
Authentic and subtly-written coming-of-age story set against the end of the dark 1970s. A dominant mother, a taciturn father, an elder brother who won’t shape up and the little brother who won’t take sides. Then a beautiful girl comes to live across the road from distant Beijing. (IFFR.com)

Authentic and subtly-written coming-of-age story set against the end of the dark 1970s. A dominant mother, a taciturn father, an elder brother who won’t shape up and the little brother who won’t take sides. Then a beautiful girl comes to live across the road from distant Beijing. (IFFR.com)
2008-06-14
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6.8In Chengdu, China, a retired female opera singer named Master Chang takes in a trio of young tenants into her boarding home. The tenants include a rock singer and a college student who has run away from home.
6.8Years after her boyfriend left her for the big city and promised to bring her there after he’s settled down, a Chinese woman sets out on a journey to be reunited with him.
6.7A man reflects on the lost love of his youth and his long-ago journey from Taiwan to America as he begins to reconnect with his estranged daughter.
7.3A movie fan escapes from a labour camp during the Chinese Cultural Revolution and strikes up a relationship with a homeless female vagabond.
7.2On the edge of the Gobi desert in Northwest China, Lang returns to his hometown after being released from jail. While working for the local dog patrol team to clear the town of stray dogs before the Olympic Games, he strikes up an unlikely connection with a black dog. These two lonely souls embark on a journey together.
6.994-year-old Eleanor Morgenstein tries to rebuild her life after the death of her best friend. As a result, she moves back to New York City after living in Florida for decades.
6.7Jo, the mother of seven children, divorces her second husband in order to marry Jake, a successful but promiscuous screenwriter. Though they are physically and emotionally compatible, they are slowly torn apart.
7.0A street vendor with a grim home-life forges a connection with a young woman on her way to Paris.
5.8Evangelist Carlton Pearson is ostracized by his church for preaching that there is no Hell.
5.8The story of a young writer's transformation when her past invades her present.
7.5Having been released after serving his sentence, a funeral director accidentally crosses paths with a girl which brings about an unexpected change in his attitude towards life.
6.4Back from a tour of duty, Kelli struggles to find her place in her family and the rust-belt town she no longer recognizes.
6.8A moment of impulsiveness turns Gao Zhilei into a "stay-at-home" individual, but he never expected his life to take a turn in the opposite direction. A series of changes compel him to take on his responsibilities as the head of the family. When life's burdens hit hard, he must confront himself and start anew.
6.5Tess enlists her biological father – a lovable slacker from the wrong side of the tracks – and the charming juvenile delinquent next door to help her come to grips with the death of her little sister.
7.7Two married couples adjust to the vast social and economic changes taking place in China from the 1980s to the present.
5.9When motocross and heavy metal obsessed, 13-year-old Jacob's delinquent behavior forces CPS to place his little brother Wes with his aunt, Jacob and his emotionally absent father must finally take responsibility for their actions and each other in order to bring Wes home.
6.3Clara and her two sons escape from her abusive husband with little more than their car and plan to start over in New York. After the car towed away, the family meets Alice, who gets them into an emergency shelter. While stealing food at a Russian restaurant called ‘Winter Palace’, Clara meets Marc, who has been given the chance to help the old eatery regain its former glory. The ‘Winter Palace’ soon becomes a place of unexpected encounters between people who are all undergoing some sort of crisis and whom fate has now brought together.
6.6Four siblings' lives change drastically when their ailing mother takes a turn for the worse over the holiday season.
6.6A 21-year-old reformed gangster's devotion to his family and his future is put to the test when he is released from prison and returns to his old stomping grounds in Watts, Los Angeles.
7.3A nobleman sends his daughter to the king as a concubine in order to gain personal power and favors from the monarch. Her lover follows her into the palace disguised as a eunuch. They continue to meet in secret until discovered and sentenced to death.
