susan's - Rented List
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In Between (2016)Bar Bahar
When devout university student Nour (Shaden Kanboura) moves in with successful lawyer Laila (Mouna Hawa) and club DJ Salma (Sana Jammelieh), she is shocked by their lifestyle. As Laila fights to retain her freedom in the face of a new relationship, Salma falls for beautiful trainee doctor Dounia (Ashlam Canaan), a romance she must hide from her family. Nour is set for an arranged marriage to Wissam, an exemplary member of the community who may not be as respectable as he appears. 'In Between' follows the lives of these strong, independent minded Palestinian-lsraeli women in Tel Aviv. Away from the constraints of their families and enforced tradition, they find themselves 'in between' the free and unfettered lives they aspire to lead and the restrictions imposed on them by a blinkered society. First-time director Maysaloun Hamoud's exhilarating depiction of the lives of 'liberated' Palestinian women in Israel earned her the first Palestinian fatwa in 70 years. - Director:
- Maysaloun Hamoud
- Cast:
- Mouna Hawa, Sana Jammelieh, Shaden Kanboura
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Starring Russell Crowe and Olga Kurylenko, 'The Water Diviner' is an epic adventure set in the aftermath of the devastating battle of Gallipoli in Turkey during World War I. Australian farmer Joshua Connor travels to Istanbul to discover the fate of his sons, reported missing in action. Battling against government bureaucracy, foreign traditions and armed forces in the still war-torn country, Connor embarks on a perilous journey to find the truth about his sons. 'The Water Diviner' is an extraordinary tale of love, hope and heroism. - Director:
- Russell Crowe
- Cast:
- Russell Crowe, Olga Kurylenko, Jai Courtney
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Love and Other Cults (2017)Kemonomich / Love and Other Beasts
Based on an unbelievable true story director Eiji Uchida (Greatful Dead) tells the tale of a young girl named Ai (Sairi Ito) who at a young age is sent to a cult commune by her religious maniac mother. After the cult is exposed by the police, Ai starts a new stage of life, trying to start attending school for the first time, but ends up living with a rock-bottom delinquent family full of gangsters and call girls. Searching for a different life she finds herself adopted by a "normal" family, but her troubled life continues to follow her into more seedy paths including the sex industry. The only person who understands Ai and her troubles is another cast off from society, Ryota (Kenta Suga), whose love for her brings him along the same dark paths. - Director:
- Eiji Uchida
- Cast:
- Sairi Itô, Kenta Suga, Kaito Yoshimura
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Andrew Garfield and Claire Foy star in this warm, funny and uplifting true story. 'Breathe' follows the life of Robin Cavendish (Garfield) and his wife Diana (Foy), an adventurous and determined couple who refuse to give up when Robin contracts polio and is given just months to live. Against all advice, Diana brings him home from hospital where her devotion and witty determination transcends his disability. Together and with the help of Diana's hilarious twin brothers, both played by Tom Hollander, and the pioneering ideas of their friend and inventor Teddy Hall (Hugh Bonneville), they find a way to live a full and passionate life. - Director:
- Andy Serkis
- Cast:
- Andrew Garfield, Claire Foy, Hugh Bonneville
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Hotel Salvation (2016)Mukti Bhawan
"Hotel Salvation", the award-winning first feature from up-and-coming director Shubhashish Bhutiani, is a charming, life-affirming drama set in contemporary India that tackles serious matters with a light and often joyous touch. This gently humorous film follows Rajiv (Adil Hussain), an overworked middle-aged son who is forced to accompany his 77-year-old father, Daya (Lalit Behl), as e see s salvation in the holy city of Varanasi. The simple pleasures of this timeless place are explored as the pair belatedly come o now each other in the enforced intimacy of their cramped hotel room and the teeming streets. While rooted in Indian values and culture, 'Hotel Salvation' transcends borders with its themes of family ties, intergenerational relationships and the quest for contentment in later life. - Director:
- Shubhashish Bhutiani
- Cast:
- Adil Hussain, Lalit Behl, Geetanjali Kulkarni
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From director Christopher Nolan, a unique and intriguing thriller that begins with the ultimate act of revenge and backtracks through time to reveal the shocking and provocative reasons behind it. Leonard Shelby (Guy Pearce) remembers everything up to the night his wife was brutally raped and murdered. But since that tragedy, he has suffered from short-term memory loss and cannot recall any event, the places he has just visited or anyone he has met just minutes before. Determined to find out why his wife was killed, the only way he can store evidence is on scraps of paper, by taking Polaroid photos and tattooing vital clues on his body. Throughout his investigation, he appears to have the help of both bartender Natalie (Carrie-Anne Moss), who may have her own secret agenda and police officer Teddy (Joe Pantoliano) whose friendship is always suspect. As Shelby's fractured memory tries to piece together a chilling jigsaw of deceit and betrayal in reverse, breathtaking twists and surprising turns rapidly occur in the most challenging, original and critically acclaimed thriller in years. - Director:
- Christopher Nolan
- Cast:
- Guy Pearce, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano
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Johnny Saxby (Josh O'Connor) works long hours on his family's remote farm in the north of England. He numbs the daily frustration of his lonely existence with nightly binge-drinking at the local pub and casual sex. But when a handsome Romanian migrant worker (Alec Secareanu) arrives to take up temporary work on the family farm, Johnny suddenly finds himself having to deal with emotions he has never felt before. As they begin working closely together during lambing season, an intense relationship starts to form which could change Johnny's life forever. - Director:
- Francis Lee
- Cast:
- Josh O'Connor, Alec Secareanu, Gemma Jones
- Formats:
