Zbynek Brynych's award-winning film presents a vivid and realistic picture of the infamous Terezín Ghetto under Nazi control during World War II. The Ghetto was an international marshaling community in Czechslaovakia where thousands of Jews from around Europe were held before being told they were being simply transferred to other towns - when they were in fact being sent to their deaths in the concentration camps. Beneath the apparent serenity of everyday life in the Ghetto the film slowly gath..
For Vera Chytilová, documentary and fiction were two equally adventurous processes. Something Different follows two women ? one strand as a documentary of a gymnast in gruelling training (real life Olympic gold-medallist Eva Bosáková), whilst the second is the fiction of a discontented housewife (V?ra Uzelacová). In A Bagful of Fleas, young factory girls defying imposed rules are played by non-professionals and the film shot in a free-wheeling cinéma vérité style. These two terrific early works intr..
Lisandro Alonso is one of cinema?s most acclaimed new generation of film-makers. Liverpool follows an enigmatically homesick shipworker, taking leave of his ship in a wintry Tierra del Fuego, compelled to visit the family he hasn?t seen in years. When he finally arrives, he discovers that he?s been forgotten by his ailing mother and is a complete stranger to his daughter, Analia. Liverpool was heralded at both Cannes and Toronto Film Festivals in 2008, proclaimed one of the best undistributed films by bot..
A 4-disc set comprising three haunting epics from the godfather of the Czech New Wave ? along with Tomá? Hejtmánek's acclaimed 2003 documentary portrait of Vlácil. A fantastic opportunity to discover this great visionary master of world cinema. Set includes: Marketa Lazarová (1967): Voted the greatest Czech film ever made, a dark and passionate medieval epic that chronicles the doomed love affair of two young lovers set against the rivalry between two warring clans. The Valley of the Bees (1967):..
The protagonists in this film are the patients and staff at the La Borde psychiatric institute in France. Each summer they perform a play on a stage set in the beautiful grounds of the chateau. The film charts the passage of this magical event and allows the viewer a glimpse at life in one of the world's most highly regarded psychiatric institutions.Philibert, director of the hugely acclaimed 'Etre et avoir', delicately celebrates the work of La Borde and quietly makes us question the distinctions that so..
From the great Czech filmmaker Věra Chytilová renowned director of Daisies and Fruits of Paradise comes a controversial and disturbing satire of violence violation and veterinary practice. Traps is a feminist black comedy about a vet who after being raped by two men uses her particular expertise to take her revenge. Oscillating between tragedy comedy and the grotesque the film is an analysis of morality power and twisted masculine attitudes in contemporary society. Chytilov&aac..
A simple, almost spare family drama told through strong, purposeful images, this first feature from the Thai director Anocha Suwichakornpong parallels the emotional dynamic of a single home with the tumult of an entire country - and is the prelude to a hallucinogenic meditation about our place in the universe. Anocha's seemingly ordinary, astutely structured family drama is a movie with a cosmic aspiration: The story of a paralyzed son, his elusive father, and the male nurse hired to take care of the wheelc..
A satirical, wild and irreverent story of rebellion, V?ra Chytilová?s classic of surrealist cinema is perhaps also the most adventurous and anarchic Czech movie of the 1960s. Two young women, both named Marie, revolt against a degenerate, decayed and oppressive society, attacking symbols of wealth and bourgeois culture. Defiant feminist statement? Nihilistic, avant-garde comedy? It remains a cinematic enigma and its influence is still felt today - from the extreme Baise-Moi to the mainstream Thelma & Loui..
