News

There is no doubt about it: this is Fahrije’s story. The face of a middle-aged woman, beautiful but grim and framed by long dark hair, is what we first see on screen.

Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story debuted to mild box office numbers despite its critical acclaim: $10. 5 million.

The world of professional soccer has always thrived on the talents of superstars like Pele, Beckham, Messi, and Renaldo. But the search is always on for the next big talent.

On the brink of middle age, 40-year-old Daniel (Antonio Saboia) has been suspended from the police force after a deadly episode that occurred while he was in training. The son of a military man, Daniel feels lost and useless, running loops in the streets of Curitiba, one of Brazil’s most prosperous southern cities.

An erotic drama that plumbs the psyche of someone infatuated with an unavailable partner, director Danielle Arbid’s Simple Passion was slated to make its world premiere at Cannes in 2020 before the global pandemic scuttled plans for that festival. Instead, the movie bowed at the Toronto International Film Festival later in the year, before enjoying a slate of complementary festival presentations in San Sebastian, Moscow, Busan, and elsewhere, followed by its theatrical release this year.

Based on the book of the same name by Olavi Ruitlane (who also serves as screenwriter), the story of On the Water revolves around the adventures and misfortunes of Andres (Rasmus Ermel), a shy teen growing up under the guidance of his caring grandmother (Maria Klenskaja) and his cynical and grumpy grandfather (Kalju Orro) because his father disappeared in Russia and his mother fled to Sweden. Andres lives in Vörud County, in Soviet-occupied Estonia in 1982, at the end of Leonid Brezhnev´s rule.

In Jurgis Matulevičius’ noir tale Isaac, violence has no beginning or end. In line with The Painted Bird (2019) or this year’s Captain Volkonogov Escaped, the film meanders through the obscure halls of reciprocal crime, guilt, regret.

The Sundance Film Fest has always been a star-maker. More directors and actors have had their breakout in the cold mountains of Utah than at any other festival in the world.

France, 1963. 20-year-old promising literary student Anne (Anamaria Vartolomei, in a compellingly intense performance), unexpectedly gets pregnant.

In his most autobiographical film to date, The Hand of God, Golden Globe winner (in 2014 for The Great Beauty) Paolo Sorrentino returns to his hometown, Naples, where 20 years ago he shot his first movie, One Man Up (L’uomo in piu’).  In The Hand of God, produced and distributed by Netflix, Fabietto (talented newcomer Filippo Scotti) is an adolescent surrounded by an eccentric family, with a voluptuous aunt who is the object of sexual desire for all the young men around, an adoring mother (Teresa Saponangelo) and father (Toni Servillo, protagonist of many of Sorrentino’s films, including The Great Beauty and Il Divo), a loved older brother and a mysterious sister, who remains locked up in the bathroom until the very end of the film.