BREATHING (Atmen) (2011) 90min
Director: Karl Markovics
Country: Austria
The remarkably assured directorial debut from veteran Austrian actor Karl
Markovics (THE COUNTERFEITERS) creates a slipstream between the
perilousness of youth and the inevitability of death. Roman (Thomas Schubert) is
an inmate at a juvenile detention center whose last hope of parole rests on his
ability to hold down a job as a morgue assistant. Remorse, horror and ultimately
a glimmer of illumination are cultivated through his work and his attempts to
connect with a life hanging in the balance. BREATHING is a Kino Lorber release.
CRULIC: THE PATH TO BEYOND (2011) 73min
Director: Anca Damian
Country: Romania
When Claudiu Crulic, a young Romanian in Poland, is arrested for a crime he
didn’t commit, he becomes a pawn in a Kafkaesque miscarriage of justice and
goes on a hunger strike to protest his treatment in jail. Filmmaker Anca Damian’s
documentary is by turns chilling and heartbreaking, but also ironic, with a bit of
black humor thrown in for good measure. What makes her extraordinary
documentary even more compelling is its strong visual style: Damian uses hand
drawn, cutout and collage animation techniques to create a strikingly memorable
film.
FOUND MEMORIES (Historias Que So Existem Quando Lembradas) (2011)
98min
Director: Julia Murat
Country: Brazil
The original title, which translates as "stories that only exist when remembered,"
beautifully expresses the theme and core sentiment of Julia Murat's film. FOUND
MEMORIES is a poetic rendering of the fictive town of Jotuomba. A magical
confluence of generations and cultures is occasioned by the visit of Julia, a
young photographer, to this place where time has seemingly stood still and life is
rooted in the fixed roles of tradition soon to be rendered obsolete. FOUND
MEMORIES is a Film Movement release.
LAS ACACIAS (2011) 85min
Director: Pablo Giorgelli
Country: Argentina
A road movie with a difference, LAS ACACIAS takes a 900-mile trip from
Asunción, Paraguay to Buenos Aires, with a gruff, taciturn truck driver and the
two illegal immigrants—a young woman, and her newborn daughter—he is
reluctantly transporting. Largely confined to the cramped confines of the truck’s
cab, Giorgelli’s camera observes the miles passing, and the quiet, subtly evolving
interaction of the trio, while borders are crossed (in more than one sense) and
the driver gradually lowers his defenses and finds himself becoming
unexpectedly attached to his passengers.
OSLO, AUGUST 31ST (2011) 96min
Director: Joachim Trier
Country: Norway
Daylight lingers at the end of August in Oslo, but sunlight is not a friend to
Anders, a semi-recovered addict, facing a new life which may not be appealing
without former habits. Joachim Trier's first feature, REPRISE, was a critical
highlight of New
Directors/New Films 2007, and while that antic fiction was about
friendship and hope, his second is quite different, bearing traces of Robert
Bresson. Adapted from the same novel as Louis Malle's THE FIRE WITHIN
(1963), this subtle and haunting film follows Anders, as he tries to adjust - making
love, wandering through Oslo, having a job interview, seeing old friends, and
trying to get comfortable with his situation.
PORFIRIO (2011) 101min
Director: Alejandro Landes
Country: Colombia
Paralyzed from the waist down by a stray police bullet, the title character in
Alejandro Landes' remarkable film spends his days selling minutes on his cell
phone when not flirting with his comely neighbor, and secretly plotting his
revenge. Landes worked on the film for five years, creating a tale that joined the
most intimate details of Porfirio's day-to-day life with an astonishing re-creation of
his attempt to hijack an airplane.
TWILIGHT PORTRAIT (2011) 105min
Director: Angelina Nikonova
Country: Russia
TWILIGHT PORTRAIT is a powerhouse collaboration co-written and coproduced by Angelina Nikonova, who directed, and Olga Dihovichnaya, who
stars in this very dark, provocative and constantly surprising debut feature film. In
a modern Russian city where corruption, apathy and class warfare are the norm,
a woman is raped, rather casually by the police. What follows explodes the
conventions of sexual politics—and will certainly have film-goers talking. This
staggering film features great performances and an unvarnished view of life in
the age of Putin.
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