The Year My Parents Went on Vacation (2006)

Kurt & Courtney

After rocker Kurt Cobain's death, ruled a suicide, a film crew arrives in Seattle to make a documentary. Director Nick Broomfield talks to lots of people. Portraits emerge: a shy, slight Kurt, weary of touring, embarrassed by fame, hooked on heroin; an out-going Courtney, dramatic, controlling, moving from groupie to star.

Drained

A pawn shop proprietor buys used goods from desperate locals – as much to play perverse power games as for his own livelihood, but when the perfect rump and a backed-up toilet enter his life, he loses all control.

Behind the Sun

Brazilian badlands, April 1910. Tonho is ordered by his father to avenge the death of his older brother. The young man knows that if he commits this crime, his life will be divided in two: the twenty years he has already lived and the few days he has left to live, before the other family avenges their son's death. He is torn between fulfilling his ancestral duty and rebelling against it, urged by his younger brother Pacu. That's when a tiny travelling circus passes through the vast badlands where Tonho's family lives.

Baptism of Blood

In São Paulo, in the late 1960s, the convent of the Dominican friars became a trench of resistance to the military dictatorship that governs Brazil. Moved by Christian ideals, frets Betto, Oswaldo, Fernando, Ivo and Tito came to support the guerrilla group Ação Libertadora Nacional, commanded by Carlos Marighella.

Alemão

Five undercover cops at Complexo do Alemão, one of Rio de Janeiro's most dangerous areas, have their covers blown by drug dealers. Arrested, they wait execution or to be rescued by police forces that would risk expose a larger operation.

After the Truth

Famous Nazi doctor Josef Mengele — the 'Death Angel of Auschwitz', who killed more than 300.000 people — emerges from his hideout in Argentina to Germany as a 87-year-old man, and must stand for his crimes in court. The young solicitor Peter Rohm is assigned to defend him, but Rohm himself — an expert on Mengele and his crimes — feels unable to do so. When he decides to take on the case, he endangers not only his marriage but also his and his wife's lives.

WC Masculino

Leo is the perfect husband. Successful and happily married, he is surprised by the visit of André, his wife's newest friend. At an informal dinner, he has to deal with the man's innuendo.

The Boat

In an isolated fishing village, Esmerina is married to a fisherman and has 26 children. The oldest son secretly desires to leave to see the world beyond the sea. The daily routine of this family is suddenly altered when a mysterious boat runs aground on the beach entering Ana, a girl who survived the shipwreck.

Tim Maia

Biopic of Brazilian singer Tim Maia, from his childhood in Rio de Janeiro until his death at age 55, including his passage by the US, where he discovers a new style of music and is arrested for theft and drug possession.

Summer 1993

After her mother's death, six-year-old Frida is sent to her uncle's family to live with them in the countryside. But Frida finds it hard to forget her mother and adapt to her new life.

Ó Paí, Ó: Look at This

During the Carnival in the historical site of Pelourinho, Salvador da Bahia, we follow the lives of the tenants of a falling-to-pieces tenement house who try to get by using creativity, irony, humor, and music.

The Two Popes

Frustrated with the direction of the church, Cardinal Bergoglio requests permission to retire in 2012 from Pope Benedict. Instead, facing scandal and self-doubt, the introspective Pope Benedict summons his harshest critic and future successor to Rome to reveal a secret that would shake the foundations of the Catholic Church.

Love & Mercy

In the late 1960s, the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson stops touring, produces "Pet Sounds" and begins to lose his grip on reality. By the 1980s, under the sway of a controlling therapist, he finds a savior in Melinda Ledbetter.

Boys

Two teen track stars discover first love as they train for the biggest relay race of their young lives.

I Killed My Mother

Hubert, a brash 17-year-old, is confused and torn by a love-hate relationship with his mother that consumes him more and more each day. After distressing ordeals and tragic episodes, Hubert will find his mother on the banks of Saint Lawrence river, where he grew up, and where a murder will be committed: the murder of childhood.

The Wicker Man

Police sergeant Neil Howie is called to an island village in search of a missing girl whom the locals claim never existed. Stranger still, however, are the rituals that take place there.

A Dog's Will

The lively João Grilo and the sly Chicó are poor guys living in the hinterland who cheat a bunch of people in a small town in Northeastern Brazil. When they die, they have to be judged by Christ, the Devil and the Virgin Mary before they are admitted to paradise.

Heathers

A girl who halfheartedly tries to be part of the "in crowd" of her school meets a rebel who teaches her a more devious way to play social politics: by killing the popular kids.

