28th of October "This film is not yet rated" (UK, 2006)

This Film is Not Yet Rated is a 2006 independent documentary film about the Motion Picture Association of America's rating system and its effect on American culture, directed by Kirby Dick and produced by Eddie Schmidt. It premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival and was released limited on September 1, 2006. The Independent Film Channel, the film's producer, aired the film later that year. The independent documentary film on TV was rated TV-14 in the United States.

The MPAA gave the original cut of the film an NC-17 rating for "some graphic sexual content" – scenes that illustrated the content a film could include to garner an NC-17 rating. Kirby Dick appealed, and descriptions of the ratings deliberations and appeal were included in the documentary. The new version of the film is not rated.

The film discusses disparities the filmmaker sees in ratings and feedback: between Hollywood and independent films, between homosexual and heterosexual sexual situations, between male and female sexual depictions, and between violence and sexual content. For more click here.

20th of October "Sweet Sixteen" (UK, 2002)

"Sweet Sixteen" directed by Ken Louch in 2002.

In a few weeks, Liam is going to be sixteen. He and his friends do not attend school anymore. Instead, they prefer to sell cigarettes and defy the police all day long. They are completely left behind in a society which does little to alleviate the bad situation in which they live. Liam's mother is currently in prison, for a crime she did not commit. She will be released in a few weeks, in time for her son's sixteenth birthday. Liam loves his mother very much and his only goal is to save her from her brutal boyfriend, Stan, who deals drugs with Liam’s grandfather. For more click here.

14th of October "La Yuma (2009, Nicaragua)

"La Yuma (Nicaragua)

Directed by Florence Jaugey, this film is the story of Yuma a strong-willed and
rebellious girl from the poor neighborhoods of Managua who dreams of being a
boxer.

Yuma wants to be a boxer. In her poor neighborhood, gangs fight for control of the
street. In her home, lovelessness is the name of the game. She dreams of the ring,
energy and agile feet and hands. They are also her only options.

A street, a theft, a chance encounter: Yuma meets Ernesto, a journalism student from
the other side of the city. Despite their differences, they fall in love, attracted to each
other by their shared desire to find their own space in the world.

Yuma's story is a slice of life deeply rooted in Nicaragua, today. A daily Nicaragua
and unknown, which contrasts with the image of the country that is channeled abroad,
essentially related to natural disasters, revolutions and wars.

The strength, determination and cunning of the main character reflects the attitude of
a population facing adversity and inequality. La Yuma is a movie which mixes the
genres, because life is so made; beating and hunches, laughter and drama. We are in
the action rather than reflection. Imagination grows with the need and every day is a
challenge to those who have nothing upfront.

This film is also a challenge. This is the first feature film produced in Nicaragua for
20 years. It was filmed on the urgency and precariousness and carried out thanks to
the enthusiasm of a team motivated by the idea of creating a precedent in a nascent
film industry, and giving a face to a reality not widely known in Nicaragua and the
world.

7th of October "Torremolinos 73" (Spain, 2003)

"Torremolinos 73" is a Spanish movie directed by Pablo Berger in 2003.

Alfredo Lopez is a tired encyclopedia salesman, and Carmen is his faithful wife. The lives of this married couple change forever when the Montoya publishing house, in which Alfredo works, makes a proposal to them to make erotic films that will sold in the Scandinavian countries, under the guise of being a false encyclopedia about reproduction. Unknown to them both, Carmen has become an adult film star in the Northern countries, and a Danish crew flies in to help Alfredo make an Ingmar Bergman inspired feature film called "Torremolinos 73." Instead of a career in show business, Carmen is eager to have a baby, and the tension between the artist and his muse grows'. For more please click here.

30th of September "Heavy metal in Baghdad" (2007, Iraq)

Heavy Metal in Baghdad is a critically-acclaimed 2007 rockumentary film following filmmakers Moretti and Alvi as they track down the heavy metal Iraqi band Acrassicauda amidst the Iraq War.

In the late summer of 2006, in the middle of the insurgency, filmmakers Eddy Moretti and Suroosh Alvi traveled to Baghdad to meet and interview the only heavy metal band in Iraq, Acrassicauda. "Heavy Metal in Baghdad" is the story of the band and its members, young Iraqis whose lives have been distorted and displaced by years of continual warfare in their homeland. The filmmakers have collected glimpses into the struggles of Acrassicauda as they try to stay together and stay alive. Their struggle is the untold story of the hopes and dreams of an entire generation of young Iraqis. For more info click here. Will be hosted by Esra.

23rd of September "Tehran has no more pomegranates" (2007, Iran)

"Tehran Has No More Pomegranates!" (Persian: تهران انار ندارد) is a 2006 musical - Comedy Iranian Crystal Simorgh award winning film produced, directed and written by Massoud Bakhshi.

This is the story of Tehran from the Qajar time (middle of 19th century) to today. Tehran has become a metropolis from a small village, now a developed city with many social problems. For more information click here.

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