The Square, a new film by Jehane Noujaim (Control Room; Rafea: Solar Mama), looks at the hard realities faced day-to-day by people working to build Egypt’s new democracy. Catapulting us into the action spread across 2011 and 2012, the film provides a kaleidoscopic, visceral experience of the struggle. Cairo’s Tahrir Square is the heart and soul of the film, which follows several young activists. Armed with values, determination, music, humor, an abundance of social media, and sheer obstinacy, they know that the thorny path to democracy only began with Hosni Mubarek’s fall. The life-and-death struggle between the people and the power of the state is still playing out.
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A story of a fragmented friendship finding new ground, director Daniel Stine’s feature film debut Virginia Minnesota begins with a young woman at a crossroads. Her direction in life a question mark, Lyle (Rachel Hendrix) heads off on an impromptu road trip, running into a former friend, Addison (Aurora Perrinau). Addison is also adrift, and the two find themselves on the road together. Separated by a childhood trauma, Addison and Lyle must face their shared history in order to move on as adults. Through the trip they learn not only the influence of their lost friendship on their current lives, but how their new bond will shape their future as young adults.
Orhan Pamuk – Turkey’s Nobel laureate for Literature – opens a museum in Istanbul. A museum that’s a fiction: its objects trace a tale of doomed love in 70’s Istanbul. The film takes a tour of the objects as the starting point for a trip through images, landscapes and the chemistry of the city. A film about Istanbul, love, memory and loss.
Poet Yusuf (35-38) returns to his childhood hometown, which he hadn’t visited for years, upon his mother’s death. He is faced with a neglected, crumbling house. Ayla, a young girl (17-19) awaits him there. Yusuf has been unaware of the existence of this distant relation who had been living with his mother for five years; He stays by his dead mother’s bedside for a while on the morning of his return…
Out of Africa tells the story of the life of Danish author Karen Blixen, who at the beginning of the 20th century moved to Africa to build a new life for herself. The film is based on the autobiographical novel by Karen Blixen from 1937.
Video store clerk Ed agrees to have his life filmed by a camera crew for a tv network.
A thirteen-year-old boy is forced to live with his estranged brother after their father is sent to prison. Their relationship is soon tested when the older brother’s occupation as a marijuana dealer infringes on his ability not only to raise his kid brother, but even to take care of himself. However, through constant tribulations, they discover the only way to get through the difficulties of life is to work together and try to beat the odds.
