Love and Death In the Dying Light of Hong Kong

Wings of Desire(de)

Two angels, Damiel and Cassiel, glide through the streets of Berlin, observing the bustling population, providing invisible rays of hope to the distressed but never interacting with them. When Damiel falls in love with lonely trapeze artist Marion, the angel longs to experience life in the physical world, and finds — with some words of wisdom from actor Peter Falk — that it might be possible for him to take human form.

Them(xx)

A grieving husband struggles to come to terms with his wife's passing. Following a night-time visit to her grave, he picks up a transgender sex worker.

Archive(en)

2038: George Almore is working on a true human-equivalent AI, and his latest prototype is almost ready. This sensitive phase is also the riskiest as he has a goal that must be hidden at all costs—being reunited with his dead wife.

Papel(es)

Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon(en)

In the 1960s, British painter Francis Bacon surprises a burglar and invites him to share his bed. The burglar, a working class man named George Dyer, accepts. After the unique beginning to their love affair, the well-connected and volatile artist assimilates Dyer into his circle of eccentric friends, as Dyer's struggle with addiction strains their bond.

The Brave One(en)

A woman struggles to recover from a brutal attack by setting out on a mission for revenge.

Apocryphal(en)

Bewildered, Carlos awakens from a nightmare stalked by Death. The dream has a foreboding message, which is not entirely clear to him. Carlos decides to challenge his destiny and face the consequences, but his evil doing ends up shaping his own fate and that of those around him. Macabre by choice, Carlos attempts to tip the scales by changing the course of the plot designed by the gods. In this story,the unsettling city of Mexico is the backdropthat reveals psychological and human postures characteristic of a big city. It is a story where individuals who change their destiny with masks and opportunism manipulate morality, religion and reason for selfish personal gain.

Reign Over Me(en)

A man who lost his family in the September 11 attack on New York City runs into his old college roommate. Rekindling the friendship is the one thing that appears able to help the man recover from his grief.

The Country Girl(en)

An actor on the skids is given one more chance to regain his stardom, as well as his self-respect, yet his alcoholism may prevent that from happening.

The Shrouds(en)

Inconsolable since the death of his wife, Karsh, a prominent businessman, invents a revolutionary and controversial technology that enables the living to monitor their dear departed in their shrouds. One night, multiple graves, including that of Karsh’s wife, are desecrated, and he sets out to track down the perpetrators.

Two City Girls(cn)

In order to wait for her lover Fan Chun-tak to finish his study in Australia, Tang Sau-man works as a governess in Chui Shek-wah's house. Chui is Fan's brother-in-law. Chui spoils his wife Fan Kam-ping. She becomes lazy and dependent on Tang. Fan finishes his study and returns. He decides to transform his elder sister. He asks her best friend, Pang Shui-ha, to persuade her. Pang has a crush on Fan. Pang uses this opportunity to get intimate with Fan. Tang originally thinks that after Fan comes back, she no longer has to live in somebody's shelter. But Fan spends all his time with Pang. Tang is unhappy and drinks to vent her unhappiness. Tang gets drunk and Chui takes care of her. However, Ping thinks that they have dubious relationship and throws Tang out. Tang falls down a slope and loses one leg. Fan is angry with himself and decides to marry Tang. Ping also realises that she is wrong. She decides to change her lazy character and takes care of the disabled Tang.

The Mothman Prophecies(en)

Reporter John Klein is plunged into a world of impossible terror when fate draws him to the sleepy West Virginia town of Point Pleasant, whose residents are being visited by a great winged shape that sows hideous nightmares and fevered visions.

Kayla(en)

Seven-year-old Kayla's father dies unexpectedly on a mission in the U.S which changes Kayla's life completely. She takes on the responsibility of her broken family. She inspires the people around her with love and singing. And in the end, she manages to carve out a happy life.

Knight of Fortune(da)

The loss of a loved one, the grief, the risk of yellow skin, and a coffin, that is too much for Karl to face. Then it's much easier to fix a broken lamp. Karl meets Torben, a destined brother. An absurd, humorous, and melodic meeting between two old men captured by grief.

Fanny(fr)

Fanny lives with her father, Hubert, an academic obsessed with his research who has never recovered from the death of his wife twelve years earlier. Everything changes the day a mysterious family secret resurfaces. Fanny then embarks on a frantic quest to uncover the truth surrounding her mother's death.

Second Screen(en)

Second Screen follows David, a fitness influencer who begins to develop an addiction to social media. As this takes a drastic turn in order to keep his online persona intact, will he able to deal with the reality he faces in front of him?

Las Meninas(uk)

This film is about what the routine of everyday life can do to the human mind and psyche. It also reflects on the importance of the choices we make and how limited these choices are in the first place. The plot evolves around a family of four. They live in the suburbs, in a strange villa that appears, through a complex game of mirrors, to be more like a piece of installation art than a real house. The main character, who hardly appears on screen, is the son, a man in his thirties. Suffering from asthma and eczema since childhood, he uses his condition to manipulate his parents and his sister. Thus the existence of the terrorized family turns into an endless ritual of attempting to satisfy his whims, and always on the alert for yet another one of his “health crises”. Las Meninas resembles the scattered pieces of a puzzle. It is up to the viewer to assemble them in order to form his very own picture – something that makes the film itself personal and unique.

Conference(ru)

Many years after a deadly terrorist siege in a Moscow theatre, survivor Natalya returns to the crime scene to hold a memorial evening, finally able to confront her survivor's guilt and her estranged daughter and husband.

