Withering

Brother of Sleep

September 1995 •German

In the beginning of the 19th century, Johannes Elias Alder is born in a small village in the Austrian mountains. While growing up he is considered strange by the other villagers and discovers his love of music, especially rebuilding and playing the organ at the village church. After experiencing an "acoustic wonder", his eye color changes and he can hear even the most subtle sounds.

The Inheritors

June 1998 •German

In a small farming valley in Austria in the beginning of the 20th century a tyrannical farmer is found dead, and all the farmhands are relieved to be free of their tyrant. But the farmer was childless, so suddenly they all inherit the farm together. Now conflicts begin, as nobody is the boss and nobody has to obey.

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress

May 2002 •Chinese

During the Cultural Revolution, two young men are sent to a remote mining village where they fall in love with the local tailor's beautiful granddaughter and discover a suitcase full of forbidden Western novels.

Rock Crystal

November 2004 •German

The towns of Gschaid and Millsdorf are in a constant state of feuding with each other. Nevertheless Gschaid's Sebastian and Millsdorf's Susanne are married. In her husband's town Susanne has to put up with daily harassment by the locals, which also extends to her two children. Finally she moves back to her parents, alone. When the children, who long to find a magical crystal they believe has the power to reunite the family, get lost in a howling blizzard on the exposed mountain after bringing their mother her Christmas presents, both towns set up rescue missions.

Il retuorn

April 1986 •Romansh

10,000 BC

March 2008 •English

A prehistoric epic that follows a young mammoth hunter's journey through uncharted territory to secure the future of his tribe.

The Great Silence

November 1968 •Italian

A mute gunslinger fights in the defense of a group of outlaws and a vengeful young widow, against a group of ruthless bounty hunters.

Dogville

May 2003 •English

When a beautiful young Grace arrives in the isolated township of Dogville, the small community agrees to hide her from a gang of ruthless gangsters, and, in return, Grace agrees to do odd jobs for the townspeople.

Landscape with a Woman

July 1989 •

A ranger whose passion is nude painting comes to work in a remote Bosnian village. He asks the local women to pose naked for him. They are shy at first, but they eventually agree to do so. This makes their husbands furious, who think that the ranger is sleeping with their wives.

The Last Samurai

December 2003 •English

Nathan Algren is an American hired to instruct the Japanese army in the ways of modern warfare, which finds him learning to respect the samurai and the honorable principles that rule them. Pressed to destroy the samurai's way of life in the name of modernization and open trade, Algren decides to become an ultimate warrior himself and to fight for their right to exist.

Life on a String

September 1991 •Chinese

A blind man's master told him that after he has broken 1000 strings on his Banjo, he can open the Banjo to get a script for his eyes. After 60 years he broke the 1000th string.

Tajouj

January 1977 •Arabic

The film is set a hundred years back in the eastern part of Sudan in a place of total isolation. Tajouj is the beautiful cousin of a young tribal man who is deeply in love with her. He publicly declares his love for her in a song. The traditions of the tribe denounce such an act and as a consequence his uncle refuses his proposal of marriage. But after the young man departs and declares his repentance, the marriage is finally allowed. In the meantime, however, another man has staked his interest in Tajouj, which drives the young man to jealousy. This sets the stage for a series of transgressions which will result in tragedy and send the young man into exile as a wandering bard of the deserts.

The Reconstruction

September 1970 •Greek

A magistrate reconstructs the murder of Costas Ghoussis, a labourer who was killed by his wife and her lover.

İlahi məxluq

August 2011 •Azerbaijani

The film is about a family of shepherds who keep animals in the Caucasus mountains. The sudden arrival of autumn, the snowfall in the mountains, the closure of the migration route put the shepherd in a difficult situation. Realizing that he would not be able to move back all his animals, he leaves his 14-year-old son behind. The teenager has to protect himself and his animals from both the snowstorm and the wolves that attack the village. The baby lamb given to him by his uncle and a picture magazine given by a young artist girl traveling to the mountains provide the only moral support to the lonely child.

Idiot's Delight

January 1939 •English

A group of disparate travelers are thrown together in a posh Alpine hotel when the borders are closed at the start of WWII.

The Sower

October 2017 •French

In 1852, the mountain village in Provence where Violette lives is brutally deprived of all its men after the repression of the republicans ordered by Napoleon III. Women spend months in total isolation, desperate to see their men again. In this situation, they make an oath in case a man arrives in the village.

Five Branded Women

March 1960 •English

Five Yugoslav women who consorted with the German occupiers are publicly humiliated and banished by the Yugoslav partisans but they take up arms to fend for themselves.

Silent Gunpowder

March 1990 •

Silent Gunpowder (Serbo-Croatian: Gluvi barut) is a Yugoslavian war film Based on a novel by Branko Ćopić and set during World War II, the film tells the story of a Serbian village in the mountains of Bosnia and its villagers who found themselves divided along two opposing ideological lines, represented by the Chetniks and the Partisans. These two opposing sides are personified in the Partisan commander Španac and a former Royal Army officer Radekić. Španac sees Radekić as the cause of villagers' resistance to the new, Communist, ideology and so the main plot axis is the conflict between them. At the 1990 Pula Film Festival, the film won the Big Golden Arena for Best Film, as well as the awards for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Branislav Lečić), Best Film Score (Goran Bregović). The film was also shown at the 1991 Moscow International Film Festival, where both Branislav Lečić and Mustafa Nadarević won the Silver St. George Award for their performances.

Obaba

September 2005 •Spanish

A rural drama set in Obaba, a mythical region in northern Spain, where a young filmmaker struggled to capture the feel of the area, which in turn leads to a wealth of self-discovery.

The Bells

July 1926 •English

A kindly but desperate Alsatian innkeeper named Mathias murders and robs a rich Jewish merchant staying at his inn, but the ghost of his victim will not let him rest. Meanwhile, a mysterious Mesmerist has come to town, claiming he has made many criminals confess their crimes...