BFI's 101 Hidden Gems from the 2022 Sight & Sound Poll
Below is a list of 101 of the greatest films of all time – but not the kind of list that you might expect from that description. No Citizen Kane. No Vertigo. Not even Jeanne Dielman.
Each of these films is one of the greatest according to just one voter in our recent Greatest Films of All Time poll; they are some of the hidden gems among the more than 4,300 films voted for by more than 2,000 participants. (For the pedantic reader, the films that got one vote each – more than we can fit in here – are all technically joint 1,956th greatest film of all time, combining the tallies of our critics’ and directors’ polls.)
It’s clear, looking through this list, that cinema is more accessible than ever: the keys to the gate have been thrown away, and at the same time the advocacy work of archivists and restorers has been making its way through the festival circuit and on to discs and streaming services, helping to satisfy a public ever hungrier for new kinds of cinema. Hailing from every continent but Antarctica and spanning more than 120 years, this selection is, in its way, as representative of the riches of cinema history as that other list we released at the end of last year. Fiction rubs shoulders with nonfiction, films made by collectives sit alongside hand-crafted animation, and a healthy dose of comedy sidles up to heartbreaking drama – and then there are the films that defy all categorisation.
That’s not to say that these films will never trouble the higher rankings of our Greatest Films poll. Julie Dash’s Daughters of the Dust (1991) wasn’t even a one-vote wonder in our 2012 poll – it didn’t receive a single vote – and yet it placed joint 60th in the 2022 poll. When, nearly 16 years ago, we asked contributors to pluck out films “unduly obscure and worthy of greater eminence” (‘75 Hidden Gems’, S&S, August 2007), Amy Taubin selected Barbara Loden’s Wanda (1970) – since then, with the help of a 2010 restoration by UCLA Film & Television Archive, it has made it into the poll’s top 50. It’s far from impossible that some of our new cohort of one-vote wonders will be in the top 250 when we repeat the poll, in 2032.
So why did these 101 films receive just one vote rather than the dozens needed to make it into the official top 100 pantheon? Perhaps they are little-seen or hard to find; perhaps they have been overshadowed by a different film from the same director or the same movement; perhaps they aren’t the sort of film people think fit into discussions of the canon – too unusual, too light-hearted, too low-budget; or perhaps their appeal is simply too particular. Why isn’t Fear (1954), voted for by Michelangelo Frammartino, the best-loved of Roberto Rossellini’s films? Why isn’t the Māori anthology film Waru (2017) – picked by Alisa Lebow – deemed a modern classic, or Mike Leigh’s choice How a Mosquito Operates (1912) canonised for its importance to early animation?
Whatever the reasons, we hope that presenting them here alongside the heartfelt recommendations of their lone voters encourages you to delve further into the darker recesses of cinema history, and maybe even to reconsider what makes a film the ‘greatest’.
Missing:
6 et 12 (1968)
Ahmed Bouanani, Mohamed Abderrahman Tazi and Abdelmajid Rechiche, Morocco
Mouth to Mouth (1975)
Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, US/South Korea
The Terror and the Time (1978)
The Victor Jara Collective, Guyana
Qabyo 2 (2003)
Ibrahim Abdulkadir Ibrahim and Abdulrahman Issa Kahin, Somalia/USA
Each of these films is one of the greatest according to just one voter in our recent Greatest Films of All Time poll; they are some of the hidden gems among the more than 4,300 films voted for by more than 2,000 participants. (For the pedantic reader, the films that got one vote each – more than we can fit in here – are all technically joint 1,956th greatest film of all time, combining the tallies of our critics’ and directors’ polls.)
It’s clear, looking through this list, that cinema is more accessible than ever: the keys to the gate have been thrown away, and at the same time the advocacy work of archivists and restorers has been making its way through the festival circuit and on to discs and streaming services, helping to satisfy a public ever hungrier for new kinds of cinema. Hailing from every continent but Antarctica and spanning more than 120 years, this selection is, in its way, as representative of the riches of cinema history as that other list we released at the end of last year. Fiction rubs shoulders with nonfiction, films made by collectives sit alongside hand-crafted animation, and a healthy dose of comedy sidles up to heartbreaking drama – and then there are the films that defy all categorisation.
