Death

‘We’re waiting to grow old’. This sentence briefly sums up Yaoyun and his wife Liyun’s bitter realisation about their lives. They were once a happy family – until their son drowned playing by a reservoir. And so Yaojun and Liyun leave their home and plunge into the big city, although nobody knows them there and they cannot even understand the local dialect. Their adopted son Liu Xing does not offer them the comfort they had hoped for either. Defiantly rejecting his ‘foreign’ parents, he one day disappears altogether. More

Along the Atlantic coast, a soon-to-be-inaugurated futuristic tower looms over a suburb of Dakar. Ada, 17, is in love with Souleiman, a young construction worker. But she has been promised to another man. One night, Souleiman and his co-workers leave the country by sea, in hope of a better future. Several days later, a fire ruins Ada’s wedding and a mysterious fever starts to spread. Little does Ada know that Souleiman has returned. More

Amongst the pythonic mountains of landlocked Lesotho, an 80 year old widow winds up her earthly affairs, makes arrangements for her burial and prepares to die. But when her village is threatened with forced resettlement due to the construction of a reservoir, she finds a new will to live and ignites a collective spirit of defiance within her community. In the final dramatic moments of her life, Mantoa’s legend is forged and made eternal. More

Marcela has just lost her sister Rina, it was sudden. Rina’s apartment must now be cleared of her possessions, the plants, furniture and clothing: succulents, dark wood, patterned scarves, a pair of old sunglasses. The curtains are closed and the light is soft and diffuse, like it must be on the floor of the sea, like it is at home, where Marcela lives with her husband and three teenage children. Family life is chaotic, as there are constant interruptions, the broken washing machine, the telephone calls and unexpected guests, the tears that arrive unannounced, the impromptu songs. More

After his very touching Like Father, Like Son, Hirokazu Kore-eda tells once again the story of a complex family: The three sisters Sachi, Yoshino and Chika live together in Kamakura. They travel to the funeral of their father, who left the family 15 years ago, and meet their 13-year-old half-sister Suzu. With great sensitivity for each of the sisters, Kore-eda looks at family ties. More

Janusz is not a man to be easily shocked. As coroner he undertakes precise research, analysing the crime scene in minute detail. Despite the extreme situations he comes up against, he works hard. Perhaps too hard. Yet when faced with his anorexic daughter Olga, still grieving for her dead mother, he feels helpless. Fearing that she might kill herself, he commits her to a clinic where Anna, a psychologist, carries out her duties. More

A moment of inattention is all it took to change the lives of Javier and Amanda forever. Lives that are now divided between "before" and "after." How everything was and should have been... Even though it was an accident that neither of them could have prevented. The young couple know that it will take a long time to reach closure on the death of their four-year-old son. More

Nabat and her husband Iskender, an old and sick ex-forestry worker, live in a small isolated house far from the village. War has been raging for some time and their son has been killed at the front. Their sole means of survival is the sale of milk from their only cow that Nabat takes to the village every couple of days. As the shadow of war envelopes the region the village is slowly deserted by its inhabitants. Following Iskender’s death Nabat has to survive in a now abandoned village under the regard of a she-wolf. More

A man wanders through the 20-kilometre exclusion zone around the stricken nuclear reactors at Fukushima. The cherry trees are in bloom and the natural surroundings make an idyllic impression. Radiation is invisible, yet a gaping emptiness looms where the tsunami engulfed streets and houses. The man is wearing normal clothing, just like the people still toughing it out here, for the time being at least. He occa- sionally encounters white “ghosts” in protective clothing, performing strange tasks. More

Life in a small town is akin to journeying in the middle of the steppes: the sense that "something new and different" will spring up behind every hill, but always unerringly similar, tapering, vanishing or lingering monotonous roads... More

While hitchhiking from Sofia to Ruse, Kamen meets Avé, a 17-year-old runaway girl. With each ride they hitch, Avé invents new identities for them, and her compulsive lies get Kamen deeper and deeper into trouble. Reluctantly drawn into this adventure, Kamen begins to fall in love with the fleeting Avé. More

Isidora and Enrique are about 80 years old and live with their equally aged cats in an elegant apartment in Santiago. But it is on the eighth floor and will quickly make Isidora a prisoner if the lift fails again. On such a day, of all days, the daughter announces her visit. That can't bode well. Soon the fidgety Rosario sweeps through the apartment like a hurricane. She's allergic to cats, but that's not all. After her girlfriend "Hugo" has joined her, the real reasons for the visit shine through: They're going after the apartment. More

