Wijster (2008)

The Beans of Egypt, Maine

The Beans are poor, proud, hated by all, but alive in the sense that they struggle against their lot and support each other in time of trouble. Earlene lives across the street from the Bean's trailer, and the view from her window is better than any daytime television soap opera; especially Beal Bean, and especially Beal Bean shirtless. When Reuben Bean is sent to prison for resisting arrest for out-of-season deer hunting, Beal takes up with Reuben's woman Roberta. He also has a child by Earlene, with a triangle of sex complicated by poverty.

Strange Days

Former policeman Lenny Nero has moved into a more lucrative trade: the illegal sale of virtual reality-like recordings that allow users to experience the emotions and past experiences of others. While they typically contain tawdry incidents, Nero is shocked when he receives one showing a murder.

Desert Hearts

While waiting for her divorce papers, a repressed literature professor finds herself unexpectedly attracted by a carefree, spirited young woman named Cay.

Beyond Silence

Beyond Silence is about a family and a young girl’s coming of age story. This German film looks into the lives of the deaf and at a story about the love for music. A girl who has always had to translate speech into sign language for her deaf parents yet when her love for playing music grows strong she must decide to continue doing something she cannot share with her parents.

Grbavica: The Land of My Dreams

A woman and her daughter struggle to make their way through the aftermath of the Balkan war.

Bollywood/Hollywood

Rahul Seth is a dashing young millionaire who believes he is "western" enough to rebel against his mother and grandmother. They are not too keen about his Caucasian girlfriend Kimberly who, to make matters worse, is a pop star. Before you can say "karmic intervention," Kimberly dies in a freak accident and Rahul is devastated. Instead of allowing him to mourn in peace, Rahul's mother sees the opportunity she's been waiting for. She threatens to call off his sister's wedding unless he finds himself a "nice Indian girl." Rahul enlists the services of Sue, a fiercely independent escort whom he believes to be Hispanic, and therefore not "married" to the conventions taught to young Indian women. With a wink in her eye, Sue accepts the deal to pose as his Indian bride-to-be. She needs the money and having never been a fan of the typical Indian male, she feels her heart is safe. The charade begins....

Abnormal Behavior

A mental health doctor goes off on a journey to Thailand with his girlfriend. They live with her friends. She enjoys the vacation and he works at his dissertation in psychiatry. People around seem to him no less sick than in the nuthouse, until he falls in strange circumstances...

Copying Beethoven

A fictionalised exploration of Beethoven's life in his final days working on his Ninth Symphony. It is 1824. Beethoven is racing to finish his new symphony. However, it has been years since his last success and he is plagued by deafness, loneliness and personal trauma. A copyist is urgently needed to help the composer. A fictional character is introduced in the form of a young conservatory student and aspiring composer named Anna Holtz. The mercurial Beethoven is skeptical that a woman might become involved in his masterpiece but slowly comes to trust in Anna's assistance and in the end becomes quite fond of her. By the time the piece is performed, her presence in his life is an absolute necessity. Her deep understanding of his work is such that she even corrects mistakes he has made, while her passionate personality opens a door into his private world.

Nowhere in Africa

A Jewish woman named Jettel Redlich flees Nazi Germany with her daughter Regina, to join her husband, Walter, on a farm in Kenya. At first, Jettel refuses to adjust to her new circumstances, bringing with her a set of china dishes and an evening gown. While Regina adapts readily to this new world, forming a strong bond with her father's cook, an African named Owuor.

Population 436

A census-taker is sent to investigate why a certain small town has had the same population -- 436 residents -- for the last 100 years.

When Saturday Comes

Jimmy Muir comes from a typical gritty, northern town where there are only two options: working down the pit or in a factory. But Jimmy has other ideas - he dreams of becoming a professional footballer. Confronted by a bitter and unsupportive father, hard drinking friends and a lifetime of bad habits...has Jimmy the will to achieve his ultimate goal?