Good Bye, Lenin!

Alex Kerner's mother was in a coma while the Berlin wall fell. When she wakes up he must try to keep her from learning what happened (as she was an avid communist supporter) to avoid shocking her which could lead to another heart attack.

Over the Hill

In their farm house in a New York village, Ma Shelby prepares breakfast for her four children, Isaac, Tommy, Johnny and Susan, and then awakens them. The racket the boys make as they play and fight awakens their father, who spanks the eldest, Isaac. When a visitor chides Pa for not working, Ma sticks up for her husband, saying that he has a weak back and that he is waiting for a promised government job.

O Crime da Gávea

Paulo (Ricardo Duque), a film editor, arrives at home and find his wife murdered. While the police investigates the crime, Paulo begin his own quest to find the criminal.

Carandiru

When a doctor decides to carry out an AIDS prevention program inside Latin America’s largest prison: the Casa de Detenção de São Paulo - Carandiru, he meets the future victims of one of the darkest days in Brazilian History when the State of São Paulo’s Military Police, with the excuse for law enforcement, shot to death 111 people. Based on real facts and on the book written by Dráuzio Varella.

Charlie Bartlett

Awkward teenager Charlie Bartlett has trouble fitting in at a new high school. Charlie needs some friends fast, and decides that the best way to find them is to appoint himself the resident psychiatrist. He becomes one of the most popular guys in school by doling out advice and, occasionally, medication, to the student body.

Siew Lup

Mia, an ex-prostitute, is trapped in a loveless marriage with the abusive Quan (Sunny Pang, who also stars in Headshot in this year’s Festival lineup), a butcher who runs a roast meat shop. When she meets sensitive funeral director Wu, their passion for one another escalates into an affair. But the path to true love is fraught with jealousy, forcing someone to make a deadly move.

Mera Lahoo

Widowed Avanti Singh lives in an Indian village along with her two sons Dharam and Govinda, and a married daughter. Dharam marries Pavitra, who has a twin sister, Geeta, who meets and falls in love with fellow collegian Govinda. Pavitra has an admirer in Dhaneshwar, a local wealthy land owner and aspiring politician, but Pavitra shuns him. Govinda and Pavitra share a special relationship and Dharam suspects them of having an affair, arguments ensue and Govinda leaves. He returns home to find that Avanti had prevented Dhaneshwar from molesting Pavitra, and Dharam, who went to avenge this humiliation, was killed. Enraged, Govinda rushes to kill Dhaneshwar, but ends up killing someone else instead, and is arrested and put in jail. With Dharam dead and Govinda behind bars, Dhaneshwar seizes the opportunity and this time does molest Pavitra. Who will avenge Pavitra and Dharam now?

Love Story

Harvard Law student Oliver Barrett IV and music student Jennifer Cavilleri share a chemistry they cannot deny - and a love they cannot ignore. Despite their opposite backgrounds, the young couple put their hearts on the line for each other. When they marry, Oliver's wealthy father threatens to disown him. Jenny tries to reconcile the Barrett men, but to no avail.

The Bathhouse of Malatily

The film is an adaptation of the novel Samar Habib by Ismåeel Walieddin. author of Female Homosexuality in the Middle East: Histories and Representations. The main character, Ahmad, leaves rural eastern Egypt for the city hoping to become economically self-sufficient, gets an apartment for his parents, and obtains a law degree. He and his family are refugees from a town occupied by the Israeli army, Ismaåilia. Ali, the owner of the Malatily Bathhouse, offers to let him stay there for free. Ahmad encounters several characters there, including Naåeema, a prostitute who he becomes obsessed with, and Raouf, a homosexual man.

City of Men

Best buddies Acerola and Laranjinha, about to turn 18, discover things about their missing fathers' pasts which will shatter their solid friendship, in the middle of a war between rival drug gangs from Rio's favelas.

Elite Squad

In 1997, before the visit of the pope to Rio de Janeiro, Captain Nascimento from BOPE (Special Police Operations Battalion) is assigned to eliminate the risks of the drug dealers in a dangerous slum nearby where the pope intends to be lodged.

The Bricklayers

When a worker is found murdered on the construction side, the investigation swiftly turns from things criminal to the political circumstances surrounding the building itself. Widespread corruption and neglect by the builder himself are seen to have brought the situation about. Much of the movie is filmed using hand-held cameras, and the majority of the dialogue is in the difficult-to-understand and very slangy Spanish dialect of Mexico City's bricklayers.

