Discoveries from European World Cinema

"Guillaume is my friend. He's schizophrenic. He has been hospitalized four times. In 2015, Guillaume left Paris to dedicate himself to painting. Then on March 1st, 2020, I too was admitted to psychiatric care. While there, I take notes on my observations and conversations. I think about Guillaume. When I get discharged, we catch up. He wants to make a movie with me. I'd wanted to make one about my experience in hospital getting to know the other patients. I tell him my idea, and he's excited to do it. On August 1st, I go to meet him."

The four friends Lukas, Julius, Gino and Sanchez are trying to survive the everyday life in Neukölln, Berlin between drugs, gangs, rap, violence and boredom. Until they are one day making a serious decision with serious consequences because of a dead certain plan.

Depiction of the life of St. Anthony, beginning with his initial calling to the priesthood as a young Portugese nobleman, and following him as he becomes a Franciscan monk and preaches across Africa and Europe.

The working-class Smiths change their initially sunny views on World War I after the five boys of the family witness the harsh reality of trench warfare.

When a grandmother falls for a cheeky suitor with dubious intentions, her family devises a secret plan to protect her life — and their inheritance.

Some journeys are measured by what you sacrifice to get there

The night before Halloween, a teenage babysitter is stalked by a masked killer; but in an unusual turn of events, victim and victimizer begin to develop romantic feelings for each other.

When Steve Coogan is asked by The Observer to tour the country's finest restaurants, he envisions it as the perfect getaway with his beautiful girlfriend. But, when she backs out on him, he has no one to accompany him but his best friend and source of eternal aggravation, Rob Brydon.

Phillip Calvert is a British Treasury secret service agent assigned to stop the ruthless pirating of millions in gold bullion off the western coast of the Scottish highlands. His search takes him to the small port town of Torbay on the Isle of Torbay where numerous fishing boats, yachts and people have been mysteriously disappearing. A trail of deceit and subterfuge leads him to Cypriot tycoon and shipping magnate Sir Anthony Skouras and his beautiful wife, Charlotte aboard their luxury yacht anchored off the coast, who may hold the answers to the truth.

Cissie Colpitts drowns her cheating husband and, in the ensuing cover-up, enlists the help of lonely coroner Henry Madgett, an old friend with a longstanding weakness for her charms. But when Cissie's daughter and granddaughter—both also named Cissie Colpitts—decide to resort to the same methods for solving conflicts with their own frustrating husbands, the women and their repeated appeals for help begin to wear on Madgett's conscience.

For over 500 years now, the castle ghost Hui Buh has been stirring things up at Castle Burgeck. His friend and owner of the castle, King Julius is not the only one who finds Hui Buh's poor attempts at scary hauntings terribly annoying. The chaotic atmosphere at the castle reaches an all-time high when the young witch Ophelia appears at the castle gates out of nowhere, claiming to be Hui Buh's long lost niece. Ophelia is in possession of the Necronomicon, an ancient book of spells that is as evil as it is powerful. Hui Buh, realizing the possibilities that the book would open up for him, is dying to get his hands on the book...

In 1906, Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso were 24 and 25 years old. The Butte Montmartre is their Parisian sanctuary where artists in need of recognition meet. Braque and Picasso become friends to the point of never leaving each other. For the moment, their paintings do not interest many people; only Apollinaire, then aged 26, and the young gallery owner Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, 22, saw immense potential in them. And in addition to their passion for painting, these four inseparable boys share the same appetite for modernity. Collages, diversions of materials and geometrization of forms: cubism opened the way to abstraction. A revolution initiated by Picasso and Braque, which profoundly changed the course of the history of modern art.

It's 1987, the final act of the Maxi Trial in Palermo, the largest criminal trial in Italian history. On this occasion, eight jurors, four women and four men, are locked in a deliberation chamber for thirty-six days. Their task is to determine the convictions or acquittals of 470 defendants accused of mafia crimes.

