Once in a Lifetime (2014)

Sweet Smell of Spring

In 2011 Tunisia, as the Arab Spring awakens, unemployed graduate Aziz, nicknamed Zizou (Zied Ayadi), travels from his Saharan village to the big city of Tunis in search of a job. From television aerial installation to political intrigue, this fresh-faced young Candide will learn the ways of the world, fall in love with the ravishing Aicha (Sara Hanachi), and become famous.--Eddie Cockrell, FilmFest DC

Pooh - Un attimo ancora

A docufilm retracing the life, successes, and great eras of Italy’s most beloved and longest-running band. A story told in chapters, each corresponding to a major theme explored by the group in their songs: love, children, and more. An exceptional and often unreleased repertoire ties together the story of Pooh—from their beginnings to their rise to fame, from their toughest choices to their commitment to environmental causes, from legendary live concerts to the moment they decided to bring this incredible journey to an end. Roby Facchinetti, Dodi Battaglia, and Red Canzian guide us through a musical and cultural legacy that has united multiple generations of fans, joined by the voices of the late drummer Stefano D’Orazio and Riccardo Fogli.

On the Sly

Franck, a former young hopeful at the Nantes soccer club, has stayed on to help the team for ten years after an injury,but becomes especially frustrated when he meets a seductive young woman.

Desperately Seeking Santa

Jennifer, a young, ambitious executive running promotions at a failing Boston mall comes up with a genius promotional gimmick to save her workplace and position herself for advancement: hold a "Hunky Santa" contest to replace the old Mall Santa. David, a local man trying to save his family's pizzeria, ultimately wins the contest and sparks fly between him and Jennifer. However, complications ensue when it comes to light that the company Jennifer works for is the same one trying to run David's family out of business.

Thank You for Calling

Biography based on the life of conman Gilbert Chikli who invented the "CEO scam" and was able to persuade bank and company officers to transfer money by simply ringing them and impersonating their CEO. He is now living in luxury in Israel.

And Soon the Darkness

Two young English women go on a cycling tour of the French countryside. When one of them goes missing, the other begins to search for her. But who can she trust?

Mammuth

Serge Pilardosse has just turned 60. He has worked since the age of 16, never unemployed, never sick. But the hour of retirement has come, and it is disillusionment: he is missing points, some employers having forgotten to declare it! Pushed by Catherine, his wife, he gets on his old motorcycle from the 70s, a "Mammut" which earned him his nickname, and sets off in search of his pay slips. During his journey, he rediscovers his past and his quest for administrative documents soon becomes incidental...

Who Killed Captain Alex?

Recognized as Uganda’s first action film, Who Killed Captain Alex? is about the aftermath of a police raid in Kampala in which a police captain is killed.

Don't Look Back

Panic attacks and memory loss signal the plight of a writer whose body is inexplicably being taken over by another woman.

Better Days

Following a car accident, Suzanne loses custody of her three children. She has no choice but to seek treatment at a center for alcoholics. As soon as she arrives, she meets Alice and Diane, two women with strong personalities. Denis, a sports instructor, will try to bring them together around the same goal: to participate in the Dune Rally in the Moroccan desert. He will need a lot of patience and teaching skills to prepare this unlikely team to achieve their goal.

Not My Type

Clement, a young philosophy teacher, is sent to Arras for a year. He meets Jennifer, a pretty hair stylist, and the two freely share their hearts and bodies as they try to overcome the cultural and social divide between them.

The Path of Excellence

Sophie is a brilliant student. Encouraged by her maths teacher, she leaves the family farm to attend a science preparatory class. Between new encounters, successes and failures, and faced with fierce competition, Sophie realizes that her dream of joining the Polytechnique represents more than an entrance examination but a true challenge of social climbing.

Courted

When a feared judge of the French court, Xavier Racine, encounters a French-Danish juror, Ditte Lorensen-Coteret, at a murder trial, their shared past is slowly uncovered.

Labyrinth of Lies

A young prosecutor in postwar West Germany investigates a massive conspiracy to cover up the Nazi pasts of prominent public figures.