Mongolian Ping Pong(zh)

Bilike has never seen a ping-pong ball before. He and his family live without electricity and running water in a solitary tent home among the vast steppe grasslands. The magnificent landscape here has changed little since the days of Genghis Kahn. But life in the middle of nowhere can be exciting for a young boy. The smallest of details become big events for curious Bilike and his best friends Erguotou and Dawa. The mystery of the small white ball floating in the creek leads to questions about the world around them, as well as innocent mischief.

Shower(zh)

An aged father and his younger, mentally challenged son have been working hard every day to keep the bathhouse running for a motley group of regular customers. When his elder son, who left years ago to seek his fortune in the southern city of Shenzhen, abruptly returns one day, it once again puts under stress the long-broken father-son ties. Presented as a light-hearted comedy, Shower explores the value of family, friendship, and tradition.

Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon(en)

In the 1960s, British painter Francis Bacon surprises a burglar and invites him to share his bed. The burglar, a working class man named George Dyer, accepts. After the unique beginning to their love affair, the well-connected and volatile artist assimilates Dyer into his circle of eccentric friends, as Dyer's struggle with addiction strains their bond.

Lust for Life(en)

An intense and imaginative artist, revered Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh possesses undeniable talent, but he is plagued by mental problems and frustrations with failure. Supported by his brother, Theo, the tormented Van Gogh eventually leaves Holland for France, where he meets volatile fellow painter Paul Gauguin and struggles to find greater inspiration.

Inside Llewyn Davis(en)

In Greenwich Village in the early 1960s, gifted but volatile folk musician Llewyn Davis struggles with money, relationships, and his uncertain future.

Synecdoche, New York(en)

A theater director struggles with his work, and the women in his life, as he attempts to create a life-size replica of New York inside a warehouse as part of his new play.

Urchin(en)

Mike, a rough sleeper in London, is trapped in a cycle of self-destruction as he attempts to turn his life around. Along the way, he encounters unexpected chances for a fresh start.

Birth(en)

It took Anna 10 years to recover from the death of her husband, Sean, but now she's on the verge of marrying her boyfriend, Joseph, and finally moving on. However, on the night of her engagement party, a young boy named Sean turns up, saying he is her dead husband reincarnated. At first she ignores the child, but his knowledge of her former husband's life is uncanny, leading her to believe that he might be telling the truth.

Loving Vincent(en)

A young man arrives at the last hometown of painter Vincent van Gogh to deliver the troubled artist's final letter and ends up investigating his final days there.

The Human Voice(en)

A woman watches time pass beside the suitcases of her ex-lover (who is supposed to come pick them up but never arrives) and a restless dog who doesn't understand that his master has abandoned him.

Things We Lost in the Fire(en)

A recent widow invites her husband's troubled best friend to live with her and her two children. As he gradually turns his life around, he helps the family cope and confront their loss.

Lilting(en)

A young man of Chinese-Cambodian descent dies, leaving behind his isolated mother and his lover of four years. Though the two don't share a language, they grow close through their grief.

Louder Than Bombs(en)

Three years after his wife, acclaimed photographer Isabelle Reed, dies in a car crash, Gene keeps everyday life going with his shy teenage son, Conrad. A planned exhibition of Isabelle’s photographs prompts Gene's older son, Jonah, to return to the house he grew up in - and for the first time in a very long time, the father and the two brothers are living under the same roof.

My Brother the Devil(en)

Fourteen-year-old Mo is a lonely, sensitive boy whose hunger for the rant and banter of buddies makes him prone to tread dangerous territories. He idolizes his handsome older brother, Rashid, a charismatic, well-respected member of a local gang, whose drug dealing enables “Rash” to provide for his family. Aching to be seen as a tough guy himself, Mo takes a job that unlocks a fateful turn of events and forces the brothers to confront their inner demons. It turns out that hate is easy. It is love and understanding that take real courage.

The Life of Chuck(en)

In this extraordinary story of an ordinary man, Charles 'Chuck' Krantz experiences the wonder of love, the heartbreak of loss, and the multitudes contained in all of us.

Mr. Church(en)

A unique friendship develops when a little girl and her dying mother inherit a cook - Mr. Church. What begins as an arrangement that should only last six months, instead spans fifteen years.

Thirteen Conversations About One Thing(en)

In New York City, the lives of a lawyer, an actuary, a house-cleaner, a professor, and the people around them intersect as they ponder order and happiness in the face of life's cold unpredictability.

Hereafter(en)

Three people — a blue-collar American, a French journalist and a London school boy — are touched by death in different ways.

Blow-Up(en)

A successful mod photographer in London whose world is bounded by fashion, pop music, marijuana, and easy sex, feels his life is boring and despairing. But in the course of a single day he unknowingly captures a death on film.

At Eternity's Gate(en)

Famed but tormented artist Vincent van Gogh spends his final years in Arles, France, painting masterworks of the natural world that surrounds him.

August Rush(en)

Lyla and Louis, a singer and a musician, fall in love, but are soon compelled to separate. Lyla is forced to give up her newborn but unknown to her, he grows up to become a musical genius.

The Sunset Limited(en)

A deeply religious black ex-con thwarts the suicide attempt of an asocial white college professor who tries to throw himself in front of an oncoming subway train, 'The Sunset Limited.' As the one attempts to connect on a rational, spiritual and emotional level, the other remains steadfast in his hard-earned despair. Locked in a philosophical debate, both passionately defend their personal credos and try to convert the other.