Drama

Nishijin Shinju / Double Suicide at Nishijin (1977) Yoichi Takabayashi, Yoshie Shimamura, Yoshio Tsuchiya, Goichi Yamada, Drama

Nishijin Shinju AKA Double Suicide at Nishijin (1977)
Yumi, an exceptionally beautiful call girl, has a close call with death when a client forces her to die with him. An old cop pities her and agrees to be her guarantor so that she could join a Nishijin weaver workshop. Yumi wishes to put her dark past behind her, but she’s exposed by an ex-client. Despite the unwavered support of the old cop, she sees no way out and uses her seductive body again to get what she wants. Hiroyuki, her co-worker at the weaver workshop, is a pure-hearted young man who may redeem Yumi from her deadly path as a femme fatale.
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Brev til Kongen / Letter to the King (2014) Hisham Zaman, Ali Bag Salimi, Zheer Durhan, Nazmi Kirik, Drama

Brev til Kongen AKA Letter to the King (2014)
Letter to the King portrays five people on a day trip from a refugee camp to Oslo, a welcome change in an otherwise monotonous life. But we soon realize that each and every one of them has an agenda for their trip. All five will make decisive choices on this day, as they discover happiness, humiliation, love or fulfill a long-awaited revenge. The five stories are tied together by a letter, written by eighty-three year old Mirza. Mirza wants to hand over the letter to the King personally.
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Les amants du Flore (2006) Ilan Duran Cohen, Anna Mouglalis, Lorànt Deutsch, Caroline Silhol, Biography, Drama

Les amants du Flore (2006)
En 1924, Simone de Beauvoir, jeune fille à l’apparence policée, prépare son agrégation de philosophie et fait la connaissance de Jean-Paul Sartre. Ce dernier semble être le seul à connaître la vraie personnalité de Simone et la considère comme la seule femme digne d’être son interlocuteur. Leur amour chaotique sert de prémisse à l’oeuvre majeure de Simone de Beauvoir: Le Deuxième Sexe.
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La mosca en la ceniza / A Fly in the Ashes (2009) Gabriela David, Luis Machín, Luciano Cáceres, Cecilia Rossetto, Drama

La mosca en la ceniza AKA A Fly in the Ashes (2009)
Two rural Argentinean girls head for the capital with horrifying consequences in “A Fly in the Ashes,” a punchy drama about human trafficking that neatly balances grim social realism with a good story, an urgent message and a memorable perf from a Maria Laura Caccamo as an urban street saint. Helmer Gabriela David has wisely larded her joyless little tale with strong characterizations and suspense, and the result has generated decent fest play on the Spanish circuit. Further exposure is warranted for an item that, while local in treatment, carries universal resonance.
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La grande bellezza / The Great Beauty (2013) Paolo Sorrentino, Toni Servillo, Carlo Verdone, Sabrina Ferilli, Drama

La grande bellezza AKA The Great Beauty (2013)
Journalist Jep Gambardella has charmed and seduced his way through the lavish nightlife of Rome for decades. Since the legendary success of his one and only novel, he has been a permanent fixture in the city’s literary and social circles, but when his sixty-fifth birthday coincides with a shock from the past, Jep finds himself unexpectedly taking stock of his life, turning his cutting wit on himself and his contemporaries, and looking past the extravagant nightclubs, parties, and cafés to find Rome in all its glory: a timeless landscape of absurd, exquisite beauty.
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Monanieba / Repentance (1984) Tengiz Abuladze, Avtandil Makharadze, Ia Ninidze, Zeinab Botsvadze, Comedy, Drama

Monanieba AKA Repentance (1984)
The villainous mayor of a small town in Georgia, Varlam (Avtandil Makharadze), responsible for Stalin-like terror in his megalomania, dies and is given a pompous burial. Problem arises when the attractive Guliko (Iya Ninidze), someone whose two daughters were persecuted by the mayor, keeps digging up his grave and placing it somewhere else. She is arrested after telling authorities Varlam has no business being buried with such honor. During her trial, the story of the evil mayor is told in flashback, using the power of symbols and surreal dream images to bring back the recollections of that nightmarish regime.
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Omaret yakobean / The Yacoubian Building (2006) Marwan Hamed, Adel Imam, Nour El-Sherif, Youssra, Drama

Omaret yakobean AKA The Yacoubian Building (2006)
Cairo: a 70-year-old building of once-luxury flats with tenements on the roof. Zika, an aging libertine, feuds with his sister. Pius Haj Azzam takes a second wife, in secret, to satisfy sexual drive within religious bounds. Bothayna, poor and beautiful, supports her family, wanting to do so with dignity intact. Her former fiancé, Taha, the janitor’s son, humiliated by the police, turns to fundamentalism. Hatem, a gay editor, seduces and corrupts a young man from the sticks. Two brothers, Copts, one a tailor and one Zika’s factotum, connive for property. Allah is on most everyone’s lips, and corruption is in their hearts. European values, both refined and worldly, provide a subtext.
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