Just days before her wedding, Beatrice-Joanna has a chance encounter with Alsemero, and realizes that she has met her one true love. To marry the man she loves, she persuades the love-struck henchman De Flores to murder her fiance, but does not anticipate the tragic consequences of her actions.

A darkly brilliant stop-motion adaptation of The Pied Piper of Hamelin about a plague of rats that punish townsfolk corrupt with greed. One of the most ambitious Czech animation projects of the 1980s, notable for its unusual dark art direction, innovative animation techniques and use of a fictitious language.

Major Ben McBride organizes a mission to the Antarctic wastes to search for his friend who has been missing in the region for several years. McBride's party find themselves in a world populated by primitive warriors and terrifying prehistoric creatures, all of whom they must evade in order to get back safely

Deep within a high-security government bunker, an ancient nightmare has broken loose. This time, there’s nowhere to run. A daring break-in at a classified research facility quickly turns into a bloodbath when a group of intruders discovers they aren't alone. Instead of the secrets they came for, they find themselves hunted by genetically engineered, apex predators: lethal dragons with a taste for human prey. Trapped between a tactical lockdown and the jaws of prehistoric monsters, the group must fight through dark corridors and deadly traps. It’s a race against time to escape before the facility is purged - or the dragons finish their feast.

Yvan De Wiel, a private banker from Geneva, is going to Argentina in the midst of a dictatorship to replace his partner, the object of the most worrying rumors, who disappeared overnight. Between hushed lounges, swimming pools, and gardens under surveillance, a remote duel takes place between two bankers who, despite different methods, are the accomplices of a discreet and merciless form of colonization.

As a young boy, future emperor Nero witnesses the mad Emperor Caligula kill his father and exile his mother. While in exile in the pontine islands, Agrippina, his mother, sees a vision telling her that her son can become emperor, but she will have to die first. She accepts the proposal. Back in Rome, Nero, now being raised by emperor Claudius after Caligula's death, Agrippina returns. She poisons Claudius' food and Nero becomes emperor. At first, Nero cuts taxes and introduces successful programs and invades Brittania. Soon he meets a beautiful slave named Claudia Acte, and marries her, throwing off his engagement with Claudius' daughter, Claudia Octavia, telling her she can marry someone she will be happy with. Heartbroken, she arrives at an island and kills herself. Nero enjoys being married to Claudia Acte, but soon he gradually goes mad with power and sets fire to Rome.

A Jewish commando unit hunting Nazi war criminals tracks down the infamous Dr. Mengele in the jungle, and find that he is torturing nubile young virgins and performing horrible medical experiments on the locals. They prepare to battle their way past Mengele's hordes of fanatic Nazi bodyguards in order to get to him.

Today in France, one in five young people suffers from severe depressive symptoms, and the number of minors visiting psychiatric emergency rooms has tripled in the last five years. Despite the political will that has been demonstrated, child psychiatry is nevertheless faced with a severe lack of resources. The interminable waiting times for treatment are causing a surge in prescriptions for psychotropic drugs.

Set in the mystic, brooding, and wild landscape of Cornwall, the rugged Atlantic foot of England, Danni, a housekeeper at Manderville Hall—a grand and historic house owned by the wealthy and widowed Lord DeWithers—falls prey to the glance of a young and beautiful visitor, the novelist Daphne Du Maurier. For one, their affair is an all-consuming love, for the other, an intoxicating realisation of her secret longings.

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.

A banker hires a seedy detective to find his daughter and keep her safe from kidnappers.

Four American friends, badly needing money, decide to make a commando-like raid into a South American drug lord's compound.

Horror/sci-fi anthology with a punk streak, co-directed by and starring — among other newcomers — Asia Argento.

In a working-class quarter of Dublin, 'Bimbo' Reeves gets laid off from his job and, with his redundancy payout, buys a van and sells fish and chips with his buddy, Larry. Due to Ireland's surprising success at the 1990 FIFA World Cup, their business starts off well, but the relationship between the two friends soon becomes strained as Bimbo behaves more like a typical boss.

Julie finally gets an interview for a job where she can raise her children better only to run into a national transit strike.

