jnk's - Rented List

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Weaving present day sequences with photography, scenes from her own films and portraits of her friends and family, the legendary French auteur Agnes Varda takes us on a memorable voyage through her life, during which she confronts the joys of creation and artistic success and the pain of personal

loss and ageing. It is a singular and stirring trip through events of the second half of the 20th Century: China and Cuba Revolutions, Women's Movement, New Wave cinema history and so on...

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Oiao (the extraordinary Zhao Tao) lives in a depressed mining town. Her boyfriend, Bin (Liao Fan), is a dashing gangster who works for a corrupt property developer. After his boss is murdered, Bin ascends in rank within the Jianghu (a criminal brotherhood) but finds himself vulnerable to rivals.

When they both are arrested, Qiao makes a fateful decision: she takes the blame to save Bin. After five years in prison, she emerges to find her world has transformed. Her former associates have moved into legitimate businesses, while Bin has found another woman. Qiao seeks revenge, but, more importantly, she searches for a new identity in a changing China - a search that will take her to Three Gorges Dam and toward a powerful revelation.

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This utterly compelling psychological thriller from Michael Haneke - one of cinema's most daring original and controversial directors - stars Daniel Auteuil as Georges, a television presenter who begins to receive mysterious and alarming packages containing covertly filmed videos of himself and his

family. To the mounting consternation of Georges and his wife (Juliette Binoche) the footage on the tapes - which arrive wrapped in drawings of disturbingly violent images - becomes increasingly personal, and sinister anonymous phone calls are made. Convinced he knows the identity of the person responsible, Georges embarks on a rash and impulsive course of action that throws up some unpleasant facts about his past and leads to shockingly unexpected consequences.

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Oscar and Golden Globe nominated for Best Foreign Language Film, "Tangerines" is a powerful and eloquent plea for peace and a poignant statement on the futility of violence stemming from racial and ethnic divisions.

Set in 1992, during the growing conflict between Georgia and Abkhazian separatists in the wake of the Soviet Union's dissolution, this compassionate story focuses on two Estonian immigrant farmers who refuse to flee Georgia, staying on to harvest their tangerine crop. When the fighting arrives on his doorstep, Ivo treats two wounded soldiers from opposite sides. During their extended period of convalescence under Ivo's roof, the enemies are forced not only to confront the reasons that fuel their hatred for each other, but also the conflict which rages around them.

Agnes Varda's classic 'Cleo from 5 to 7' from 1962 manages to successfully capture Paris at the height of the sixties in this intriguing tale expertly presented in real time about a singer (Corinne Marchand) whose life is in turmoil as she awaits a biopsy test result.

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To her friends, Halla (Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir) leads a quiet and routine life. But her happy and upbeat exterior hides a secret double life as a committed environmental activist.

Known to others as "The Mountain Woman", she wages a one-woman-war on the local aluminium industry to protect the stunning highland landscape that is under threat. Just as she begins planning her biggest and boldest operation yet, she receives an unexpected letter that will change everything. She will be forced to choose between her environmental crusade and the chance of fulfilling her dream of becoming a mother. Funny, moving and utterly unique, 'Woman at War' follows Halla as she juggles the adoption of a beautiful little girl whilst planning her final act of industrial sabotage.

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"One Cut of the Dead" opens in a run-down, abandoned warehouse where a film crew are making a zombie film. Yet this is no ordinary warehouse. It's been said that it's the site of military experiments on humans.

From nowhere, real zombies arrive and terrorize the crew! This may sound like a the plot of a cliched zombie film, but 'One Cut of the Dead' is something completely different! Starting off with a non-stop one-take 37 minute shot, the film then completely switches direction and turns the zombie genre completely upside-down into a charming, audience-friendly comedy with an ending you won't see coming!

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The 2014 Cannes Palme d'Or winner from Nuri Bilge Ceylan is set in the hilly landscape of Cappadocia in Central Anatolia. A former actor, Aydin (Haluk Bilginer), owns a small hotel cut into the hillside, which he runs with his younger wife Nihal (Melisa Sozen).

