The following movies expire at various times throughout the month. Click the image to watch each film in full at SBS On Demand.
GENRE: COMEDY
I'm So Excited!
MA15+
Spain, 2013
Genre: Comedy
Language: Spanish
Director: Pedro Almodovar
Starring: Javier Cámara, Pepa Charro, Cecilia Roth, Penélope Cruz
What's it about?
Pedro Almodovar returns to bawdy comedy with the story of a doomed flight and its panicked crew's increasingly desperate efforts to distract the passengers from the dangers they face. The pilot and cabin crew pull out all of the stops to keep Peninsula Flight 2549 as fun, sexy and enjoyable as possible, while they wait for a solution. A hilarious romp featuring cameos by Spanish stars Penelope Cruz, Antonio Banderas, Paz Vega and Cecilia Roth.
The Swimsuit Issue
M
Sweden, 2008
Genre: Comedy
Language: Swedish
Director: Måns Herngren
Starring: Jonas Inde, Amanda Davin, Peter Gardiner
What's it about?
This feelgood, gloriously silly comedy bends the gender stereotypes with the story of Fredrik, an unemployed journalist who after a wild bachelor party, discovers his passion for synchronised swimming. He convinces his floorball teammates to join him as Sweden's only all-male team, well intent on making a splash at the world championships.
Foon
M
France, 2005
Genre: Musical, Comedy
Language: French
Directors: Isabelle Vitari, Mika Tard, Deborah Saiag, Benoét Pétré
Starring: Benoét Pétré, Alexandre Brik, Aurelie Saada
What's it about?
This musical comedy spoof, spoken entirely in "Frenglish", is an homage to Grease and Carrie by comedy troupe Les Quiches. In '60s Philadelfoon, cool kids and nerds go head-to-head armed with kooky hairstyles and colour-splashed costumes ahead of the high school graduation ball. Mayhem ensues.
Trust Me
M
Norway, Sweden, 2010
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Language: Swedish
Director: Johan Kling
Starring: Alexander Skarsgard, Susanne Thorson, Gustaf Skarsgard
What's it about?
True Blood and Tarzan's Alexander Skarsgård and his brother Gustav (Floki from Vikings) both star in this Swedish comedy/drama about an amateur Stockholm theatre troupe. The neurotic Katja and her lovable thespian friends try in vain to keep the drama on stage from spilling over into their personal lives.
Suck Me Shakespeer
MA15+
Germany, 2013
Genre: Comedy
Language: German
Director: Bora Dagtekin
Starring: Elyas M’Barek, Karoline Herfurth, Katja Riemann, Jana Pallaske
What's it about?
Rebranded from its just-as-irreverent German title Fuck you, Goethe, Bora Dagtekin's comedy follows an ex-con who lands a position at a school that was built on top of a pile of money from one of his earlier robberies. You can bet his unconventional teaching methods - such as, well, showing up to class with a machine gun - will gain the respect of those hard core brats.
GENRE: THRILLER / CRIME
Dom Hemingway
MA15+
UK, 2013
Genre: Crime, Comedy, Drama
Language: English
Director: Richard Shepard
Starring: Jude Law, Richard E. Grant
What's it about?
Jude Law goes all out as the foul-mouthed, ageing safe-cracker Dom Hemingway in this geezer caper in the spirit of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. Freshly released from a 12-year stint in prison, Dom seeks payback and a chance to reconcile with his estranged daughter (Game of Thrones' Emilia Clarke).
Interview: Jude Law on the challenge of playing outrageous ex-con 'Dom Hemingway'
Everything Will Be Fine
M
Denmark, 2010
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Language: Danish
Director: Christoffer Boe
Starring: Jens Albinus, Marijana Jankovic, Igor Radosavljevic, Søren Malling
What's it about?
In this homage to Hitchcock's cinema (with even a Vertigo-inspired poster), director Christoffer Boe explores the paranoid mind of scriptwriter Jacob Falk, who, after stumbling upon photos of prisoners of war being tortured by Danish soldiers, embarks on a frenetic chase to reveal a political conspiracy.
