Monday 7 August
Gimme Shelter
8:30PM, SBS VICELAND
M
United States of America, 2013
Genre: Drama
Language: English
Director: Ron Krauss
Starring: Vanessa Hudgens, Rosario Dawson, Brendan Fraser, James Earl Jones, Ann Dowd
What's it about?
Agnes "Apple" Bailey has been in and out of foster care for years, and her mother June is an abusive addict who only wants her for the welfare money she provides. She decides to run away and go in search of her absent father, whom she discovers is now a wealthy Wall Street broker with a family. He agrees to take her in, but she's quickly forced out again when he and his wife learn she's pregnant and don't agree with her decision to keep the baby.
Youth (2013)
10:20PM, SBS VICELAND
M
Israel, 2013
Genre: Drama
Language: Hebrew
Director: Tom Shoval
Starring: Eitan Cunio, David Cunio, Shirli Deshe, Moshe Ivgy
What's it about?
Yaki and Shaul are teenage brothers who share a strong, almost telepathic connection. With Yaki enlisted to the army, he is given a rifle, which leads them to undertake an amateur kidnapping that goes terribly wrong.
Interview with 'Youth' producer, Gal Greenspan
Monday 14 August
Two Days, One Night
8:30PM, SBS VICELAND
M
Italy, France, Belgium, 2014
Genre: Drama
Language: French
Director: Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne
Starring: Marion Cotillard, Olivier Gourmet, Catherine Salée, Fabrizio Rongione
What's it about?
In her Academy-award nominated role, Marion Cotillard stars as Sandra, a young woman assisted by her husband, who has only one weekend to convince her colleagues to give up their much-needed bonuses so that she can keep her job. From two-time Palme D'or winning directors Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne (L'Enfant, Rosetta, The Kid With a Bike).
[link title="'Two Days, One Night' wins Sydney Film comp" url="node/17882"]
[link title="Two Days, One Night Review " url="node/17296"]
A Better Life
10:15PM, SBS VICELAND
M
France, 2010
Genre: Drama
Language: French
Director: Cedric Kahn
Starring: Guillaume Canet, Leïla Bekhti, Slimane Khettabi
What's it about?
Yann, a cook, and Nadia, a waitress and mother of 9-year-old boy, decide to risk everything on the purchase of a restaurant. With plenty of talent, energy and dreams, but no finance of their own, they find themselves pushed into a jungle of financing and bank loans that quickly overwhelms them both.
Monday 21 August
Biutiful
8:30PM, SBS VICELAND
MA15+
Spain, Mexico, 2010
Genre: Drama
Language: Spanish
Director: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
Starring: Javier Bardem, Eduard Fernández, Maricel Alvarez
What's it about?
This is the journey of Uxbal (Javier Bardem, in an Oscar-nominated performance), 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. From two-time Academy Award-winning director Alejandro González Iñárritu (Birdman, The Revenant).
[link title="Bardem plays Biutiful on and off-screen" url="node/2450"]
[link title="Biutiful Review" url="node/5041"]
Monday 28 August
Precious
8:30PM, SBS VICELAND
MA15+
United States, 2009
Genre: Drama
Language: English
Director: Lee Daniels
Starring: Paula Patton, Lenny Kravitz, Bill Sage, Gabourey Sidibe, Mo'Nique
What's it about?
Set in Harlem in 1987. Precious (Gabourey Sidibe) endures unimaginable hardships in her young life. She's pregnant for the second time to her abusive father; at home she must wait hand and foot on a poisonously angry mother. In these conditions, she grows up poor, angry, illiterate, fat, unloved and generally unnoticed. But underneath her impassive expression is a watchful, curious young woman with an inchoate but unshakeable sense that other possibilities exist for her.
[link title="Why You Should Watch: Precious" url="node/14750"]
[link title="Precious Review" url="node/4875"]
Miss Bala
10:40PM, SBS VICELAND
MA15+
Mexico, 2010
Genre: Drama
Language: Spanish
Director: Gerardo Naranjo
Starring: Stephanie Sigman, Irene Azuela, Jose Yenque, Gabriel Heads, Miguel Couturier, Noe Hernandez, James Russo
What's it about?
Laura is a young woman whose only dream is to become a beauty queen. When she enters the Miss Baja California competition, she meets drug-trafficker Lino and is pulled into the criminal underworld after witnessing a series of horrific murders. Soon the beautiful Laura is an unwilling participant in the rampant drug world of Mexico. Based on a true story, this acclaimed film produced by actors Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna premiered at the Cannes Film Festival 2011.
[link title="Miss Bala: Gerardo Naranjo interview" url="node/1135"]
[link title="Why You Should Watch: Miss Bala" url="node/42187"]
[link title="Miss Bala Review" url="node/5862"]
