The psyche of a ruthless secret agent in Cold War Czechoslovakia begins to unravel when he obsesses over the girlfriend of a suspected subversive he is tracking. This taut political thriller is a bleak and potent rendering of the emotional destruction wreaked by totalitarianism.
The psyche of a ruthless secret agent in Cold War Czechoslovakia begins to unravel when he obsesses over the girlfriend of a suspected subversive he is tracking. This taut political thriller is a bleak and potent rendering of the emotional destruction wreaked by totalitarianism.
2010-02-04
5.3
Vladimír Michálek chose an unconventional adaptation of Franz Kafka's novel for his feature debut. Artistically reminiscent of the classic films of Karel Zeman, the director reinterpreted this dark story of a man vainly seeking a place in a rigidly ordered society by changing the desperate conclusion into a happy end. The film provided Czech comedian Jirí Lábus with a new kind of role: that of the despotic uncle of a main hero Karel Rossman (Martin Dejdar).
HELD FOR RANSOM tells the true story of Danish photojournalist Daniel Rye who was held hostage for 398 days in Syria by the terror organization ISIS along with several other foreign nationals including the American journalist, James Foley. The film follows Daniel’s struggle to survive in captivity, his friendship with James, and the nightmare of the Rye family back home in Denmark as they try to do everything in their power to save their son. At the center of this crisis, we find hostage negotiator, Arthur, who plays a pivotal role in securing Daniel’s release.
On their last night of spring break, four old friends, now all college freshmen, realize their small town has more meaning than they ever imagined.
The final film of the television series "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson." It is based on the late and little-known stories of Arthur Conan Doyle, united by the theme of the approaching world war and the struggle of the legendary detective with foreign spies.
Garden parties, music and dancing characterize the lives of a family of German aristocrats in the days leading to World War I.
An Irish language short film, Aqua tells the tale of Nick and Laura, an enterprising young couple, who plan to record the sounds of Irish rivers and sell them to the Irish-American market claiming it has soothing powers. Directed by Edel O’Brien, this film looks at the flipside of Celtic Tiger Ireland when greed was good and at the tragedies that could happen when cultural links were broken. (Taken from IFI website)
The real-life struggle to contain the environmental and financial damage caused to Alaska by the oil spill from the Exxon Valdez is dramatized.
A collection of horror movie trailers spanning the golden age of Hollywood, and beyond. A must-have for any true horror movie fan.
Fonsi is an apparently privileged 12 year old boy. As we get to know his dysfunctional family, his world begins to crumble in a matter of hours. Due to a series of unexpected events, each character changes drastically, facing a crude reality.
Christian wakes to find himself in a vast waiting room for the afterlife, staffed only by his former school geography teacher, Mr Samuel. As their conversation unfolds, can he persuade Mr Samuel into an audacious plan to escape back to reality?
There are old ones and small ones, and the courier station contracted by them even accidentally caught fire and faced compensation. Ma Yuanhao, who was facing a mid-life crisis and had no other options, sought help from a master on the recommendation of his mother. Ma Yuanhao personally went into the coffin to calm down his grievances, and the changes in his family were temporarily changed. Who would have thought that the change would be short-lived, and that there is an ulterior secret behind the Ma family's old house. Is this really what happened? Just when Ma Yuanhao tried every means to change his destiny, he discovered that behind all this.
Alexandria Wright meets Elijah Martinez and the demonic journey begins. Elijah Martinez finds himself ensnared in a romantic involvement with Alexandria Wright, an unfaithful Covert Narcissist. She convinces him they are soulmates and they take a vow before God for His blessing with the penalty of betrayal being death. After years pass, Alexandria forgets the vows and begins cheating behind Elijah's back. Just a week before Christmas, she abruptly betrays him. To his astonishment, she swiftly transitions to a new relationship, bringing with her the unsettling secret of transmitting an incurable sexually transmitted disease to her new partner. Then came Karma. Her victims arrive to spit on her dirty grave as her demise finally arrives.
Michal and Juraj, two students of a theological seminary in totalitarian Czechoslovakia, must decide if they'll choose the easier way of collaboration, or if they'll subject themselves to the surveillance of the secret police.
Movie about secret relations between Yugoslavian, Serbian and Croatian secret police during last 50 years. Here in Balkans truth and lies are so much mixed and it lasts so long that no one knows the difference. That is why this fictitious story looks so true.
On September 1st, 1939, Nazi Germany invades Poland, unleashing World War II. On September 17th, the Soviet Red Army crosses the border. The Polish army, unable to fight on two fronts, is defeated. Thousands of Polish men, both military and government officials, are captured by the invaders. Their fate will only be known several years later.
