revelatory potential that seems to embolden Jae-yeong into following through with their sordid enterprise. Determined to reach their superficial goal of earning enough money to be able to travel to Europe, and seemingly obsessed with the mythical prostitute’s powers of transfiguration, Jae-yeong exhibits a fearlessness (or perhaps, wanton disregard) of consequence that, one afternoon, in the presence of her trusted lookout Yeo-jin, will lead to an irrational and tragic leap of faith.

The recurring theme of transcendence through a transformative encounter defines the course of the film, as Yeo-jin attempts to come to terms with her complicity in Jae-yeong’s incomprehensible act by retracing her friend’s liaisons through a meticulously kept personal diary that had also served as an account of their financial progress towards their hoped-for European trip. Contacting each client under the familiar pretence of shared intimate history, Yeo-jin embarks on a guilt-ridden journey of sexual and financial restitution: arranging to reunite with each of Jae-yeong’s “dates”, consummating their transaction, revealing the plight of the “first” Yeo-jin, then concluding their meeting by returning the money once given to her friend by them. Her unexpectedly sincere, obliquely Samaritan act proves cathartic to the thoughtless, exploitative clients, turning their seemingly inconsequential dalliance with the under-aged prostitute into a humbling moment of reckoning for the transgressions and emptiness in their own lives. However, as Yeo-jin perseveres in her humiliating, delusive obsession with self-atonement, the toll becomes even more unbearable for her doting father, a widowed police detective named Yeong-ki (Eol Lee) who, already grieving from the senseless death of his wife (a still unsolved, ongoing police investigation), becomes an inadvertent witness to his only child’s unfathomable descent into prostitution: a discovery that ironically occurs as he investigates the crime scene of a violently murdered young woman – most likely, another under-aged prostitute – in an opposite room of a similarly decorated love motel. Consumed by a sense of impotence over his daughter’s debasement and corruption, he begins to follow Yeo-jin as she conducts her bizarre, invariable after-school routine.

Consisting of three chapters, “Vasumitra”, “Samaria” and “Sonata”, and exploring such spiritually fundamental themes as sin, moral bankruptcy and atonement, the film suggests a cursory – but fitting – modern-day parallel to the tripartite structure and redemptive themes of Dante Alighieri’s epic narrative poem, The Divine Comedy. Set in the alienating urban landscape of contemporary Seoul (although its human desolation could be typical of any despiritualised, materialistic society), The Samaritan Girl is a figurative descent into the soulless, impersonal spaces of anonymous Internet chat rooms, tawdry love motels, and secluded public parks (which seem to be populated more by statues than by real people). These are the spaces that Jae-yeong inhabits in a misguided quest for connection and material gain, and that Yeo-jin must later traverse in order to expiate her own feelings of culpability. Moreover, the film is also a chronicle of spiritual dilemma, intrinsic to the sentiment of wishing to bear another person’s burden (and more broadly, of Catholic guilt) that motivates the actions of both the prodigal daughter, Yeo-jin, and, subsequently, her father Yeong-ki. It is this figurative Christ-like cross-bearing for the perceived sins of others that is illustrated in the indelible image of Yeo-jin carrying a critically injured, partially clothed Jae-yeong on piggyback through the crowded city streets to seek medical assistance at a nearby hospital (a martyr image that recalls a foreshadowing shot of a Sacred Heart picture displayed on Yeo-jin’s dresser mantle).

The title of the concluding chapter, “Sonata”, provides a further useful insight into the thematic structure of the film. Alluding through this title to the contrasting movements within a single musical composition, the film is also an illustration of contrasting reactions to similar transgressions. The recurring images of cleansing between Jae-yeong and Yeo-jin are intimate, supportive, and even purgative. In contrast, the image of Yeo-jin’s shower after leaving the hospital – later recalled in a similar shot of Yeong-ki – is devastating, isolated and bereft. In essence, while Yeo-jin and Yeong-ki can see past the failings and imperfections of others, they cannot forgive themselves. Inasmuch as Yeo-jin serves as a passive and enabling protector of Jae-yeong in her seemingly voluntary exploitation, Yeong-ki’s responsibility as his daughter’s guardian and omnipresent watcher becomes more complex and inescapable. Resorting to dispensing small doses of anecdotal parable and recounting cryptic, Fatima-like visions of apocalypse to a preoccupied Yeo-jin as he drives her to school, Yeong-ki does not confront his daughter with his shattering discovery; instead, he turns his grief inward and begins to confront his daughter’s “dates” after their encounters with her. Casting the proverbial first stone onto the car windows of a married businessman (whose daughter is later revealed to be older than Yeo-jin) in a secluded field, Yeong-ki’s innately protective paternal role turns from brooding sentinel to avenging angel.