The plot is set on a group of bank robbers, who are both violent and successful, strangely getting away each time with an amount around the £60,000 mark, and often leaving behind cash in excess of this sum. The robbers are willing to kill their own team, to get away. As Jack Regan himself puts it after the first raid in the film: "I've never seen so many dead people". Armed with gold-plated Purdey shotguns, they evaded Regan and the Flying Squad for quite some time, before Regan finds encouragement from his Detective Chief Superintendent who was sent down for corruption because Jack wouldn't testify in court for him.

Edwige Fenech stars in this Italian sex-comedy as the new teacher in an all-boys Catholic school. All of the boys desire the chance to "learn" more about their new teacher, but only one student gets the opportunity.

English aristocrat Tony Last welcomes tragedy into his life when he invites John Beaver to visit his vast estate. There Beaver makes the acquaintance of Tony's wife, Brenda. Together, they continue their relationship in a series of bedroom assignations in London. Trusting to a fault, Tony is unaware that anything is amiss until his wife suddenly asks for a divorce. With his life in turmoil, Tony goes on a haphazard journey to South America.

When a robbery at a racetrack goes wrong ex-con Johnny Bannion is caught and sent back to prison. He won't tell the rest of the gang where he has stashed the loot leading to violent consequences.

A French nobleman deserts his wife because of an ancient family secret.

A love story or a tale of the resistance, this poignant movie tells both the haunting story of a French resistance cell in Lyon but also the love of Lucie Aubrac for her husband...

A documentary about the Paul Verhoeven's cult classic Basic Instinct.

An ageing surgeon falls in love with a thirteen-year-old girl.

Sacha is a real seducer, a man with no ties or emotional or professional. Charlotte is a modern and independent woman, but barely has time to care for their three children. While Sacha and Charlotte are, at first glance, two incompatible beings, when they meet soon discover that they are quite complementary and need each other.

Two enigmatic women, both with a hidden but shared motive, separately arrive in Paris. As they navigate the city and their search progresses, various characters become entangled within their conflict, one which increasingly comes to take a fantastical turn. These characters too, driven by their own desires, strive for their own goals in the fight. From a Paris, drenched in an otherworldly ambiance, a tale of desire and power emerges through mystery.

A manager hires Ray, off the books, to paint all the power towers in a 15-mile stretch of high-tension wires outside Sheffield. Ray's crew of men are friends, especially Ray with Steve, a young Romeo. Into the mix comes Gerry, an Australian with a spirit of adventure and mountain climbing skills. She wants a job, and against the others' advice, who don't want a woman on the job, Ray hires her. Then she and Ray fall in love. He asks her to marry him, gives her a ring. Steve's jealous; Ray's ex-wife complains that he spends on Gerry, not his own kids, and she predicts that Gerry won't stay around. Plus, there's pressure to finish the job fast. Economics, romance, and wanderlust spark the end.

A fisherman and a rising lawyer who grew up together as brothers fall in love with the same woman.

Douglas, a broken, solitary, Spitfire Ace, must overcome his past to lead a Lancaster bomber crew in the pivotal aerial war over Berlin, in 1944.

One morning, Lily and Ben wake up side by side in bodies that are not theirs. And Magalie, a little girl in the body of a tall, bearded, awaits them in the guest room. This is the beginning of an incredible adventure, sometimes initiatory, where the bodies and identities will be reversed at the option of a simple hug.

Henry is a playboy who has no idea that he is the father of a beautiful, cute girl out of a One-night-Stand. Her mother left the daughter in front of Henry door after her husband realized after 8 years of marriage that he is not the father so their relationship now is breaking up... By the way: Kokowääh, is how a German (in this case an 8 Year old child) that has never heard the dish before - would pronounce "Coq Au Vin" (chicken in a wine sauce).

With his ultra-conservative policies, US President Donald Trump is disrupting the global order as well as US institutions and society. Filmed less than one year after the start of his second mandate, this documentary analyses the concrete impact of his policies on the American people.

