Foreign Language Films

IN BLOOM, an award-winning film co-directed by Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Gross, and Georgia’s Official Entry for the Best Foreign Language Film, will open in New York at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center onJanuary 10, 2014. A national release will follow.

 IN BLOOM, the directorial debut of Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Gross, is inspired by Nana’s personal memories of her youth in the troubled early 1990s in Georgia. The film follows inseparable friends Eka and Natia, both fourteen years old and at the end of their childhood in the early nineties Tbilisi, the capital of the newly independent Georgia after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The country is facing violence, war on the Black Sea coast (Abkhazia) and vigilante justice that plague society. But for Eka and Natia, life just unfolds: in the street, at school, with friends or elder sisters who are already dealing with male dominance, early marriage and disillusioned love. For these two girls in bloom, life just goes on…

IN BLOOM premiered at the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival, where it won the C.I.C.A.E. prize. The film went on to screen at a number of international film festivals picking up multiple prizes along the way, including the Special Jury Prize at the Montreal Film Festival and the FIPRESCI prize and Golden Firebird in Hong Kong. In US, the film screened at the Hamptons International Film Festival and at AFI Fest in Los Angeles, where it won the New Auteurs Award for Personal Storytelling. IN BLOOM has been selected to screen at the upcoming Palm Springs International Film Festival in January 2014.

 

http://youtu.be/ynYAVerw9fY

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THE PAST (LE PASSÉ), Iran’s official Entry for the Best Foreign Language Film – 86th Academy Awards, directed by Oscar winning director Asghar Farhadi of A Separation (A Separation won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2012, becoming the first Iranian film to win the award) has released its trailer. THE PAST opens in theaters on December 20th, 2013.

Following a four year separation, Ahmad (Ali Mosaffa) returns to Paris from Tehran, upon his estranged French wife Marie (Bérénice Bejo)’s request, in order to finalize their divorce procedure so she can marry her new boyfriend Samir (Tahar Rahim). During his tense brief stay, Ahmad discovers the conflicting nature of Marie’s relationship with her teenage daughter Lucie (Pauline Burlet). Ahmad’s efforts to improve this relationship soon unveil a secret from their past.  

http://youtu.be/7kdUF8UZb4M

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CHILD’S POSE by Calin Peter Netzer and Romania’s Official Entry for the Best Foreign Language Film – 86th Academy Awards, will open at Film Forum in NYC on February 19, 2014, and at the Nuart Theatre in Los Angeles on February 21, 2014. A national release will follow. CHILD’S POSE (Poziţia Copilului), winner of the Golden Bear for the Best Film at 2013 Berlin International Film Festival,  pivots on a riveting performance by Luminita Gheorghiu (Best Supporting Actress, The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, Los Angeles Film Critics) as a steely, well-to-do Bucharest architect determined to keep her 30-something deadbeat son out of jail after a deadly car crash. How far will she go to convince the police, eyewitnesses and even the victim’s family that her son was not recklessly speeding?

One cold evening in March, Barbu is tearing down the streets 50 kilometres per hour over the speed limit when he knocks down a child. The boy dies shortly after the accident. A prison sentence of between three and fifteen years awaits. High time for his mother, Cornelia, to intervene. A trained architect and member of Romania’s upper class, who graces her bookshelves with unread Herta Müller novels and is fond of flashing her purse full of credit cards, she commences her campaign to save her lethargic, languishing son. Bribes, she hopes, will persuade the witnesses to give false statements. Even the parents of the dead child might be appeased by some cash. 

Călin Peter Netzer portrays a mother consumed by self-love in her struggle to save her lost son and her own, long since riven family. In quasi-documentary style, the film meticulously reconstructs the events of one night and the days that follow, providing insights into the moral malaise of Romania’s bourgeoisie and throwing into sharp relief the state of societal institutions such as the police and the judiciary. [via Berlin International Film Festival]

 

http://youtu.be/fTr7qiVKWcM

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The Irish film RUN & JUMP which had its world premiere at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival and winner of Best Irish Feature and Best First Irish Feature at the 2013 Galway Film Festival, will be released theatrically and on premium VOD platforms in early 2014 by Sundance Selects. Directed by Steph Green, ‘RUN AND JUMP’ stars Will Forte (’30 Rock’), Maxine Peake (‘Shameless’) and Edward MacLiam (‘Holby City’), and tells the unconventional love story of a happy-go-lucky Irish family and the American neuroscientist who comes to stay with them after the husband suffers a stroke.

