Hardcore Pleasures 5[2015]

Kingdom III: The Flame of Destiny(ja)

To defend their kingdom against a sudden invasion, a mighty general returns to the battlefield alongside a war orphan, now grown up, who dreams of glory.

Monster Portal(en)

A young woman inherits her estranged father's estate after his mysterious death. Once she and her friends arrive at the mansion, they discover that the home is on an old cemetery, which has the power of opening a portal to another realm, which contains the creatures foretold to the world by writer H.P. Lovecraft.

Dune(hu)

Sounds as witnesses. They blurr into memories, half-dreams, it is undecided if they are real or not. A fluctuation between imagination and reality.

way(en)

San Francisco filmmaker Konrad Steiner took 12 years to complete a montage cycle set to the late Leslie Scalapino’s most celebrated poem, way—a sprawling book-length odyssey of shardlike urban impressions, fraught with obliquely felt social and sexual tensions. Six stylistically distinctive films for each section of way, using sources ranging from Kodachrome footage of sun-kissed S.F. street scenes to internet clips of the Iraq war to a fragmented Fred Astaire dance number.

1942: Unknown Battle(ru)

WWII 1942: Rzhev, USSR. Stuck in a crucial strategical position, a small company from the Red Army does whatever it takes to fend off the Nazis.

As(en)

Three years after the death of her beloved child, Elouise, Mara still feels her presence when she sits on the butterfly bedding in front of the jar with her ashes in it. Mara arranges a twelfth birthday party for Elouise, further alienating her from her husband, Richter, and remaining daughter, Hannah. Although Mara eventually vacates Elouise's room at the insistence of her husband, she does find a way to stay close to Elouise. Before long, however, Hannah discovers her mother's secret.

Killer of Men(en)

A man lurks the night alleys, killing people at random, he feels nothing, no emotion, and no pain; when he meets a graceful widow he must confront what it means to be human.

Hunting Ava Bravo(en)

Billionaire sportsman Buddy King unwinds by hunting human captives on his remote mountain estate. But his latest victim, Ava Bravo, is no easy target.

Club Zero(fr)

Miss Novak joins the staff of an international boarding school to teach a conscious eating class and forms a strong bond with five students that eventually takes a dangerous turn.

A California Christmas: City Lights(en)

Follows Callie and Joseph one year after they fell in love, now running a dairy farm and winery, but their romance is threatened when business and family obligations call Joseph back to the city.

Tuesday(en)

A mother and her teenage daughter must confront Death when it arrives in the form of an astonishing talking bird.

Zamora(it)

Soccer is an alien world for Walter Vismara, an unfamiliar terrain he's always avoided. But when his job hangs in the balance, he's thrust into the role of goalkeeper by his soccer-obsessed boss. Forced into a relentless routine of practice sessions and taunts, Walter finds himself trapped in a nightmare. His troubles escalate when he discovers his beloved in the arms of his archenemy, adding a personal dimension to his challenges. Determined to prove his worth, Walter devises a plan: to play the fool outwardly while secretly honing his skills. As he navigates this comedic yet challenging journey on the soccer field, will Walter emerge victorious and finally earn the respect he deserves?

Old Man Junior(en)

Morbius Jr, now an OId Man, is nearing the end of life, when he finds the last hope for all Morbkind. However, as he fights to protect the future of Morbheads, he finds himself facing off against an unlikely of enemy... HIMSELF.

Mob Land(en)

A sheriff tries to keep the peace when a desperate family man violently robs a pill mill with his brother-in-law, alerting an enforcer for the New Orleans mafia.

The Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice(ja)

The arranged marriage between a capricious woman from Tokyo high society and a quiet and rustic man is tested by a marital crisis.

Unhappily Ever After(es)

María José and Alfredo are about to celebrate their 20th anniversary and their children give them a trip to the hotel where they celebrated their honeymoon, but a spell will make them repeat the same day.

Midnight(ko)

A serial killer ruthlessly hunts down a deaf woman through the streets of South Korea after she witnesses his brutal crime.

Tales of Terror(en)

Three stories adapted from the work of Edgar Allen Poe: 1) A man and his daughter are reunited, but the blame for the death of his wife hangs over them, unresolved. 2) A derelict challenges the local wine-tasting champion to a competition, but finds the man's attention to his wife worthy of more dramatic action. 3) A man dying and in great pain agrees to be hypnotized at the moment of death, with unexpected consequences.

The Accursed(en)

Hana spends twenty years suppressing a maleficent curse that was placed upon her bloodline, only to have a family member knowingly release it forcing her to kill or to be killed.

In Harm's Way(en)

A Naval officer, reprimanded after Pearl Harbor, is later promoted to Rear Admiral and gets a second chance to prove himself against the Japanese.

Maya the Bee Movie(en)

A bubbly little bumblebee rebels against the rules of the hive to make all kinds of friends—from violin-playing grasshoppers to a hornet named Sting.