That’s not to say that these films will never trouble the higher rankings of our Greatest Films poll. Julie Dash’s Daughters of the Dust (1991) wasn’t even a one-vote wonder in our 2012 poll – it didn’t receive a single vote – and yet it placed joint 60th in the 2022 poll. When, nearly 16 years ago, we asked contributors to pluck out films “unduly obscure and worthy of greater eminence” (‘75 Hidden Gems’, S&S, August 2007), Amy Taubin selected Barbara Loden’s Wanda (1970) – since then, with the help of a 2010 restoration by UCLA Film & Television Archive, it has made it into the poll’s top 50. It’s far from impossible that some of our new cohort of one-vote wonders will be in the top 250 when we repeat the poll, in 2032.
So why did these 101 films receive just one vote rather than the dozens needed to make it into the official top 100 pantheon? Perhaps they are little-seen or hard to find; perhaps they have been overshadowed by a different film from the same director or the same movement; perhaps they aren’t the sort of film people think fit into discussions of the canon – too unusual, too light-hearted, too low-budget; or perhaps their appeal is simply too particular. Why isn’t Fear (1954), voted for by Michelangelo Frammartino, the best-loved of Roberto Rossellini’s films? Why isn’t the Māori anthology film Waru (2017) – picked by Alisa Lebow – deemed a modern classic, or Mike Leigh’s choice How a Mosquito Operates (1912) canonised for its importance to early animation?
Whatever the reasons, we hope that presenting them here alongside the heartfelt recommendations of their lone voters encourages you to delve further into the darker recesses of cinema history, and maybe even to reconsider what makes a film the ‘greatest’.
Missing:
6 et 12 (1968)
Ahmed Bouanani, Mohamed Abderrahman Tazi and Abdelmajid Rechiche, Morocco
Mouth to Mouth (1975)
Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, US/South Korea
The Terror and the Time (1978)
The Victor Jara Collective, Guyana
Qabyo 2 (2003)
Ibrahim Abdulkadir Ibrahim and Abdulrahman Issa Kahin, Somalia/USA
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- DirectorWinsor McCayStarsWinsor McCayA hungry mosquito spots and follows a man on his way home. The mosquito slips into the room where the man is sleeping, and gets ready for a meal. His first attempts startle the man and wake him up, but the mosquito is very persistent.
- DirectorCecil B. DeMilleStarsGeraldine FarrarWallace ReidPedro de CordobaIn order to help her smuggler kinsmen, a sultry gypsy seduces and corrupts an officer of the Civil Guard turning him into a traitor and murderer.
- DirectorDimitri KirsanoffStarsNadia SibirskaïaYolande BeaulieuGuy BelmontA couple is brutally murdered in the working-class district of Paris. Later on, the narrative follows the lives of their two daughters, both in love with a Parisian thug and leading them to separate ways.
- DirectorDorothy ArznerStarsRuth ChattertonFredric MarchFuller Mellish Jr.After years of abusing his wife, a ne'er-do-well husband disappears with their son--and winds up selling him to a wealthy family. Years later, the wife, now a world-famous opera singer, finally has enough time and money to begin a search for him.
- DirectorRaoul WalshStarsSpencer TracyJoan BennettMarion BurnsYoung New York cop Dan falls in love with waterfront waitress Helen. Helen's sister Kate falls for gangster Duke. Dan must do in Duke.
- DirectorLeslie PearceStarsW.C. FieldsMarjorie KaneArnold GrayAn unconventional dentist deals with a variety of eccentric and difficult patients in slapstick fashion.
- DirectorMuzhi YuanStarsXinzhu ZhangNa TangBoxun ZhouA scholar fell in love with a shop owner's daughter who was ambiguous with a tea house manager.