A Real Young Girl

Bored and restless, Alice spends much of her time lusting after Jim, a local sawmill worker. When not lusting after him, Alice fills the hours with such pursuits as writing her name on a mirror with vaginal secretions and wandering the fields with her underwear around her ankles. And, in true teenaged tradition, she spends a lot of time writing in her diary.

Me and You and Everyone We Know

A lonely shoe salesman and an eccentric performance artist struggle to connect in this unique take on contemporary life.

The Cave of the Yellow Dog

The little nomad girl, Nansal, finds a baby dog in the Mongolian veld, who becomes her best friend - against all rejections of her parents. A story about a Mongolian family of nomads - their traditional way of life and the rising call of the City.

Take My Eyes

One winter night, Pilar runs away from home. With her, she takes only a few belongings and her son, Juan. Antonio soon sets out to look for her. He says Pilar is his sunshine, and what's more, "She gave him her eyes"...

The Virgin Suicides

A group of male friends become obsessed with five mysterious sisters who are sheltered by their strict, religious parents.

Seeking Whom He May Devour

A wave of carnage is sweeping through Southern France, with locals blaming the return of wolves. However some begin talking of a werewolf, and Police Captain Adamsberg must investigate.

Paris Je T'aime

Olivier Assayas, Gus Van Sant, Wes Craven and Alfonso Cuaron are among the 20 distinguished directors who contribute to this collection of 18 stories, each exploring a different aspect of Parisian life. The colourful characters in this drama include a pair of mimes, a husband trying to chose between his wife and his lover, and a married man who turns to a prostitute for advice.

Big

When a young boy makes a wish at a carnival machine to be big—he wakes up the following morning to find that it has been granted and his body has grown older overnight. But he is still the same 13-year-old boy inside. Now he must learn how to cope with the unfamiliar world of grown-ups including getting a job and having his first romantic encounter with a woman.

Baise-moi

Manu has lived a difficult life. Abused and violently raped, she sets off to find herself only to meet Nadine, a prostitute who has encountered one too many injustices in the world. Angry at the world, they embark on a twisted, rage-filled road trip. They choose to have sex when they please and kill when they need. Leaving a trail of mischief and dead bodies in their wake. Generating a media blitz and manhunt, soon everyone is out to capture the young fugitives.

Through the Eyes

Monica is a social worker in Mexico City, whose son has a degenerative illness in both eyes. Having exhausted all other options, a corneal transplant is the only hope. Overwhelmed by the slowness of the health care system and the scarcity of resources, she decides to search for an extreme solution in her work environment: the world of street children.

Subway in the Sky

Berlin provides the backdrop for this crime drama that centers on a military doctor falsely accused of dealing illegal drugs. Determined to prove his innocence, he escapes from the MPs and ends up holing up in the apartment his wife rented. He doesn't know that she has sublet the flat to a nightclub singer. When he finds out, he begs the singer to assist him. She is attracted to him and agrees. The doctor believes that his wife is behind the black-market dealings, but in the end, they find the real culprit.

The Private Lives of Pippa Lee

After her much older husband forces a move to a suburban retirement community, Pippa Lee engages in a period of reflection and finds herself heading toward a quiet nervous breakdown.

Little Ida

Little Ida's mother is working for the Germans during WW2, and she is also having a relationship with a German SS-officer. Ida is experiencing the problems of having a mother who is involved with the enemy, without being old enough to understand what is actually going on.

Evangeline

Evangeline (Kat de Lieva) has left her sheltered upbringing to reinvent herself in college. As she begins to break out of her shell, she attracts the attention of a sociopathic fraternity leader (Richard Harmon) and his two cohorts. “Beaten and left for dead, Evangeline finds herself trapped in a supernatural nightmare, where she is caught between salvation and vengeance. But to save herself, Evangeline discovers she must make the most horrifying choice of all…

American Splendor

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

The Twin Bracelets

Two teenage girls make a pledge to each other to be as "man and wife" in a small Chinese fishing town. The notions of women's rights or sexual freedom are absent in their oppressive minority culture, and when one becomes happily married to a stranger, the other is cruelly betrothed to the abusive son of a wealthy family. Seeking to free herself from a lifetime of abuse, Hui-hua desperately looks for a way out. ----by J L (New York City)

Dust Cloth

Nesrin and Hatun are two Kurdish cleaning women living in Istanbul. While Nesrin tries to survive with her little daughter, trying to understand why her husband left her, Hatun dreams of buying a house in the district where they clean.