4.7Hans calls his girlfriend Heinz, which tells you everything you need to know about their relationship. They're a typical couple who're stuck in a rut after eight years. Hans works at a copy shop and Heinz is an actress relegated to voicing a cartoon stoplight. On their anniversary, they go to the movies. It's a romance. But the spark on screen just doesn't strike them. When Hans gives Heinz's ex her phone number instead of putting up a fight over her, Heinz' alarm bells go off: How can this be love? They decided to make a list of everything than makes up a real love: Romance, desire, passion, jealousy, drama – deep feelings, in other words. Hans and Heinz methodically start checking off their list and realize: Real life is nothing like the movies.
6.3A group of Boston-bred gangsters set up shop in balmy Florida during the Prohibition era, facing off against the competition and the Ku Klux Klan.
6.5A man and a woman come from two very different cultural backgrounds, and decide that they won't get married until they convince their parents. As feared, differences between the families pose a hurdle.
9.0Ludovico accepted the last choice of his wife, out of love. Now he has to find the courage to reveal this to his daughter.
3.5An affair between a pianist and a teacher begins to disintegrate when girls from her school turn up missing.
6.1Life for a single mom in Los Angeles takes an unexpected turn when she allows three young guys to move in with her.
7.8Sal is the Italian owner of a pizzeria in Brooklyn. A neighborhood local, Buggin' Out, becomes upset when he sees that the pizzeria's Wall of Fame exhibits only Italian actors. Buggin' Out believes a pizzeria in a black neighborhood should showcase black actors, but Sal disagrees. The wall becomes a symbol of racism and hate to Buggin' Out and to other people in the neighborhood, and tensions rise.
7.0Precocious teenager Juliet moves to New Zealand with her family and soon befriends the quiet, brooding Pauline through their shared love of fantasy and literature. This friendship gradually develops into an intense and obsessive bond.
6.8Following the death of the unmarried and childless Taki, Takeshi, a young relative of hers, discovers several pages of closely written lines in which the old lady has recorded her memories. This is how he learns the truth about her youth working as a housemaid and nanny for the Hirai family in a little house in Tokyo with a red gabled roof.
6.9A young South African boy from the Johannesburg ghetto named Tsotsi, meaning Gangster, leaves home as a child to get away from his helpless parents. Now a teenage thug, Tsotsi finds a baby in the back seat of a car he's just stolen. He decides that it is his responsibility to care for the infant and in the process learns that maybe the criminal life isn’t the best way.
6.8Slaking a thirst for dangerous games, Kathryn challenges her stepbrother, Sebastian, to deflower their headmaster's daughter before the summer ends. If he succeeds, the prize is the chance to bed Kathryn. But if he loses, Kathryn will claim his most prized possession.
7.5A celebration of love and creative inspiration takes place in the infamous, gaudy and glamorous Parisian nightclub, at the cusp of the 20th century. A young poet, who is plunged into the heady world of Moulin Rouge, begins a passionate affair with the club's most notorious and beautiful star.
8.3A tramp falls in love with a beautiful blind flower girl. His on-and-off friendship with a wealthy man allows him to be the girl's benefactor and suitor.
8.0A gold prospector in Alaska struggles to survive the elements and win the heart of a dance hall girl.
7.2A woman’s lover and her ex-boyfriend take justice into their own hands after she becomes the victim of a rapist. Because some acts can’t be undone. Because man is an animal. Because the desire for vengeance is a natural impulse. Because most crimes remain unpunished.
7.1Middle-aged suburban husband Richard abruptly tells his wife, Maria, that he wants a divorce. As Richard takes up with a younger woman, Maria enjoys a night on the town with her friends and meets a younger man. As the couple and those around them confront a seemingly futile search for what they've lost -- love, excitement, passion -- this classic American independent film explores themes of aging and alienation.
7.7Manhattan explores how the life of a middle-aged television writer dating a teenage girl is further complicated when he falls in love with his best friend's mistress.