Traitors (1980)

Farewell My Concubine

Two boys meet at an opera training school in Peking in 1924. Their resulting friendship will span nearly 70 years and endure some of the most troublesome times in China's history.

The Best of Youth

After a fateful encounter in the summer of 1966, the lifepaths of two brothers from a middle-class Roman family diverge, intersecting with some of the most significant events of postwar Italian history in the following decades.

Youth

A group of performing art troupe members each face their own trials and tribulations in Chengdu; from escaping a family scandal to dealing with unrequited love, each experiences rejection that shapes their lives.

Viva Cuba

The friendship between two children is threatened by their parents’ differences. Malú is from a family that was upper-class before the Revolution and remains well-to-do through remittances from relatives overseas, and her single mother (Larisa Vega Alamar) does not want her to play with Jorgito, as she thinks his background coarse and commonplace. Jorgito’s mother (Luisa María Jiménez Rodríguez),

Khadak

Set in the frozen steppes of Mongolia, a young nomad is confronted with his destiny after animals fall victim to a plague which threatens to eradicate nomadism.

Sight

Ming Wang is an impoverished Chinese prodigy who flees Communist China to become a pioneering eye surgeon in America. When tasked with restoring the sight of an orphan in India, who was blinded by her stepmother, Wang must confront the trauma of living through the violent uprising in his youth, the Cultural Revolution.

To Live

Married couple Fugui and Jiazhen endure tumultuous events in mid-20th century mainland China as their personal fortunes move from wealthy landownership to peasantry.

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress

During the Cultural Revolution, two young men are sent to a remote mining village where they fall in love with the local tailor's beautiful granddaughter and discover a suitcase full of forbidden Western novels.

Colorful Cobblestones

The world was in a cold war in the late 1960s and early 1970s. After the Sino-Soviet Treasure Island conflict, Beijing teenager Qi Weizhi evacuated with his mother to Hanzhong City in the hinterland of the Qinling Mountains, and experienced a pure juvenile sexual maturity out of touch with the political atmosphere of that era. Hanzhong was China's third-tier town during the Cold War. Mother Qi Xiuxuan deliberately concealed her husband's death because of her husband's emotional betrayal, and was quite indifferent to her son. Qi Weizhi's missing mother's love was rewarded by class teacher Zhou Wenyao, so he had a subtle affection for Zhou Wenyao.

Platform

China’s rapid changes from the late 1970s to the early 1990s, as seen through the lives of four performers in a theater troupe.

If Not Us, Who?

In the early 60s, Bernward Vesper and fellow university student Gudrun Ensslin begin a passionate love in the stifling atmosphere of provincial West Germany. Dedicated to the power of the written word, Bernward and Gudrun found a publishing house whose first publication is, paradoxically to many, a controversial past work of Bernward's ostracized father, an infamous Nazi author. Bernward defends his father's writing ability, even if he is haunted by his father's suspicious past.

The East Is Red

Pre-Cultural Revolution propaganda at its most lavish, this model opera depicts the history and evolution of the Communist Party of China under Mao Zedong from its founding in July 1921 to the establishment of "New China" in 1949. Detailed in the musical are several key events in CPC history such as the Northern Expedition, the KMT-led Shanghai massacre of 1927, the Nanchang Uprising and formation of the People's Liberation Army, the Long March and the founding of the PRC on October 1, 1949.

Something in the Air

During the 1970s a student named Gilles gets entangled in contemporary political turmoils although he would rather just be a creative artist. While torn between his solidarity to his friends and his personal ambitions he falls in love with Christine.

Hibiscus Town

Based on a novel by the same name written by Gu Hua, a melodrama about the life and travails of a young woman who lives through the turmoil of the Cultural Revolution.

Turning Point 1977

At the close of the Cultural Revolution, a group of young idealists battle for the right to return home and restart their lives after years of toil on a state run re-education farm in China.