Central Station

An emotional journey of a former school teacher, who writes letters for illiterate people, and a young boy, whose mother has just died, as they search for the father he never knew.

All About Eve

From the moment she glimpses her idol at the stage door, Eve Harrington is determined to take the reins of power away from the great actress Margo Channing. Eve maneuvers her way into Margo's Broadway role, becomes a sensation and even causes turmoil in the lives of Margo's director boyfriend, her playwright and his wife. Only the cynical drama critic sees through Eve, admiring her audacity and perfect pattern of deceit.

Can't Say Goodbye

Carla gets a call from the small town where she grew up in the South of Spain. Her father, who she hasn't spoken with in many years, is very ill. She refuses to face it and decides, against everyone's opinion, to take him to Barcelona, where she is convinced they'll be able to save him.

Neckan

Plot unavailable

Deserted at the Altar

Anna Moore, a poor orphaned country girl, and her little brother, Tommy, live with hypocritical Squire Simpson, who conspires with his son to acquire the inheritance due the girl.

The Motorcycle Diaries

Based on the journals of Che Guevara, leader of the Cuban Revolution. In his memoirs, Guevara recounts adventures he and best friend Alberto Granado had while crossing South America by motorcycle in the early 1950s.

The Mayor

For the first time in Korean history, the mayor of Seoul attempts a third term in office, with his entire campaign team ready to soil their hands.

Ana by Day

Ana, a young Spanish woman from a bourgeois family, is about to finish her studies and get married, but she is not happy. After a very unlikely event happens, her life turns around and everything changes.

The Motive

Álvaro, a man obsessed with the idea of writing what he brands as “high literature,” manipulates the lives and feelings of the people around him to write about the consequences caused by his devious acts.

Last Call

Last Call is a fictional account of the final days of exuberant and notorious Welsh poet Dylan Thomas as he sets out on a final poetry tour of New York. Desperate for money and with a wife and three children dependent on him, Thomas accepts a job believing it is beneath him. He spends his time in the city drinking at the White Horse Tavern and becoming increasingly ill between poetry readings. Everything comes to a head when he goes on a bender so extreme he cannot perform the last lecture, makes a scene at the bar, and has his final drink while ruminating on life, death, and the concept of love.

Easy Living

Sherry Graham, a self-destructive makeup saleswoman, hopes a new man and business venture will provide her a fresh start. After her plans are foiled, she takes control of her life in a dramatic turn of events.

Quién te cantará

Lila, a famous retired singer, loses her memory after suffering an accident, just as she planned her return to the stage.

Casablanca

In Casablanca, Morocco in December 1941, a cynical American expatriate meets a former lover, with unforeseen complications.

The Blue Angel

Prim professor Immanuel Rath finds some of his students ogling racy photos of cabaret performer Lola Lola and visits a local club, The Blue Angel, in an attempt to catch them there. Seeing Lola perform, the teacher is filled with lust, eventually resigning his position at the school to marry the young woman. However, his marriage to a coquette -- whose job is to entice men -- proves to be more difficult than Rath imagined.

Barren Lives

In vivid images, the documentary-like story of a drover and his family in the northern badlands of Brazil during the drought. A family in the search of new hope and destiny.

Viper in the Fist

1920. Jean Rezeau and his elder brother were living happily in their family estate in Brittany, until the death of their grandmother. The return of their mother, a worthy descendant of fairytales' witches, brings an all new atmosphere to their home.

To Love Someone

Lena lives a safe and happy life with her husband Alf and together they run a fish shop. No one who sees her can imagine what kind of hell she has gone through with her former husband Hannes. One day, her life turns upside down as a random meeting with Hannes leads to an emotional chaos for her. She thinks he has changed, but no one else wants to believe that Hannes is a new and better person. At the same time, Alf can only look at how his beloved Lena is drawn to Hannes who hurt her so much before.

End of the Spear

"End of the Spear" is the story of Mincayani, a Waodani tribesman from the jungles of Ecuador. When five young missionaries, among them Jim Elliot and Nate Saint, are speared to death by the Waodani in 1956, a series of events unfold to change the lives of not only the slain missionaries' families, but also Mincayani and his people.

The Black Lapp

Anna lives with her father Karl someplace in the outskirts of northern Norway. Karl killed his ex-wife and threw her newborn coloured child into the sea when he discovered that she obviously had been unfaithful. Now Karl is being haunted by her ghost and is developing a serious drinking problem. Anna is looking for the love of her life, but there aren't many bachelors around - until they discovers another small family on the other side of the mountain. They meet a semi-alcoholized widow on Karl's age, her son Peder, and her black adopted son, Ante, that arrived from the sea on a piece of wood.