Gli Straspeed a Crazy World(it)

Mostri e Pirati(it)

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen(en)

An account of Baron Munchausen's supposed travels and fantastical experiences with his band of misfits.

Adieu Aurora(en)

Investment bankers try to convince the brother of a recently deceased Rabbi to convert to a cult. It has an R rating for language throughout.

Bringing Up Bobby(en)

Bringing Up Bobby is the story of a European con-artist and her son Bobby, who find themselves in Oklahoma in an effort to escape her past and build a better future. Olive and Bobby blithely charm their way from one adventure to another until Olive's criminal past catches up with her. Consequently, she must make a choice: continue with a life of crime or leave the person she loves most in an effort to give Bobby a proper chance in life.

I Am Hercules(en)

Herculane Baths, one of the oldest resorts in Europe, the place where, a few centuries ago, kings and queens were diving in the healing waters, became a maze where people get lost while looking for something better. Relu, Mitica and Gelu, three masseurs, are tour guides through the maze of an Eastern Europe garden of Eden.

Maya the Bee: The Honey Games(en)

Following an unproductive harvest season, it’s up to Maya and her brave friends to save their hive by competing in a series of games.

Equinox(en)

Estranged twins Henry and Freddy navigate their drastically different lives— one a troubled bookworm, the other a hardened criminal. As a young writer uncovers their royal lineage and inheritance, the brothers’ fate intertwines in unexpected ways.

Crime on a Summer Morning(fr)

An ill-assorted group of international criminals executes a tightly-planned ransom sting in Spain. Things go along swimmingly until various tensions within the group come to the fore.

Snitch(fr)

Sierra is a spy who loves cheesecake. She has a flavor to suit her every mood. Today her mood is bad. Her informant Austin has arrived. She wants answers. Will he give them freely or will she have to threaten him to get what she wants?

Hecate(fr)

Set amid the European community in an unspecified North African country, a colony on the verge of nationalism just before the war. And colonized is what happens to a French diplomat, Julien Rochelle, when he meets the mysterious beauty Clothilde de Watteville. Schmid 's favorite axiom, that love is projection, never had such a thorough airing. Is Clothilde really the wife of a French official now holed up in Siberia? Or is she Hecate, goddess of black magic and devourer of the Arab boys she meets far from the European quarter? Only our projections know for sure; for the rest, she is a "woman looking out into the night." Drawn from a novel by Paul Morand, who based the main character on his wife Helene, Schmid's film achieves an atmosphere of magic in which psychological credibility is not so much absent as irrelevant-a film that distances itself from the drama it invokes, perhaps as the elusive Clothilde turns her back on the madness she provokes.

Maya the Bee: The Golden Orb(en)

When Maya, a headstrong little bee, and her best friend Willy, rescue an ant princess, they find themselves in the middle of an epic bug battle that will take them to strange new worlds and test their friendship to its limits.

The Grand Budapest Hotel(en)

The Grand Budapest Hotel tells of a legendary concierge at a famous European hotel between the wars and his friendship with a young employee who becomes his trusted protégé. The story involves the theft and recovery of a priceless Renaissance painting, the battle for an enormous family fortune and the slow and then sudden upheavals that transformed Europe during the first half of the 20th century.

The Brussels Business(en)

The Brussels Business is a docu-thriller that dives into the grey zone underneath European democracy. An expedition into the world of the 15,000 lobbyists in the EU-capital, of the PR-conglomerates, think tanks and their all embracing networks of power and their close ties to the political elites.

Before We Squeak(en)

A strange golden insect crawls into a bedroom on a stifling summer night. As it invades the sleeping body, the walls begin to shift and pulse — and the nightmare begins.

What's Wrong with This Picture?(da)

A snapshot of the state of the Danish nation: in one of the stories, a woman enters a pole-sitting contest in a desperate bid to reinvent herself. Another is about Erik, whose wife has been lobbying a Better Homes and Gardens type magazine to do a spread on their perfect home. When the editors finally relent, she makes Erik sip his red wine in the laundry room lest he stain their cream-colored couches. Svend, the last remaining Marxist in Copenhagen, is the impassioned organizer of a political mass meeting where no one shows up. Finally, Jens, a pizza and porno connoisseur, connives his way to some booty by convincing Gry the model that he lives with his mentally challenged brother. Over the course of a week, their paths cross and nothing, and nobody, is ever quite the same again.

Moira(ka)

Story of a poverty-stricken family living in a seaside city struggling to rise above the temptations of crime to make an honest living.

20 Minutes to Go(en)

A Startling new music video! It will send you racing one footstep ahead of danger and Death! One Heartbeat away from your wildest dream of love! A music video that will take your imagination by storm! It will plunge you into the dwelling place of the damned, then thrust you into a dimension beautiful beyond description!

Carcinoma(de)

The trials and tribulations of a man diagnosed with colorectal cancer who refuses treatment and establishes a carnal fixation on the tumor that slowly siphons the life out of him.