In the Heat of the Sun

Beijing, 1970s. The Cultural Revolution has driven most adults to the provinces leaving 14-year-old Monkey and his pals have free reign over the city. They hang around, get up to no good, and discover that unsolvable mystery known as "girls."

Kekaiulu Hula Studio

Kekaiulu Hula Studio follows the Proclaimed Hula Halau of the same name, showcasing their twist on what the real reason for hula is and what life as a dancer in the halau is really like. Something previously unseen in the public eye.

100 Years

As the Communist Party of China celebrates its 100th anniversary, this documentary looks back at the party’s history, from the 1920’s, to the Civil War, the Great Leap Forward, the Great Famine, the Cultural Revolution and the reforms by Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping. Did the Great Famine cost more than 15 million lives? How does the Cultural Revolution continue to shape Chinese politics today? What was capitalism like after Mao’s death? Through rare and never-before-seen historical footage, expert interviews and eyewitness accounts of the Great Famine, Tiananmen incident, and the Cultural Revolution, get to know how one party has so profoundly shaped China.

The Matrix: Generation

After the 1999 premiere of the first Matrix movie, it became a pop culture phenomenon. A special documentary about the Matrix saga and its prophetic aspects.

Fruit Farm

Nana Xu travels to the place built by her father as a prisoner during the Cultural Revolution: first a work camp, later a prison, fruit farm and treatment centre. Conversations with last remaining witnesses, where home is still shaped by a repressed past.

How the Beatles Changed the World

The fascinating story of the cultural, social, spiritual, and musical revolution ignited by the coming of the Beatles. Tracing the impact that these four band members had, first in their native Britain and soon after worldwide, it reappraises the band and follows their path from young subversives to countercultural heroes. Featuring fresh, revealing interviews with key collaborators as well as a wealth of rarely-seen archival footage, this is a bold new take on the most significant band in the history of music and their enduring impact on popular culture.

Dead Souls

In Gansu Province, northwest China, lie the remains of countless prisoners abandoned in the Gobi Desert sixty years ago. Designated as ultra-rightists in the Communist Party’s Anti-Rightist campaign of 1957, they starved to death in the reeducation camps. The film invites us to meet the survivors of the camps to find out firsthand who these persons were, the hardships they were forced to endure and what became their destiny.

Peking Opera Blues

In 1913 Beijing, three fierce women—disguised rebel Tsao Wan, jewel-seeking Sheung Hung, and opera heiress Pat Neil—embark on a daring quest filled with intrigue and betrayal, challenging societal norms amidst political turmoil and the vibrant world of Peking Opera.

Morning Sun

The film Morning Sun attempts in the space of a two-hour documentary film to create an inner history of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (c.1964-1976). It provides a multi-perspective view of a tumultuous period as seen through the eyes—and reflected in the hearts and minds—of members of the high-school generation that was born around the time of the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, and that came of age in the 1960s. Others join them in creating in the film’s conversation about the period and the psycho-emotional topography of high-Maoist China, as well as the enduring legacy of that period.

Welcome to Babel

Chinese-Australian artist Jiawei Shen's plans to create an epic work depicting his homeland's tumultuous recent history.

How Yukong Moved the Mountains

From 1972 until 1974, Joris Ivens and Marceline Loridan, along with a Chinese film crew, documented the last days of the Cultural Revolution, marking the end of an era. The vast amount of footage they shot was edited into 14 films of varying lengths. Focusing on ordinary people spread over a wide geographic area—many of whom were living and working in collectives—the filmmakers recorded a unique moment in history, and also captured some of the more enduring aspects of Chinese culture.

In Memory of Rock

The rock-wild youth of the 1960s during the apparitions of their idols.

Gandhi, de l'homme à l'icône

Plot unavailable

Heidi in China

In 1946, Heidi is entrusted to a Swiss family by her father. He will never come back for her. Today, François Yang questions his mother about her past. What follows is a journey to China, a quest to reconstruct memory. Through contact with her brothers and sister, Heidi measures the extent of the drama experienced by her family that remained in China, persecuted by the Communist Party.

