maggs's - Rented List

Show moreShow less

Chelli (Ben-Shlush) dedicates her life raising her disabled sister Gabby (Dana Ivgy) in a dingy apartment in an Israeli suburb. When social services became aware that Chelli leaves Gabby alone while at work, she is forced to place her in a day care centre.

Her routine is broken and a void is created, allowing a man to enter her life. In what seems to be an auspicious turn of events, he moves in with the sisters and presents himself as a compassionate man. However, Chelli has a hard time adjusting and when confronted, her inability to have a normal emotional relationship with anyone but her sister surfaces. This is a tour de force from director Asaf Korman, who gains remarkable performances from his wife Liron Ben Shlush and Dana Ivgy, in the two lead roles. 'Next to Her', based on Ben Shlush's own experience of having a mentally disabled sister, is a stark, moving and naturalistic portrayal of how family ties can both bind and unravel us.

Show moreShow less

"Close" is an elegant, poetic and empathetic study of youth from acclaimed writer-director Lukas Dhont. Thirteen-year-olds Léo (Eden Dambrine) and Rémi (Gustav De Waele) are inseparable; best friends, as close as brothers.

However as they start a new school year, the pressures of burgeoning adolescence challenge their bond with unexpected and far-reaching consequences.

Show moreShow less

A determined 12-year-old boy named Ivan joins a Russian partisan regiment as a scout due to his uncanny ability to slip quickly through enemy lines undetected.

But as his missions become increasingly dangerous he is pulled from duty, something which he is quick to protest against because Ivan has an ulterior motive - to avenge the death of his family at the hands of the Nazis. Andrei Tarkovsky's first feature film is regarded as one of the most accomplished cinematic debuts and launched the career of the most influential and admired Russian filmmaker in history.

Show moreShow less

Married to a wealthy landowner, Natalia (Anna Vartanyan) laments losing her allure over the opposite sex as middle age approaches and finds herself increasingly jealous of her adopted daughter Veras (Anna Levanova) youthful beauty.

When she employs 21-year-old student, Alexei (Nikita Volkov), to tutor her son, Natalia instantly falls in love with him but so too does Vera. While Natalia still welcomes the attention of family friend Mikhail (Ralph Fiennes), a bitter rivalry ensues between the two women as they compete for Alexei's affection.

Show moreShow less

Rose (Ann Skelly), an adopted child, wants to discover her biological parents. When Rose finds her birth mother Ellen (Orla Brady), it quickly becomes clear that she has no wish to have any contact. But Rose is determined, and Ellen is forced to reveal a secret she has kept hidden for over 20 years.

This revelation forces Rose to accept the nature of how she came into existence. Rose believes she has little to lose when she sets out to confront her father, Peter (Aidan Gillen). What Rose cannot foresee is that she is on a course that will prove both violent and unsettling.

Show moreShow less

"My Rembrandt" is set in the world of the Old Masters and offers a mosaic of gripping stories in which unrestrained passion for Rembrandt's paintings leads to dramatic developments and unexpected plot turns.

While art collectors such as Eijk and Rose-Marie de Mol van Otterloo, the American Thomas Kaplan and the Scottish Duke of Buccleuch show us their special connection with 'their' Rembrandt, French baron Eric de Rothschild puts two Rembrandts up for sale, triggering a hard political battle between the Rijksmuseum and the Louvre. The film also follows aristocratic Dutch art dealer Jan Six as he seems to be on the trail of not just one but two 'new' Rembrandt paintings. This nerve-wracking journey of discovery seems to be the realisation of his biggest boyhood dream.

Show moreShow less

In a dangerous adventure, six men sail from Peru to Polynesia on a fragile balsa-wood raft risking their lives for an idea that could change history. Led by Thor, a handsome captain who can't swim, the crew have no modern equipment and only a parrot for company.

Battling tidal waves, sharks and demons of the deep, it is six men against nature as the Kon-Tiki strives to reach land.

Show moreShow less

In the small village of Alcarras in Catalonia, the peach farmers of the Sole family spend every summer together picking fruit from their orchard.