Standing Tall

The film tells the story of Malony and his education as he grows from a six-year-old into an 18-year-old. A minors’ judge and a caseworker work tirelessly to try to save the young offender.

Smashed

Kate and Charlie like to have a good time. Their marriage thrives on a shared fondness for music, laughter… and getting smashed. When Kate’s partying spirals into hard-core asocial behavior, compromising her job as an elementary schoolteacher, something’s got to give. But change isn’t exactly a cakewalk. Sobriety means she will have to confront the lies she’s been spinning at work, her troubling relationship with her mother, and the nature of her bond with Charlie.

It's Now or Never

Narrates the preparation for a wedding of a Spanish couple in which everything goes wrong.

Graduation

After his daughter is assaulted and left with an injury that may jeopardize her opportunity to study in the UK, a Romanian doctor decides to do whatever it takes to secure her future.

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.

Heaven Will Wait

Mélanie, 16 years old, lives with her mother. She likes going to school, her friends, playing the cello, and she wants to change the world. But when she meets a boy on the Internet and falls in love with him, her world changes as she is gradually recruited by Daesh. Sonia is 17 years old, and she almost did something irrevocable to “guarantee” her family a place in paradise. These teenage girls might be called Anaïs, Manon or Leila, and one day they all might go some way down the recruitment process. But can they ever come back from it?

Venice Calling

Emile is fifteen. He lives in Montargis, between a sweet-crazy father and a mother who has always dyed his hair blond, because, it seems, he is more beautiful like that. When the girl who pleases him more than anything invites him to Venice for the holidays, he is overjoyed. Only problem, his parents decide to accompany him - This is the story of a teenager born into an unclassifiable family, the story of a first love, miraculous and fragile. This is the story of an initiatory and incredible journey where life often takes unawares, but where Venice, it will be at the rendezvous.

After the Ball

After the Ball, a retail fairy tale set in the world of fashion. Kate's dream is to design for couturier houses. Although she is a bright new talent, Kate can't get a job. No one trusts the daughter of Lee Kassell, a retail guru who markets clothes "inspired" by the very designers Kate wants to work for. Who wants a spy among the sequins and stilettos? Reluctantly, Kate joins the family business where she must navigate around her duplicitous stepmother and two wicked stepsisters. But with the help of a prince of a guy in the shoe department her godmother's vintage clothes and a shocking switch of identities, Kate exposes the evil trio, saves her father's company -- and proves that everyone can wear a fabulous dress.

Love and Honor

When a young soldier in Vietnam gets dumped by his hometown girl, he and his best friend decide to go AWOL and return to the States to win her back.

High Strung

When a hip hop violinist busking in the New York subway encounters a classical dancer on scholarship at the Manhattan Conservatory of the Arts, sparks fly. With the help of a hip hop dance crew they must find a common ground while preparing for a competition that could change their lives forever.

Offering to the Storm

Inspector Amaia Salazar confronts the origins of her nightmares as she unfolds the darkest secrets of the Baztan valley. Part 3 in the Baztan Trilogy.

Cry_Wolf

After a local woman is murdered, a group of teenage liars create a warning e-mail of a serial killer named “The Wolf”, coming on the next full moon. The teens describe each death method The Wolf uses, but when the described victims actually do start turning up dead, suddenly no one knows where the lies end and the truth begins.

Roommates Wanted

When recently widowed, it is difficult to get used to a new life ... This is the case for Hubert Jacquin, who spends most of his time in his huge apartment, depressed, in front of his TV. One day, after a misunderstanding, his life will change. Manuela, a young and bubbly adventurer in search of a dwelling calls his home! At first reluctant, Hubert will quickly get used to the presence of this energy storm, who even manages to convince him to allow two other people to stay. There are many surprises in store for Hubert ...

The Class

Teacher and novelist François Bégaudeau plays a version of himself as he negotiates a year with his racially mixed students from a tough Parisian neighborhood.

Careful What You Wish For

A guy gets more than he bargained for after entering into an affair with the wife of an investment banker. Soon, a suspicious death and substantial life insurance policy embroil him in a scandal.

Compliance

On a particularly busy day at a suburban Ohio fast food restaurant, manager Sandra receives a phone call from a police officer saying that an employee has stolen money from a customer.

