Foreign Cinema

Francisco de Assis Chateaubriand Bandeira de Mello was a Brazilian lawyer, journalist and businessman. For decades he was also the power behind the throne of dictators and legally elected presidents alike – a true kingmaker in early to mid 20th century - thanks to the powerful media empire he created, starting with newspapers, branching out into radio and, finally, bringing television to Brazil.

You could call Come What May a semi-epic war story. It does not have big battle scenes focusing instead on how the epic battles affect ordinary citizens.

Meet Dounia, a petite tough and brash mixed race teenager from the eastern Parisian suburbs. Restless, reckless and rebellious, she is obsessed with making of lot of money, the only way out of her dreary life in the projects and a gloomy future.

Should this film remind you somewhat of Ida, a Golden Globe Award nominee from Poland, you would have some justification. Both stories take place in Poland in the presence of Soviet troops and in a convent for nuns.

There was an an eruption of joy and a sense of unity among Palestinians worldwide when 23-year-old singer from Gaza, Mohammad Assaf, won the Arab Idol competition in 2013. Among the jubilant celebrators was Golden Globe-winning Palestinian director, Hany Abu Assad, who saw Assaf as more than just a singer but a national icon and a source of pride and hope for his people.

On Tanna, a South Pacific island nation in the Vanuatu archipelago, Wawa, a young girl from one of the last remaining traditional tribes, falls in love with her chief’s grandson, Dain. When an intertribal war escalates, Wawa, unbeknownst to her, is  betrothed as part of a peace deal.

How to stay true to yourself? The Finnish movieThe Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki delves into this universal dilemma. The film is based on a true story that follows the featherweight boxer’s (Jarkko Lahti) grueling training regimen and demanding PR campaign before his championship fight against the American titleholder Davey Moore (John Bosco Jr).

The Ploy (La Macchinazione) by Italian director David Grieco, recounts the last days of director/poet/writer Pier Paolo Pasolini, who was assassinated on the outskirts of Rome on a November night in 1975. His death is still shrouded in mystery, and the film's authors seems to believe in a conspiracy theory: Pasolini was not savagely murdered by just one person during a sexual encounter, but rather was the victim of a well plotted conspiracy.

Winner of the Silver Bear at the last Berlinale, Things To Come is French director Mia Hansen-Love’s fifth film since 2007. In less than ten years she has proven a unique voice in the French cinema landscape, bringing her distinctive, moody fluidity and approach that often evoke Nouvelle Vague masters Eric Rohmer and Philippe Garrel.

It was said that Tonio, the novel, simply couldn’t be turned into a feature film. The bestelling book by Dutch literary giant A.