A Nurse, a Paramedic, a Gymnast and her Coach have formed a service for hire. They stand in for dead people by appointment, hired by the relatives, friends, or colleagues of the deceased. The company is called Alps while their leader, the Paramedic, calls himself Mont Blanc. Although the Alps members operate under a discipline regime demanded by their leader, the Nurse doesn’t. More

Recently released from prison, Ali makes the most of his return, amidst much talk of the upcoming elections and promises of change. Despite working nights, he tries to spend the most time possible with his beautiful wife and young daughter. To escape the stress of urban living, Ali retreats to his favorite pastime of hunting in the secluded forest north of town. Tragedy strikes and Ali's wife Sara is accidentally killed in a police shoot-out with demonstrators. More

Suffering from acute kidney failure, Uncle Boonmee has chosen to spend his final days surrounded by his loved ones in the countryside. Surprisingly, the ghost of his deceased wife appears to care for him, and his long lost son returns home in a non-human form. Contemplating the reasons for his illness, Boonmee treks through the jungle with his family to a mysterious hilltop cave -- the birthplace of his first life... From the director of SYNDROMES AND A CENTURY, TROPICAL MALADY and BLISSFULLY YOURS. More

When Miron’s beloved wife Tanya passes away, he asks his best friend Aist to help him say goodbye to her according to the rituals of the Merja culture, an ancient Finno-Ugric tribe from Lake Nero, a picturesque region in West-Central Russia. Although the Merja people assimilated into Russians in the 17th century, their myths and traditions live on in their descendants’ modern life. The two men set out on a roadtrip thousands of miles across the boundlesslands. With them, two small birds in a cage. More

When her mother dies, Fausta is forced to face her fears, that she got as ababy with the milk of her mother. Fausta now sets out on a journey – a journey that will lead her out of her fear and into freedom. Peruvian director Claudia Llosa’s film addresses a dark era of her country’s history. It won the Golden Bear in Berlin and was nominated for the Oscars in 2010. More

Before dying, Nora devises a plan to make José, ex-husband, take care of her funeral. But she misses something—the only flaw in the plan, a mysterious photograph left under the bed, will lead to an unexpected outcome that will remind us that sometimes the greatest love stories are hidden in the smallest places. More

In Tagalog, the language of the Philippines, Lola means grandmother. We are shown two grandmothers, one whose grandson is lying in the morgue, and the other who is visiting hers in prison because he is accused of killing him. We see two grandmothers in pain, one preparing a funeral, the other trying to get an alleged offender out of prison. More

After having spent many years in Germany, Ahmad returns to his native Iran for a holiday. His friends from his student days organise a three-day breakon the Caspian Sea. One of the party, a fun-loving woman named Sepideh takes the matter in hand. Unbeknown to the rest of the group, she has alsoinvited a young woman named Elly, who is a nursery school teacher at her daughter’s kindergarten. Ahmad has just emerged from an unhappy marriage and is now divorced from his German wife. He would very much like to begin a new life with an Iranian woman. More

Japanese film director Hirokazu Kore-eda will compete in San Sebastián for the third time, following Wandarfuru raifu (After Life, 1998) and Hana yori mo naho (Hana, 2006). A family drama about grown children visiting their elderly parents, which unfolds over one summer day. The aging parents have lived in the family home for decades. Their son and daughter return for a rare family reunion, bringing their own families with them. They have gathered to commemorate the tragic death of the eldest son, who drowned in an accident fifteen years ago. More

Juan Desouza is a 38 years old argentinean businessman, whose life is going to change after a simple business trip: having arrived at the destination, he realizes that the man that sits next to him is dead. Thereupon he decides to adopt the identity of his neighbour, to create himself a new job, find a new apartment and to possibly not return to his own life. Suddenly Juan experiences nature as an adventure, discovering his senses and instincts. And after all new perspectives open up: His previous life suddenly isn't the only possibility anymore... More

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In an amazingly beautiful place, on the bank of the wide Don, in a remote, half-destroyed village, surrounded by only steppe for hundreds of miles, a real drama takes place. An unexpected passionate love between a young man and a married woman literally destroys the lives of not only the main characters, but also their close ones. More

Self-discovery journey of two girls in their mid twenties while they travel along the Ecuadorian mountains and coasts. Esperanza (Hope) and Tristeza (Sadness) will not find postcard views or perfect love, but their journey will teach them there’s a world beyond that. More

After more than 27 years of absence Chand returns to his birthplace in a stormy night. When he was still a child his parents were killed and the murderer seized his fields. Without exposing his real identity he meets the people that characterised his childhood: the sorceress Kunjuburi, his friend Fazlu and the son of his parent's murderer, Mannaf Khan. The latter welcomes him at first cordially, but when he comes to know his real identity he tries to ged rid of him. More