In the final shot of Samaritan Girl: the errant sight of a wobbling, out of control car struggling to chase a sports utility vehicle through a flooded gravel road in the rural countryside, doggedly navigating the inhospitable terrain using an innate compass that elusively, but transfixedly, points home.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0397619/

Hidden (2005)

AKA Caché

Directed by
Michael Haneke

Writing credits
Michael Haneke

The quiet life of a Paris family is disturbed when they receive a series of surveillance tapes of their own residence from an anonymous source. Georges Laurent (Daniel Auteuil) is the successful host of a French literary TV programme, living with his wife Anne (Juliette Binoche), a book publisher, and their school-age son Pierrot (Lester Makedonsky). Unmarked videocassettes arrive on their doorstep, tapes that show extended observation of their home's exterior from a static street camera that is never noticed. At first passive and harmless, but later accompanied by crude, disturbing crayon drawings, the tapes lead to questions about Georges' early life that disrupt both his work and marriage. But because the tapes do not contain an open threat, the police refuse to help the family.

One videotape leads Georges to the modest HLM apartment of an Algerian man named Majid (Maurice Bénichou), whose parents worked for Georges' family when they were young. When his parents were killed in the Paris massacre of 1961, Majid remained with Georges and his parents, who intended to adopt Majid into their family. Georges confronts Majid about the tapes, but he denies involvement. However, the encounter intensifies his guilty flashbacks and recurring nightmares of a young Majid spitting blood, cutting off a rooster's head, and menacing him.

One day Pierrot does not come home from school and Anne cannot locate him. Georges and Anne suspect that Majid has kidnapped him. They go to the police, who accompany Georges to Majid's apartment. There they find Majid's son (Walid Afkir), and father and son both deny knowledge of the kidnapping. The police arrest them but they are released the next morning. On the same morning, Pierrot returns. He had spent the night at a friend's house without telling anyone. When Anne scolds Pierrot, he accuses her of committing adultery. In an earlier scene, we saw a distressed Anne permitting a few romantic caresses from Pierre, a family friend.

Georges returns to Majid's apartment at his invitation, and, after stating that he had nothing to do with the surveillance, Majid says he wanted Georges to be present for what follows: he kills himself by slashing his own throat. Now Anne insists Georges explain the whole story with Majid, and he tells her of the time they spent living in the same household so many years ago. He was six years old when he tricked Majid into cutting off the head of a rooster, then told his parents that Majid did this to scare him. This sufficiently disturbed his parents that they sent Majid to an orphanage.

Majid's son confronts Georges next. He denies involvement with the tapes, while Georges denies responsibility for his father's unhappiness and death. Majid's son says he only wanted to know how Georges felt about being the cause of his father's death, and Georges angrily leaves. Georges goes home, takes two sleeping pills, and goes to bed.

A man and woman arrive at Georges' childhood home in a 1960s-model car. They enter the house, returning momentarily with an Arab boy who protests, resists getting in the car, and runs away before he's finally caught and overcome by the man. He's forced into the back seat with the woman and the man drives the car away.

Under the credits, Pierrot and Majid's son meet in front of Pierrot's school, though their conversation cannot be heard. Majid's son leaves, as does Pierrot with a couple of his friends soon after.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0387898/

Three Times (2005)

AKA 最好的時光 (Zuì hǎo de shí guāng)

Directed by
Hsiao-hsien Hou

Writing credits
T'ien-wen Chu
Hsiao-hsien Hou

Three stories set in three times, 1911, 1966 and 2005. Two actors (Qi Shu and Chen Chang) play the two main characters in each story:

A Time for Love
(Chinese: 戀愛夢; pinyin: liàn ài mèng) Set in Kaohsiung in 1966, with dialogue in Taiwanese Hokkien.

A Time for Freedom
(Chinese: 自由夢; pinyin: zì yóu mèng) Set in Dadaocheng in 1911, with dialogue presented only through on-screen captions.

A Time for Youth
(Chinese: 青春夢; pinyin: qīng chūn mèng) Set in Taipei in 2005, with dialogue in Mandarin.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0459666/

3-Iron (2004)

AKA 빈집, Bin-jip

Directed by
Ki-duk Kim

Written by
Ki-duk Kim

Tae-suk (Jae Hee) is a loner who drives around on his motorbike, taping takeout menus over the keyholes of front doors and breaking into apartments where the menus have not been removed. He lives in the apartments while the owners are away, even washing their clothes and mending broken appliances for them. When he breaks into one large home, he is unaware that he is being watched by an abused housewife Sun-hwa (played by Lee Seung-yeon). Tae-suk leaves after he makes eye contact with Sun-haa, but returns after silently contemplating on the roadside. He witnesses Sunwha's husband abusing her and proceeds to catch his attention by practicing golf in the yard. He hits Sunwha's husband with golf balls and then leaves with Sun-hwa. The couple begin a silent relationship, moving from one apartment to another. At one home, after drinking, they are caught by the returning owners, sleeping in their bed and wearing their pajamas.