He has also inherited local properties, but leaves the business of rent collection to his agent. When a local boy, resentful of his father's humiliation by Aydin's agent, throws a stone at a jeep whilst Aydin and his agent are driving in it, Aydin ducks out of any responsibility or involvement. As the film progresses, the cocoon in which this self-satisfied man has wrapped himself is gradually unravelled. In a series of magnificent set-pieces, Aydin is exposed in his encounters with his wife, sister, and the family of the stone-throwing boy. He is finally brought face-to-face with who he truly is.

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A desolate military checkpoint is manned by four young soldiers who all try to burn away the hours of boredom that occur between cars arriving for inspection and, every now and then, a lone camel walking by.

Meanwhile, at home, the parents of one of the boys are devastated by the news of his supposed sudden death, though the circumstances surrounding this take several unexpected twists.

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After a bitter divorce, Miriam (Léa Drucker) and Antoine (Denis Ménochet) battle for sole custody of their son, Julien (Thomas Gioria). Miriam claims the father is violent but lacks proof. Antoine accuses her of manipulating their son for her own ends.

Both sides seem to be hiding something with the truth buried in a web of deceit and jealousy. When the judge awards joint custody, an already tense situation soon brings the family's fraught past to light. And as the truth slowly begins to emerge, a chain of events is set in motion with Julien an innocent bystander in an increasingly dangerous situation.

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France 1915. The impact of the First World War is being felt across Europe as conscription forces the men to leave their homes for the battlefield. Hortense, realising she has to hold up her family's farm with less than half the labour force hires a helping hand, Francine.

The young woman works hard and, with the arrival of Hortense's son Georges, finally feels she has a place she can call home. As the battle rages on, these women unite to keep both their family and society from collapsing.

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In Jafar Panahi's latest film, which won the Best Screenplay Award in Cannes, actress Behnaz Jafari is distraught when she comes across a young girl's video plea for help after her family prevents her from taking up her studies at the Tehran drama conservatory.

Behnaz abandons her shoot and turns to the filmmaker Jafar Panahi to help her with the young girl's troubles. They travel by car to the rural, Azeri-speaking Northwest of Iran, where they encounter the charming and generous folk of the girl's mountain village. But Behnaz and Jafar also discover that old traditions die hard.

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Iconic film maker Agnes Varda and photographer JR share a passion for images and how they're created, displayed and shared; Varda through cinema. JR through his emotionally arrested outdoor installations.

Inspired by this connection, they set out in JR's photo booth-enhanced truck, exploring the villages and small towns of rural France and meeting its humble residents - all the while creating large-scale portraits plastered across unconventional locations. What follows is a heart-warming insight into unnamed communities, documented here in Varda's typically playful and tender manner. A Cannes Film Festival award-winner and Oscar nominee, 'Faces Places' is a deeply charming and life-affirming look at not only the subtle power of community, but the inspiration that comes from the most cross-generational of friendships.

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Paris, 1960. Jean-Louis (Fabrice Luchini), lives a bourgeois existence absorbed in his work, cohabitating peacefully with his neurotic socialite wife Suzanne (Sandrine Kiberlain), while their children are away at boarding school.

The couple's world is turned upside-down when they hire a Spanish maid Maria (Natalia Verbeke). Through Maria, Jean-Louis is introduced to an alternative reality just a few floors up on the building's sixth floor, the servants' quarters. He befriends a group of sassy Spanish maids (Carmen Maura, Lola Duenas, Berta Ojea, Nuria Sole, Concha Calan), refugees of the Franco regime, who teach him there's more to life than stocks and bonds. The women's influence on the household sparks an emotional revolution.

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Marina Vidal's life is thrown into turmoil following the sudden death of her partner, Orlando. Met with suspicion from the police and contempt from her lover's relatives. As tensions rise between her and Orland's family, she is evicted from their shared home and banned from attending his funeral.

But faced with the threat of losing everything, Marina finds the strength to fight back. Sebastián Lelio returns with a groundbreaking, deeply humane and Oscar-winning story about a trans woman's fight for acceptance. Anchored by a powerhouse performance from rising star Daniela Vega, 'A Fantastic Woman' is an urgent call for compassion.