World Cinema

Narrative Short. LE PETIT NUAGE is first in the feature-length anthology of 7 SHORT FILMS ABOUT LOVE. Each short will be filmed in a different country and share the central theme of love. While working lighting the set of THE ARTIST, Renée George was inspired by the warmth and charm of that story and her own passion for directing was re-ignited. Renee created a cinematic response with her own black and white silent film, an homage to the beauty of early cinema.

The last request of deceased playwright Antoine d’Anthac, that his favorite actors watch a taped performance of his play Eurydice, doesn’t go exactly as planned in this witty, self-conscious work from French auteur Alain Resnais. The assembled celebrities, playing themselves, have all previously appeared in the same play, so it’s only a matter of time before they abandon the screening to put on a show themselves. You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet, which premiered at Cannes 2012, is a magnificent ode to honoring the past while living in the present.

A Russian tank driver returns to battle with a singular mission of destroying the deadliest tank in the Nazi arsenal – the terrifying White Tiger. To counter this powerful threat, the Soviet army builds their own version of the heavy-duty tank. When it comes time to select someone to finally take down the White Tiger, there’s only one man for the job. An entertaining, action packed revenge fantasy, White Tiger’s stylish, battle hewn thriller ride will sate the explosive tastes of any worthy filmgoer.

Jens Kessler, an RAF fighter who recently was released from prison after serving an 18-year sentence, attempts to spend his first free weekend reconnecting with family and friends. But the homecoming celebration is abruptly cut short. Attending the party is Jens’ former lover, Inga and her husband, who together rekindle his earlier aggressive passions, and start him on a hunt for the person who first turned him in to the police. The Weekend is a tense, morally-complex thriller with a not-to be missed finale.

After a tragic accident he’d just as soon forget, Nihat takes a post at a forest watchtower, where he meets a student who’s also on the run from a dark past. Over time the two become close, only to have their histories threaten to tear them apart. Through vivid character study, this slow burner from Pelin Esmer (10 to 11) observes the myriad challenges faced by a country unsure of its place in the world.

This eerie, existential drama based on the German bestseller follows a middle-aged woman and her dog who, during a short mountain getaway, become trapped by an invisible force field and have to fend for themselves. Martina Gedeck (The Lives of Others) puts in a brilliant performance as the isolated protagonist struggling for both answers and survival. As months go by, she settles into her new life, until an unexpected visit turns her world upside down.

Violeta Went To Heaven, a biopic of popular Chilean folk singer Violeta Parra, combines an unconventional structure with visceral storytelling to provide a new perspective on the artist’s infamous life. The film places heavy emphasis on Parra’s childhood, her journey through Europe, and her failed relationship with Swiss musician Gilbert Favre, to create a near complete understanding of Parra’s ascendency to national prominence, and her tragic fall from grace. The film won the World Cinema Dramatic Jury Prize at Sundance.

Three 12-year-old boys living in a children’s home in Port-au-Prince escape to the streets after the 2010 earthquake. Best friends Mickenson, Pierre, and Vitaleme set up camp stick together like brothers. After a mishap on a borrowed motorbike, Mickenson and Pierre are taken to a care center for children. Vitaleme finds them, but is not as willing to reenter the system. Made on location with a nonprofessional cast and documentary feel, Three Kids is based the lives of today’s children in Haiti.

A solitary philosophy student steers his directionless life toward the commission of a violent crime, spurred on by postmodern musings and a post-Soviet order characterized by growing inequality. Inspired by Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, director Darezhan Omirbayev roots his nameless student in the losing segment of Kazakhstan’s new capitalist era, whose population watches the rich rise above common legal proscriptions and old-fashioned communal values.

In this gorgeously dreamlike and mysterious tale, a young woman named Clarice gives birth on her deathbed to a baby girl also christened Clarice by the bruxa (or witch) attending the nearly simultaneous moments of death and birth. Spirited away to a remote lakeside village, baby Clarice lives her whole life in the span of twenty-four hours, and yet even so compressed a lifetime remains impossible to fully grasp or contain.