The Class(2008)

School of Babel(fr)

They just arrived in France. They are Irish, Serbs, Brazilians Tunisians, Chinese and Senegalese ... For a year, Julie Bertuccelli filmed talks, conflicts and joys of this group of students aged 11 to 15 years, together in the same class to learn French.

Videocracy(en)

In a country where bella figura is a national pastime, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is the maestro of media manipulation. Having risen to political primacy with the aid of his Mediaset empire, he now controls 90% of the bel paese’s television channels including the state-run RAI network. Quantity, it seems, does not equal quality. Fed on a diet of semi-naked dancing girls, inane competitions and rickety reality shows built around the most ridiculous of premises, is it any wonder that Italians are becoming a nation of fame-hungry wannabes?

Endless Night(en)

Ellesmere Island, northern Canada, 1908. Josephine, a brave but naive woman, embarks on a dangerous journey through inhospitable regions in search of her husband, the explorer Robert Peary, who tries to find a route to the North Pole.

Jacquot(fr)

Jacquot Demy, the son of a garage owner and a hairdresser, is fascinated by cinema and decides to pursue his dream of becoming a filmmaker by any means necessary.

A Talking Picture(pt)

A meditation on civilization. July, 2001: friends wave as a cruise ship departs Lisbon for Mediterranean ports and the Indian Ocean. On board and on day trips in Marseilles, Pompeii, Athens, Istanbul, and Cairo, a professor tells her young daughter about myth, history, religion, and wars. Men approach her; she's cool, on her way to her husband in Bombay. After Cairo, for two evenings divided by a stop in Aden, the captain charms three successful, famous (and childless) women, who talk with wit and intellect, each understanding the others' native tongue, a European union. The captain asks mother and child to join them. He gives the girl a gift. Helena sings. Life can be sweet.

Ultrà(it)

The "Brigatte Veneno" is a fan group from the soccer club "AS Roma". The next match is against "Juventus Turin", the classic prestige duel. Principe, the former leader of the group, has been dismissed from jail a few days before. He has to realize that his best friend Red has not only taken over control of the group, but also has started an affair with his girlfriend. The rivalry between the hot-blooded Principe and the sensible Red causes an anxious mood within the group. When Smilzo, a member of the group, dies during a street fight with another fan group, Red knows that Principe is to be blamed for this catastrophe.

The Greek Tycoon(en)

A lusty Greek shipping magnate courts the widow of an assassinated U.S. president.

Kinder des Sturms(de)

The film is set in post-war Germany. It tells the story of widow Rosemarie Hermann, who flees Silesia with her sister Bettina, her father, and their two children Maria and Johannes ("Jojo"). In the general chaos, she loses her daughter. In her attempt to find her, she finally receives support from Harald Bergmann, who works for the tracing service of the German Red Cross and also finds her a job there. Maria initially lives in a children's home near Lübeck and is then placed with a foster family.

Harajuku(no)

The evening before Christmas eve, Vilde is hanging out with her friends at the central station, when she learns that her mother has been in an accident. She is forced to contact her biological father, but wants to run away to Tokyo.

Jean-Marie Bigard, Mon Psy va mieux(fr)

Louise by the Shore(fr)

On the last day of summer in a small seaside resort town, an older woman named Louise realizes that the last train has departed without her. She finds herself alone in the town, abandoned by everyone. As the weather turns for the worse and with no one to keep her company, louise must rely on her past to help her survive the present.

Tosun Pasha(tr)

Late 19th century in Alexandria. Two traditionally rival Turkish families, "Seferoglu"s and "Tellioglu"s are competing for the "Green Valley". The winner will be determined by Daver Bey, who has a beautiful young daughter, Leyla. Both families try to arrange a marriage between a man from their family and Leyla, so that Daver Bey will be inclined to give the green valley to his "relatives". Tellioglus, who are behind in the race, desperately find a final solution: They will fake their idiotic butler, Saban, as the highest ranked Ottoman soldier in Egypt: Tosun Pasha.

I've Loved You So Long(fr)

A woman struggles to interact with her family and find her place in society after spending fifteen years in prison.