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Stations of the Cross (2014)Kreuzweg
14 year old Maria (Lea Van Acken) is a member of a strict branch of Catholicism that rejects all the reforms that were made in the Church since the 1960s. Maria lives her everyday life in the modern world, yet yearns to follow Jesus fully, to become a saint and go to heaven. Christian, a boy she meets at school, almost draws Maria away from her goal with an invite to join the school's gospel choir, but her strictly pious mother (Franziska Weisz) pulls her back in line, seeing his tentative approaches as a temptation to sin, along with participating in what she sees as the 'Devil's music'. Told in fourteen individual tableaus that parallel Christ's journey to his crucifixion, 'Stations of the Cross' is both an indictment of fundamentalist faith and the articulation of an impressionable teen's struggle to find her own path in life. - Director:
- Dietrich Brüggemann
- Cast:
- Lucie Aron, Anna Brüggemann, Michael Kamp
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Following the mysterious death of his brother, Gerry Devine (Aidan Gillen) travels to Singapore to help arrange the funeral and put business affairs in order. There he discovers an intoxicating world, far removed from his troubled life in London. But as Gerry is drawn towards his brother's beautiful wife (Zoe Tay) and the sexual frankness of the local culture he begins to realise that escape isn't as easy as it seems... - Director:
- Joe Lawlor
- Cast:
- Aidan Gillen, Zoe Tay, Molly Rose Lawlor
- Formats:
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The Commune (2016)Kollektivet
In the early '70s, successful professor of architecture Erik (Ulrich Thomsen) inherits a large mansion in suburban Copenhagen and, with his wife Anna (Trine Dyrholm) and daughter Freja (Martha Sofie Wallstrøm Hansen), decides to set up a commune. Together they invite friends, acquaintances and strangers to live with them and create a melting pot of left-wing ideas and new familial bonds. But when fresh intimacies are introduced new relationships form and the spirit of free love that established the foundations of the commune will threaten to bring it all tumbling back down. - Director:
- Thomas Vinterberg
- Cast:
- Fares Fares, Ulrich Thomsen, Trine Dyrholm
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In 1964, while on a short trip to Paris, the American writer and art-lover James Lord (Armie Hammer) is asked by his friend, the world-renowned artist Alberto Giacometti (Geoffrey Rush), to sit for a portrait. The process, Giacometti assures Lord, will take only a few days. Flattered and intrigued, Lord agrees. So begins not only the story of a touching and offbeat friendship, but, seen through the eyes of Lord, a uniquely revealing insight into the beauty, frustration, profundity and, at times, downright chaos of the artistic process. 'Final Portrait' is a bewitching portrait of a genius. It is a film which shines a light on the artistic process itself, by turns exhilarating, exasperating and bewildering, questioning whether the gift of a great artist is a blessing or a curse. - Director:
- Stanley Tucci
- Cast:
- Armie Hammer, Clémence Poésy, Geoffrey Rush
- Formats:
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With an all-star cast, 'Born Equal' is a critically acclaimed film from Bafta-winning writer and director Dominic Savage, exploring aspects of poverty, race, inequality and also class in modern Britain by following the stories of several people whose lives become intertwined. Mark (Colin Firth) is a wealthy city worker whose conscience and guilt about his luxurious lifestyle prompt him to try to help those less fortunate. Michelle (Anne-Marie Duff) is a pregnant mother with a young child, who has escaped an abusive husband. Yemi (David Oyelowo), his wife Itshe (Nikki Amuka-Bird) and their young daughter, who have fled the threat of violence in their native Nigeria and Robert (Robert Carlyle), newly released from prison and embarking on a search for his mother and to try and rebuild his life. Their paths lead them to climatic events that will change their lives forever. This is a thought provoking film that is reflective of modern day Britain. - Director:
- Dominic Savage
- Cast:
- Robert Carlyle, Colin Firth, Peter O'Connor
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In the last days of a dying logging town Christian (Paul Schneider) returns to his family home for his father Henry's (Geoffrey Rush) wedding to the much younger Anna (Anna Torv). While home, Christian reconnects with his childhood friend Oliver (Ewen Leslie), who has stayed in town working at Henry's timber mill and is now out of a job. As Christian gets to know Oliver's wife Charlotte (Miranda Otto), daughter Hedvig (Odessa Young) and father Walter (Sam Neill), he discovers a secret that could tear Oliver's family apart. As he tries to right the wrongs of the past, his actions threaten to shatter the lives of those he left behind years before. - Director:
- Simon Stone
- Cast:
- Geoffrey Rush, Sam Neill, Anna Torv
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When young, ambitious Sarah Moss (Brit Marling) is hired by an elite private intelligence firm, she is immediately sent on a dangerous undercover assignment. Infiltrating an anarchistic activist group called "The East", Sarah must take part as the group terrorises corporate leaders who seem to get away with crimes against humanity. But the more the group's activities escalate, the more Sarah's life is in danger. - Director:
- Zal Batmanglij
- Cast:
- Brit Marling, Michael Nouryeh, Alexander Skarsgård
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From the Land of the Moon (2016)Mal de pierres
In a small village in rural France, Garbrielle (Marion Cotillard) dreams of a more passionate life, much to her family's chagrin. With the intent of making her into a respectable woman, they marry her off to honest farmer Jose (Alex Brendemühl). Once married Gabrielle develops an illness and is sent to the Alps for treatment. There she meets a dashing injured veteran of the Indochina War (Louis Garrel). The affair rekindles the passion buried deep inside her. With this newfound love, she is determined to run away and free herself from the marriage that imprisons her. This time she's determined to follow her dream. - Director:
- Nicole Garcia
- Cast:
- Marion Cotillard, Louis Garrel, Àlex Brendemühl
- Formats:
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