16th of September "Broken Embraces" (2009, Spain)

"Broken Embraces" by the Spain director Pedro Almodóvar.

The film centers on a four-way tale of dangerous love, and was shot in the style of a hard-boiled 1950s American film noir[2], or its descendant, the neo-noir genre. Many themes include noir references such as film posters in sets, angular, high contrast lighting and the characters' struggle with their illicit passions. However, like most Almodovar films, it is filmed in bright color rather than the black-and-white emblematic of noire. The cast includes many Almodóvar regulars such as Ángela Molina, Lola Dueñas and Penélope Cruz (her fourth film with the director). The film's soundtrack includes Cat Power, Uffie, and Can.

Passion, obsession, wealth, jealousy, family, guilt, and creativity. In Madrid, Harry Caine is a blind screenwriter, assisted by Judit and her son Diego. The past comes rushing in when Harry learns of the death of Ernesto Martel, a wealthy businessman, and Ernesto's son pays Harry a visit. In a series of flashbacks to the 1990s, we see Harry, who was then Mateo Blanco, a director; he falls in love with Ernesto's mistress, Lena, and casts her in a film, which Ernesto finances. Ernesto is jealous and obsessive, sending his son to film the making of the movie, to follow Lena and Mateo, and to give him the daily footage. Judit doesn't like Lena. It's a collision course. For more info click here.

2nd of September "A time for drunken hourses"

 "A time for drunken hourses" by Bahman Ghobadi, from Iran

After their father dies, a family of five are forced to survive on their own in a Kurdish village on the border of Iran and Iraq. Matters are made worse when 12 year old Ayoub, the new head of the family, is told that his handicapped brother, Madi, needs an immediate operation in order to remain alive. This heartbreaking tale shows the lengths to which a family will go in order to survive in the harshest of conditions, where even the horses are fed liquor in order to work. For more information click here. Hosted by Bahareh

26th Aug "Mediterraneo" (1991, Italy)

In 1941, one year after Italy joined Germany against the Allies in World War II, a small group of misfit Italian soldiers is sent to a small Greek island in the Aegean Sea for four months of lookout duty. The soldiers include a lieutenant who likes art, a macho sergeant, a farmer accompanied by his beloved donkey Silvana, and other quirky people. They are not very good soldiers, but a cross section of average, independent men.


The soldiers anticipate attack from outside and on the island and take all sorts of inept precautions. They find a small town with no people. They see bombing on the horizon and realize that the ship that would pick them up has been destroyed. Then mysteriously, people reappear in the village: the villagers say they hid because the Germans had taken all the men. They have decided to accommodate the Italians. It isn't long before everyone's sunny nature appears. The Italian soldiers are absorbed into the life, heat and landscape of the idyllic island.

The local priest asks the lieutenant, a Sunday painter, to restore the murals in his church. Two soldiers, who are brothers, befriend a lovely young woman, a shepherdess, who believes that three is the perfect number for an affair of pure sexual fun. The sergeant takes up folk dancing and the shyest of the soldiers falls profoundly in love with the island's single, very overworked, prostitute. Click here for more info.

19th of August: "The Divine Bell and the Butterfly " (2007, French/ American)

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (French: Le scaphandre et le papillon) is a French/American biopic/drama film based on the memoir of the same name by Jean-Dominique Bauby. The film depicts Bauby's life after suffering a massive stroke, on 8th December 1995, at the age of 42, which left him with a condition known as locked-in syndrome. The condition paralyzed him from the neck down. Although both eyes work, doctors decide to sew up his right eye as it is not irrigating correctly and they fear it will become infected. He is left with only his left eye, and thereafter communicates only by blinking his left eyelid. The film was directed by Julian Schnabel, written by Ronald Harwood, and stars Mathieu Amalric as Bauby. It won awards at theCannes Film Festival, the Golden Globes and the BAFTA Awards, as well as four Academy Award nominations.

Will be hosted by Kathleen

12th of August: "Goodbye Lenin" (2003, Germany)

Plot: Two traumatic events affect the life of East Berliner, Christiane Kerner. First, in 1978, her husband, Robert, runs off to freedom and another woman in the west, leaving her to take care of their two adolescent children, Ariane and Alex, by herself. Always a good Socialist, Christiane devotes her life to the cause as a symbol of anger toward her husband. And second, in 1989, she sees a now grown Alex marching in an anti-Berlin Wall demonstration and being hauled off by police. As a result, she suffers a heart attack and goes into a coma. While Christiane is in her coma, Germany drastically changes with the Wall coming down and the imminent official reunification of East and West into one. The Kerner's personal life also changes with all aspects of the new found capitalist world infiltrating their home. When Christiane emerges from her coma eight months later, her health situation is still tenuous. Any shock she experiences could possibly lead to another heart attack and certain death. To protect his mother, Alex decides not to tell her of the new Germany in which they live. He feels he can better protect her at home, where he can control to what she is exposed. Although most around him don't support the idea - including Ariane and Lara (Alex's Russian immigrant girlfriend who is also Christiane's nurse) - they go along with the extreme measures Alex goes to to recreate East Germany in their home. How long can they keep up the ruse?

