sog's - Rented List

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For what would prove to be his final film, Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami gave himself a challenge: to create a dialogue between his work as a filmmaker and his work as a photographer, bridging the two art forms to which he had dedicated his life.

Setting out to reconstruct the moments immediately before and after a photograph is taken, Kiarostami selected twenty-four still images - most of them stark landscapes inhabited only by foraging birds and other wildlife - and digitally animated each one into its own subtly evolving four-and-a-half-minute vignette, creating a series of poignant studies in movement, perception, and time that is also a sustained meditation on the process of image making. '24 Frames' is a graceful and elegiac farewell from one of the giants of world cinema.

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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.

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"The Divine Order" is set in Switzerland in 1971 where, despite the worldwide social upheavals of the previous decade, women were still denied the right to vote.

When unassuming and dutiful housewife Nora (Marie Leuenberger) is forbidden by her husband to take a part-time job, her frustration leads to her becoming the poster child of her town's suffragette movement.

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From visionary filmmaker Spike Lee comes the incredible true story of an American hero. In the early 1970's, Ron Stallworth (John David Washington) becomes the first African-American detective in the Colorado Springs Police Department.

Determined to make a difference, he bravely sets out on a dangerous mission: infiltrate and expose the Ku Klux Klan. He recruits a seasoned colleague, Flip Zimmerman (Adam Driver), into the undercover investigation. Together, they team up to take down the extremist organisation aiming to garner mainstream appeal. 'BlacKkKlansman' offers an unflinching, true-life examination of race relations in 1970's America that is just as relevant in today's tumultuous world.

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"The Hunt" unfolds in a small provincial town in the days leading up to Christmas. Lucas (Mads Mikkelsen), a forty year old divorcee, is finally getting his life under control.

He's got himself a new girlfriend, a new job and is in the process of re-building his relationship with his teenage son, Marcus. But things soon start to unravel. Nothing significant, just a slight comment here, a random lie there. And as the snow falls and the Christmas lights are lit, the lie spreads like an invisible virus. The shock and mistrust gets out of hand, and the small community suddenly finds itself in a collective state of hysteria, while Lucas fights a lonely fight for his life and dignity. "The Hunt" is a disturbing depiction of how a lie can quickly become truth - a modern tale of a witch-hunt, injustice, guilt and, ultimately, forgiveness. A fable on how fragile a community can become when gossip, doubt and malice are allowed to flourish. It is a stirring portrait of a man struggling to exonerate himself, and a father and a son reaching out for one another as their world crumbles.

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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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The first ever Inuit film to receive a theatrical release, whereupon It Instantly became one of the most critically lauded films of the year, Atanarjuat Is a truly epic piece of storytelling and a wonderfully lyrical cinematic experience.

The film Is a recreation of the ancient Inult legend of Atanarjuat - a classic quest story set In the Arctic at the dawn of the first millennium. Evil In the form of an unknown shaman divides a small community; two brothers, Amaqjuaq (the Strong One) and Atanarjuat (the Fast Runner) rise up to challenge this order. However, when his brother Is murdered, Atanarjuat must flee the community - can the Fast Runner end his exile and vanquish the evil that haunts his community? Zacharias Kunuk's film was shot using digital cameras entirely on sea Ice in Arctic conditions and utilised local cast and crew from the Inult community of Igloolik. Dealing with universal themes and emotions with a rare Insight and compassion, Atanarjuat Is both an extremely Idiosyncratic and yet utterly universal work that truly rivals Lord of the Rings for its epic qualities and sheer visual mastery.

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Comrades and lovers Amer and Raghda met in a Syrian prison cell 15 years ago. When McAllister first meets their family in 2009, Raghda is back in prison leaving Amer to look after their 4 boys alone; but as the 'Arab Spring' sweeps the region, the family's fate shifts irrevocably.

Filmed over 5 years, the film charts their incredible odyssey to political freedom. For Raghda and Amer, it is a journey of hope, dreams and despair: for the revolution, their homeland and each other.

