Previous Films

A hardworking Maltese fisherman, Jesmark, is faced with an agonising choice. He can repair his leaky luzzu – a traditional, multi-coloured wooden fishing boat – in the hopes of eking out a meagre living at sea for his wife and newborn son, just as his father and grandfather did before him. Or he can decommission it in exchange for an EU payout and cast his lot with a sinister black-market operation that is decimating the Mediterranean fish population and the livelihoods of the local families who depend on the fish.

When a daughter becomes concerned about her mother’s well-being in a retirement home, private investigator Romulo hires Sergio, an 83-year-old man who becomes a new resident – and a mole – inside the home. He struggles to balance his assignment with becoming increasingly involved in the lives of several residents. Warm and funny, The Mole Agent offers audiences a poignant reminder that it’s never too late to forge new connections and embark on new adventure.

Peter Greenaway became a director of international status with this witty, stylised, erotic country house murder mystery. In an apparently idyllic 17th century Wiltshire, an ambitious draughtsman is commissioned by the wife of an aristocrat to produce twelve drawings of her husband’s estate, in return for which he will receive payment, board and bed – hers. Extravagant costumes, a twisting plot, elegantly barbed dialogue and a score by Michael Nyman make the film a treat for ear, eye and mind.

Few true stories tread the thin line between good and evil as precariously as that of Jan Mikolášek, a 20th century Czech herbal healer whose great success masked many secrets. Mikolášek won fame and fortune treating celebrities of the interwar, Nazi and Communist eras with his uncanny knack for “urinary diagnosis”. But his passion for healing welled up from the same source as his incapacity for love that only one person could ever quell – his assistant, František. As a show trial threatens to pry open these secrets and undo him, Jan’s dichotomies are put to a final test, with the fate of his life’s only love in the balance. A breathtaking tale as replete with twists as the century itself, and a reflection on the price one pays for single-mindedly following one’s calling.

The Flavour Of Green Tea Over Rice is one of Yasujirō Ozu’s most beautiful domestic sagas, a subtly piercing portrait of a marriage coming quietly undone. Secrets and deceptions strain the already tenuous relationship of a childless middle-aged couple, as the wife’s city bred sophistication clashes with the husband’s small town simplicity, and a generational sea change in the form of their headstrong, modern niece sweeps over their household. Ozu’s expert grasp of family dynamics receives one of its most spirited treatments, with a wry, tender humour and an expansiveness that moves the action from the home to a baseball stadium and the shops of post-war Tokyo.

Jorge and Roberta have been separated for several years. They simply come from opposite worlds: he likes an uncomplicated life in the jungle, while she prefers a more urban existence. He is Mexican and she is Italian, and she has decided to return to Rome with their five-year-old son, Natan. Before they leave, Jorge wishes to take young Natan on a trip, hoping to teach him about his Mayan origins in Mexico. At first the boy is physically and emotionally uncomfortable with the whole affair, and gets seasick on the boat taking them to their destination. But as father and son spend more time together, Natan begins a learning experience that will remain with him forever.

Argentina, 1980. Private banker Yvan arrives from Geneva to replace a colleague who has mysteriously disappeared in military-ruled Buenos Aires. Moving through a society under surveillance, he finds himself untangling a sinister web of colonialism, high finance and a nation’s “Dirty War”. A restrained but nerve-wracking political thriller that is also a damning critique of the role that Swiss banks played in supporting a murderous dictatorship and caring for its plunder.

City businessman Luo Yusheng returns to his home village in North China for the funeral of his father, the village teacher. He finds his elderly mother insisting that all the traditional burial customs be observed, despite the fact that times have changed so much, and that it involves many people carrying his father’s body back to the village – “the road home“. As Yusheng debates the complications involved in organising such a big feat, he remembers the magical story of how his father and mother met and got together in the first place.

In 2001, a temporary ceasefire gives a much-needed break to a small war-torn village in Northern Nepal, bringing much joy among the residents. Prakash and Kiran, two young close friends, are also starting to feel the change in the air. Though they are divided by caste and social creed, they remain inseparable, and start raising a hen given to Prakash by his sister, with hopes to save money by selling her eggs. However, the hen goes missing. To find it, they embark on a journey, innocently unaware of the tyranny brought by the fragile ceasefire.

In Hollywood, struggling writer Joe Gillis (William Holden) cannot sell his work to the studios, is beset by debts and is thinking of escaping back to his hometown. While trying to avoid his creditors, he gets a flat tyre and hides his car at a seemingly derelict mansion on Sunset Boulevard. There he meets the owner, former silent-movie star Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson), who lives alone with her butler Max (Erich von Stroheim). Norma proposes that Joe moves to the mansion and help her in writing a screenplay for her triumphant comeback to the cinema. The small-time writer becomes her lover and gigolo. When Joe falls in love with young writer Betty Schaefer, Norma becomes jealously insane and her madness leads to a tragic end. Cameo appearances by Cecil B. DeMille, Hedda Hopper and Buster Keaton as themselves. Nominated for Best Picture, Director, Actress and Actor at 1951 Academy Awards.