BPM (Beats per Minute)

Paris, in the early 1990s: a group of young activists is desperately tied to finding the cure against an unknown lethal disease. They target the pharmaceutical labs that are retaining potential cures, and multiply direct actions, with the hope of saving their lives as well as the ones of future generations.

The Players

Eight short films explore the subject of male infidelity. Serial cheaters, Fred and Greg, spend a night on the town doing what they do best, and with absolutely no regrets. The duo play various characters in assorted extracurricular situations, ranging from sexist to the darker sides of carnal desires.

The Legend of Bagger Vance

World War I has left golfer Rannulph Junuh a poker-playing alcoholic, his perfect swing gone. Now, however, he needs to get it back to play in a tournament to save the financially ravaged golf course of a long-ago sweetheart. Help arrives in the form of mysterious caddy Bagger Vance.

By the Grace of God

Alexandre, a man in his 40s living in Lyon with his wife and children, discovers that the priest who abused him decades ago continues to work with children. He joins forces with others victims of the priest, to bring justice and “lift the burden of silence” about what they endured.

A Real Job

Benjamin is a PhD student without scholarship support. Under the pressure of his parents, and in need of money, he becomes a substitute teacher in a middle school. Without training nor experience, and facing a declining public educational system, he discovers how tough this job can be. Hopefully, his supportive and committed colleagues will lead him to take a fresh look at the profession.

The Death & Life of John F. Donovan

A decade after the death of an American TV star, a young actor reminisces about the written correspondence he once shared with the former, as well as the impact those letters had on both their lives.

All That Glitters

Best friends Ely and Lila share everything together, including their dream of a life beyond the Paris suburb they've lived in since childhood. One night they venture into the capital and meet a pair of wealthy young friends at a night club. Ashamed of their working-class background, and seeing an opportunity to escape, Ely and Lila begin to lie their way into this glamorous new world. Falling deeper into their web of lies, the young women begin to lose sight of themselves as their friendship is pushed to the limit.

Divines

In a ghetto where religion and drug trafficking rub shoulders, Dounia has a lust for power and success. Supported by Maimouna, her best friend, she decides to follow in the footsteps of Rebecca, a respected dealer. But her encounter with Djigui, a young, disturbingly sensual dancer, throws her off course.

Samba

Samba migrated to France 10 years ago from Senegal, and has since been plugging away at various lowly jobs. Alice is a senior executive who has recently undergone a burnout. Both struggle to get out of their dead-end lives. Samba's willing to do whatever it takes to get working papers, while Alice tries to get her life back on track until fate draws them together.

A Streetcar Named Desire

A disturbed, aging Southern belle moves in with her sister for solace — but being face-to-face with her brutish brother-in-law accelerates her downward spiral.

Peasants

Pavel's mother hates his fiancee. When Pavel serves in the Army she writes him that Nastya is no longer faithful to him. Pavel decides not to return to his native town. But many years later he returns to his fathers funeral and finds out that Nastya died sometime ago. She left three kids orphans and her elder daughter is also a daughter of Pavel.

Baise-moi

Nadine and Manu are two mad women, as tidy as can be, almost perfectionists. They have several things in common: extreme sex, drugs, beer and the trigger. They find the solution to their problems with guns and beware to those who dare to get in their way!

Beyond Dreams

Mirja must find her place after serving jail time. When she gets a job as a hotel cleaner she starts living a double life. She's torn between her sick mother and her old group of friends, who have always been her real family.

American Splendor

An original mix of fiction and reality illuminates the life of comic book hero everyman Harvey Pekar.

An Angel at My Table

Based on the autobiographical work of New Zealand writer Janet Frame, this production depicts the author at various stage of her life. Afflicted with mental and emotional issues, Frame grows up in an impoverished family and experiences numerous tragedies while still in her youth, including the deaths of two of her siblings. Portrayed as an adult by Kerry Fox, Frame finds acclaim for her writing while still in a mental institution, and her success helps her move on with her life.

Locked Up: A Mother’s Rage

This women in prison drama tells us a story about the mother of three children, who was falsely accused for a crime she did not commit (drug dealing), arrested and locked up behind bars.

