A young girl stays with her estranged grandparents in the city while she waits for the results of her audition for an international performance group. Her grandparents welcome her, delighted about the chance to get to know their granddaughter better. While staying at the house, the girl gets to know her uncle, who suffers from a mysterious long-term lung illness and is mainly confined to bed. She also observes her grandmother's weird religious rituals, some involving a swimming pool in the basement. When the girl's father finds out that she is staying with his parents, he persuades his sister to visit the house to get her out, ending with a terrible tragedy.
TRANSMITZVAH is a love story between siblings. They exhibit their wounds, exchange the pieces of each other’s puzzle, and complete (or start) the process of reaffirming their own identity. Rubén –the Singmans’ youngest son– challenges tradition by deciding to have a Bat Mitzvah instead of a Bar Mitzvah. Twenty years later, Rubén –now MUMY SINGER– returns to their hometown as a famous Yiddish singing star. After a sad event in the family, MUMY loses her voice and, with the help of her brother EDUARDO, tries to complete the path to adult life. A comedy with a jolly, playful, and musical dialogue about MUMY SINGER, and her trip to the past to make herself up, avoiding shortcuts and labels. The journey to who we really are can’t be avoided and must necessarily be taken.
Go Gorilla Go is probably most notable for its strange title, and this carries over into the film; as while it takes obvious inspiration from some big genre classics; the film features some strange plotting and a storyline that is a bit unusual on genre terms. Director Tonino Valerii previously directed the excellent but complicated Giallo My Dear Killer and clearly has a talent for delivering convoluted story lines as Go Gorilla Go features one too! The film focuses on Marco; an undercover police officer who is also working as a body guard for a shady underworld figure. He's also got a brother who is not exactly squeaky clean and has contacts with a few other 'Gorillas' who are in the same line as he is. It's not long before our hero gets involved in a kidnap plot along with his brother and his underworld boss and this plot is ran parallel with a load of others and the whole thing gets rather complicated. Luckily, however, it's all spun together with a whole load of action scenes; many of which are really well done. We've got the usual compliment of car chases and fist fights, but the main standout is a sequence that sees the lead character trapped in an elevator with the bottom taken out. The final car chase, which involves a train a la The French Connection, is also very well executed. The lead role is taken by Fabio Testi and the actor looks the part and plays it well. The rest of the cast is filled out mostly by lesser known Italian actors, but they get on well as an ensemble and bad dubbing aside, the film is above average in the acting department. The way that the story flows does get a bit too confusing at times as we constantly switch from one thing to another, but at least the proceedings are kept entertaining for most of the duration, before exploding in the final third. This film is not very well known and as such has become rather hard to come by. In the grand spectrum of Italian police films; this one is not one of the more important ones or one of the best, but for anyone that considers themselves a fan of this genre; Go Gorilla Go is certainly worth a look and comes recommended.
With a sense of duty and iron toughness, the Burgundian weapon master Hagen von Tronje holds the crisis-ridden kingdom together. In doing so, he suppresses his secret love for the king's daughter Kriemhild and represses his own dark past. When the legendary dragon slayer Siegfried of Xanten appears in Worms and threatens the old structures with his unpredictable nature, Hagen progressively turns into a tragic figure. The fantasy film is a new interpretation of the Nibelung saga and captivates with its fantastic scenery and brilliantly choreographed combat scenes.
The film shows an obscure episode from the life of a Stalinist criminal - Colonel of the Office of Public Security, Julia Brystiger. Her nickname was "Bloody Luna" because during interrogations she tortured prisoners with extreme cruelty. At the beginning of 1960s she appeared in Laski near Warsaw, in the Institute for the Blind, where the Primate of Poland, Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski, was also a frequent visitor. His imprisonment in the years 1953-1956 was supervised by none other than Julia Brystiger herself. During the difficult and tempestuous conversation with the Primate, Julia Brystiger rejects the communist ideology, asks for her crimes to be forgiven and for help in finding God...
In this suspense drama, three men – Alex, Greger and Henrik – spend an extended weekend in a remote cabin, intending to hunt deep in the Swedish woods. Their plan is to go duck hunting on a lake and stalk deer in the woods. An initial spell of hunting success sharpens their instincts and stirs a sense of rivalry. But one day all animals vanish without a trace and the forest turns eerily quiet. Yet the men are determined to continue the hunt.
Runa, a 16-year-old Kurdish girl, escaped from Iraq to avoid the attacks of ISIS. Together with her family, she had been stuck on the Polish-Belorussian border before she eventually arrived in Poland. She had to grow up at an accelerated speed – after her mother’s death she became the head of her family. Now, she needs to take care of her four younger brothers and father, who cannot cope with the mounting difficulties. The film follows their uncertain fate, but gives a prominence to the portrayal of the teenager, an ordinary and extraordinary girl at the same time. Thanks to her animated drawings, the audience can discover more about her. The film is presented in the national and international competitions.