- DirectorMarcel PagnolStarsRaimuPierre FresnayOrane DemazisHonoré Panisse is dying, cheerfully, with friends, wife, and son at his side. He confesses to the priest in front of his friends; he insists that the doctor be truthful. But, he cannot bring himself to tell his son Cesariot that his real father is Marius, the absent son of César, Cesariot's godfather. Panisse leaves that to Fanny, the lad's mother. Dissembling that he's off to see a friend, Cesariot then seeks Marius, now a mechanic in Toulon. Posing as a journalist, Cesariot spends time with Marius and leaves believing tales he is a petty thief. Only after the truth comes out can Marius, Fanny, César, and Cesariot step beyond the falsehoods, benign though they may be.
- DirectorManoel de OliveiraStarsNascimento FernandesVital dos SantosAntónio PalmaThe story takes place in the old streets of Porto and by the banks of the Douro River. A gang of very young kids has just accepted a new member, Carlitos, a shy boy who has "played it tough" by stealing a doll in a shop. Carlitos soon has a crush on Terezinha, the only girl in the group. The trouble is that Eduardo, the gang boss, is also in love with the pretty girl. And he will not allow any rival to challenge him.
- DirectorBasil DeardenAlberto CavalcantiStarsMervyn JohnsGlynis JohnsTom WallsA group of travellers, all with something to hide in their past, take shelter from a storm in an old inn. The inn-keeper seems a little mysterious...
- DirectorJack ConwayGeorge CukorMervyn LeRoyStarsGreer GarsonRobert MitchumRichard HartReleased from a POW camp at the end of WW2, a French soldier tricks the wife of a fellow POW into believing her husband was killed by the Germans and seduces the grieving woman, but the 'dead' husband eventually returns home.
- DirectorClaude Autant-LaraStarsMicheline PresleGérard PhilipeDenise GreyDuring World War I, the star-crossed affair of an underage French student with a woman engaged to a soldier.
- DirectorCurtis BernhardtStarsJoan CrawfordVan HeflinRaymond MasseyAfter being found wandering the streets of Los Angeles, a severely catatonic woman tells a doctor the complex story of how she wound up there.
- DirectorJacqueline AudryStarsEdwige FeuillèreSimone SimonMarie-Claire OliviaLate nineteenth century in a finishing school for young girls near in France, the principal, the fascinating Miss Julie, sows confusion in the heart of the newcomer, Olivia.
- DirectorHenry KingStarsJean PetersDavid WayneHugh MarloweAt the fiftieth anniversary of his town's founding, the town's first barber recalls his long-dead, spirited bride and the flaw in his own character that helped bring about her loss and others.
- DirectorWilliam WylerStarsLaurence OlivierJennifer JonesMiriam HopkinsA young girl from a provincial town learns the bitter reality of a big city and great love.
- DirectorKinuyo TanakaStarsMasayuki MoriYoshiko KugaJûkichi UnoExplores the wounds of war, the limits of love and the need to forgive. A sad and troubled man, Reikichi Mayumi finds a new job five years after the end of WWII, where he writes love letters for other people.
- DirectorRoberto RosselliniStarsIngrid BergmanMathias WiemanRenate MannhardtIrene Wagner, the wife of prominent scientist Albert Wagner, finds herself blackmailed about her affair by her lover's jealous ex-girlfriend. The plot, an experiment in causing fear, drives her into a rage.
- DirectorUsmar IsmailStarsA.N. AlcaffAstamanAwaludinA hero of revolution returns to civilian life to find the new society very different from the ideals he fought for.
- DirectorMichael CacoyannisStarsEllie LambetiGiorgos PappasDimitris HornOn a lazy Athenian Sunday, a young and fresh saleswoman loses her soon-to-be winning lottery ticket, only to meet its handsome new owner. Of course, she wants it back; however, what if fortune and ardent Cupid are already on her doorstep?
- DirectorHyeong-mo HanStarsAm ParkJeong-rim KimKyeong-hie NoOh starts working at a boutique to help her make a living. Professor Jang begins dating the typist Miss Park, but decides to break up with her to protect her family. Han's wife anonymously sends a letter to Jang to reveal Oh's affair.
