dmb's - Rented List

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Set in German-occupied Belarus in 1942, the interplay of people and events slowly bind the characters into a trap: Sushenya has apparently collaborated with the Germans and is taken off into the woods by two partisans.

Through flashbacks the truth, and the moral complexities behind it, is gradually revealed.

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Juan (Adolfo Jimenez Castro) is a wealthy industrialist who has chosen to live with his wife and two children away from the city. Yet isolation in this superficially idyllic rural landscape seems to have brought little peace to his world.

Juan's marriage to Natalia (Nathalia Acevedo) is suffering under the strain of sexual ennui, the banal rigors of bringing up young children and living in a community where he is clearly an outsider. When a shocking event threatens Juan's life he finds himself re-evaluating all that is important to him through a series of striking visions from his past, present and possible futures.

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Andrea Segre's tender, subtle, award-winning drama tells the story of Shun Li, a Chinese immigrant working in a bar on a small island in the Veneto lagoon.

Though lonely at first Shun Li slowly strikes up a rapport with Bepi, a Slavic fisherman nicknamed 'The Poet', and the pair forge an unlikely yet intimate bond. However, both the local Italian community and Chinese immigrant population object to the relationship and they soon find themselves driven tragically apart...

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On the surface Henrik and Nina Christofferson (Sofie Gråbøl) are an ordinary family living happily. But they have a problem. Their daughter, Stine, a difficult 14 year old, has a habit of telling lies in class.

When Stine accuses her father of sexual abuse, and is believed by seemingly eager social workers, their family is thrust into crisis. Could Henrik have done it? And when Stine prepares to return home, the ugly side of family life is exposed.

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Retired maths teacher Michel (Jean-Claude Brisseau) lives alone following the death of his wife, and spends his time writing an essay on human illusions.

One day, Michel comes across Dora (Virginie Legeay), a young homeless woman who shows up injured on his doorstep, and puts her up until she recovers. Her presence brings something new into Michel's life, but gradually the apartment becomes the site of a series of mysterious events.

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One of the most critically acclaimed films of the year, 'Tabu' is a diptych starting off in present day Lisbon where Teresa Madruga gives a luminous performance as Pilar, a woman concerned about her neighbour Aurora's eccentricities. Finally Pilar meets Gian Luca, a figure from Aurora's past.

He starts his story and the film jumps back in time to colonial Africa, where he and Aurora had a passionate love-affair. This second part is made as a quasi-silent film, with no dialogue, just music and voice-over. Former film critic Miguel Gomes both uses and slyly comments on all the techniques of cinema to make a truly virtuoso film. With a soundtrack that ranges from Lisztian piano music to cover versions of Phil Spector. 'Tabu' is just a delight. Not to mention the sad and melancholy crocodile...

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Set in the near future, Frank, a retired cat burglar, has two grown children who are concerned he can no longer live alone. Against the old man's wishes his son buys Frank a walking, talking humanoid robot programmed to improve his physical and mental health.

Slowly, and with a fair bit of reluctance, Frank begins to accept his new digital companion, seeing an opportunity to use Robot's unique skills to try their luck as a heist team.

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Poor business student JW (Joel Kinnaman) is living a double life mingling with the wealthy elite. To keep up the facade of his exclusive lifestyle and to capture the attention of a sexy heiress, he's lured into a world of crime to make some quick cash.

When JW crosses paths with a fugitive on the run from both the police and the mafia, they hope that brokering a one-off cocaine deal will allow them to escape from their past for good. But when a mafia enforcer hunts them down, JW's journey ventures deeper into the dark world of organised crime, and the fate of all three men becomes entangled in a dramatic struggle between life and death.

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Summer in the GDR, 1980. Barbara, a young doctor, is exiled to a provincial hospital, seemingly punished for attempting to leave East Germany.

Confined to a claustrophobic small town and under a constant veil of suspicion, she befriends no one, waiting patiently for the opportunity to resume her mission. When her new boss appears to confide in Barbara, she is thrown. Hers is a life in which the fear of surveillance is embedded in all personal relationships, and she doesn't know who to trust. Why has he covered for her and one of her patients? Torn between her instinct and her duty, the characteristically hyper-controlled Barbara begins to lose her grip on herself, her obligations and her heart.

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Simon (Kacey Mottet Klein) lives with his older sister Louise (Lea Seydoux) in a housing complex below a luxury Swiss ski resort. With Louise drifting in and out of jobs and relationships, twelve year-old Simon takes on the responsibility of providing for the two of them.

Every day, he takes the lift up to the opulent ski world above, stealing equipment from rich tourists to resell to the local kids down in the valley. He is able to keep their little family afloat with his small-time hustles and Louise is thankful for the money he brings in. But, when Simon partners with a crooked British seasonal worker, he begins to lose his boundaries, affecting his relationship with his sister and plummeting him into dangerous territory.

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Based on the novels by award-winning author Robert Wilson, Marton Csokas stars as murder squad detective Javier Falcon in a series of compelling crime stories set in contemporary Seville.

The Blind Man of Seville

Javier Falcon investigates a series of brutal murders, which lead him to uncover shocking buried truths about his own family history.

The Silent and the Damned
The sudden death of an eminent Sevillian businessman draws Falcon into a dark conspiracy involving corruption and abuse at the highest level, forcing him to make some difficult moral choices.

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It's been fifteen years since Erik was forced to leave the Norrland Police Department. Since then he has become the National Murder Commission's best interrogator.

When Erik's boss orders him back to his home town to solve a brutal murder, he hesitantly returns as the thought of going back stirs up unpleasant memories. What at first appears to be a simple murder soon proves to be something much more complicated and disturbing.

The story about a group calling themselves the Alps - a service providing stand-ins in for the recently deceased, hired by relatives, friends or colleagues to aid the grieving process - the film bounds from one uncanny set-piece to the next in a dazzling mix of black humour, unsettling drama and delicious ambiguity.

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Flying in the face of fear and prejudice, Laurence (Melvil Poupaud) tells his girlfriend Fred (Suzanne Clément) that he wants to become a woman.

In spite of the odds, and in spite of each other, for ten years they confront the contempt and bigotry of their friends, ignore the counsel of their families, and brave the phobias of the society they offend - but will this stand cost Fred and Laurence both themselves and each other?

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Forced into hiding, a rogue troop of UniSols have formed an underground militia of deadly warriors. Lead by the merciless Andrew Scott (Dolph Lundgren) and Luc Deveraux (Jean-Claude Van Damme), their plan is to rage a war of total destruction. Only one man can stop them.

Hell bent on revenge for the death of his family, John (Scott Adkins) is on a mission to hunt down and kill all UniSols, unless they find him first.