World Cinema

Landing director Ken Loach a Palme D’Or at the 2006 Cannes film festival, The Wind That Shakes the Barley charts the IRA’s attempts to oust the British in the early 1920s and the civil war that followed the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922.

The film opens in 1920 as newly-qualified doctor Damien O’Donovan (Cillian Murphey) abandons his plans to find work in a London hospital after he witnesses the brutal murder of his childhood friend by British Black and Tan troops. Along with his brother Teddy (Pádraic Delaney), Damian joins a “flying column” of the embryonic IRA, which exploits its superior knowledge of the Irish countryside to take pot shots at unsuspecting British troops. As the brothers’ zeal increases, so do their acts of violence, which include the shooting of unarmed British landlords and childhood friends who have aligned themselves with the occupying nation.

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Released in 1990, Wong Kar-Wai’s Days of Being Wild won numerous awards in Asia and established the Hong Kong film maker as a world player, despite dissapointing box office ratings when it initially came to cinemas. It is also the first film in which the director collaborated with longtime cinematographer Christopher Doyle, whose use of light and shadow, contrasted with a vibrant colour palette, have become the pair’s trademark.

The camera opens on Yuddy, an arrogant, drifting playboy. He is out to woo the shy and apprehensive Su Li Zhen who works nights at the local stadium. Yuddy is relentless, and warns Li Zhen that the moment she gives into his advances - 3pm on June 16th, 1960, to be precise - will be forever graven on her mind. It is a scene of intense, intoxicating romance, which exemplifies the masterful use of intimate shots, heightened sounds and interplay of light and shadow which made Wong his name. The humidity is palpable as the lovers’ sweaty faces glow n the half-light, consumed with a deadly passion that deceives as it overwhelms.

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Based on a real-life incident at a California high school in 1967, Dennis Gansel’s cautionary thriller takes a disturbing look at fascism’s ongoing appeal.

Set in an affluent German town, The Wave sees hip schoolteacher Rainer Wenger tackle the subject of ‘autocracy’ for a school project week by creating his own mini-dictatorship in the classroom. He sets himself up as commander-in-chief with his pupils assuming the role of dedicated followers. Initially sceptical, the teenagers soon embrace the idea enthusiastically, choosing a uniform for the group, giving it a name (The Wave), designing a logo which they later spray-paint all over town, and greeting each other with a secret handshake. By working together they establish new friendships, become more creative and achieve more academically.

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Set largely in Afghanistan before the events of 9/11 and spanning the fall of the monarchy, the Soviet invasion and the Taliban regime, The Kite Runner is a compelling story of two boys growing up during these tumultuous times. Adapted from Khaled Hosseini’s bestselling novel about guilt and redemption, the film explores the factions and friendships that exist between different Muslim groups of both moderates and extremists. Its mostly inexperienced cast speak in a mixture of Dari, Pashtu and Urdu as well as English.

The film begins in Kabul before the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, where two young boys from very different backgrounds form a close friendship. Amir (Zekeria Ebrahimi), is the son of a wealthy landowner who loves to write and is cowardly when it comes to fending off bullies; Hassan (Ahmad Khan Mahmoodzada) is a servant in the household of Amir’s father. Though smaller than Amir, slingshot in hand, he is ready to protect him at any moment. The two play together, read together, fly kites together - they are inseparable.

When one day Hassan is brutally attacked by older children in the neighbourhood, Amir’s cowardliness gets the better of him. He watches in horror but does nothing. Wracked with guilt, Amir persuades Hassan to leave his fathers’ service, and spends the rest of his life atoning for his misdemeanour.

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The Edge of Heaven is a story about people. Ordinary, beautiful, alluring, pitiable people with rough edges. Sometimes they’re also horrible, rude, filthy, unlovable. Which is why it’s also a story about repentance and reconciliation, forgiveness and hope. In it two worlds which by appearances can seem so different, so impenetrable to each other, collide and interweave. It is one of those films of interlocking narrative strands, which still fail to tie up at the end. Or rather, they fail to tie up for the characters, for they lack vital information to which we are privy.