After a stroke leaves her husband mentally disabled and fundamentally changed, spirited Irish housewife Vanetia struggles to keep her family together in the wake of tragedy. A research grant from American doctor Ted Fielding, interested in documenting the family’s recovery process, allows them to get by. Though Vanetia initially resents living under Ted’s microscope, she soon finds comfort in his calming presence, while Ted responds to Vanetia’s dynamic, unpredictable personality. As the two explore their bond within their unique situation, a new family begins to emerge. 

Directed by Academy Award®-nominee Steph Green and featuring Saturday Night Live star Will Forte in an impressive dramatic debut, this life-affirming film embraces the healing power of love and family in all of its idiosyncratic forms. Run and Jump is an unexpected, unconventional romance, intimate family portrait and emotional journey of recovery that ultimately uplifts through its heartfelt message of human connection and the power of acceptance. via Tribeca Film Festival

http://youtu.be/xrM5BfJehfE

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GLORIA directed by Sebastian Lelio and Chile’s entry in the Best Foreign Language Film category for the Oscars, will be released in the US on January 17, 2014 by Roadside Attractions. GLORIA stars Paulina García who won the Silver Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival for her performance as a vivacious, middle-aged divorcée who finds what may be her last chance for love while grooving on the dance floor of the local singles club.

Gloria Cumplido (Paulina García) is in her late fifties and lives on her own. Divorced for more than twelve years, she has two grown children and a toddler grandson. While she loves her family, she is not ready to move into full-time grand-parenting. She is smart, savvy, and vivacious. Behind her coquettish demeanour and her oversized glasses is a woman who doesn’t want to settle into a tepid relationship she’s supposed to be grateful for. She wants a real romance, ideally with a partner who loves to dance. At night, Gloria visits her favourite clubs, filled with other middle-aged singles grooving on the dance floor. When she meets the recently separated Rodolfo (Sergio Hernández), it seems that she has found one last chance at love.TIFF

http://youtu.be/h9PrVESAYeA

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GABRIELLE, directed by Louise Archambault, and Canada’s entry in the Best Foreign Language Film category for the Oscars, is scheduled to be released in the US, in Winter 2013 by Entertainment One Films. GABRIELLE, which premiered earlier this year at the 2013 Locarno International Film Festival and also screened at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival, is described as a film about a developmentally challenged young woman’s quest for independence and sexual freedom.

Living in a group home, musically talented Gabrielle has found love in Martin, a fellow member in a choir for developmentally disabled adults. Gabrielle (Gabrielle Marion-Rivard) and Martin (Alexandre Landry) want to explore their feelings for one another physically, but are not allowed. Convinced that living alone will allow her to have the intimate relationship she so desperately craves, Gabrielle tries valiantly to prove she can be independent. TIFF

http://youtu.be/H1_FkjD9I58

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The new Bollywood action-comedy BOSS directed by Anthony D’Souza, and starring Akshay Kumar, Aditi Rao Hydari, Shiv Pandit, and Mithun Chakraborty opens in 100 theaters across top North American markets today, Wednesday, October 16, 2013.

BOSS is just as colorful as his actions. He travels with a massive entourage of trucks that follow him. He has his personal cheerleaders who ‘cheer’ him during his endeavors. He has a penchant for playing loud music when he’s beating up the bad guys. That’s BOSS.
When his father approaches him for help, BOSS leaves everything aside and makes his family his first priority.
Now BOSS will travel to Delhi to accomplish his mission. His adversaries are powerful people with top connections. But BOSS is a one-man-army. He will demolish everything that comes in the way of his family – be it a dangerous cop or a corrupt Minister. However, he will take his revenge in his own way. There will be loads of action, loads of fun and loads of excitement in this entire journey. The journey that will lead to the ultimate combat in the historic war ground of Kurukshetra where once again, after centuries, good and evil will battle one another. And once again, evil will be vanquished from the face of the Earth. But this time, it will all be – BOSS style.

http://youtu.be/zaoDtl0GL2E

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Tribeca Film will release Spanish director Gonzalo López-Gallego’s “mind-bending thriller” OPEN GRAVE starring Sharlto Copley (District 9, Elysium), Joseph Morgan (“The Vampire Diaries,”” The Originals”), Josie Ho (“Contagion”), and Thomas Kretschmann (Valkyrie, Wanted) in the US.  OPEN GRAVE will premiere at the prestigious international genre festival, Sitges Film Festival, in Spain this month, before a December day and date release in the U.S.