- DirectorKadiri Venkata ReddyStarsN.T. Rama RaoS.V. Ranga RaoSavitriBalarama promises Subhadra to get his daughter married to her son. But when the Pandavas loses their kingdom to the Kaurava's, Balarama breaks his promise.
- DirectorRoberto GavaldónStarsIgnacio López TarsoPina PellicerEnrique LuceroPoor and hungry peasant Macario wishes to have a good meal for All Saint's Day. After his wife cooks him a turkey he has three apparitions: The Devil, God, and the Death.
- DirectorLuis María DelgadoStarsAlfredo AlariaManuel MonroySandra Le BrocqAlfredo is a cheerful party animal, son of a wealthy man. Alfredo's brother, a young very focused and mature boy, and their father try unsuccessfully to change the profligate lifestyle of Alfredo to remedy the dissolute life of the latter, which, by all indications, is clearly gay.
- DirectorRalph NelsonStarsAnthony QuinnJackie GleasonMickey RooneyKnockout performances by Anthony Quinn, Jackie Gleason, Mickey Rooney and Julie Harris highlight this hard-hitting drama of corruption in the ring. Featuring Muhammad Ali.
- DirectorFerdinand KhittlStarsFriedrich JoloffErnst MarbeckWilfried SchröpferFeature-documentary "pointing up a thousand facets of this world and probing to determine what may lie beneath the surface".
- DirectorYûgo SerikawaWilliam RossStarsMorio KazamaYukiko OkadaChiharu KuriPrince Susano's mother dies; when his father tells him she has gone to another place, he sets off in search of her. He builds a boat and goes to see, first, his brother, in his crystal palace in the land of night (where he causes much damage to the palace, but his brother still gives him a magic ice crystal). Next, he fights the fire god, who gives him a magic bird after Susano defeats him, with help from the magic crystal and his little rabbit sidekick. Susano also picks up another traveling companion, a large but dim villager. Next, he goes to his sister, in the land of light. As with his brother, though, he causes much unintentional damage; his sister, who also happens to be the sun, goes off to hide in a cave. The frantic villagers stage a party (in the original legend, an orgy) outside the cave and trick her into coming outside again. Finally, Susano finds a little princess whose land is being threatened by an 8-headed dragon. With the help of a flying horse (who we later learn was sent by his sister) and his sidekicks, they get the dragon a bit drunk and take out one head at a time (mostly, though two of the last three take each other out).
- DirectorMario MonicelliStarsMarcello MastroianniRenato SalvatoriGabriella GiorgelliA former high school teacher turned unionist tries to organize workers laboring with inhuman conditions at a late 19th Century textile factory.
- DirectorJohn HubleyStarsHarlow ShapleyMark HubleyRay HubleyA unique documentary that uses animation and narration set to a classical music soundtrack to convey what science teaches us about matter, energy, space, time, and life and using this knowledge to ponder man's place in the universe.
- DirectorNoriaki TsuchimotoStarsKimio KawasakiThe film focuses on the taxi drivers of Tokyo in the year before the Tokyo Olympics and the difficulties they face: construction obstructing traffic, poor working conditions, numerous accidents, and bad pay.
- DirectorVijay AnandStarsDev AnandWaheeda RehmanLeela ChitnisWhen mistaken to be a sage by some villagers, an ex-tour guide reflects on his past and lost love to search for spiritual wisdom to guide the villagers.
- DirectorTolomush OkeevStarsNasreddin DubashevSovetbek DzhumadylovMuratbek RyskulovIn the name of progress, the old folk traditions and ethnic rituals of the mountainous Kirghiz country are ruthlessly suppressed.
- DirectorBinka ZhelyazkovaStarsGeorgi KaloyanchevGrigor VachkovIvan BratanovA large balloon suddenly appears above villages and fields and grabs the attention of the peasants. They start liking the sudden guest from nowhere for the beauty of the free existence. A policeman comes and the dreams of freedom vanish.