Akam

Srinivasan is a young architect. He is happy when he gets a good job and a beautiful girlfriend, Tara. But then an accident disfigures him. Tara leaves him and Srinivasan, now sans his confidence, withdraws into his shell. Then he meets the beautiful Ragini who is willing to accept him despite his disfigurement. They get married, but after a while, he begins to doubt her true identity.

Job Interview

When Lisa applies for a job everything seems to be turning out pretty well. Until the boss, Marie, starts asking strange questions and the job interview turns out to be a little different than expected.

Longing

An average, everyday metalworker and volunteer firefighter content in his marriage to his childhood sweetheart finds his emotions unexpectedly stirred when he falls for a pretty waitress from a nearby town.

The Disciple

The Disciple is set in the summer of 1939, when 13-year-old Karl arrives in the Åland Islands in the Baltic Sea to work as lighthouse master Hasselbond’s assistant. Hasselbond, however, turns him down because of his young age. Karl struggles desperately to stay on and makes friends with Hasselbond’s oppressed son, Gustaf, but their friendship changes to rivalry and hate when Hasselbond starts to favor Karl over his own son.

Wallander 27 - The Troubled Man

Wallander has become a grandfather and is trying to seize the role as good as it goes because he wants to be closer to his daughter Linda and her family. When Linda's father-in-law mysteriously disappears, Wallander is drawn into the case that takes him back in time to the Cold War and the submarine violations in the Stockholm archipelago. At the same time, he's starting to suspect that something is not right with him...

Chanthaly

A sickly young woman experiences visions of her dead mother. She struggles to determine if the apparition is simply a side effect of her daily medication, or her mother actually reaching out to her from beyond the grave.

The Piano

A mute Scottish woman arrives in colonial New Zealand for an arranged marriage. Her husband refuses to move her beloved piano, giving it to neighbor George Baines, who agrees to return the piano in exchange for lessons. As desire swirls around the duo, the wilderness consumes the European enclave.

Little Miss Sunshine

A family loaded with quirky, colorful characters piles into an old van and road trips to California for little Olive to compete in a beauty pageant.

The Prince of Tides

A troubled man talks to his suicidal sister's psychiatrist about their family history and falls in love with her in the process.

Kokoro

After her brother's death, Alice leave France for Japan and takes refuge in a small village just above the cliffs. Her brother Nathan said to her before he died that he finally founded peace there thanks to a certain Daïsuké. Following his footsteps, Alice will in fact find herself, in a strange and hostile but warm place.

150 Milligrams

In the hospital where she works in Brest, France, a lung specialist discovers a direct link between suspicious deaths and state-approved medicine. She fights single-handedly for the truth to come out.

Brightest Star

A recent college graduate sets out to win back the girl of his dreams.

Then She Found Me

A New York schoolteacher hits a midlife crisis when, in quick succession, her husband leaves, her adoptive mother dies and her biological mother, an eccentric talk show host, materializes and turns her life upside down as she begins a courtship with the father of one of her students.

Meet Bill

A mild-mannered bank executive mentors a teenage con artist and tries to make a career change as a doughnut merchant.

Broken English

Nora Wilder is freaking out. Everyone around her is either in a relationship, married, or has children. Nora is in her thirties, alone with job she's outgrown and a mother who constantly reminds her of it all. Not to mention her best friend Audrey's "perfect marriage". But after a series of disastrous dates, Nora unexpectedly meets Julien, a quirky Frenchman who opens her eyes to a lot more than love.