O Monstro (2006)

Algerian filmmaker Tariq Teguia wrote and directed this impressionistic look at a man whose life takes an unexpected turn far away from home. Malek (Abdelkader Affak) is a surveyor from Algeria who is semi-retired, but at the urging of a friend he takes an assignment in Oran. The region in question was the site of frequent battles during Oran's civil war, and an earlier survey that would make it possible to bring electrical utilities to the area was cut short by the fighting. While the zone is still unstable, Malek sets out to complete charting the area, and finds the locals regard him with suspicion and hostility. However, not everyone is disrespectful, and he discovers a young woman (Ines Rose Djakou) who is attracted to him, which leads him to consider abandoning his old life to run away with her. Inland was an official selection at the 2008 Venice Film Festival.

The story is about Charlie, a tik-using (methamphetamine) slacker. Charlie along with his two slacker friends journey through the impoverished shacks and the council flats of Hout Bay, in search of their next hit. Elton, Charlie’s honorable and respectable brother is missing. Only after hearing about his brother’s drug trail, does Charlie pieces together the puzzle that leads him to the truth of Elton’s whereabouts and that family is important. "Ongeriewe" is an authentic and gritty take on the grim reality of drug use when young people feel disempowered. It hits home that drugs offer no glamorous escapism.

Amateur actors read stories from a book describing the 900-day siege of Leningrad during World War II.

Bor, in eastern Serbia, was once home to the largest copper mine in Europe. Now it’s just the biggest hole. This astutely observed coming-of-age film captures the pitfalls of the adult world, where idealism no longer seems to have a place, as two teens come to realize they have no choice but to grow up.

Vincent Vivant agrees to Stephan the spy's proposal: he is to cross the border with a mysterious suitcase.

A sparkling film and surprising look into the middle ages by means of the story of Mariken, whose beauty is used by the devilish comedian Moenen to put people up against each other.

The life of Marcela, an ordinary Czech woman is explored throughout several decades of her life. We are engaged to struggle and fight back with Marcela as her tragic life unfolds before our eyes especially when dealing with her daughter’s unexpected death, which almost drives her to suicide. The film was initially part of a series about the fate of six married couples, but the events that happened throughout Marcela’s life were the reason why the director decided to focus solely on a documentary about her.

Based on a satirical short story by Fyodor Dostoyevsky concerning the escapades of a Russian civil servant.

A provincial Soviet town. Factory worker Victor Belov is beaten up by two teenagers in the park. One of them, Vladimir Belikov, goes to a correction labor settlement for two years, the other is put on probation. Belov goes on with his life and work. Life is simple and unambiguous: the factory, the wife, regular factory sports competitions. But the memories of the trial keep coming back. Everything was not done as properly as it had seemed then. He wants to change the fate of the accused, goes to the labor camp, obtains the right to visit him there and advocates his early release…

Drama film about different lifes of twin brothers.

A political allegory on four middle-class guys who pile into their car for a ski weekend. A brief stop at a picturesque vista leads to their chance discovery of a prominent rock formation it seems would be oh so easy to tip over, but...

A short thriller about the murder, and its aftermath, of a young girl.

A man plays fetch with his dog, only to have both him and his dog mired in a series of optical illusions.

A young teacher is sent to a remote province, separating her from her lover, and sets about the difficult task of building a school there.

La historia de una joven que escapa a su realidad al sumergirse en una versión acuosa del mundo.

Illustrations of the thoughts children's have about death.

Created and produced as a sample of the proposed (never realized) animated feature. "It was like a 30's musical in which Anita left the alligator farm to pursue her dream of opening the ultimate tropical nightclub. I had a script and storyboard [...] Nightclub of the future with live alligators and a tipsy train that serves drinks." -SC

The social ferment in late 19th century Russia which led to the 1917 Russian Revolution is movingly portrayed in this lengthy historical drama, which is very faithful to the 1907 novel The Mother by the celebrated Marxist writer Maxim Gorky (1868-1936). In the story, "the mother" (Inna Tchourikova) has no other recourse than to watch her decent, kindly husband turn into an animalistic, drunken brute as a result of working in the inhuman conditions of a steel mill in the town of Sormovo. When he begins to express his suppressed rage by beating her, she is defended by her teenaged son Pavel (depicted Viktor Rakov as an adult, Sacha Chichonok as a boy). After his father's death, Pavel is forced to go to work in the same factory. However, Pavel and his friends begin investigating Marxism and socialist thought, and work to organize their fellow workers.

10 minutes in the life of several deaf-and-dumb boarding school inmates are reconstructed in real time.