- DirectorJoaquim Pedro de AndradeStarsGrande OteloPaulo JoséJardel FilhoOur story begins with Macunaima's miraculous birth to an old woman in a tiny jungle settlement. Born fully grown, he discovers his life's purpose which leads him and his family and followers on a journey to the Big City. More miracles occur on the way, but Macunaima still has the heart and mind of a child. In the Big City, terrorists enlist him in their revolutionary schemes. In the Big City he learns that nuts are not always food and other hilarious life lessons.
- DirectorMárta MészárosStarsJaroslava SchallerováKati SirMárk ZalaSavanyú and his friends work at a plant. After the monotonous shifts they engage in the pleasures of the afternoon and the night: Sex, parties and concerts. Savanyú dates Juli, who works in workers' hostels with the other girls. They are already engaged, but have almost no time to spend together. At a concert held in the Park of Youth, Juli gets to know Géza. They flirt and eventually travel through the country with a pop-group. Savanyú goes after them and catches up with Géza and the pop-group. A minor fight cools the atmosphere. Juli must decide, and her choice is Savanyú. Nothing can stop the wedding now.
- DirectorYoshishige YoshidaStarsMariko OkadaKaizo KamodaKazumi TsutsuiAn engineer's wife returns home with a lost teenager. A man posing as her dad tries to get her back, causing the engineer to recall his youth as a revolutionary, obscured by dreamlike disruptions of time and space, fantasy and reality.
- DirectorBruce BaillieA montage of images of film making is followed by a silent western story.
- DirectorPat O'NeillA surreal and experimental film created by Pat O'Neill.
- DirectorAndrea TonacciStarsPaulo César PeréioAbrahão FarcJura OteroThe actor of a film being made lives without distinction his own personal reality and his character's fiction. As the involuntary object of chance and circumstance, he looks for a meaning and way out, while being pursued by outlaws, a magician, a romantic fantasy, a drunk and his own self-image. The humour, the reason of the persecution, situations, personages, set decoration, dialogs and soundtrack (which uses themes from other films) lead us to symbols, metaphors and the refusal of a possible logical narrative, in a way to allow the viewer to experiment a sensation analogous to the one of the main character, inducing in him the need of thinking a meaning while lost and led by the sustained expectation, and by the intentionally recurrent anti-climax.
- DirectorGuy GillesStarsDanièle DelormeNathalie DelonPatrick PennYoung man Francois Nole works in a Bank. Often skips a walk, and one day he never comes to work. He goes to bed and refuses stand. Francois is a heroin addict, who has lost the joy of life. Nothing could bring him back from the darkness and despair no mother, no friends, no holidays, no love. One day, he suddenly changes,it becomes cheerful and calm...
- DirectorDan PitaMircea VeroiuStarsLeopoldina BalanutaEliza PetrachescuNina DonigaTwo bleak stories about absent love. In the first, a widow is working hard in a desperate attempt to save her dying daughter. The second tells the story of two wandering singers who kidnap a bride from her wedding.
- DirectorLuiz Rosemberg Filho
- DirectorRaúl RuizStarsBeatriz LapidoRodrigo UretaMónica DíazA poor schoolgirl and a young man from a wealthy family have an affair.
- DirectorJorge SanjinésIn the village of Tankuy, farmers are roused to revolutionary action against US based imperialism after one of them, an indigenous man, is brutalized by a landowner.Native non professionals contributed to and helped direct this example of radical, Collective oriented Latin American filmmaking.
- DirectorShyam BenegalStarsShabana AzmiSadhu MeherAnant NagBelonging to a lower caste, Lakshmi and her deaf-mute husband Kishtayya serve the landlord's son, Surya. When Surya's young wife finds out about his affair with Lakshmi, they all find themselves at crossroads.
- DirectorStephen DwoskinCarola RegnierStarsStephen DwoskinCarola RegnierThe film expresses the emotional feelings of a man with special needs, and a beautiful woman.
- StarsGitta AlparFelix BaschRobert BibertiThis documentary was made the late 1960's by filmmaker Gunter Straschek and his wife Karin Rausch. It is a compilation of interviews with many actors (or their descendants) and others in the movie making business who fled Nazi Germany.
