500 DIRECTORS LIST / UNLISTED

The first part of Bill Douglas' influential trilogy harks back to his impoverished upbringing in early-'40s Scotland. Cinema was his only escape - he paid for it with the money he made from returning empty jam jars - and this escape is reflected most closely at this time of his life as an eight-year-old living on the breadline with his half-brother and sick grandmother in a poor mining village.

2016 film by Claude Barras

The geographical dead center of North America and the beloved birthplace of Guy Maddin, Winnipeg, is the frosty and mysterious star of Maddin’s film. Fact, fantasy and memory are woven seamlessly together in this work, conjuring a city as delightful as it is fearsome.

Nainsukh (born 1710, died 1768) was the greatest eighteenth-century Indian miniaturist, the son of the respected Pandit Seu and brother of the steadfast Manaku. He deviated from his family workshop style by following his interest for Mughal naturalism. At the age of thirty, Nainsukh was invited by Raja Zorawar Singh to his castle in Jasrota. Nainsukh served him until Singh’s untimely death, but was retained as court artist by his young son Raja Balwant Singh. These two dandy-like, non-ruling Rajput princes were connoisseurs who enjoyed spending their limited fortunes on entertaining colourful guests and they shared a refined taste in music, dance and theatrical performances. Nainsukh participated in their artistic amusements… —

A sharp-edged look at people who live outside the constraints of Islamic law.

It's the mid 60s. Tokyo needs a new airport. There isn't anywhere in Tokyo to put it, so the government decides on displacing some adjacent villages. The peasants of these villages are not having it. What results is a remarkable act of protest and civil disobedience.

The Marx Brothers take on high society and the opera world to bring two lovers together. A sly business manager and two wacky friends of two opera singers help them achieve success while humiliating their stuffy and snobbish enemies.

This compelling tale of love and betrayal, set in the upper Egyptian countryside, follows the story of Amna as she plots her revenge on the engineer who destroyed her family's honor.
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This is a wonderful Egyptian film that the average Western audience never gets an opportunity to see. It's really a shame as the movie gives so much insight into the culture and the story, though very "foreign" features some characters you can easily relate to an care for.
The film is a great film that shows the clash between very conservative Islamic values and traditions and those of a more modern Moslem world. This clash is extremely poignant and seems to illustrate that the spirit of the law and tradition is much more important that the traditions themselves.
The film begins with a woman and her two adult daughters finding out that the father is murdered. It seems that this man was committing adultery and someone took it upon themselves to punish him. However, instead of just punishing him and being done with it, the family Patriarch (the uncle) tells the women they must leave the village and fend for themselves! It ISN'T because they did anything wrong, but that they would be a reminder of the man's infidelity. So, in his twisted thinking, he cast these women out with no regard to their future just so the family APPEARS good and just to outsiders!! The ladies appear fortunate when they arrive at a far-off town because the two youngest are able to get jobs as maids. However, the oldest daughter is eventually seduced (or possibly raped) by her employer and the family. The mother is extremely upset by this and contacts the patriarch to ask for his assistance. The "kindly" uncle agrees to take them back to the original village, but on the way, he murders the "fallen sister"! The inequity of her death and the employer never being punished is a major theme of the film. While some in the male-dominated society might approve of this, the unjustness of the murder is definitely called into question. And, since no one seems to care, the youngest daughter, Amna, decides to run from her Uncle's home and find the older sister's ex-employer and exact justice! All this occurs just in the first half of the movie! The rest is the slowly unfolding of Amna's revenge and the unexpected twists and turns the plot takes along the way. And, fortunately, this is NOT a by-the-numbers movie--it is definitely NOT predictable or written for a dumb audience! This is an exceptionally well written, acted and directed film. In addition, the cinematography is exquisite. The only down side, and this is a very minor quibble, is that the music is a bit "tinny".

2020 film directed by Chloé Zhao

2020 film by Gianfranco Rosi

Night in an old mill is dramatically depicted in this Oscar-winning short in which the frightened occupants, including birds, timid mice, owls, and other creatures try to stay safe and dry as a storm approaches. As the thunderstorm worsens, the mill wheel begins to turn and the whole mill threatens to blow apart until at last the storm subsides.

With no clue how he came to be imprisoned, drugged and tortured for 15 years, a desperate man seeks revenge on his captors.

根据2009年普利策奖获奖小说改编。
海岸，平静的克劳斯比小镇，脾气暴躁的奥丽芙·基特里奇有一个“好好先生”式的丈夫和一个与她日渐疏远的儿子，生活看上去水波不兴，却有股股暗流涌动。
在镇上，奥丽芙也有意无意地充当了其他人生命中的过客：一个想自杀的忧郁青年，一个患上厌食症 的年轻女孩， 一个数年如一日在酒吧弹琴的未嫁女子……这些怀着饥饿、揣着梦想的人们，在欲望与寂寥之间挣扎徘徊。她冷眼看待这个世界，也分外清醒地咀嚼着人生的孤独和难堪。

A fact-based account of ordinary citizens who found themselves arrested and imprisoned without charge for weeks during the October Crisis in 1970 Quebec.

Beth, Calvin, and their son Conrad are living in the aftermath of the death of the other son. Conrad is overcome by grief and misplaced guilt to the extent of a suicide attempt. He is in therapy. Beth had always preferred his brother and is having difficulty being supportive to Conrad. Calvin is trapped between the two trying to hold the family together.

A therapist looks into the mind of a woman diagnosed as schizophrenic and finds, not madness, but tortured sexual guilt created by the taboos of society.

Welcome to the world of industrial food production and high-tech farming! To the rhythm of conveyor belts and immense machines, the film looks without commenting into the places where food is produced in Europe: monumental spaces, surreal landscapes and bizarre sounds - a cool, industrial environment which leaves little space for individualism.

“Where do our tears come from? Some say they are the sap of our suffering and our broken hearts. Others say our tears are the waters of innocence, to cleanse the land of a Thousand and One Hills.”
Rwanda, 1973: high up in the mountains, at the source of the Nile, a black statue of the Virgin Mary watches over a Catholic boarding school for girls. Here, during days filled with classes, mass and practical work, the daughters of politicians, officers and businessmen are educated to one day become productive members of the country’s elite. Whether Hutu or Tutsi, the girls share their curiosity, dreams and joie de vivre. However, the social dynamics and increasing conflicts that characterise the school microcosm mirror the ravages wrought by the colonial order. Deeply symbolic images hint at the genocidal violence that would later engulf the entire country in 1994.

Moving spheres, such as balloons and bubbles, are superimposed on static backgrounds to suggest travel and discovery. There are perils: a boy falls, a lion roars. The lyric flights of hot-air balloons, flying machines, and dirigibles, and their accompanying music of the spheres, are sometimes interrupted by a jangling buzz. Circus images take over. Then, mechanical rhythms abound while a balloon-headed doll, perhaps alien, moves through a jungle scene. We end in a garden.

A young woman move towards a house that holds a potentially dangerous spirit that has been tormenting her. The woman tries to fight against the film itself as it starts to cause the world to collapse.