Female Hostel

Hyeon-soo manages a hostel run by his friend Jeong-ho. It's a hostel for foreign female students. There is a Korean-American from LA, a Japanese who's here to learn Korean out of love for K-Pop and his friend's sister who just happens to be there. These women are very outspoken and Hyeon-soo and Jeong-ho fall for them.

The Deep End

With her husband Jack perpetually away at work, Margaret Hall raises her children virtually alone. Her teenage son is testing the waters of the adult world, and early one morning she wakes to find the dead body of his gay lover on the beach of their rural lakeside home. What would you do? What is rational and what do you do to protect your child? How far do you go and when do you stop?

New York

New York is a contemporary story of friendship set against the larger than life backdrop of a city often described as the centre of the world. Omar has gone abroad for the first time in his life and soon enough he begins to see and love America through the eyes of his American friends - Sam and Maya. It is the story of these three friends discovering a new world together.

Through the Mist

A biopic of the late musician Dédé Fortin, the singer, songwriter, and founder of a very popular Québécois band called "Les Colocs".

Kisaan

A bitter family battle ensues between a father and his sons when a businessman makes a deal that entices farmers to sell off their properties.

Four Days in September

Fernando, a journalist, and his friend César join terrorist group MR8 in order to fight Brazilian dictatorial regime during the late sixties. César, however, is wounded and captured during a bank hold up. Fernando then decides to kidnap the American ambassador in Brazil and ask for the release of fifteen political prisoners in exchange for his life.

Navigating the Heart

When sophisticated New York journalist Edith Iglauer is assigned to go to British Columbia to write a frivolous piece on the fishing industry, she butts heads with local fisherman and notorious loner, John Daly. While she thrives on the fast-paced life of Manhattan, he loathes pretension and could go days without speaking to anyone. But when the two are caught in a perilous situation, they are forced to put aside their pettiness and re-examine their lives. With external factors stripped away, they begin to fall in love. Ultimately, Edith must decide between staying in the glamorous world she has always cherished or leaving it all behind for a chance at love.

My Little Sweet Pea

It isn't easy to find a dream to chase when you're young, but Mugiko has one: she can't wait to become an anime voice actress. Saving up for classes while she works part time in a manga store, she lives with her older, gambler brother after her father's death. When the mother she never knew turns up out of nowhere and moves in, it only causes irritation for the aspiring otaku. But when her mother just as quickly disappears, it leaves Mugiko (or "Sweet Pea") searching for answers, bringing her back to her mother's hometown to discover what happened to her mother's own dream.

Living and Other Fictions

Pepe has left the psychiatric hospital after serving time for stealing to work. Only the solidarity of Antonio, a disabled activist, allows him to build a fragile life on which to project his weak hopes. Nevertheless, his need to fit in a senseless world becomes a desperate chore. The horizon of his long-awaited “normality" proves unreachable. The relationship with Antonio interpellates his view of life, inviting him to recognize himself as an anomaly and invent a new madness in which to live.

El televisor

Enrique buys a color television set just to satisfy a personal pleasure long time deferred but, from that moment on, he becomes obsessed with it in such way that eventually he is incapable to differ reality from fiction.

My Name Ain't Johnny

The true story of João Guilherme Estrella ("Johnny"), a young middle-class bon vivant who became a big-time cocaine dealer in Rio de Janeiro in the early 1990s.

Partition

Determined to leave the ravages of war behind, 38 year old Gian Singh resigns from the British Indian Army to a quiet life. His world is soon thrown in turmoil, when he suddenly finds himself responsible for the life of a 17 year old girl, traumatized by the events that separated her from her family.

To Kill with Intrigue

Young master Cao Le chases his pregnant girlfriend away from the family castle. He does it in order to save her from vicious bandits who are going to murder his family.

Gypsy

Rose Hovick lives to see her daughter June succeed on Broadway by way of vaudeville. When June marries and leaves, Rose turns her hope and attention to her elder, less obviously talented, daughter Louise. However, having her headlining as a stripper at Minsky's Burlesque is not what she initially has in mind.

Last Stop 174

Sandro was a boy who loved to sing rap, to kiss, to stare the statue of Christ the Redeemer and dreamed to go visit Copacabana. Growing up on streets, the story culminates at the infamous episode of 12th June 2000, when Sandro hijacked bus 174.