But when new plans arise to install solar panels and cut down trees, the members of this tight-knit group suddenly face eviction - and the loss of far more than their home. Winner of the Golden Bear at Berlinale, the sophomore film from Carla Simon (Summer 1993) is a sun-dappled, deeply moving ensemble portrait of the countryside and a community's unbreakable bonds.

Show moreShow less

A festival favourite with critics and audiences in 2013 - and winner of Best Film at Edinburgh - 'A World Not Ours' is an intimate, humorous portrait of three generations in exile in the refugee camp of Ein el-Helweh in southern Lebanon.

Based on a wealth of personal recordings, family archives, and historical footage, the film is a sensitive and illuminating study of belonging, friendship and family.

It is the autumn of 1913 and Europe stands on the brink of the war to end all wars. A country house party assembles to celebrate a world that is passing into history; and gunfire in the depths of the English countryside will soon be heard in the killing fields of Flanders.

Show moreShow less

On the cusp of turning 40, relentlessly laced into corsets by her exasperated staff, the uptight world of the Austrian monarchy is the last thing Empress Sisi (Vicky Krieps) cares about.

Decadence is far more exciting - so she heads off on a grand trip across Europe to call on old friends (and old flames). But the strings tying her to royal duty continue to tighten, and her attempts to make life more exciting turn into acts of rebellion. A vibrant, refreshingly mischievous take on the period drama with an award-winning lead in Vicky Krieps (Phantom Thread), 'Corsage' is the stunning, stylish new film from acclaimed director Marie Kreutzer.

Show moreShow less

Based on Boris Johnson's tumultuous first months as Prime Minister, 'This England' traces the impact on the country of the first wave of the Coronavirus pandemic.

The drama takes us inside the halls of power, as Johnson (Kenneth Branagh) grapples with Covid-19, Brexit, and a controversial personal and political life. Interwoven are stories from around the country: scientists racing to understand the virus; the doctors, nurses and care-home workers on the frontline; and ordinary people whose lives were thrown into turmoil.

Show moreShow less

Winner of numerous festival prizes all over the world, 'When I Saw You' is the second film from the Jordan-based Palestinian film-maker Annemarie Jacir, (and Palestine's 2012 Oscar' entry) and is set in 1967 when thousands of Palestinian refugees fled to camps in Jordan in the wake of the June War.

The 11 year-old Tarek, along with his mother Ghaydaa, has been separated from his father in the general chaos. Stifled and bored in the refugee camp, Tarek goes in search of his father in the forest around and ends up with a group of fedayeen who adopt him as a kind of mascot. Soon his mother arrives too, and they try to make their way home, leaving behind victimhood with a new-found sense of hope and freedom.

Show moreShow less

Internationally acclaimed filmmaker Bela Tarr's epic rendering of Laszlo Krasznahorkai's novel, about the decline of Communism in Eastern Europe, is a unique and visionary masterpiece that defies classification and transcends genre.

Set in a struggling Hungarian agricultural collective, a group of lost souls reeling from the collapse of their Communist utopia face an uncertain future, until the arrival of a charismatic stranger in whom they believe lies their salvation. The collective's individual experiences and fates are gradually revealed in Tarr's immaculately composed, brilliantly photographed and bleakly comic tour-de-force, which confirmed his place as one of contemporary cinema's few genuine auteurs.

Show moreShow less

Klaus Haro's "The Fencer" is a touching true life drama about Endel Nelis, a young man who arrives in Haapsalu, Estonia, in the early 1950s. Having left Leningrad to escape the secret police, he finds work as a teacher and founds a sports club for his students.

Endel becomes a father figure to his students and starts teaching them his great passion - fencing, which causes a conflict with the school's principal. Envious, the principal starts investigating Endel's background... Endel learns to love the children and looks after them; most are orphans as a result of the Russian occupation. Fencing becomes a form of self-expression for the children and Endel becomes a role model. The children want to participate in a national fencing tournament in Leningrad, and Endel must make a choice; risk everything to take the children to Leningrad or put his safety first and disappoint them.