Ma fille est innocente

A teenage girl spends her vacation in Asia together with her mom and dad. There she meets another guy from France, who uses her, and she is caught by the drug police, arrested and sentenced to jail. Now her parents need to do something to release their innocent girl and punish the real criminal. Conditions in prison are very bad, the authorities are corrupted and are only interested in their money.

Awakened

Samantha believes that her father murdered her mother. In her exhausting search for the truth about her young mother's untimely death 14 years earlier, Samantha receives help from beyond the grave.

Lady Chatterley

In the Chatterley country estate, monotonous days follow one after the other for Constance, trapped by her marriage and her sense of duty. During spring, deep in the heart of Wragby forest, she encounters Parkin, the estate’s gamekeeper. A tale of an encounter, a difficult apprenticeship, a slow awakening to sensuality for her, a long return to life for him. Or how love is but one with experience and transformation.

After the Wedding

A manager of an orphanage in India is sent to Copenhagen, Denmark, where he discovers a life-altering family secret.

Swell

Swell is a smartphone app that changes your mood through sound. When a young couple tries to control each other’s settings, they find their relationship threatened by an unintended cacophony of emotions.

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.

Cherry Tobacco

An exploration of the growing friendship between small-town girl Laura, who is persuaded onto a hiking trip by her friend Merit, and Joosep, a middle-aged guide.

The Heart Is a Dark Forest

A woman's life is destroyed when she discovers that her husband has another family.

Reality

Augusta, Georgia, United States, June 3, 2017. After running some errands, Reality Winner returns home, where she is approached by two men.

Eggnoid

Sent from the future to look after a lonely girl, Eggy finds himself falling for her. But dating is forbidden and would risk both their fates.

Ana

Ana is a young Portuguese girl who lives with her grandmother. Through their relationship, we are witness to the Cycle of Life: Grandmother takes care of granddaughter until granddaughter is obliged to do same for grandmother. The scenes between the two protagonists are counterpointed with impressionistic camera compositions based upon famous religious paintings.

Miss Meadows

Miss Meadows is a school teacher with impeccable manners and grace. However, underneath the candy-sweet exterior hides a ruthless gun-toting vigilante who takes it upon herself to right the wrongs in the world by whatever means necessary. For Miss Meadows, bad behavior is simply unforgivable.

Across the Universe

When young dockworker Jude leaves Liverpool to find his estranged father in the United States, he is swept up by the waves of change that are re-shaping the nation. Jude falls in love with Lucy, who joins the growing anti-war movement. As the body count in Vietnam rises, political tensions at home spiral out of control and the star-crossed lovers find themselves in a psychedelic world gone mad.

How Good to See You Alive

Four years after a military coup overthrew the Brazilian government in 1964, all civil rights were suspended and torture became a systematic practice. Using a mix of fiction and documentary this extraordinary film is a searing record of personal memory, political repression and the will to survive. Interviews with eight women who were political prisoners during the military dictatorship are framed by the fantasies and imaginings of an anonymous character, portrayed by actress Irene Ravache.

Dry Cleaning

A bored couple takes in a young man who turns their lives inside out.

Rosenstrasse

When Ruth's husband dies in New York, in 2000, she imposes strict Jewish mourning, which puzzles her children. A stranger comes to the house - Ruth's cousin - with a picture of Ruth, age 8, in Berlin, with a woman the cousin says helped Ruth escape. Hannah, Ruth's daughter engaged to a gentile, goes to Berlin to find the woman, Lena Fisher, now 90. Posing as a journalist investigating intermarriage, Hannah interviews Lena who tells the story of a week in 1943 when the Jewish husbands of Aryan women were detained in a building on Rosenstrasse. The women gather daily for word of their husbands. The film goes back and forth to tell Ruth and Lena's story. How will it affect Hannah?

Actresses

Marcelline is an actress. Forty, single and childless, she begins rehearsals for Turgenev’s A Month in the Country. Denis, the director, admires her greatly and promises he’ll make her happy on stage — she will shine. But things don’t go to plan.

Yuni

In her last year of secondary school, a bright Indonesian student is determined to pursue her education and resist getting married, despite the expectations of her community.