Next Door
MA15+
Sweden, Norway, 2005
Genre: Horror, Mystery
Language: Norwegian, Swedish
Director: Pal Sietaune
Starring: Kristoffer Joner, Juiia Schacht, Michael Nyqvist
What's it about?
This sexy horror thriller follows the newly single John, whose who has a chance encounter with the two pretty women next door, and takes the "Love Thy Neighbour" commandment a bit too literally as they draw him into a dangerous game of seduction. All three get along famously until their sexual gameplay takes a deadly turn and things quickly spiral out of control.
R
MA15+
Denmark, 2010
Genre: Drama, Crime
Language: Danish
Director: Tobias Lindholm, Michael Noer
Starring: Pilou Asbæk, Dulfi Al-Jabouri, Roland Møller
What's it about?
This gritty prison drama, the first collaboration between director Tobias Lindholm (A War) and Danish star Pilou Asbaek (Borgen, Ghost in the Shell), follows a new prisoner whose survival depends on his ability to adjust to his inmates' rules. A raw and confronting film, with a fearless performance by Pilou Asbaek.
SBS On Demand: Pilou Asbaek double bill
Pilou Asbaek talks ‘Ghost In The Shell’ controversy and how he was changed by ‘A War’
When Darkness Falls
MA15+
Sweden, 2006
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Language: Swedish
Director: Anders Nilsson
Starring: Oldoz Javidi, Bahar Pars, Mina Azarian
What's it about?
This provocative thriller tackles domestic violence, honour killings and organised crime in contemporary Sweden. It tells three stories that interweave as each protagonist faces the threat of violence from family, friends and society at large. Disturbing, but important viewing.
GENRE: DRAMA
Norman
M
USA, 2010
Genre: Drama, Comedy
Language: English
Director: Jonathan Segal
Starring: Dan Byrd, Emily VanCamp, Richard Jenkins, Adam Goldberg
What's it about?
A troubled teenager reeling from both the recent death of his mother and his father's terminal illness, creates a narrative about his own 'cancer' as a coping mechanism. This bittersweet indie features great performances from the two young leads, as well as from Richard Jenkins (Olive Kitteridge) as the father, and Adam Goldberg (Two Days in Paris) as Norman's sympathetic teacher.
Once Were Warriors
MA15+
New Zealand, 1994
Genre: Drama
Language: Maori
Director: Lee Tamahori
Starring: Rena Owen, Temuera Morrison, Cliff Curtis
What's it about?
This devastating drama, a box office hit in Australasia in 1994, tells the devastating story of a Maori family torn apart by domestic violence. Intense and unforgettable.
[link title="Watch The Movie Show's original review" url="node/17230"]Watch interviews with cast and crew
12 Years a Slave
MA15+
USA, 2013
Genre: Drama
Language: English
Director: Steve McQueen
Starring: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Lupita Nyong'o, Michael Fassbender
What's it about?
Inspired by a true story, Steve McQueen's Oscar-winning drama merges his uncompromising visual style with powerful performances. Chiwetel Ejiofor plays Solomon Northup, a free man from upstate New York who is abducted and sold into slavery in the Deep South, where he struggles to stay alive and retain his dignity in the face of untold cruelty.
[link title="12 Years a Slave: Interview" url="node/13892"]
[link title="12 Years A Slave Review" url="node/6313"]
A Royal Affair
M
Sweden, Germany, Czech Republic, Denmark, 2012
Genre: Drama, History, Romance
Language: Danish, French, German
Director: Nikolaj Arcel
Starring: Mads Mikkelsen, Alicia Vikander, Mikkel Boe Følsgaard
What's it about?
A Royal Affair is Nikolaj Arcel's (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) foray into romantic, epic period drama, which will delight even the viewers who are not fans of the genre. This is in no small part due to the great acting and chemistry of its leads: Alicia Vikander, as a young queen married to an insane king, who falls secretly in love with his physician, Mads Mikkelsen. Together they start a revolution that changes a nation forever.
