Monday July 6, 8.30pm
The Rocket
(Australia, drama)
Director: Kim Mordaunt
Starring: Sitthiphon Disamoe, Loungnam Kaosainam, Suthep Po-ngam
What's it about?
After falling in love with Laos when filming a unit of bomb disposal technicians in his 2007 documentary Bomb Harvest, director Kim Mordaunt decided to shine a bigger light on the country and its people by telling the fictional story of Ahlo, a little boy believed to have been cursed at birth. When the construction of a dam forces them to leave their village, he and his family embark on a dangerous journey through Laos, a land scarred by the legacy of war, to find a new home. They soon find a village where, in order to prove he's not bad luck, Ahlo endeavours to build a giant rocket to enter the Rocket Festival competition. Despite its tragic setting, The Rocket is an uplifting movie that will knock your socks off.
After falling in love with Laos when filming a unit of bomb disposal technicians in his 2007 documentary Bomb Harvest, director Kim Mordaunt decided to shine a bigger light on the country and its people by telling the fictional story of Ahlo, a little boy believed to have been cursed at birth. When the construction of a dam forces them to leave their village, he and his family embark on a dangerous journey through Laos, a land scarred by the legacy of war, to find a new home. They soon find a village where, in order to prove he's not bad luck, Ahlo endeavours to build a giant rocket to enter the Rocket Festival competition. Despite its tragic setting, The Rocket is an uplifting movie that will knock your socks off.
Watch interview with director Kim Mordaunt
Source: SBS Movies
Tulpan
(Kazakhstan, comedy/drama)
Director: Sergei Dvortsevoy
Starring: Askhat Kuchencherekov, Ondas Besikbasov, Samal Esljamova
What's it about?
The delightful Tulpan, winner of Un Certain Regard at Cannes in 2008, follows Asa, a dreamer who after finishing a stint in the Russian Navy, wants to establish a life as a shepherd on the windswept and remote plains of the Kazakh steppe. But Asa's brother-in-law won't give him his own flock until Asa finds a wife, and the only eligible girl in the village – the elusive Tulpan – rejects him. She doesn't like his big ears, and moreover, she has bigger dreams: going to college in the big city. It will take Asa a lot more than his boastful tales of battling octopi to convince her. A charming tale, full of humour and poetry, which will you make you appreciate life's simple things.
The delightful Tulpan, winner of Un Certain Regard at Cannes in 2008, follows Asa, a dreamer who after finishing a stint in the Russian Navy, wants to establish a life as a shepherd on the windswept and remote plains of the Kazakh steppe. But Asa's brother-in-law won't give him his own flock until Asa finds a wife, and the only eligible girl in the village – the elusive Tulpan – rejects him. She doesn't like his big ears, and moreover, she has bigger dreams: going to college in the big city. It will take Asa a lot more than his boastful tales of battling octopi to convince her. A charming tale, full of humour and poetry, which will you make you appreciate life's simple things.
Watch sneek peek & Read review
Tulpan (2008). Source: SBS Movies
Monday July 13, 8.30pm
The Hunt
(Denmark/Sweden, drama)
Director: Thomas Vinterberg
Starring: Mads Mikkelsen, Thomas Bo Larsen, Annika Wedderkopp
What's it about?
By the director of the disturbing 1998 Festen and this year's epic Far From the Madding Crowd (and co-founder the Dogme 95 movement), comes this gripping thriller starring Mads Mikkelsen, who deservedly won the Best Actor award at Cannes for his performance as a persecuted man who has to fight to clear his name. Following a tough divorce, 40-year-old Lucas has a new girlfriend, a new job and is in the process of reestablishing his relationship with his teenage son, Marcus. But things get out of hand when a small lie spreads through the community like an invisible virus, provoking a collective state of hysteria, while Lucas fights a lonely fight for his life and dignity. A chilling exploration of how our best intentions (protecting children) can quickly take a turn for the worse.
By the director of the disturbing 1998 Festen and this year's epic Far From the Madding Crowd (and co-founder the Dogme 95 movement), comes this gripping thriller starring Mads Mikkelsen, who deservedly won the Best Actor award at Cannes for his performance as a persecuted man who has to fight to clear his name. Following a tough divorce, 40-year-old Lucas has a new girlfriend, a new job and is in the process of reestablishing his relationship with his teenage son, Marcus. But things get out of hand when a small lie spreads through the community like an invisible virus, provoking a collective state of hysteria, while Lucas fights a lonely fight for his life and dignity. A chilling exploration of how our best intentions (protecting children) can quickly take a turn for the worse.
Watch interview with Mads Mikkelsen, Thomas Vinterberg, Tobias Lindholm
Source: SBS Movies
A Prophet
(France, crime/drama)
Director: Jacques Audiard
Starring: Tahar Rahim, Niels Arestrup, Adel Bencherif
What's it about?
Jacques Audiard (Rust and Bone), who grew up with cinema thanks to his director father Michel Audiard, is considered one of France's best directors of his generation and has just won the Palme d'Or this year at Cannes with Dheepan. In A Prophet, Audiard offers a fascinating, yet confronting look at prison life, by following young and illiterate Malik (Tahar Rahim, recently seen in Samba), who has just been condemned to six years in prison. He finds protection with the leader of the Corsican gang (a perfectly menacing Niels Arestrup, who previously starred in Audiard's The Beat That My Heart Skipped) who rules the prison, against a number of 'missions' to carry out. But Malik is brave and a fast learner, and he starts to secretly develop his own plans.