Happening

France, 1963. Anne is a bright young student with a promising future ahead of her. But when she falls pregnant, she sees the opportunity to finish her studies and escape the constraints of her social background disappearing. With her final exams fast approaching and her belly growing, Anne resolves to act, even if she has to confront shame and pain, even if she must risk prison to do so.

The Nativity Story

Mary and Joseph make the hard journey to Bethlehem for a blessed event in this retelling of the Nativity story. This meticulously researched and visually lush adaptation of the biblical tale follows the pair on their arduous path to their arrival in a small village, where they find shelter in a quiet manger and Jesus is born.

The Divine Order

Nora is a young housewife and mother, living in a quaint little village with her husband and their two sons. The Swiss countryside is untouched by the major social upheavals the movement of 1968 has brought about. Nora’s life is not affected either; she is a quiet person who is liked by everybody – until she starts to publicly fight for women’s suffrage, which the men are due to vote on in a ballot on February 7, 1971.

Enough!

Set amidst the civil war of Algeria in the 1990s, Enough! is the story of two women. Emel is a Westerner whose husband, a journalist, is missing - perhaps kidnapped or even killed for articles he's written.

Bye Bye Victor

Friendship between two old men becomes love. Slightly-unkempt, tired, and frail, Philippe Lanctot moves into a rest home. The administrator says she wants him to be happy, but that seems far from his mind: he's waiting to die. Then, into his room, unannounced, rolls the voluble Victor Laprade, who draws out Philippe over the next few months. Victor gives Philippe the gift of experiencing the moment. In return, the well-heeled Philippe organises field trips to dinner and to a botanical garden, and, unknown to Victor, becomes the man's benefactor when Victor's children get stingy. The openly-gay Victor also pushes Philippe to acknowledge feelings he's always kept suppressed.

Domenica

Police inspector Sciarra, struggling with an identity crisis, and Domenica, an orphan who would like to know about her mother, spend one day together along the streets of Naples. It's Sciarra's last day of work and he has to take Domenica to the morgue, to identify a man who might have raped her. To Domenica, Sciarra is a father she never had, to him she is the daughter he couldn't have.

Parks

Jun is a university student. She meets high school student Haru. Haru is looking for Sachiko, the ex-girlfriend of her now deceased father. Jun and Haru meet Tokio. Tokio is the grandson of Sachiko and they learn that Sachiko is now deceased. They find an open-reel tape from Sachiko's articles.

Antonia's Line

After World War II, Antonia and her daughter, Danielle, go back to their Dutch hometown, where Antonia's late mother has bestowed a small farm upon her. There, Antonia settles down and joins a tightly-knit but unusual community. Those around her include quirky friend Crooked Finger, would-be suitor Bas and, eventually for Antonia, a granddaughter and great-granddaughter who help create a strong family of empowered women.

Just Before I Go

Ted Morgan has been treading water for most of his life. After his wife leaves him, Ted realizes he has nothing left to live for. Summoning the courage for one last act, Ted decides to go home and face the people he feels are responsible for creating the shell of a person he has become. But life is tricky. The more determined Ted is to confront his demons, to get closure, and to withdraw from his family, the more Ted is yanked into the chaos of their lives. So, when Ted Morgan decides to kill himself, he finds a reason to live.

Mossane

A beautiful 14-year-old girl has just reached marriageable age in a village in Senegal. She has many suitors; however, she is in love a poor student who has returned to the village while the university is on strike. At birth, she had been promised in marriage to Diogoye, who went away to work in France. Diogoye, who supplied her parents with many things over the years, has now sent a dowry, and asked that she be married to him in the village in his absence; she would then be sent to France.

The Garden

In the summer of 1976, a shared family yard becomes the setting, as the adults bicker over selling the garden and the kids are free to explore the mysterious neighboring lot. Then they hear about a girl that has disappeared...

Adolescence

A teenager from an abusive household falls in love with a free-spirited runaway that leads him into the fast-lane lifestyle of drugs and addiction which threatens to destroy him.

The Firefly

After her estranged brother's sudden death, young wife Lucia bonds with his fiancée through their shared grief and finds herself falling in love.