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From master storyteller, Guillermo del Toro, comes 'The Shape of Water', an otherworldly fairy tale set against the backdrop of Cold War-era America circa 1962. In the hidden, high-security government laboratory where she works, lonely Elisa (Sally Hawkins) is trapped in a life of isolation.

Elisa's life is changed forever when she and co-worker Zelda (Octavia Spencer) discover a secret classified experiment.

The stand-out film of the 2011 Berlin Film Festival and winner of the Golden Bear is a suspenseful and intelligent drama that details the manipulations and confrontations brought into play when a couple's marriage painfully breaks down.

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Ayiva is a young single father living in Burkina Faso, West Africa, who dreams of a better life in Europe.

After traveling a dangerous route on foot through the North African desert and by boat across the Mediterranean Sea from Libya, he arrives in the Italian town of Rosarno with his best friend Abas, determined to reap the economic rewards of their new life abroad. But what they find in Italy does not match the glittering images they have seen. Whilst Ayiva finds a sympathetic employer, who welcomes him into his home, Abas grows increasingly disillusioned with hi! hardscrabble reality. As tensions flare between local thugs and the migrant community, a vicious attack erupts into a full-blown riot and Ayiva is faced with the ultimate choice.

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A darkly comic, discomfiting and deliberately provocative work that draws parallels with recent contemporary events. Dogtooth is shocking, compelling and perversely erotic. In a house on the edge of the city live a self-contained family. The only person allowed to leave is the father.

The mother remains enclosed, 'protecting' her son and two daughters from the evils of the outside world. However, when the son reaches an age where it is deemed that his sexual needs should be met, this insular and radical environment is threatened by the arrival of a female security guard. Capturing incidents that range from the weird to the repulsive, Dogtooth presents a sharp and frequently startling look at modern life. Particularly evocative of the work of Michael Haneke this is cinema at its most bold and brilliant.

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Following the death of her father, Alice (Ruth Wilson) returns home for the first time in 15 years, to claim the tenancy of the family farm she believes is rightfully hers.

Once there, she encounters her older brother Joe (Mark Stanley), a man she barely recognises, worn down by years of struggling to keep the farm going whilst caring for their sick father (Sean Bean). Joe is thrown by Alice's sudden arrival, angered by her claim and finds her presence increasingly difficult to deal with. Battling to regain control in a fraught situation, Alice must confront traumatic memories and family betrayals to find a way to restore the farm and salvage the bond with her brother before both are irrevocably lost.

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Sick of the constant bickering between the men in their lives, a group of women in a tight-knit community decide to make a stand.

To prevent all-out conflict, the women take extreme steps to resolve the situation; whether it be hiring Ukrainian strippers or faking a miracle in their own village, there is nothing they won't try. Bringing the village back together was never going to be easy but no-one could have imagined it would be this much fun.

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It is 1988, and Melo, a Uruguayan town on the Brazilian border, awaits the visit of Pope John Paul II. Numbers begin circulating: hundreds of people will come, no thousands say the media. The well-informed speak of 50,000...

The poor townspeople know what this means: 50,000 pilgrims in need of food and drink, paper flags, souvenirs, commemorative medals. Brimming with enthusiasm, the villagers not only hope for divine blessing, but above all for a small share of material happiness. And petty smuggler Beto is certain that he’s found the best business idea of all: "The Pope’s Toilet", where the thousands of pilgrims can find relief … Let others make mountains of chorizo sausages and bake towers of cakes – he will strike it rich with human waste! But before he can build the WC, Beto rushes headlong into trouble. He sorely tries the patience of his stoical but optimistic wife Carmen and disappoints his adolescent daughter Silvia, who dreams of a career in the media. He has to increase his risky and arduous journeys across the border. And he has to bury his long-cherished dream of buying a moped. He even loses his most precious possession – his bicycle – just as he secures the keystone for his temple to waste and wealth: the toilet bowl. But he is determined to make it back in time for the divine event.