Swallow Flying to the South

Spring 1976, 5-year-old Swallow is abandoned at a public boarding preschool in central Beijing. When the persimmons are ripe, Swallow masters how to cry, but doesn't forget how to fly.

Ma révolution culturelle

Plot unavailable

The Barefoot Doctor

This documentary film recounts Dr. Sun Lizhe's remarkable experience as a barefoot doctor in rural China and offers a glimpse of China's healthcare condition during and shortly after the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). Described as "Chinese Dr. Zhivago" in the film, Sun's distinguished life began from his decision to become a "barefoot doctor" when he was an 18-year-old educated youth from Beijing sent down to the countryside. He had since saved numerous lives by performing difficult surgery when emergency situations arose. For example, he once manually removed a placenta from a peasant women's uterus during her placental dystocia. In villages where medical resources were extremely limited, Sun devoted himself to the healthcare of peasants, performing more than 3000 operations in the cave dwellings of Shaanxi province. In 1974 he was selected by Chairman Mao as one of China's five model "educated youths."

Big Boys Don’t Cry

Based on true events, Paul is forced to recall his harrowing childhood growing up in a children’s home, when a police investigation into his boyhood friend’s suicide opens old wounds. As Paul struggles to shake off his past and build a relationship with Anthea, his fragile mental state and bitter memories lead to a confrontation with those responsible for his shattered childhood and the death of his friend.

Cinema Bandi

A struggling rickshaw driver’s life takes a rollicking turn when he comes upon an expensive camera and decides to make a film with his fellow villagers.

The Railway Children Return

Follow a group of children who are evacuated to a Yorkshire village during the Second World War, where they encounter a young soldier who, like them, is far away from home.

Blue

Nobuto, a dedicated boxer, can't seem to win a match, while his friend Kazuki is becoming a rising star and may win the championship. Meanwhile, Kazuki is engaged to Chika, Nobuto's first love.

The Swearing Jar

Carey and Simon, an otherwise perfect couple, are trying to kick their swearing habit before their baby arrives. Tumultuous times ensue as Carey meets another man and begins a flirtation.

Rosaline

Left heartbroken after Romeo begins to pursue her cousin Juliet, Rosaline schemes to foil the famous romance and win back her guy in this comedic twist of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.

Luzia Homem

After witnessing the assassination of her parents, Luzia is raised by a cowboy and starts behaving like the men of Brazilian "Sertão". As a grown-up, she sets out to find her parent's murderer, but ends up discovering love.

Seasons of Love

1934. Philippe falls in love with Odile, a beautiful stranger, and decides to marry her, against the will of his parents. They would have preferred a more bourgeois bride, ideally from their own milieu: the paper industry in Angoulême. Isabelle, for instance, whom they have known since she was a child, would have been the perfect match. But Philippe sticks to his choice and marries Odile. At first the newly-weds are passionately in love, and the whole family looks forward to the birth of an heir for the Marcenat family. But in vain. Instead, Odile neglects her marriage and devotes herself to drawing, a gift she inherited from her father. Or is her rekindled interest in art classes more the result of her encounter with the charming but mysterious artist François Crozant? Philippe sense that he's losing his wife and becomes madly jealous of François. Meanwhile Isabelle, who's secretly in love with Philippe, is just waiting for the right moment.

Break of Day

Beautiful, sad story told from multiple perspectives. A man picks a dahlia before entering his home. His dog senses something is wrong. The housekeeper makes tea before seeing the tragedy. Slowly the elements slot into place.

Dores de Amores

A couple face problems because he can no longer have sex with her. Always charged due to the lack of lust, he feels increasingly diminished in the relationship. That's when she presents a bold proposal: that they switch roles in sex, as a way of proving their commitment to the relationship.