Showing Up

In the days leading up to a possibly career-changing exhibition, a sculptor navigates her relationships with family, friends, and colleagues.

The Death of Empedocles

Film adaptation by Straub and Huillet of Hölderlin’s 1798 tragedy on the symbolic death of Empedocles, the legislator in Ancient Greece.

My Father and I

After Xiao Yu's mother died in an accident, she moved back to live with her birth father who she knows little about. Gradually, they grew to know each other and to accept each other for who they are.

Mary from Beijing

Ma Lei which sounds like "Mary" is a Chinese citizen, living in Hong Kong as the kept woman of a jeweler. She wishes for two things: to get her Hong Kong Identity Card, which will enable her to get work as a legal immigrant; and to marry her boyfriend.

Tonight Nobody Goes Home

The Chen family contagiousness extends to taking on an extra-marital affair. Gua Ah-leh is at the movie's centre: she shines as Lung's wife, who finds she has a thing or two to learn from the gigolo after Lung blithely. Lang Hisung plays old dentist for broad comedy he is sixty years old.

In Between

Three directors deliver three stories about the love in the modern world.

Orphans

Orphans is the true story of a forbidden love affair set in the oppressive and violent atmosphere of nineteenth century Mexico. One man, Melchor Ocampo, driven by the twin passions of love and idealism, defies the stain of illegitimacy to shake off the crippling yoke of Spain and the Catholic Church. In so doing he becomes a founding figure of modern day Mexico.

Or (My Treasure)

Or shoulders a lot: she's 17 or 18, a student, works evenings at a restaurant, recycles cans and bottles for cash, and tries to keep her mother Ruthie from returning to streetwalking in Tel Aviv. Ruthie calls Or "my treasure," but Ruthie is a burden. She's just out of hospital, weak, and Or has found her a job as a house cleaner. The call of the quick money on the street is tough for Ruthie to ignore. Or's emotions roil further when the mother of the youth she's in love with comes to the flat to warn her off. With love fading and Ruthie perhaps beyond help, Or's choices narrow.

Away from Her

Fiona and Grant have been married for nearly 50 years. They have to face the fact that Fiona’s absent-mindedness is a symptom of Alzheimer’s disease. She must go to a specialized nursing home, where she slowly forgets Grant and turns her affection to Aubrey, another patient in the home.

Love Under the Crucifix

The basic story in Love under the Crucifix is about Ogin, daughter of a tea master, who are both Christians in feudal Japan. Ogin falls in love with a feudal prince, also a Christian who is already married, and that creates problems. Further, when the Shogun bans Christianity, the situation worsens.

Inbetween Worlds

Jesper is a soldier in the German army, who reports for a new tour of duty in Afghanistan. His unit is to protect a village from the Taliban.

Noor

Noor wants to be a man. He doesn't belong anymore to the Khusras, Pakistan's transgender community. And he is definitely done with the love story he had with one of them, that had drastically changed his life. Now, he is doing a man's job in a Truck Decoration Center and he made up his mind: he will find a girl who will accept him as he is.

Light in Darkness: The Return of Red Light Bandit

Jorge, bastard child of the infamous Red Light Bandit, decides himself to pursuit a life of crime after meeting with his father, who has been incarcerated for the last 30 years.

Nanayo

Saiko travels to Thailand but she jumps out of the cab after knowing the driver's intentions. However, her life changes after she meets Greg.

Passion

Sylvia and Cora Miao play two widowed mothers, best friends and confidants who spend their days reminiscing about times past. Over the course of a lazy weekend afternoon, the two women conjure memories of Cora's husband, his life, his death, and his passionate affair with Sylvia. A series of wistful flashbacks reveal the sometimes touching, sometimes painful circumstances around the women's deep friendship with one another, and their love for the same man.

Splendid Float

Roy is a Taoist priest but also a drag queen performer. He meets and falls for Sunny but when Sunny disappears without saying goodbye, Roy begins to suspect that something terrible has happened.

For Fun

Required to retire from his job as a utility man at a Peking Opera theater, Old Han is at loose ends, wandering the backstreets of Beijing looking for something to correct.