A description of Romania before Ceausescu's downfall, through the story of Nela. Daughter of a former colonel of the Securitate, the romanian political police. She refused to become as her sister, an agent of this Securitate, and lives with her father. After he died, she leaves Bucharest, and ends up in a little town, where she meets Mitica, a surgeon, another herself, laughing of everything.
Filip buys an 8mm movie camera when his first child is born. Because it's the first camera in town, he's named official photographer by the local Party boss. His horizons widen when he is sent to regional film festivals with his first works but his focus on movie making also leads to domestic strife and philosophical dilemmas.
A White enclave in Johannesburg, South Africa, in the 1960s. Molly Roth, 13 years old, is the daughter of leftist parents, and she must piece together what's happening around her when her father disappears one night, barely evading arrest, and, not long after, her mother is detained by the authorities. Some of Molly's White friends turn against her, and her family's friendships with Blacks take on new meaning. Relationships are fragile in the world of apartheid. How will she manage?
In the aftermath of a daring post office robbery on Saint Lucy's Day, two Stockholm vice cops venture into a world of corruption, cover-ups and murder that takes them from the dirty streets to government officials.
American Steve Kendall, a freighter's radio officer, discovers seaman Carlson sending an unauthorized message ashore as the ship approaches his war-poised homeland. Carlson is shot in cold blood when he jumps ship and Kendall, implicated in the espionage, swims ashore to avoid arrest. A woman he meets at the dock hides him in her apartment, where he learns Carlson was her brother, and they both work in a sabotage ring. Nedra is a singer at Tio's Cafe, and she approaches Tio for help when both the saboteurs and the secret police try to capture Steve.
Young and Healthy as a Rose follows Stevan Nikolic, "Stiv", a petty criminal born in Belgrade, and his rise to power along with drugs, sex and with the help of local police.
While scouting locations for a shoot in Belgrade, Jelena, a young director makes up a story about Marija, a professor of political theory, whose dying father has revealed to her some medical files that could be of interest to several intelligence services. Marija has affection for Marko, a student - until she realizes that he had gotten close to her in order to learn her father's secrets. Marko explains that her father took part in Medical experiments in Africa, which led to deaths of many people in the Congo. Marija has no way of checking whether these allegations are true, because her father dies. She is faced with a dilemma: should she give her father's files to Marko or sell them to foreign intelligence services.
A young priest speaks out against the Communist regime in Poland and is killed for it.
In 1948, decades after fleeing Armenia to the US as a child, Charlie returns in the hopes of finding a connection to his roots, but what he finds instead is a country crushed under Soviet rule. After being unjustly imprisoned, Charlie falls into despair, until he discovers that he can see into a nearby apartment from his cell window - the home of a prison guard.
Budapest, Hungary, Christmas 1957. The state, insecure after the defeated revolution of 1956 and increasingly put under the influence of a renewed Stalinist atmosphere, has decreed that all security officials must pass an exam to verify their loyalty. But to be actually effective in a shadowy world where suspicion and secrets reign, the subjects must be unaware that they are being tested.
Warsaw, December 13th 1981. Martial law shuts down the country. Overnight, a country turns into a prison. Taxis have been replaced by tanks. Citizens are treated like criminals. And visiting British Professor Joan Andrews finds herself trapped. After witnessing the murder of a young student by the secret police (the "Crows"), Joan herself becomes the target.
A communist soldier is sent to a remote region of China in order to collect folk songs. Staying with a peasant family (a widower with two small children), he discovers a community whose way of life is completely alien to him, but he gradually wins their trust…
The plot follows a private detective, an ex communist and former CIA agent, who travels from Barcelona to Madrid to discover the identity of the assassin of the leader of the Spanish Communist party who was stabbed during a blackout while presiding over a meeting of the party's central committee. The film is a thriller with ironic political overtones.
In the 1950s, Ludvik Jahn was expelled from the Communist Party and the University by his fellow students, because of a politically incorrect note he sent to his girlfriend. Fifteen years later, he tries to get his revenge by seducing Helena, the wife of one of his accusers.
Nubi, a wealthy man with Communist ties, sets out to find his half-brother Gamal, who has been disowned for being gay, to let him inherit his father's fortune. In the process, Nubi is supposed to kill Gamal's stepmother Raifa, a suspected drug dealer, before she can kill his half-brother.
Srubov is a part of CHEKA, the secret police Lenin established after the Bolshevik Revolution. They arrest, interview for a minute, try in ten seconds, and execute intellectuals, aristocrats, Jews, clergy, and their families. In the building basement, five people at a time are shot as they stand naked facing wooden doors. No one to remember their last words; no martyrs, just anonymous bodies. Daily, the kangaroo court, the executions, the loading of bodies onto wagons. Srubov is cold, distant, sexually dysfunctional, and a deep thinker, hated by former friends and his family. As he tries to reason the nature of revolution and the purpose of CHEKA, he slowly goes mad.