HKIFF 2015
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46 titles
- DirectorPeter GreenawayStarsElmer BäckLuis AlbertiMaya ZapataThe venerated filmmaker Eisenstein is comparable in talent, insight and wisdom, with the likes of Shakespeare or Beethoven; there are few - if any - directors who can be elevated to such heights. On the back of his revolutionary film Battleship Potemkin, he was celebrated around the world, and invited to the US. Ultimately rejected by Hollywood and maliciously maligned by conservative Americans, Eisenstein traveled to Mexico in 1931 to consider a film privately funded by American pro-Communist sympathizers, headed by the American writer Upton Sinclair. Eisenstein's sensual Mexican experience appears to have been pivotal in his life and film career - a significant hinge between the early successes of Strike, Battleship Potemkin, and October, which made him a world-renowned figure, and his hesitant later career with Alexander Nevsky, Ivan the Terrible and The Boyar's Plot.
- DirectorMarie Amachoukeli-BarsacqClaire BurgerSamuel TheisStarsAngélique LitzenburgerJoseph BourMario TheisAn aging nightclub hostess decides to settle down and get married.
- DirectorAmirhossein AsgariStarsAlireza BalediZeynab NaserpourArash MehrabanA boy has been fishing for some time in a grounded ship at the zero point border. He has chosen the place for his seclusion and serenity when the appearance a stranger takes away his peace and his work.
- DirectorYukun XinStarsWeimin HuoXiaotian WangYun LuoA young man tries to get away from his family's overwhelming power, but when he accidentally kills a local thug, his fate will be intricately linked to his father's. A woman, who for years has been victim of domestic violence, finds comfort in the arms of her ex-lover. The news of the death of her husband arrives as she was planning his murder. An honest village chief plans to retire but an exceptional event related to his son will pull him into the abyss.
- DirectorDavid CronenbergStarsJulianne MooreMia WasikowskaRobert PattinsonA tour into the heart of a Hollywood family chasing celebrity, one another and the relentless ghosts of their pasts.
- DirectorFrançois OzonStarsRomain DurisAnaïs DemoustierRaphaël PersonnazA young woman makes a surprising discovery about the husband of her late best friend.
- DirectorJean-Pierre JeunetStarsHelena Bonham CarterJudy DavisCallum Keith RennieA ten-year-old scientist secretly leaves his family's ranch in Montana where he lives with his cowboy father and scientist mother, escapes home, and travels across the country aboard a freight train to receive an award at the Smithsonian Institute.
- DirectorPaolo VirzìStarsFabrizio BentivoglioMatilde GioliValeria Bruni TedeschiThe destinies of two families are irrevocably tied together after a cyclist is hit off the road by a jeep in the night before Christmas Eve.
- DirectorPeter StricklandStarsSidse Babett KnudsenMonica SwinnChiara D'AnnaA woman who studies butterflies and moths tests the limits of her relationship with her lesbian lover.
- DirectorMohsen MakhmalbafStarsMikheil GomiashviliDachi OrvelashviliIa SukhitashviliA brutal dictator comes face to face with the injustices committed by his regime when his country is taken over by revolutionists.
- DirectorPedro CostaStarsVenturaVitalina VarelaTito Furtado"The time is now, a numbing and timeless present of hospital stays, bureaucratic questioning, and wandering through remembered spaces... and suddenly it is also then, the mid '70s and the time of Portugal's Carnation Revolution, when Ventura got into a knife fight with his friend Joaquim." This is the synopsis from the press notes. The film is a sequel of sorts to Costa's "Colossal Youth" with Ventura again playing himself.
- DirectorJafar PanahiStarsJafar PanahiNasrin SotoudehBanned from making movies by the Iranian government, Jafar Panahi poses as a taxi driver and makes a movie about social challenges in Iran.
- DirectorJuliano Ribeiro SalgadoWim WendersStarsSebastião SalgadoWim WendersLélia Wanick SalgadoThe life and work of photographer Sebastião Salgado, who has spent forty years documenting societies in hidden corners of the world.
- DirectorAbderrahmane SissakoStarsIbrahim AhmedAbel JafriToulou KikiA cattle herder and his family who reside in the dunes of Timbuktu find their quiet lives -- which are typically free of the Jihadists determined to control their faith -- abruptly disturbed.
- DirectorRoy AnderssonStarsHolger AnderssonNils WestblomViktor GyllenbergSam and Jonathan, a pair of hapless novelty salesmen, embark on a tour of the human condition in reality and fantasy that unfold in a series of absurdist episodes.
- DirectorGuy MaddinEvan JohnsonStarsRoy DupuisClara FureyLouis NeginIn this non-linear amalgamation, submarine crewmen and a woodsman wend their way through a voyage of odd experiences.