Santiago Roman (Pietro Sibille) can't buy a refrigerator. The money he earns from taxi driving won't meet the minimum monthly payment, and when it comes to lines of credit, his status as a recently discharged sailor in the Peruvian Navy adds up to exactly nothing. Worse things have happened, and there is worse yet in store, but this latest hurt is one too many, and Santiago nearly cracks up with rage. More

A man in need of a miracle learns that the hospital will help those who help themselves in this satiric comedy. Jesus (Augustin Mendieta) is a low-level office worker in the Bolivian government who one day suffers a heart attack and ends up with a long and unexpected stay in the hospital. Adding to Jesus' problems, his wife decides to leave him while he's in recovery, and by the time he gets out he literally has debts he could never hope to pay. However, Jesus discovers there's another patient at the hospital who has the same name - and who happens to have unlimited insurance coverage. More

This film directed by Pjer Zalica was the best shown at the 2005 Global Lens Film Festival. It is now available on dvd in the USA courtesy of First Run Features. It includes a video introduction by the director. Fuse is set in Tesanj, a Bosnian town close to the Serbian border, two years after the civil war officially ended. Corruption and hatred are palpable and most townfolk are engaged in one type of illegal activity or another. More

Julián, an overweight ophthalmologist who is emotionally upset due to the unexpected death of his flight-attendant wife, and of Teresa a free-spirited young stewardess unhappy in love and fearful that she's pregnant. Julián makes the decision to travel to the Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, where they he and his wife first met, in order to scatter his wife's ashes and to follow his wife in death by ending his own life by freezing to death. More

Cinema is the art of remembrance and Eliseo Subiela is one of the most gifted artists of remembrance in cinema. In this film, which particularly reconnects with his first films, Subiela makes us float between realities, between the inside and the outside, between here and beyond, between love and abandonment. More

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The Taiwanese filmmaker Edward Yang shows in his film Yi Yi - A One and a Two the life of a family in modern Taipei. NJ is a man in his mid-forties. He is married, a father of two children and successful in his job - still he is no longer happy with himself and with his life. While NJ starts seing his old flame again his mother-in-law is in a coma. It is NJ's eight year old son who guides us through everyday life of the family and who asks critical questions and surprises the spectators with his experiments in the water. More

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A story of friendship, courage and a politically naive man’s transformation into someone painfully aware of the social realities in contemporary Turkey … Mehmet and Berzan, two young men from different regions of Turkey bond together as lower – class citizens in Istanbul. When Mehmet is unjustly arrested, his frightened roomates evict him and he loses his job. Mehmet’s loyalty to Berzan will eventually force him to disregard an uncompassionate bureaucracy and embark on a journey eastward across Turkey. More

Martin Echenique is a film director from Buenos Aires who has been living for more than 20 years in Madrid, spending his time with his much younger girlfriend Alicia and his best friend, the actor Dante. He has a 19-year-old son, named according to a tradition Martin as well, but known as Hache. Hache is living with his mother in Buenos Aires. After his girlfriend leaves him, Hache has a nearly fatal drug overdose, thought by many to be an attempted suicide. Consequently Martin flies to Buenos Aires and Hache is sent back to Madrid together with his father for a while. More

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Eternity And A Day traces the final days of Alexandre (Bruno Ganz), a celebrated Greek writer as he prepares to leave his seaside home forever. While packing, he finds a letter from his long-dead wife, Anna (Isabelle Renauld), who wrote about an enchanted summer day they spent thirty years ago. From that point, Alexandre embarks on a mystical journey through his past and present. Realizing that after spending his entire life chasing after the words of poems and novels, Alexandre wants one final chance to capture the lost precious moments of true happiness, even if only for one day. More

In the early morning of 26 april 1986 the nuclear power plant in Chernobyl exploded. Before this catastrophe, the land in this part of Belarus was fertile and under cultivation. Right after the explosion a strong wind blew the radioactivity through the whole area and transformed the ground into contaminated and dead land. Almost all of the three hundred families living there were forced to leave their homes. Only six of them were left behind. They refused to move to another part of the country and were from then on called "Samosyol" (egoists). More

There is an old Indian tradition according to which the parents teach their children the songs of wisdom, in order to enable them to bear their fate and their lives with more calmness. Pallavi - acted by India's most successful TV-star Kitu Gidwani - is a young, successful singer who has learnt her art with the help of her mother. She's convinced that she'd still had to learn a lot of her, whereas the mother thinks her already talented enough to keep the tradition of making music and oral deliverance alive herself. More