Alice in the Cities(de)

German journalist Philip Winter has a case of writer’s block when trying to write an article about the United States. He decides to return to Germany, and while trying to book a flight, encounters a German woman and her nine year old daughter Alice doing the same. The three become friends (almost out of necessity) and while the mother asks Winter to mind Alice temporarily, it quickly becomes apparent that Alice will be his responsibility for longer than he expected.

Renoir(fr)

In the French Riviera in the summer of 1915, Jean Renoir, son of the Impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste, returns home to convalesce after being wounded in World War I. At his side is Andrée, a young woman who rejuvenates, enchants, and inspires both father and son.

Locked Out(fr)

Once upon a time, somewhere... a homeless guy finds a policeman's uniform...

The Day I Saw Your Heart(fr)

Justine, struggles with commitment, listens to old David Bowie covers, and uses her employer’s private MRI machines to make “X-Ray Art” After a trail of boyfriends, Justine thinks she has found The One, a hunky shoe salesman, but her temporary happiness is thrown when her neurotic 60-year-old Jewish father (Michel Blanc) suffers a delayed midlife crisis and announces that his young second wife is expecting a baby. Justine and her half-sister Dom, who is trying to adopt, are rather annoyed at the news. Coupled with resentment about her father’s absence when she was growing up, causes her to spiral into self-doubt. Overflowing with French charm, Justine gets by with the help of her family, friends, and newly discovered muse.

If There Be Thorns(en)

Christopher and Cathy Dollanganger live together as man and wife with Cathy's two sons who are unaware of the incestuous nature of their parents' relationship. But when a mysterious woman moves in next door and befriends the younger boy, Bart, he begins a strange transformation and displays accusatory behavior towards Cathy and Christopher. When Christopher discovers their mysterious neighbor is, in fact, his mother Corrine Dollanganger, all of the family's long-hidden secrets are revealed in a tragic climax.

To Be and to Have(fr)

The documentary's title translates as "to be and to have", the two auxiliary verbs in the French language. It is about a primary school in the commune of Saint-Étienne-sur-Usson, Puy-de-Dôme, France, the population of which is just over 200. The school has one small class of mixed ages (from four to twelve years), with a dedicated teacher, Georges Lopez, who shows patience and respect for the children as we follow their story through a single school year.

Coldwater(en)

A teenage boy is sent to a juvenile reform facility in the wilderness. As we learn about the tragic events that sent him there, his struggle becomes one for survival with the inmates, counselors, and the retired war colonel in charge.

When Death Comes(es)

The strong fight between two brothers ends with the life of one of them. The eldest will drag the guilt of eternal mourning and emptiness, in addition to the burden of having condemned their parents to the pain of a silent mourning.

Total Eclipse(en)

Young, wild poet Arthur Rimbaud and his mentor Paul Verlaine engage in a fierce, forbidden romance while feeling the effects of a hellish artistic lifestyle.

Further Confessions of a Sixth Form Girl(de)

After the big success of the first part the film-makers apparently felt pressured to launch a new "investigation" and gather new material. Therefore, Friedrich von Thun again ventures out into the streets, this time of Berlin, to ask schoolgirls about their sexual experiences. The invinted guests talk about (allegedly) true events. Schoolgirls that seduce their teachers, runaway girls that have been robbed and who have to prostitute themselves or innocent girls that have been drugged and raped...

GTO: Great Teacher Onizuka(ja)

Tohru Fujisawa's popular manga about a wildly irreverent high school teacher comes to the screen in this live-action comedy drama. Eikichi Onizuka (Takashi Sorimachi), who barely earned his teaching degree at a second-rate college, rolls into Horobonai, a small rural town in Northern Japan on his motorcycle to take a job as a substitute instructor. Ever since the closing of the local theme park, Horobonai has fallen into an economic tailspin, and many of the town's teenagers have sunk into a deep depression. Onizuka, however, isn't the sort of person who respects the town's newly somber personality; willing to mouth off to both his students and his superiors, Onizuka isn't much of a teacher, but he knows how to get people interested, and soon his brash style (and willingness to kick a few butts) brings new life to Horobonai.