The couple gets into trouble with the law when they break into the home of an elderly man, who they discover to have died alone and proceed to give him a proper burial. When the man's son and daughter-in-law arrive at the apartment, they assume that Tae-suk and Sun-hwa killed him. They are interrogated at the police station but remain steadfastly silent; Sun-hwa's husband arrives and takes her back home. Despite an autopsy of the man reveals he died of lung cancer and the great care shown in burying the body, Sun-hwa's husband bribes the policeman in charge of the investigation to allow him to similarily hit Tae-suk with golf balls. Tae-suk ends up attacking the police officer and is sent to jail, where he practices golf with an imaginary club and balls and develops his gifts for stealth and concealment (to the frustration of his jailers). After being released from prison, invisible to her husband's eyes, Tae-suk rejoins Sun-hwa in her house. Sun-hwa appears to say "I love you" to her husband, but reaches out for Tae-suk. Tae Suks skills involve staying out of his jailers line of sight and peripheral vision and he does this as he stays behind Sun Hwas husband, moving as he turns and grabbing food from the dinner table and kissing Sun Hwa over her husbands shoulder (seen in the poster) as he leaves on another business trip. After he leaves, Sun Hwa and him embrace, kissing deeply.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0423866/

Japan (2002)

AKA Japón

Directed by
Carlos Reygadas

Written by
Carlos Reygadas

 

The film follows a man going through an acute existential crisis. He leaves Mexico City to go to camp and prepare for his death, staying with an old Indian widow in her ramshackle home overlooking a desolate canyon. In the vastness of a wild and impressive nature, he confronts the infinite humanity of the widow and oscillates between cruelty and lyricism. His senses become dull, arousing his desires and instincts for life and sexuality.

 
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0322824/

Distant (2002)

AKA Uzak

Directed by
Nuri Bilge Ceylan

Written by
Cemil Kavukçu (additional writing)
Nuri Bilge Ceylan (scenario)

Uzak tells the story of Yusuf (Mehmet Emin Toprak), a young factory worker who loses his job and travels to Istanbul to stay with his relative Mahmut (Muzaffer Özdemir) while looking for a job. Mahmut is a relatively wealthy and intellectual photographer, whereas Yusuf is almost illiterate, uneducated, and unsophisticated. The two do not get along well. Yusuf assumes that he will easily find work as a sailor, but there are no jobs, and he has no sense of direction or energy. Meanwhile, Mahmut, despite his wealth, is aimless too: his job, which consists of photographing tiles, is dull and inartistic, he can barely express emotions towards his ex-wife or his lover, and while he pretends to enjoy intellectual filmmakers like Andrei Tarkovsky, he switches channels to watch porn as soon as Yusuf leaves the room.

Mahmut attempts to bond with Yusuf and recapture his love of art by taking him on a drive to photograph the beautiful Turkish countryside, but the attempt is a failure on both counts. At the end of the film, Yusuf leaves without telling Mahmut, who is left to sit by the docks, watching the ships on his own.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0346094/

Funny Games (1997)

Directed by
Michael Haneke

Writing credits
Michael Haneke

The film begins with a wealthy German family - Georg (Ulrich Mühe), his wife Anna (Susanne Lothar), his son Georgie (Stefan Clapczynski), and their dog Rolfi - arriving at their Austrian lake house. They spot their next-door neighbor Fred (Christoph Bantzer) accompanied by two young Viennese men, Peter (Frank Giering) and Paul (Arno Frisch), one of whom Fred introduces as the son of a friend while paying a visit. The two men begin imposing themselves on the family's courtesy, and in the process destroy their phone and ruin all their eggs. Eventually a frustrated Anna demands that the men leave, asking Georg to eject them from the premises. Paul kills Rolfi, Peter breaks Georg's leg with the latter's golf club, and the two men take the family hostage, forcing it to participate in a number of sadistic games in order to stay alive.

Paul asks if the family wants to bet that they will be alive by 09:00 in the morning, though he doubts that they will win. Between playing their games, the two men keep up a constant patter, and Paul frequently ridicules Peter's weight and lack of intelligence. He describes a number of contradicting stories of Peter's past, though no definitive explanation is ever presented as to the men's origins or motives. When some of the family's other neighbors arrive for a visit, Anna passes the men off as friends until the visitors leave - much in the same way Fred did at the beginning of the film. Georgie eventually escapes to the house next door, but finds the family dead. He attempts to shoot Paul with a shotgun, but it is not loaded. Paul returns him to the house, along with the gun. After a few more games, Peter plays a counting-out game between the family members and shoots Georgie while Paul is in the kitchen. Both intruders leave.

Georg and Anna weep for their loss, but eventually resolve to survive. Anna flees the house while Georg, with a broken leg, tries to get help with the malfunctioning phone. Anna struggles to find help, but eventually Peter and Paul reappear, capture her, and return to the house. They kill Georg and take Anna out on the family's boat early the next morning. Around eight o'clock, Paul casually throws the bound Anna into the water to drown, thus winning their bet. They dock at the house of the neighbors that had previously visited the family, and request some eggs, thereby restarting their cycle of murder.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119167/