- DirectorHal HartleyStarsAubrey PlazaParker PoseyRobert John BurkeHenry and Fay's son Ned sets out to find and kill his father for destroying his mother's life. But his aims are frustrated by the troublesome Susan, whose connection to Henry predates even his arrival in the lives of the Rifle family.
- DirectorSergey LoznitsaA look at the 2013 and 2014 civil unrest in the Ukrainian capital's central square.
- DirectorMaya VitkovaStarsIrmena ChichikovaDaria VitkovaKalina VitkovaUnwanted by her mother, Viktoria is being born with no umbilical cord and doesn't need Boryana until the hardships of life bind them together.
- DirectorGabriel MascaroStarsDandara de MoraisGeová Manoel Dos SantosMaria Salvino Dos SantosThe August winds gust and a poetic duel between life, death, loss, memory, the wind and the sea ensues.
- DirectorJessica HausnerStarsChristian FriedelBirte SchnöinkStephan GrossmannBerlin, the Romantic Era. Young poet Heinrich wishes to conquer the inevitability of death through love, yet is unable to convince his skeptical cousin Marie to join him in a suicide pact. It is whilst coming to terms with this refusal, ineffably distressed by his cousin's insensitivity to the depth of his feelings, that Heinrich meets Henriette, the wife of a business acquaintance. Heinrich's subsequent offer to the beguiling young woman at first holds scant appeal, that is until Henriette discovers she is suffering from a terminal illness
- DirectorEugène GreenStarsFabrizio RongioneChristelle ProtLudovico SuccioAt the height of his career, Alexandre decides to set off for Italy with the idea of completing of a book on Borromini. Along with his wife Alienor feels her relationship with Alexandre is gradually slipping away. Along the way they meet siblings Goffredo and Lavinia. Gofffredo is about to embark in architectural studies. A story of rediscover the joys of life and overcoming anxiety.
- DirectorJoshua OppenheimerStarsAdi RukunM.Y. BasrunVolker HanischA family that survived the genocide in Indonesia confronts the men who killed one of their brothers.
- DirectorMyroslav SlaboshpytskyiStarsHryhoriy FesenkoYana NovikovaRosa BabiyA deaf boy joins a boarding school for similar children. Confronted by the violent and criminal antics of some of the other boys and girls, he struggles to conform and join the 'tribe'.
- DirectorPark Jung-bumStarsPark Jung-bumLee Seung-yunPark Myeong-hoonA simple labourer in a remote mountain village is driven to desperate measures to provide for the women in his life.
- DirectorGiulio RicciarelliStarsAndré SzymanskiAlexander FehlingFriederike BechtA story that exposes the conspiracy of prominent German institutions and government branches to cover up the crimes of Nazis during World War II.
- DirectorTal GranitSharon MaymonStarsZe'ev RevachLevana FinkelsteinAliza RosenResidents of a retirement home build a machine for self-euthanasia in order to help their terminally ill friend, though they are faced with a series of dilemmas when rumors of the machine begin to spread.
- DirectorMania AkbariMark CousinsStarsMania AkbariMark CousinsAn epistolary feature film: a cinematic discourse between a British director, (Mark Cousins, the celebrated film maker and historian) and an Iranian actress and director (Mania Akbari, famed for her work with Abbas Kiarostami and in her own right as a director) which extends the concept of "essay film" with startling confrontations in the arenas of cultural issues, gender politics and differing artistic sensibilities. A unique journey into the minds of two exceptional filmmakers which becomes a love affair on film.
- DirectorMartin ScorseseDavid TedeschiStarsBarbara EpsteinW.H. AudenIsaiah BerlinA documentary on the history and influence of the New York Review of Books.
- DirectorFrederick WisemanStarsLeanne BenjaminKausikan RajeshkumarJo ShapcottA documentary that goes inside one of the great museums of the world: The National Gallery in London.
- DirectorChristian Braad ThomsenStarsRainer Werner FassbinderIrm HermannHarry BaerThomsen presents previously unseen interview footage recorded with Fassbinder throughout their fifteen-year friendship, which spans exactly the length of his career - their first encounter was at the Berlinale in 1969 where Fassbinder's debut was famously booed (you can hear the cries of "Awful!" and "Shame!" on the archive footage), and their last was just three weeks before his untimely death.
- DirectorWalter SallesStarsZhangke JiaDocumentary of the life & filmmaking of Jia Zhang-Ke from the Brazilian Walter Salles. Reflections on transformation of Chinese society, towns, family, the cultural revolution and globalization ("americanization"). Insights of the actors and on the places of his movies.
