Cinéma Laika(2023)

Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus(en)

"Ars longa, vita brevis" – art is long, life is short. This is one of Japanese music icon Ryuichi Sakamoto's favorite quotes, and the message that he leaves for viewers at the end of his final concert film, shot before he succumbed to cancer in March 2023. Consisting of only Sakamoto and his piano, Opus features the final live performances of 20 songs that Sakamoto meticulously curated to encapsulate his distinguished 40-year career.

The Home(en)

A troubled man starts working at a retirement home and realizes its residents and caretakers harbor sinister secrets. As he investigates the building and its forbidden fourth floor, he starts to uncover connections to his own past and upbringing as a foster child.

Re-Kill(en)

Five years after a zombie outbreak, the men and women of R-Division hunt down and destroy the undead. When they see signs of a second outbreak, they fear humanity may not survive.

The Play House(en)

Upon waking from the dream of a theater peopled entirely by numerous Buster Keatons, a lowly stage hand causes havoc everywhere he works.

Vera and the Pleasure of Others(es)

Seventeen-year-old Vera earns money by secretly renting out an apartment to teenagers seeking privacy, all while eavesdropping from behind a closed door. As she listens, her own desires awaken.

Laid to Rest(en)

A young girl wakes up in a casket with a head injury and no memory of her identity. She quickly realizes she was abducted by a serial killer and she must fight to survive.

Through the Olive Trees(fa)

When the actor in a scene for his film Life And Nothing More… has to quit, a film director casts another man for the part. However, complications arise since the man and the woman who was cast for the scene know each other.

Black Sabbath(it)

Three tales of supernatural horror include a woman plagued by threatening phone calls, a family targeted by vampiric monsters, and a deceased medium who wreaks havoc upon the living.

Humanité(fr)

In a quiet little French town, two detectives are tasked with investigating the brutal rape and murder of a preteen girl.

3:10 to Yuma(en)

Dan Evans, a small time farmer, is hired to escort Ben Wade, a dangerous outlaw, to Yuma. As Evans and Wade wait for the 3:10 train to Yuma, Wade's gang is racing to free him.

An Average Little Man(it)

A middle-aged government accountant is determined to secure a stable job for his son before retiring, willing to go to great lengths to achieve his goal.

Drifting Clouds(fi)

The ever-poker-faced Ilona loses her job as a restaurant hostess, as her tram driver husband, Lauri, also finds himself out of work. Together they must hit the streets of Helsinki, facing up to hardship and humiliation in their quest for survival, guided through the gloom by a ray of hope.

White Hunter, Black Heart(en)

Renowned filmmaker John Wilson travels to Africa to direct a new movie, but constantly leaves to hunt elephants and other game, to the dismay of his cast and crew. He eventually becomes obsessed with hunting down and killing one specific elephant.

Freaky Tales(en)

In 1987 Oakland, a mysterious force guides The Town's underdogs in four interconnected tales: teen punks defend their turf against Nazi skinheads, a rap duo battles for hip-hop immortality, a weary henchman gets a shot at redemption, and an NBA All-Star settles the score.

Sovereign(en)

Struggling single father Jerry indoctrinates his son Joe into the sovereign citizen movement, teaching him that laws are mere illusions and freedom is something you take. But, as Jerry’s ideology consumes them, they are set on a collision course with a police chief who has spent his life upholding the rules that Jerry has spent his tearing down.

Smiles of a Summer Night(sv)

Early in the 20th century, middle-aged lawyer Fredrik Egerman and his young wife, Anne, have still not consummated their marriage, while Fredrik's son finds himself increasingly attracted to his new stepmother. To make matters worse, Fredrik's old flame Desiree makes a public bet that she can seduce him at a romantic weekend retreat where four couples convene, swapping partners and pairing off in unexpected ways.

Cries and Whispers(sv)

As Agnes slowly dies of cancer, her sisters are so immersed in their own psychic pains that they are unable to offer her the support she needs.

Initiation Love(ja)

Set in Shizuoka and Tokyo, Japan in the late 1980's. Takkun is a university student in Shizuoka attempting to find a job. Mayu is a dental hygienist. They meet through a blind date and begin to date, but Takkun finds a job in Tokyo and goes there. They begin a long distance relationship, but their relationship breaks down.

The Man in My Basement(en)

Down on his luck, Charles Blakey agrees to rent his basement to a mysterious stranger, unaware he may be letting in a force much darker than he imagined.

Freakier Friday(en)

Years after Tess and Anna endured an identity crisis, Anna now has a daughter of her own and a soon-to-be stepdaughter. As they navigate the myriad challenges that come when two families merge, Tess and Anna discover lightning might indeed strike twice.