Camille was only sixteen and still in high school when she fell in love with Eric, another student. They later married and a child and were happy for a while. But now twenty-five years have passed and Eric leaves her for a younger woman. Bitter and desperate Camille drinks so much liquor at a New Year Eve's party that she falls into an ethylic coma and she finds herself... propelled into her own past! Camille is sixteen again when she wakes up this morning, her parents are not dead anymore and she must go to school, where she will meet her schoolmates and, of course, Eric. Is she going to fall for him again and... be miserable twenty-five years later? Or will she avoid him with the result never having her beloved daughter? Who ever said that time traveling was fun?

A drama centered on the relationship between Elliot, a strange and wealthy Londoner, and Joe, a teenager who takes care of an empty house Elliot owns.

A rebellious youth, sentenced to a boy’s reformatory for robbing a bakery, rises through the ranks of the institution by impressing its Governor through his prowess as a long distance runner. He is encouraged to compete in an upcoming race, but faces ridicule from his peers.

Despite the war, school life continues in Ukraine, with pupils and teachers striving to continue learning even under constant threat. The film is a mosaic of the everyday lives of teachers and students from different corners of Ukraine.

Faustine suffers the wounds of first love. During a summer when she is staying with her grandmother, she comes to know the nearby neighbors. Two brothers live in the large house. One is divorced and one has recently remarried, both of them live there with their teenaged and adult children. Though the boys of the household are drawn to Faustine, she grows ever more smitten with the divorced older man...

The film centres on Moncho and his coming-of-age experience in Galicia in 1936. Moncho develops a close relationship with his teacher Don Gregorio who introduces the boy to different things in the world. While the story centres on Moncho's ordinary coming-of-age experiences, tensions related to the looming Spanish Civil War periodically interrupt Moncho's personal growth and daily life.

Martin Bashir conducts a rare interview with Michael Jackson and is given unprecedented access to the reclusive performer's private life over a span of eight months, from May 2002 to January 2003.

Playing around with a Ouija board, a trio of friends succeeds in contacting the spirit of a young boy. Trouble begins when the evil spirit, Malfeitor, takes over one of their bodies.

On election night in 1981, celebrations spill out onto the street and there is an air of hope and change throughout Paris. But for Elisabeth, her marriage is coming to an end and she will now have to support herself and her two teenage children. She finds work at a late-night radio show and encounters a troubled teenager named Talulah whom she invites into her home.

Near the end of WWII, a young bootlegger and his nightclub-singing girlfriend assemble a ragtag team for an dangerous heist: to steal Mussolini's treasure right from his headquarters.

Jean Barreau leads a spiritual commune on the countryside with the promise of a second life. When their doubles arrive at the house, his followers learn that Jean meant this promise quite literally. However, not everybody is as easily swayed by their capricious leader, who eventually starts to question his own beliefs.

Through my window-camera, during urban adventures, views of Algiers, where, as a child, after Algerian Independence, I learned about liberty, and which some decades later after immigrating against my will and deliberately becoming an exile, I chose as my city. I was then a "wife of the Republic of Madagascar," as the left-hand side page of my passport noted, while the right-hand side declared "of the ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary." Disembodied, words off-screen, intervening one over the other, simultaneous encounters of polyphonic voices glide.

A famous poet who hasn't written a word in two years unconsciously plagiarizes the work of Stefan George, while dealing with several mistresses, his dimwitted brother, and a murder investigation.

This film takes us across three continents on a quest driven by a simple yet original idea: to shine a spotlight on the inimitable Davids of this world. The 24 Davids in this film are of varying ages and professions, ranging from cosmologist to recycler; together, they construct a playful “ecosystem” of ideas that touches on every sphere of knowledge and carries within it the power to radically transform. 24 Davids offers a melting pot of heady thoughts and politics in a refreshingly freewheeling cinematic format, probing the mysteries of the universe and the challenges of living together.

A determined detective is in a race against time to stop a twisted game show on the dark web, where captives are forced to compete for their lives.