Jacques Audiard (Rust and Bone), who grew up with cinema thanks to his director father Michel Audiard, is considered one of France's best directors of his generation and has just won the Palme d'Or this year at Cannes with Dheepan. In A Prophet, Audiard offers a fascinating, yet confronting look at prison life, by following young and illiterate Malik (Tahar Rahim, recently seen in Samba), who has just been condemned to six years in prison. He finds protection with the leader of the Corsican gang (a perfectly menacing Niels Arestrup, who previously starred in Audiard's The Beat That My Heart Skipped) who rules the prison, against a number of 'missions' to carry out. But Malik is brave and a fast learner, and he starts to secretly develop his own plans.
Watch trailer & Read review
Watch interview with Tahar Rahim
Watch interview with Tahar Rahim
Source: SBS Movies
Monday July 20, 8.30pm
Headhunters
(Norway, crime/thriller)
Director: Morten Tyldum
Starring: Aksel Hennie, Synnøve Macody Lund, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau
What's it about?
Adapted from a novel by leading "Scandinoir" writer Jo Nesbo, fast-paced thriller Headhunters follows Roger, a charming headhunter who also happens to be Norway’s most accomplished art-thief. His lucrative work subsidizes his luxury lifestyle, but he decides to risk it all and daringly steal an extremely valuable painting from a former mercenary. Things go very wrong, and Roger discovers something which makes him a hunted man. You'll soon see for yourself why Headhunters is one of the highest-grossing Norwegian movie of all time. (It also happens to include one of the most gut-wrenching toilet scenes since Trainspotting.)
Adapted from a novel by leading "Scandinoir" writer Jo Nesbo, fast-paced thriller Headhunters follows Roger, a charming headhunter who also happens to be Norway’s most accomplished art-thief. His lucrative work subsidizes his luxury lifestyle, but he decides to risk it all and daringly steal an extremely valuable painting from a former mercenary. Things go very wrong, and Roger discovers something which makes him a hunted man. You'll soon see for yourself why Headhunters is one of the highest-grossing Norwegian movie of all time. (It also happens to include one of the most gut-wrenching toilet scenes since Trainspotting.)
Read review
Source: SBS Movies
Holy Motors
(France/Germany, drama)
Director: Leos Carax
Starring: Denis Lavant, Edith Scob, Eva Mendes
What's it about?
Holy Motors marks a new collaboration between French New Wave's heir and wild child Leos Carax and his key actor/acrobat from The Lovers on the Pont-Neuf (available here at SBS On Demand), Denis Lavant, who plays here no less than 11 characters. From dawn to dusk, we get a glimpse into the life of Monsieur Oscar, a shadowy character who journeys from one life to the next. He is, in turn, captain of industry, assassin, beggar, monster, family man, and is accompanied only by Céline, the slender blonde woman behind the wheel of the vast engine that transports him through and around Paris. A surreal and magical experience, where anything can happen. (Keep an eye out for an appearance by "Our Kylie"!)
Holy Motors marks a new collaboration between French New Wave's heir and wild child Leos Carax and his key actor/acrobat from The Lovers on the Pont-Neuf (available here at SBS On Demand), Denis Lavant, who plays here no less than 11 characters. From dawn to dusk, we get a glimpse into the life of Monsieur Oscar, a shadowy character who journeys from one life to the next. He is, in turn, captain of industry, assassin, beggar, monster, family man, and is accompanied only by Céline, the slender blonde woman behind the wheel of the vast engine that transports him through and around Paris. A surreal and magical experience, where anything can happen. (Keep an eye out for an appearance by "Our Kylie"!)
Read: Holy Motors Cheat Sheet
Source: SBS Movies
Monday July 27, 8.30pm
Biutiful
(Mexico/Spain, drama)
Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu
Starring: Javier Bardem, Maricel Álvarez, Hanaa Bouchaib
What's it about?
Oscar-winning Birdman director Alejandro González Iñárritu tells the story of Uxbal, a conflicted man who struggles to reconcile fatherhood, love, spirituality, crime, guilt and mortality amidst the dangerous underworld of modern Barcelona. As fate encircles him and thresholds are crossed, a dim, redemptive road brightens, illuminating the inheritances bestowed from father to child, and the paternal guiding hand that navigates life’s corridors, whether bright, bad – or biutiful. Javier Bardem won Best Actor at Cannes in 2010 for his outstanding performance as the complex and tragic Uxbal.
Oscar-winning Birdman director Alejandro González Iñárritu tells the story of Uxbal, a conflicted man who struggles to reconcile fatherhood, love, spirituality, crime, guilt and mortality amidst the dangerous underworld of modern Barcelona. As fate encircles him and thresholds are crossed, a dim, redemptive road brightens, illuminating the inheritances bestowed from father to child, and the paternal guiding hand that navigates life’s corridors, whether bright, bad – or biutiful. Javier Bardem won Best Actor at Cannes in 2010 for his outstanding performance as the complex and tragic Uxbal.
Read review
Source: SBS Movies
Departures
(Japan, drama)
Director: Yôjirô Takita
Starring: Masahiro Motoki, Ryôko Hirosue, Tsutomu Yamazaki
What's it about?
Daigo Kobayashi is a cellist in an orchestra decides to move back to his old hometown with his wife after losing his job. He answers a classified ad entitled "Departures" thinking it is from a travel agency only to discover that the job is actually for a "Nokanshi" or "encoffineer," a funeral professional who prepares deceased bodies for burial. While his wife despises his job, Daigo takes a certain pride in his work, acting as a gatekeeper between life and death. This profound and sometimes comical exploration into Japanese perceptions surrounding death won the 2009 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
Source: SBS Movies
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