Adagio pour un gars de bicycle(fr)

My Best Fiend(de)

A film that describes the love-hate relationship between Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinski, the deep trust between the director and the actor, and their independently and simultaneously hatched plans to murder one another.

Martin Ťapák(sk)

Spielberg(en)

A documentary on the life and career of one of the most influential film directors of all time, Steven Spielberg.

Altman(en)

Robert Altman's life and career contained multitudes. This father of American independent cinema left an indelible mark, not merely on the evolution of his art form, but also on the western zeitgeist. With its use of rare interviews, representative film clips, archival images, and musings from his family and most recognizable collaborators, Altman is a dynamic and heartfelt mediation on an artist whose expression, passion and appetite knew few bounds.

#RimavskaPomahaUkrajine(sk)

Teruo Ishii Fan Club(ja)

A documentary on Teruo Ishii, the Japanese "King of Cult".

Under the Stars(fr)

Paying tribute to some of America's only surviving drive-ins – and those who keep them running – this heartfelt documentary captures efforts to preserve these nostalgic theaters in small-towns across the country.

Yellow Door: '90s Lo-fi Film Club(ko)

This intimate documentary explores a bygone era of cinematic passion and the emergence of young film enthusiasts in South Korea, including Bong Joon Ho.

At the Drive-In(en)

Unable to purchase a $50,000 digital projector, a group of film fanatics in rural Pennsylvania fight to keep a dying drive-in theater alive by screening only vintage 35mm film prints and working entirely for free.

Prime Farmland(en)

This documentary film follows farmers and activists fighting together to stop the Indiana Enterprise Center, a mega-sized industrial park planned west of South Bend, Indiana

The Balcony Movie(pl)

Composed from the conversations that the director holds with people passing by in the street under his Warsaw apartment, each story in 'The Balcony Movie' is unique and deals with the way we try to cope with life as individuals. All together, they create a self-portrait of contemporary human life, and the passers-by present a composite picture of today's world.

Tati Express(fr)

Tati Express dives into Jacques Tati's films and how they look at a changing world throughout the 20th century. It shows how modernity impacts human-beings and goes through that amazing body of work at 100 mph.

Clint Eastwood: Hollywood Outlaw(en)

Film clips and interviews with biographers and colleagues chart the prolific, six-decade career of maverick actor-director Clint Eastwood.

Sous le soleil de Pialat(fr)

In just ten films, Maurice Pialat painfully rose to the top of the cinema, draining into his legend a mad demand for truth as much as memorable fury to achieve it. With "L'Enfance nue", his first feature film at the age of 43, the filmmaker immediately made his mark, this "art of making things authentic", according to Chabrol. But throughout an unclassifiable filmography in the form of an autobiography, from a break-up to his fatherhood in wonder, through the agony of his mother, the filmmaker does not get rid of the feeling of being misunderstood, despite international recognition.

For All People, For All Time(en)

Mark and Dan Jury document the gradual demise of a community nestled within the Cuyahoga National Recreation Area between Akron and Cleveland, Ohio, as the National Park Service works to acquire the land of ~500 residents in order to establish a National Park. After initially being told only a handful of houses would be taken, residents are shocked by hundreds of homes and businesses being bought up, boarded up, and posted No Trespassing - and by the homes of the politically connected being spared. Significant portions of this film appeared in the PBS FRONTLINE episode For the Good of All.

Aftermath(es)

Documentary about the aftermath of the earthquake that shook Juchitán, on the Mexican Pacific coast. It tells the story of Dxani -muxe seamstress- and Jacinto -mason- and how their lives were radically changed by the strongest earthquake that hit this community; and the poor response of the corrupt authorities.

The river people(es)

Ernestina is a small town of 150 people whose peculiar inhabitants are deeply concerned by the acts of vandalism perpetrated by the people who go bathe in the river. They decide to hire private security. What is really going on in Ernestina? A suspenseful, humorous and endearing documentary about the dynamics of these small-town people.

La Caissière fait son cinéma(en)

Paris, Latin Quarter. A small cinema that is both famous and marginal, Action Christine. The cashier has taken her camcorder and takes us to this public place, her workplace. Place of life, of passage, of meeting, a window open on the street, behind the hygienic phone, it is the daily life of the cashiers and the openers punctuated by the alternation of surging entrances and idle intersession.

Entretien en six temps avec Gilles Groulx(fr)

This feature-length documentary brings together six of the rare television interviews given by Gilles Groulx between 1966 and 1983. Through these interviews, the filmmaker's ethical and aesthetic concerns are revealed. A striking coherence emerges in his thinking regarding his conception of cinema and the role the filmmaker should play in his culture and society.