Not One Less(zh)

Set in the People's Republic of China during the 1990s, the film centers on a 13-year-old substitute teacher, Wei Minzhi, in the Chinese countryside. Called in to substitute for a village teacher for one month, Wei is told not to lose any students.

Kāinga(en)

Eight Pan-Asian female filmmakers’ powerful anthology film illuminates the immigrant experience in Aotearoa New Zealand through the lives of eight Asian women connected by the house they call home.

Rendez-vous(fr)

Nina is a young, carefree actress who arrives in Paris searching for her big break. There, she finds drama both on- and offstage as she becomes involved with three men: a mild-mannered real-estate agent who offers her stability, a bad-boy actor who lives dangerously on the edge, and an intense theater director who casts her in a production of “Romeo and Juliet.” As opening night approaches, the emotional extremes of Nina’s love life fuel her art.

Crooklyn(en)

From Spike Lee comes this vibrant semi-autobiographical portrait of a school-teacher, her stubborn jazz-musician husband and their five kids living in '70s Brooklyn.

No Man of Her Own(en)

An on-the-lam New York card shark marries a small-town librarian who thinks he's a businessman.

Coming Out(de)

Philipp, a closeted teacher, is dating a female colleague to keep up appearances. One night he stumbles into a gay bar and falls for a man. Transformed by this love, he is no longer afraid to face up to who he is.

The Swissmakers(de)

This romantic drama follows two policemen whose job is to investigate the lives of foreigners who have applied for Swiss citizenship. Among the applicants they must screen are a French psychiatrist and his wife, and a ballet dancer. The married couple are quickly accepted, but the dancer's life offers some objections. However, since the younger policeman has fallen in love with her, there is a chance that she, too, will win Swiss citizenship.

The Glass Wall(en)

Peter Kuban, a Hungarian refugee, is about to be deported after jumping ship in New York harbor. He needs to find an ex-G.I. named Tom whom he helped during the war, as Tom can prove Peter's right to legal entry into the United States. If he can't find Tom within 24 hours and prove his case, he will be branded a fugitive and will be permanently disqualified for U.S. citizenship.

Cracks(en)

Jealousy flares after the headmistress of an elite boarding school for girls becomes obsessed with a new student.

Taxi to the Toilet(de)

Frank, a gay school teacher, has a very active sex life and an interest in making films. One evening, he meets Bernd and they become lovers. But while Bernd is attentive and caring, Frank gets bored and continues his polymorphously perverse ways.

Yellow Heat(tr)

In a field surrounded and squeezed by increasing industrialization, an immigrant family, deep in financial debt, struggles to survive through traditional farming. Their son, Ibrahim, dreams of a different future for himself.

Kimi dake ni Motetainda.(ja)

The story revolves around five boy who each possess a trait that have negative effects on them. The handsome boys owe a monetary debt to Sakiko Horinomiya, a girl from a rich family. Wanting the money back, she makes them enter the "Motemen Koshien" contest, so they can pay her back using the prize money.

Stanley & Iris(en)

An illiterate cook at a company cafeteria tries for the attention of a newly widowed woman. As they get to know one another, she discovers his inability to read. When he is fired, she takes on trying to teach him to read in her kitchen each night.

Set Me Free(fr)

A coming-of-age tale centered on Hannah, a young girl who is living a troubled family life. Set in 1963, Hannah develops a fascination with Jean-Luc Godard's then-recent film "Vivre sa vie". As she begins to model herself after the film's lead role, Hannah slowly begins to explore the confusing nature of her sexuality.

The Teacher(fr)

Teacher in the most prestigious highschool in the country, François enjoys the life he’s always known, in the intellectual and bourgeois society of Paris. Trapped in a situation where he’s forced to accept a job in a school of a tough underprivileged suburb, he finds himself confronted to his own limits and to the upheaval of his values and certainties.

Black(hi)

Unable to see, hear, or speak after a childhood illness, a young woman grows up prone to violent outbursts until an eccentric tutor changes her life.