5th of August: "Divine Intervention" (2002, Palestine)

"Divine Intervention" (2002, Palestine) is directed by Elia Suleiman

Language  Arabic and Hebrew with subtitles.

The film is made up of a series of interlinked sketches of everyday life which portray the devestating effects of the Israeli occupation on the lives of West Bank Palestinains.

The central character, a Jerusalemite played by Suleiman himself, is involved in a love affair with a woman from a neighbouring city Ramallah - made difficult by Israeli movement restrictions.

A surreal, black comedy - we are shown the absudity, anger, rage, and despair of Palestinains but also their stength of spirit.  The film ends with a wonderful, suprising specticale of resistance.

There isnt a great deal of dialogue - feelings and emotions are expressed in gesture, facial  expression, ideas and the state of affairs using symbol, metaphor and magical realism. For more information press here.

Will be hosted by Nicola 

29th of July "Das Experiment" (2001, Germany)

"The Experiment" is directed by the German film-maker Oliver Hirschbiegel.

The movie is based on the infamous "Stanford Prison Experiment" conducted in 1971. A makeshift prison is set up in a research lab, complete with cells, bars and surveillance cameras. For two weeks 20 male participants are hired to play prisoners and guards. The 'prisoners' are locked up and have to follow seemingly mild rules, and the 'guards' are told simply to retain order without using physical violence. Everybody is free to quit at any time, thereby forfeiting payment. In the beginning the mood between both groups is insecure and rather emphatic. But soon quarrels arise and the wardens employ ever more drastic sanctions to confirm their authority.

Will be hosted  by Christopher

22nd of July: Control [Kontroll] (2001, Hungery)

"Kontroll" is written and directored by the most famous Hungurian director Nimród Antal. It won the Gold Hugo Award at the Chicago International Film Festival and was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival

Plot: Ghost trains and ghostly characters, figuratively speaking of course, are what run through the perpetual night of this fictitious underground (metro) system. Bulcsú's (Sándor Csányi) life that once was, on the surface, where the real people go home after work, who go to the movies or a fine restaurant is now replaced by the dark, cold and solitude arena of his new dwellings. Him, and his motley crew of ragtag metro ticket Kontrollers must patrol the trains that run these City dwellers back and forth and with daily ritual, check that no one dare come down into their world for a free ride. With indifferent passengers, a possible love interest, a regime set on competition and to top it all a mysterious serial killer at large, Kontroll is a dark and bleak comedy of the world of the ticket inspector, who, in the end must keep this Metro system running. If not, what would be the worst that could happen, if they ever lost control? Dare you ride here for free, too?

Will be hosted by Aliz

15th of July: "Spirited away" (2001, Japan)

Spirited Away (Sento Chihirono Kamikakushi) Japanese film in 2001. This film was made by the Japanese animation director Hayao Miyazaki in 2001 and won in 2002 the Academy Award for the Best Animated Feature and one of the two Golden Bear awards in the Berlin International Film Festival.

The film is about a ten years old girl’s experience in a wonderland. It depicts relationships between human beings and nature, cultural decay in excessive economy and to be grown up. This has been the best sold film in Japan so far.
This session is jointly hosted by the Welcoming International Cinema Club and the Film Group which Atsuko Betchaku has organised (see ‘Film Group’ in http://japaneseinstitute.jimdo.com/)

8th of July: "Amores Perros" [Love’s a bithch] (2000, Mexico)

Directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu

Three interconnected stories about the different strata of life in Mexico City all resolve with a fatal car accident. Octavio is trying to raise enough money to run away with his sister-in-law, and decides to enter his dog Cofi into the world of dogfighting. After a dogfight goes bad, Octavio flees in his car, running a red light and causing the accident. Daniel and Valeria's new-found bliss is prematurely ended when she loses her leg in the accident. El Chivo is a homeless man who cares for stray dogs and is there to witness the collision.

Will be Hosted by Kathleen