- DirectorRüdiger SuchslandStarsRüdiger SuchslandHans Henrik WöhlerFritz LangFocuses on the Weimar Republic (1918-1933) and its 'collective spirit' in cinema. The purpose of film as a cultural tool is examined. Based on celebrated sociologist Siegfried Kracauer's seminal book 'From Caligari to Hitler' (1947).
- DirectorMichael PowellEmeric PressburgerStarsMoira ShearerRobert RounsevilleLudmilla TchérinaA melancholy poet reflects on three women he loved and lost in the past: a mechanical performing doll, a Venetian courtesan, and the consumptive daughter of a celebrated composer.
- DirectorOrson WellesStarsRita HayworthOrson WellesEverett SloaneFascinated by gorgeous Mrs. Bannister, seaman Michael O'Hara joins a bizarre yachting cruise, and ends up mired in a complex murder plot.
- DirectorSebastian SchipperStarsLaia CostaFrederick LauFranz RogowskiA young Spanish woman who has recently moved to Berlin finds her flirtation with a local guy turn potentially deadly as their night out with his friends reveals a dangerous secret.
- DirectorAndrey KonchalovskiyStarsAleksey TryapitsynIrina ErmolovaTimur BondarenkoThe film represents life in a godforsaken Russian village. The only way to reach the mainland is to cross the lake by boat and a postman became the only connection with the outside world. A reserved community has been set up here. Despite the modern technologies and a spaceport nearby the people of the village live the way they would in the Neolithic Era. There is neither government nor social services or jobs. The postman's beloved woman escapes the village life and moves to the city. Postman's outboard engine gets stolen and he can no longer deliver mail. His normal pattern of life is disrupted. The postman makes a decision to leave for the city too but returns before long with no certain reason. The script is based on real characters' stories. People from the village play their own parts in the film. The search for the protagonist lasted for over a year.
- DirectorMalgorzata SzumowskaStarsJanusz GajosMaja OstaszewskaJustyna SuwalaA busy attorney, worried that his anorexic daughter Olga might try to harm herself, since she's still grieving over her recently deceased mother, sends her to see a psychiatrist, Anna, who's dealing with her own loss in an unusual way.
- DirectorSergei ParajanovStarsSofiko ChiaureliMelkon AlekyanVilen GalstyanThe life of the Armenian poet Sayat-Nova, from childhood to death: his spiritual journey, artistic endeavors, and inner conflicts within the cultural and historical context of Armenia. Hailed as revolutionary by Mikhail Vartanov.
- DirectorHannes LangIn the light of the current transformations within the global power structure, I WANT TO SEE THE MANAGER traces the linkage of economic ascent and decline in seven paradigmatic episodes. India, Bolivia, China, USA, Italy, Thailand, Venezuela - each place contains fragments of another; each episode bears testament to the hopes and fears of its protagonists. By juxtaposing these local experiences in the face of global economy, the film questions the notion of rise and decay.
- DirectorBelinda SallinStarsH.R. GigerCarmen Maria GigerStanislav GrofA look at the life the dark surrealist Swiss artist, H.R.Giger shot a year before his death.
- DirectorSylvia ChangStarsIsabella LeongLawrence KoHsiao-chuan ChangAn artist reunites with her brother after the two were separated years ago when she left Liudau, an island off of Taiwan.
- DirectorFruit ChanStarsXi XiKar LawPoet and author Xi Xi is one of Hong Kong's most treasured writers. Though also acclaimed in Taiwan and China for seminal works like the essay Shops, her writings are firmly rooted in the spirit of Hong Kong. Leave it to Fruit Chan, another staunchly grassroots auteur, to make a documentary on Xi Xi's career. Chan sought out renowned critics and writers to discuss Xi Xi's works, starting with 1979's My City. He also juxtaposes photos of a changing Hong Kong with readings of her writings, and even playfully inserts characters from her stories into the film.
- DirectorLisa TakebaStarsMoeka NozakiSayaka AokiTetsuhiro IkedaA TV (Aoi Nakamura) transforms into a person with a body and mind. He lives with his owner Haruko (Moeka Nozaki). The television meets a suspicious TV producer (Tetsuhiro Ikeda). TV is selected to host a language program and he becomes popular in the television field.
- DirectorYann DemangeStarsJack O'ConnellSam ReidSean HarrisIn 1971, a young and disoriented British soldier is accidentally abandoned by his unit following a riot on the deadly streets of Belfast.
- DirectorKornél MundruczóStarsZsófia PsottaSándor ZsótérLili HorvátThirteen-year-old Lili fights to protect her dog Hagen. She is devastated when her father eventually sets Hagen free on the streets. Still innocently believing love can conquer any difficulty, Lili sets out to find her dog and save him.