Daisy Kenyon

Daisy Kenyon is a Manhattan commercial artist having an affair with an arrogant and overbearing but successful lawyer and family man named Dan O'Mara. Daisy meets a single man, a war veteran named Peter Lapham, and after a brief and hesitant courtship decides to marry him, although she is still in love with Dan.

Secret

Ye Xiang Lun, a talented piano player is a new student at the prestigious Tamkang School. On his first day, he meets Lu Xiao Yu, a pretty girl playing a mysterious piece of music.

Dear Maya

Anna and Ira prank a local woman by writing her letters from a secret admirer. The prank takes a more serious turn when the local women goes missing,

Butterfly

Flavia is a thirtysomething married teacher. She has suppressed the memory of her adolescent lesbian fling with Jin and is stuck in a stifling marriage. A chance encounter in a supermarket with the playful and seductive singer Yip reawakens dormant feelings and she begins to think back on her teenage affair with Jin.

The King

A motiveless malignancy? Elvis leaves the Navy and heads for Texas where he contacts his father, whom he's never met, the pastor at a Christian community church. Pastor Dave tells Elvis to stay away and, without telling his family that Elvis is his son from a pre-conversion liaison, tells them to have nothing to do with him. But Elvis has already connected with Malerie, the pastor's 16-year old daughter. Elvis embarks on the seduction of Malerie, while Dave examines his conscience and comes to a new conclusion. Can anyone get right with the Lord? Does the Lord hear?

The History of Eternity

In a small village in the hinterland, three stories of love and desire are changing the emotional landscape of its residents. Characters of a romanesque world in which their conceptions of life are limited on one side by human instincts, on the other by a blind and fatalist fate.

The Bad and the Beautiful

Told in flashback form, the film traces the rise and fall of a tough, ambitious Hollywood producer, Jonathan Shields, as seen through the eyes of various acquaintances, including a writer, James Lee Bartlow; a star, Georgia Lorrison; and a director, Fred Amiel. He is a hard-driving, ambitious man who ruthlessly uses everyone on the way to becoming one of Hollywood's top movie makers.

The Michigan Kid

The Michigan Kid is a gambler in the backwoods of Alaska trying to make enough money to go back to his hometown and impress the girl he loves. His childhood rival for the girl happens to turn up at his casino, in trouble and doesn't want his girl to find about it.

Time of Fear

Year 2006. There are riots in São Paulo. In the middle of the violent situation, widow Lucia is trying to get her young son Rafael from prison.

Mitchell

A tough-guy cop pursues two drug runners across the city to bust a large syndicate. Very much an anti-hero, Mitchell often ignores the orders of his superiors and demonstrates disdain for by-the-book development work as well as normal social graces.

The Storm

A fictional story within the historical context of the disastrous flood that engulfed the Dutch coastal province of Zeeland in 1953. When their farmhouse is destroyed by the flood, teenage mother Julia gets separated from her baby boy, whom she kept hidden in a box. She is saved from drowning by a young air force lieutenant, who agrees to go help looking for Julia's little son.

Stranded in Paradise

When a driven HR exec loses her high-powered job, she travels to Puerto Rico in an attempt to save her career at a business conference. But as the trip quickly becomes a disaster and a hurricane shuts down the whole island, she meets a handsome world traveler who gives her a new perspective on finding passion in life and love.

The Postman's White Nights

The 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.

Blonde Venus

In an effort to be able to afford expensive treatment for her gravely ill American husband, a retired German entertainer returns to the cabaret as Blonde Venus and catches the eye of a wealthy politician.

Olga

Based upon the true story of Olga Benário, the German-born wife of Brazilian communist leader Luís Carlos Prestes. During the dictatorship of Getúlio Vargas (1930-1945) she was arrested and sent to Nazi Germany, where she was put to death in a concentration camp. After World War II began, Vargas decided to uphold the Allies.

The Castle

Michael Haneke's adaptation of Franz Kafka's unfinished novel Das Schloss. K arrives in a remote village a stranger. In attempting to establish himself there, he enters the nightmarish world of the castle bureaucracy.

Christmas in August

It's a sweltering summer, but Jung-won, a terminally ill, thirty-something photographer, is already in the winter of his life when he begins a tentative romance with a young traffic cop who doesn't know about his condition. Is their relationship doomed before it even begins?

The Black Sheep

The Trevino family tries to overcome the irresponsible behavior of Don Cruz, an erratic father with numerous defects that contrast with his son Silvano, a young kid man that is incapable of passing judgment on his own father.

No desearás la mujer de tu hijo

An elderly man falls in love with a beautiful young woman, without knowing that she is in love with his son.