[link title="A Royal Affair: Nicolaj Arcel interview" url="node/917"]
[link title="A Royal Affair Review" url="node/5861"]SBS On Demand: Mads Mikkelsen movie marathon
The Front Line
MA15+
South Korea, 2011
Genre: Drama, War, History
Language: Korean
Director: Hun Jang
Starring: Ha-kyun Shin, Soo Go, Seung-su Ryu
What's it about?
Carried by superb performances and impressive, realistic battle scenes, this powerful film about the horror and futility of war is set in 1953 during Korean War's final battle, which determined the border between North and South. Victory will only be claimed when the last man is standing.
The Other Son
M
France, 2012
Genre: Drama
Language: French
Director: Lorraine Levy
Starring: Emmanuelle Devos, Pascal Elbé, Jules Sitruk
What's it about?
This moving family drama follows two young men, one Israeli and one Palestinian, whose worlds are turned upside down when they discover they were accidentally switched at birth. The revelation causes turmoil in both families and forces them to examine their identities, values and beliefs. Brilliant performances by the two young leads and the actors portraying their disconcerted parents, particularly Emmanuelle Devos (Read My Lips) as the Jewish mother.
[link title="The Other Son Review" url="node/6166"]Watch interview with director Lorraine Levy
Faithless (Part 1 & 2)
M
Sweden, 2000
Genre: Drama, Romance
Language: French, Swedish
Director: Liv Ullmann
Starring: Lena Endre, Erland Josephson, Krister Henriksson
What's it about?
Scripted by Ingmar Bergman and inspired in part by his own affair with muse Liv Ullmann (who directs the film), this beautiful film is about a destructive affair between an actress and her musician husband's best friend. An ugly divorce ensues, as well as a battle for the custody of their daughter. An unforgettable meditation on love and guilt.
Human Capital
MA15+
Italy, 2014
Genre: Drama
Language: Italian
Director: Paolo Virzì
Starring: Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Fabrizio Gifuni, Valeria Golino
What's it about?
This multi-stranded melodrama is a scathing portrait of capitalism and greed, set against the background of the financial crisis. After a cyclist is hit by a SUV the night before Christmas Eve, the lives of wealthy, detached Bernaschi family intertwines with the middle-class Ossolas – with destructive results.
Playoff
M
Germany, France, Israel, 2012
Genre: Sport, True Story
Language: English, German, Turkish, Hebrew
Director: Eran Riklis
Starring: Danny Huston, Amira Casar, Mark Waschke
What's it about?
Playoff tells the compelling true story of Israeli basketball coach Max Stoller (portrayed by Hollywood veteran actor Danny Huston), responsible for one of the country's greatest international sporting successes when he coached Maccabi Tel Aviv to become the European Champions in the late '70s.
Pure
MA15+
Sweden, 2009
Genre: Drama
Language: Swedish
Director: Lisa Langseth
Starring: Alicia Vikander, Samuel Fröler
What's it about?
Catch Oscar winner Alicia Vikander (The Danish Girl) in one of her first roles as Katarina, a young woman from the wrong side of the tracks who finds a pathway to a better life through classical music. She bluffs her way into a job at the Gothenburg Symphony, and draws the attention of its demanding chief conductor.
White Night
M
Denmark, 2007
Genre: Drama
Language: Danish
Director: Jannik Johansen
Starring: Lars Brygmann, Anne Sofie Espersen, Morten Grunwald
What's it about?
This psychological drama co-written by Jannik Johansen and Anders Thomas Jensen (In a Better World) stars Lars Brygmann (Inheritance) as Ulrich, a workaholic whose life takes a drastic turn when he is involved in a fatal accident. A compelling character study of a man whose guilt and self-punishment manifest in loneliness, egoism and pessimism.
The Bench
M
Sweden, Denmark, 2000
Genre: Drama
Language: Danish, German, Hungarian
Director: Per Fly
Starring: Jesper Christensen, Marius Sonne Janischefska, Stine Holm Joensen
What's it about?