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Anyone who’s seen Lean on Me, Dead Poets Society or Mr Holland’s Opus will know the story. A class of unruly/disillusioned/neglected kids are introduced to a teacher whose influence will forever change their lives. This will require a new approach and some radical ideas, which will inevitably irritate the stuffier establishment until behaviour improves, results go up and the kids have a new zeal for learning and life.

This time the teacher’s name is Clément Mathieu (Gérard Jugnot), a middle aged bachelor and failed musician who has come to work at the Fond de l’Etang boarding school. Roughly translated “bottom of the pond”, the name says it all. The boys are considered as pond scum - too unruly for ordinary schools, unwanted and unloved. The camera adores the fair-headed Pierre (Jean-Baptiste Maunier), a troublemaker with the voice of an angel. Mathieu is also new to the school, and when he hears the boys singing his eyes light up. He decides to start a choir, which will give the boys a focus and keep them out of trouble.

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Based on the autobiographical graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi, Persepolis is an animated coming-of-age tale set against the backdrop of the Iranian revolution. Told through the eyes of a child (as reflected in Satrapi’s simplistic yet expressive black-and-white artwork), the story gives a potted history of modern Iran and shows how the various political upheavals affect her own liberal-minded family on a personal and often tragic level.

Though based in a Middle-Eastern context, Satrapi’s film is truly universal in its appeal and sentiment. After translations of the original novel met with worldwide success, Satrapi told the New York Times, “Suddenly I said to myself, ‘This is a universal story.’ I want to show that all dictatorships, no matter if it’s Chile, the Cultural Revolution in China or communist Poland, it’s the same schematic.”

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In I’ve Loved You So Long, writer and first-time director Philippe Claudel offers an intelligent, powerfully emotional drama about pain and healing, loss and redemption.

Kristin Scott Thomas stars as Juliette, who has just been released from prison after serving a 15 years for a crime which isn’t revealed at first, but which we gather is pretty terrible. Her estranged sister Léa (Else Zylberstein), a literature professor at the University of Nancy, agrees to let Juliette stay at her home which is shared by her husband Luc (Serge Hazanavicius), ailing father-in-law Papy Paul (Jean-Claude Arnaud) and two adopted daughters from Vietnam (Lise Segur and Liliy-Rose).

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Zhang Ziyi, Tony Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro star in this epic tale of duty and passion from Chinese director Zhang Yimou (Hero, Red Sorghum). When translated into English, the film’s Mandarin title (Shi Mian Mai Fu) literally means ‘Ambushed from Ten Directions’. It’s the perfect description of this martial arts love story, whose main trio is both supported and attacked by numerous warring factions.

The year is 859 AD and the great Tang dynasty is waning. Numerous rebel groups are gaining strength, including the infamous House of Flying Daggers. Though the group’s old leader was captured and killed, a new one has risen in his place, his identity unknown. Jin (Kaneshiro) and Leo (Lau), two police chiefs, have been ordered to kill the mysterious leader within ten days.

Their first port of call is a teahouse, home of the blind dancer Mei (Zhang) who is thought to be the dead leader’s daughter. (more…)

Toying with ideas of prejudice, loneliness and redemption, Eden tells the story of a reclusive chef whose greatest pleasure is creating dishes that arouse people to dizzying heights of pleasure.

Eden opens with a grotesque scene of a fat chef, Gregor (Josef Ostendorf), skinning a furry animal with sensual relish before chucking large chunks of meat into a pan. We next meet him in a local café, engaged in the second of his two hobbies: ogling the local waitresses. Strolling in the park after his habitual espresso, our friend rescues a disabled girl from drowning in the fountain and returns her to her mother, Eden (Charlotte Roche), who is none other than the waitress who served him. (more…)