mwdw's - Rented List
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Vienna, winter. Johann, a guard at the grand Kunsthistorisches Art Museum encounters Anne, a foreign visitor called to Austria because of the poor health of a friend. Never having been to Austria and with little money, she wanders the city in limbo, taking the museum as her refuge. Johann, initially wary, offers help, and they're drawn into each other's worlds. Their meetings spark an unexpected series of explorations - of their own lives and the life of the city, and of the way artworks can reflect and shape daily experience. - Director:
- Jem Cohen
- Cast:
- Steve Crilley, Mary Margaret O'Hara, Bobby Sommer
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Happy as Lazzaro (2018)Lazzaro Felice
Lazzaro (talented newcomer Adriano Tardiolo) is a beautiful peasant whose sweet nature makes people mistake him for simple-minded. He happily does the bidding of anyone in his local village, which is ruled over by the evil Marchesa (Nicoletta Braschi). He finds an unlikely friend in the Marchesa's petulant son Tancredi (Tommaso Ragno / Luca Chikovani), who convinces his hapless ally to help him stage a dramatic incident to secure a ransom. 'Happy as Lazzaro' follows the adventures of this young man living on the margins of his society, who can seemingly travel through time, arriving in the big city and appearing as a fragment of the past lost in the modern world. - Director:
- Alice Rohrwacher
- Cast:
- Adriano Tardiolo, Agnese Graziani, Alba Rohrwacher
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When Pigs Have Wings (2011)Das Schwein Von Gaza / Le Cochon De Gaza
Jafaar, a Palestinian fisherman, seems to be the unluckiest man in Gaza. Swallowed up by debt and watching his neighbours reel in huge catches of fish whilst his net always turns up empty, he is desperate for a change of fortune. One day his prayers are finally answered, but Jafaar ends up with more than he bargained for when he looks into his net to find not fish, but a giant pot-bellied pig! With possession of the animal banned by both government and religion, Jafaar embarks on a hilarious quest to try and rid himself of the animal whilst keeping its existence hidden from the authorities, but not without trying to make some money first... - Director:
- Sylvain Estibal
- Cast:
- Sasson Gabai, Baya Belal, Myriam Tekaïa
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Shoplifters (2018)Manbiki Kazoku
After a successful shoplifting spree, Osamu (Lily Franky) and his son rescue a little girl in the freezing cold and invite her home with them. Osamu's wife Nobuyo (Sakura Ando) reluctantly agrees to shelter her. Although the family is poor, they live happily together until an unforeseen incident upsets the delicate balance they have created, revealing long-buried secrets... - Director:
- Hirokazu Koreeda
- Cast:
- Rirî Furankî, Sakura Andô, Mayu Matsuoka
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Maggie Gyllenhaal stars as Lisa Spinelli, a kindergarten teacher and poet fed up with her career, her oblivious husband and teenage kids who largely ignore her. When she discovers that a five-year-old in her class may be a poetic prodigy, Lisa becomes fascinated and tries to protect him from neglectful parents. She soon finds herself risking her career and family to nurture his talent. - Director:
- Sara Colangelo
- Cast:
- Maggie Gyllenhaal, Gael García Bernal, Ato Blankson-Wood
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Burning (2018)Beoning
Based on a short story by Haruki Murakami, this critically acclaimed South Korean film tells the story of Jongsu (Ah-in Yoo), a part-time worker who bumps into old neighbour Haemi (Jong-seo Jun). She asks him to look after her cat while she's on a trip to Kenya, but when she returns, Haemi introduces Ben (Steven Yeun) to Jongsu. One day, Ben visits Jongsu with Haemi and confesses his own secret hobby. - Director:
- Chang-dong Lee
- Cast:
- Ah In Yoo, Steven Yeun, Jong-seo Jeon
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Based on Peter Rock's novel 'My Abandonment', 'Leave No Trace' revolves around a teenage girl (Thomasin McKenzie) and her father (Ben Foster) who have lived undetected for years in Forest Park, a vast wood on the edge of Portland, Oregon. A chance encounter leads to their discovery and removal from the park and into the charge of a social service agency. They try to adapt to their new surroundings until a sudden decision sets them on a perilous journey into the wilderness seeking complete independence and forcing them to confront their conflicting desire to be part of a community or a fierce need to live apart. - Director:
- Debra Granik
- Cast:
- Thomasin McKenzie-Harcourt, Ben Foster, Jeffery Rifflard
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From time to time Zapa (Jorge Roman), a thirty-something locksmith in a small Argentinean town, is pressured by his shifty boss to employ his safecracking skills on the wrong side of the law. Arrested during one such job, he's bailed out by his uncle, who also conveniently happens to be the former police chief of the town. Strings are summarily pulled, and Zapa is swiftly despatched to Buenos Aires where he joins the city's police force, the notorious bonaerense. After striking up a frenzied sexual relationship with one of his female instructors (Mimi Ardu), Zapa finds himself slowly but surely sucked into a hellish and unforgiving environment governed only by violence and corruption. - Director:
- Pablo Trapero
- Cast:
- Jorge Román, Mimí Ardú, Darío Levy
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The Golden Door (2006)Nuovomondo