Veteran actor Jesper Christensen (Melancholia, Spectre, and recently seen on SBS in drama The Legacy) gives a superb performance as 50-something Kaj, once a highly regarded chef, who is now an alcoholic living in a council flat in a Copenhagen suburb. Proud and cantankerous, his life is transformed when a young lady and her child move next to him.
Manslaughter
M
Denmark, 2005
Genre: Drama
Language: Danish
Director: Per Fly
Starring: Jesper Christensen, Antonio Serrano, Pernilla August
What's it about?
Catch a different facet of Jesper Christensen's talent in this other Danish drama, in which he portrays 52-year-old Carsten, a respected and seemingly happily-married high school teacher. However, Carsten's life changes forever with the revelation of his affair with a former student, a radical left wing activist involved in the death of a policeman.
The Last Elvis
M
Argentina, 2012
Genre: Drama
Language: Spanish, English
Director: Armando Bo
Starring: John McInerny, Griselda Siciliani, Margarita Lopez
What's it about?
Director Armando Bo, who won an Oscar for his screenplay on Alejandro G. Iñárritu's Birdman, cast first-time actor and real-life Elvis impersonator John McInerny for his compelling portrait of a man whose delusion affects his relationship with his family. A tragic accident soon forces the impersonator (a factory worker by day) to grapple with his responsibilities.
Roads to Koktebel
MA15+
Russia, 2003
Genre: Drama
Language: Russian
Director: Boris Khlebnikov, Aleksei Popogrebsky
Starring: Igor Chernevich, Vladimir Kucherenko, Agrippina Steklova
What's it about?
This lyrical road movie follows a recently widowed, recovering alcoholic as he embarks on foot on an epic journey south from Moscow to the Crimean town of Koktebel with his 11-year old son in search of a new beginning. Fans of Andrey Zvyagintsev's The Return, which came out almost at the same time, will also appreciate this beautiful film.
La Petite Chartreuse
PG
France, 2005
Genre: Drama
Language: French
Director: Jean-Pierre Denis
Starring: Bertille Noel-Bruneau, Olivier Gourmet, Marie-Josée Croze
What's it about?
When recovering alcoholic Etienne accidentally hits eight-year old Eva with his car, he is wracked with guilt and starts visiting her in hospital. Gifted with an unusal memory, Etienne reads aloud to Eva the books he knows by heart to wake her out of her coma, while her loving, but incompetent mother (Marie-Josée Croze, The Barbarian Invasions) is out of town. A poetic and moving story about three lonely souls set against the beautiful snowy landscapes of the Alps.
Journey to the Sun
MA15+
Turkey, 1999
Genre: Drama
Language: Kurdish, Turkish
Director: Yeşim Ustaoğlu
Starring: Nazmî Kirik, Newroz Baz, Mizgin Kapazan
What's it about?
A gritty story of friendship and courage about a naive man's transformation as he faces the social realities of contemporary Turkey. Two young man from different regions of Turkey - Mehmet from the West, Berzan from the East - are bonded together in their struggle to survive as lower-class citizens in Istanbul.
Alexandria... New York
M
Egypt, 2004
Genre: Drama
Language: Arabic, English
Director: Youssef Chahine
Starring: Mahmoud Hemida, Ahmed Yehia, Youssra
What's it about?
Director Youssef Chahine looks back on his past and his ambiguous relationship with America in an enthralling fictionalised autobiography. He tells the story of Yehia, a renowned Egyptian filmmaker, who goes back to New York, where he reunites with Ginger, an American woman he dated 40 years ago.
Rhymes for Young Ghouls
MA15+
Canada, 2013
Genre: Drama
Language: English
Director: Jeff Barnaby
Starring: Mark Antony Krupa, Devery Jacobs, Glen Gould, Brandon Oakes
What's it about?
A dark, visually rich and dream-like film set in 1976 on the Indian reservation of Mi'gMaq, where Aila (Devery Jacobs in a terrific performance), an orphaned teenager, plots her revenge against the sadistic Indian agent who imprisoned her in a residential school where rape and abuse are common.