This film, in the style of an African folk tale, is set in the forest village of Amanha Lundju, a place where the birth of children is celebrated by the planting of a tree. The trees are considered spiritual twins. But for every tree planted, the rapacious state destroys many more for firewood and lumber. The tale begins as the wanderer Dou returns to the village. He discovers that Hami, his twin brother just died for no apparent reason. According to the tradition Dou takes on his late brother's wife and children, something that displeases Saly, his betrothed. More

Yumiko is a young woman from Osako, whose life is defined by the death of her loved ones. She lost her grandmother at the age of twelve, and her husband Ikuo, who is the reincarnation of her grandmother to her, commits suicide some months after the birth of their child. Once more Yumiko loses a person she had really loved. Five years later she marries Tamio, a man who lives by the sea together with his eight-year-old daughter from his first marriage. Her pain has ceased until the day she returns to her place of birth and gets caught up by her memories. More

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Don‘t Die without Telling Me Where You‘re Going is an extraordinary film by a remarkable director, Eliseo Subiela (Man Looking Southeast, Dark Side of the Heart).This is masterful filmmaking that brings to life an invisible dimension of our world: auras, souls, spirits. William and Rachel have loved each other in various lives. In the life this movie depicts, William is Leopoldo, lives in Buenos Aires, and is working on an invention: a dream collector. While testing his invention, he finds Rachel, who in this life is a soul. More

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Takuji’s been in a coma for quite some time after an accident in the mountains, where he often wandered wistfully. His family and friends have been coping rather well with his condition, and he lies in bed at home where everyone can visit him. More

An ageing father waits, in vain, at the bus stop for his son Raghu, a student at the University of Trivandrum, who is supposed to be coming home for the holidays. The elderly Chakyar’s eager happiness slowly turns to disappointment and then anxiety. After several days with no news of Raghu, his family learn that the police have arrested him for singing revolutionary songs at the university’s annual fête. Chakyar goes to the capital, hoping to find support from the Minister of Internal Affairs, and is soon joined by his daughter, who does not, however, share his optimism. More

Peaceful living and dying are a central theme in this masterpiece by the Japanese Shohei Imamura, a literary film adaptation in the mountain region of Narayama. In a small mountain village on the edge of a valley, all who have turned seventy must leave the community and climb a certain mountain to die. Anyone who defies tradition brings misfortune to his own family. Orin is 69 years old and is about to climb the mountain this winter. But first she has to make sure that her eldest son Tatsuhei finally finds a wife. More

The story begins with the death of a model worker, who is buried with his labor card as a badge of honor. However, his widow is told she needs that card to claim the benefits she is entitled. The story then takes several surreal turns, as the family of the dead man try to recover the precious card from the grave. More

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Emperor Huan Tsung is grieving over the death of his wife. The Yang family wants to provide him with a consort so that they may consolidate their influence over the court. General An Lushan finds a distant relative working in their kitchen whom they groom to present to the Emperor. And he falls in love with her and she becomes the Princess Yang Kwei-fei. More

In his masterpiece Ugetsu monogatari the Japanese Kenji Mizoguchi tells the story of Genjuro, a potter, and his brother-in-law, the farmer Tobei. The two live with their wives in a small village in the middle of a war-torn area. And they have ambitions that take advantage of the turmoil of war. Genjuro wants to travel to the city with his pots and earn a lot of money as quickly as possible. Tobei wants to achieve fame and honor as a Samurai. Both risk everything - and lose. The pursuit of money and fame, Mizoguchi makes clear here, inevitably involves the loss of inner values. More

Kanji Watanabe was the Chief of the Citizens’ Section of the Municipal Office with a record of 30 years’ regular attendance without absence. Suddenly this man failed to show up at work and with no notice. He received a big shock when the doctor pronounced him as having ulcer of the stomach and gave him only a few months to live. Having lost his wife some time ago, his first impulse was to go to his son, whom he had brought up single-handed and to disclose to him his agony and ask for consolation. But he finds his son married and with his own troubles and hardships of life. More

At the end of the war, doctor Fujisaki is wounded during an emergency operation in the hospital. A little later he notices that the patient is suffering from syphilis and that he has infected himself. Fearing to pass on the disease, he breaks up with his fiancée after the war and silently fights his illness with the means available at the time. His former patient, however, lives carelessly and marries; his deformed child is born dead. The "Arztfilm" was a popular genre in the post-war years, especially in Germany. More