In a desolate corner of the Sicilian countryside, a family's apparently changeless life of hardship and toil is interrupted by tales of the New World and its inhabitants, of the riches of this paradise. Salvatore makes the momentous decision to sell all he has - his land, his home, his livestock - and to take his children and aged mother to a better life across the ocean. As Salvatore embarks on his epic journey, he meets a mysterious English woman, Lucy (Charlotte Gainsbourgh), and their destinies begin to entwine as, amid a harrow crossing, a love story begins to unfold. To become citizens of the New World, they must die a little and be reborn. They must leave behind the antiquated customs and superstitions of their homeland - they must be strong in body and healthy in mind, learn to obey and swear loyalty - if they wish to pass through the Golden Door. - Director:
- Emanuele Crialese
- Cast:
- Charlotte Gainsbourg, Robert Allyn, Adriana Angrisano
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Lemon Tree (2008)Etz Limon
Salma, a Palestinian widow, has to stand up against her new neighbour, the Israeli Defence Minister, when he moves into his new house opposite her lemon grove, on the green line border between Israel and the West Bank. The Israeli security forces are quick to declare that Salma‘s trees pose a threat to the Minister’s safety and issue orders to uproot them. Together with Ziad Daud, her young Palestinian lawyer, Salma goes all the way to the Israeli Supreme Court to try and save her trees. Her struggle raises the interest of Mira Navon, the Defense minister’s wife, who is trapped in her new home and in an unhappy life. Despite their differences and the borders between them the two women develop an invisible bond, while forbidden ties grow stronger between Salma and Ziad. Salma’s legal and personal journey lead her deep into the complex, dark and sometimes funny chaos of the ongoing struggle in the Middle East, in which all players find themselves alone in their struggle to survive. - Director:
- Eran Riklis
- Cast:
- Hiam Abbass, Rona Lipaz-Michael, Ali Suliman
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The 12th Man (2017)Den 12. mann
"The 12th Man" is a breath-taking war thriller about an incredible true-life story of heroism and a man's unbreakable will to live. Norway, 1943: after a failed anti-Nazi sabotage mission leaves his eleven comrades dead, Norwegian resistance fighter Jan Baalsrud (Thomas Gullestad) finds himself on the run from the Gestapo through the snowbound Arctic reaches of Scandinavia led by Kurt Stage (Jonathan Rhys Meyers). It's a harrowing journey across unforgiving, frozen wilderness that will stretch on for months - and force Jan to take extreme action in order to survive. The legendary story of Jan Baalsrud's escape remains one of the wildest, most unfathomable survival stories of World War II. - Director:
- Harald Zwart
- Cast:
- Thomas Gullestad, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, Marie Blokhus
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After making his fortune in the city, a quiet young man returns to his isolated village in the Danube delta. It is a labyrinth of waterways, small islands and over-grown vegetation, where the villagers are cut off from the outside world. He is greeted by a stepfather he has never met before, as well as his mother and sister (Orsi Toth). A seemingly happy occasion, the man's return fractures the family. He decides to build a house out in the marshes, and his sister follows him - at first to help out, and later to live with him. As their relationship becomes increasingly close and intimate, they elicit the disapproval of their family and eventually of the community too leading to tragic consequences. - Director:
- Kornél Mundruczó
- Cast:
- Félix Lajkó, Orsolya Tóth, Lili Monori
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Marcello (Marcello Fonte) is a small and gentle dog groomer who wants two things, to look after his dogs and take his daughter on exotic holidays. But to fund this lifestyle he runs a side business which has more unsavoury clientele and he soon finds himself involved in a dangerous relationship of subjugation with Simone (Edoardo Pesce), a former violent boxer who terrorises the entire neighbourhood. When Simone exploits him too much, Marcello must make a crucial and potentially dangerous decision in order to regain his dignity. - Director:
- Matteo Garrone
- Cast:
- Marcello Fonte, Nunzia Schiano, Edoardo Pesce
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New York City. It’s been six months since his six-year-old daughter was purportedly abducted in the Port Authority Bus Terminal while in his care and William Keane (Damien Lewis) is barely able to cope. Repeatedly drawn to the site of abduction, Keane wanders the bus station as he struggles to maintain his sanity. Then one day he meets a financially strapped young woman, Lynn Bedik (Amy Ryan), and her seven year old daughter, Kira. He soon befriends them and as he becomes increasingly attached to the child, Keane starts to deal with his own feelings of loss and redemption as he attempts to fill the void left by his daughter’s disappearance. - Director:
- Lodge Kerrigan
- Cast:
- Damian Lewis, Brice Stratford, Abigail Breslin
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Young Asa travels back to the Kazakh steppe where his sister and her husband live a nomadic life. Asa must get married before he can become a shepherd himself. Asa's only hope on the steppe is Tulpan, the daughter of another shepherd family. Asa is disappointed to learn that Tulpan doesn't like him because she thinks that his ears are too big. But Asa doesn't give up and he continues to dream... - Director:
- Sergei Dvortsevoy
- Cast:
- Tolepbergen Baisakalov, Samal Yeslyamova, Ondas Besikbasov
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