Young and Wild
MA15+
Chile, 2012
Genre: Drama, Romance
Language: Spanish
Director: Marialy Rivas
Starring: Alicia Rodríguez, Aline Küppenheim, María Gracia Omegna
What's it about?
Marialy Rivas's bold coming-of-age film won a Grand Jury award at Sundance for its refreshing take on the age-old battle between religious repression and sexuality. Teenager Daniela is obsessed with sex and her lifestyle is in direct conflict with her strict evangelical family in Santiago, Chile. Daniela learns that having it all - sex, love and eternal salvation - is more complicated than she ever imagined.
Jedda
PG
Australia, 1955
Genre: Drama, Adventure, Action
Language: English
Director: Charles Chauvel
Starring: Rosalie Kunoth-Monks, Robert Tudawali, Betty Suttor
What's it about?
Don't miss this iconic classic by film pioneer Charles Chauvel, the first Australian movie shot in colour starring Aboriginal actors in the lead roles. Jedda is an Aboriginal girl brought up by a white family in the Australian outback in the '50s, who finds herself caught between two cultures, confused about her heritage and her place in the world.
Beck Cole: Jedda is a lens into '50s white Australia
Australian film's first multihyphenate: Charles Chauvel
Philomena
M
UK, 2013
Genre: Drama
Language: English
Director: Stephen Frears
Starring: Judi Dench, Steve Coogan
What's it about?
Unlikely duo Dame Judi Dench and Steve Coogan head up Stephen Frears's Oscar-nominated drama about an Irish woman's 50-year search for the son she was forced to give up for adoption as a Catholic teenager. Moving, sometimes angry, and surprisingly funny, it's a journey that lifts the spirit - and proves Dench and Coogan to be a winning combination.
[link title="Philomena: Stephen Frears interview" url="node/1839"]
[link title="Philomena interview: Steve Coogan" url="node/1875"]
[link title="Philomena Review" url="node/6400"]
Lucky
M
South Africa, 2012
Genre: Drama
Language: Zulu, Hindi, English
Director: Avie Luthra
Starring: Sihle Dlamini, Jayashree Basavaraj, James Ngcobo
What's it about?
A 10-year-old South African orphan leaves his Zulu village to make his own life in the city, only to find no one will help him, except a formidable, irascible Indian woman. A realistic, profoundly moving portrait of humanity in post-apartheid South Africa.
GENRE: DOCUMENTARIES
Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer
MA15+
UK, 2013
Genre: Documentary, Music
Language: Russian
Director: Maxim Pozdorovkin, Mike Lerner
Starring: Maria Alyokhina, Yekaterina Samutsevich, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova
What's it about?
This compelling documentary follows the three members of feminist collection Pussy Riot as they face their now infamous sentence of seven years in a Russian prison for a satirical performance in a Moscow cathedral. With unparalleled access and exclusive footage, this film looks at the real people behind their now famous colourful balaclavas.
Exit Through the Gift Shop
M
UK, 2010
Genre: Documentary
Language: English
Director: Banksy
Starring: Thierry Guetta, Banksy
What's it about?
"A film about a man who tried to make a film about me" is how renowned British graffiti artist Banksy describes this Oscar-nominated documentary feature about the art world. Exit Through The Gift Shop traces eccentric French self-described filmmaker Thierry Guetta's attempts to locate and befriend Banksy only to have the artist turn the camera back on its owner with spectacular results. Is it the real thing or a mammoth prank by Banksy? You decide.
Good Hair
M
USA, 2009
Genre: Comedy, Documentary
Language: English
Director: Jeff Stilson
What's it about?
When asked by his five-year-old daughter why she didn't have "good hair", comedian Chris Rock began a madcap quest to discover the ins and outs of the African-American obsession with perfect mane. From Indian temples to the wildest hairdressing tournament in the world, Rock examines the effects of scalp-stripping chemical straighteners, movement-limiting weaves and the problems of cutting hair underwater.
SBS Life: Students protest South African high school for discriminating against natural hair
SBS Life: Why Beyoncé's hair is making a political statement