The high-concept OPEN GRAVE follows a man (Copley) who wakes up in a pit of dead bodies with no memory of who he is or how he got there. Fleeing the scene, he breaks into a nearby house and is met at gunpoint by a group of terrified strangers, all suffering from memory loss. Suspicion gives way to violence as the group starts to piece together clues about their identities, but when they uncover a threat that’s more vicious than each other, they are forced to figure out what brought them all together — before it’s too late.

The film will be released day and date this December on cable/telco and satellite video-on-demand platforms, as well as iTunes, Amazon Watch Instantly, VUDU, Playstation, and Google Play, followed by a theatrical release in major markets.

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Palestinian film “OMAR,” Palestine’s official Oscar submission for Best Foreign Language Film this year and winner of Un Certain Regard Jury Prize at this year’s 2013 Cannes Film Festial will be released in the US this Winter 2013.

Written and directed by Golden Globe winner, Palestinian director Hany Abu-Assad, “OMAR” stars Adam Bakri in the title role, Leem Lubany, Waleed F. Zuaiter, Samer Bisharat and Eyad Hourani. The film ‘achingly captures the emotional struggles of a young Palestinian baker whose loyalty to family and country are complicated by his love for Nadia, a beautiful young student.  Following the assassination of an Israeli occupation soldier, Omar, a co-conspirator and friend of the suspected sniper, is arrested. Facing a life sentence, he is coerced by the Israeli authorities and enlisted as a collaborator to find the killer in exchange for his freedom.’

http://youtu.be/jkCnA5UOI94

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Pawel Pawlikowski’s Polish Communist-era drama IDA, which has been playing to audiences at film festivals in Telluride and Toronto will be released in the US next year 2014 by Music Box Films. IDA tells the story of a young orphaned novice nun exposed to a past and a family she never knew existed.

Best known for his breakthrough The Last Resort and BAFTA-award winning My Summer of Love, IDA marks the first film for the Polish-born, British filmmaker, set in his homeland.  IDA won the International Critics’ Prize (FIPRESCI Prize) in Toronto as well as the won the top prize at Poland’s recent Gdynia Film Festival along with Best Actress (Agata Kulesza) and Cinematography (Lukasz Zal and Ryszard Lenczewski). Music Box plans a winter/spring North American festival campaign followed by a late second quarter 2014 theatrical release.

In 1962 Poland, Anna (newcomer Agata Trzebuchowska), an eighteen-year-old orphan raised in the convent, is preparing to become a nun when the Mother Superior insists she first visit her one remaining living relative. The sheltered and innocent Anna soon finds herself in the presence of her aunt Wanda (Kulesza), a worldly and world-wearyCommunist Party insider, who informs Anna that her real name is Ida, she isJewish and her parents were murdered during the Nazi occupation. This revelation triggers a heart wrenching journey for the two women into the countryside, to the family house and into the secrets of the repressed past as it evokes the legacy of the Holocaust and the realities of postwar Communism.

http://youtu.be/MRzbCZtiWYc 

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 At the NY Premiere on August 13: Ziyi Zhang, Samuel L. Jackson, Tony Leung and Wong Kar Wai

Samuel L. Jackson – a huge fan of Kar Wai – has lent his support to the film THE GRANDMASTER by signing on as a presenter with Martin Scorsese. “THE GRANDMASTER is a wild ride and an expertly crafted martial arts film. I was blown away by Tony Leung and Ziyi Zhang’s performances, and needless to say by Wong Kar Wai’s direction; he’s a living legend who I’ve admired for ages, and it’s a true honor to lend my support alongside Martin Scorsese.” 

Ziyi Zhang and Michael B. Jordan at an LA screening of THE GRANDMASTER

THE GRANDMASTER, now playing in New York, L.A. and Toronto, and opening nationwide August 30, is the new film by acclaimed director Wong Kar Wai. Six years in the planning and three years in the making, THE GRANDMASTER is described as an epic action feature inspired by the life and times of the legendary kung fu master, Ip Man. The story spans the tumultuous Republican era that followed the fall of China’s last dynasty, a time of chaos, division and war that was also the golden age of Chinese martial arts. 

http://youtu.be/Zl8dzRLr3Mg

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