- DirectorLjubomir Simunic
- DirectorEssie CoffeyStarsEssie CoffeyThe movie delves beneath surface appearances to reveal a strong resistance to assimilation and loss of identity, as the late Essie Coffey, a Murrawarri woman, takes us into the Aboriginal struggle for survival.
- DirectorMichelle CitronStarsVictor PenelopeAnne WilfordA documentary of a daughter's problematic relationship with her mother.
- DirectorWerner SchroeterStarsLiana TroucheAntonio OrlandoRenata ZamengoIn a miserable neighbourhood of Napoli, two brothers make totally different choices for their lives. The boy joins the Communist Party, while his sister follows the way of the church.
- DirectorBéla TarrStarsIrén SzajkiLászló HorváthGábor KunThe breakdown of the relationship of a couple by living in a flat of the husband's parents.
- DirectorKathryn BigelowMonty MontgomeryStarsWillem DafoeJ. Don FergusonRobert GordonTrouble ensues when a motorcycle gang stops in a small southern town while heading to the races at Daytona.
- DirectorClaudia von AlemannStarsRebecca PaulyDenise PéronJean BadinElisabeth, a young German historian, goes to Lyon, France, to study the life of Flora Tristan, a feminist writer of the 19th century.
- DirectorLaura MulveyPeter WollenStarsGavin RichardsLora LogicMary MaddoxFour people - a science fiction illustrator, a saxophonist who moves from busking to Top of the Pops, an analyst of satellite photography and Julian, a PHD student, meet at intervals, their lives set against a background of recession London. They are the focus of a story which begins to unravel the complex threads linking all aspects of life to an ever more desperate economic situation.
- DirectorSouleymane CisséStarsFousseyni SissokoGoundo GuisséBalla Moussa KeitaFinye tackles the generation gap in post-colonial West Africa. Its heroine is the pot smoking daughter of a provincial military governor who falls in love with a fellow university student, the descendent of one of Mali's chiefs.
- DirectorAli HatamiStarsEzzatolah EntezamiRichard HarrisonRussel CaseA loyal and simple-minded statesman is appointed as the first Iranian ambassador in the U.S. but soon starts to lose his mind from homesickness and inaction.
- DirectorDavid PerlovStarsDavid PerlovMira PerlovYael PerlovShot over a ten-year period, Diary is not only the political, professional, and personal diary of a man, but is a testimony on the turbulent reality of a war-torn country, Israel. In six chapters, Perlov travels to Tel Aviv, Paris, London, and finally to Brazil, where he was born. The film is also a family diary in which Perlov records the coming of age of his two daughters, Yael and Naomi.
- DirectorChia-Liang LiuStarsChia-Hui LiuSheng FuLily LiMongols with the help of an insider, ambush the influential Yang Family, defenders of the dynasty. The Mongols must hunt down all Yang survivors so their insidious plot to overthrow the dynasty will not be uncovered.
- DirectorHeiny SrourStarsRafik Ali AhmadNabila ZeitouniA film that weaves together re-enactments, archive footage and fairy-tale sequences to create a testament to the history of Lebanese and Palestinian women to the political struggles of the twentieth century.
- DirectorAntouanetta AngelidiStarsJany GastaldiMagia LymberopoulouAnnita SantorinaiouDuring its 85-minute, this jarring experimental film takes a no-holds-barred look at the way women have been treated and depicted in Western art.
- DirectorChaerul UmamStarsEl ManikIkranagaraMang Udel
- DirectorBarry BarclayStarsTuta Ngarimu TamatiIranui HaigTawai MoanaAn Australian doctor comes to a small Maori village where a child is suffering from Leukemia, as he discovers the truth about his heritage the town rallies together to keep the freezing works open.
- DirectorKrzysztof KieslowskiStarsBoguslaw LindaTadeusz LomnickiZbigniew ZapasiewiczWitek runs after a train. Three variations follow on how such a seemingly banal incident could influence the rest of Witek's life.
- DirectorMartina AttilleStarsMarie AttilleDionne Desantos CampbellRoderick HartAfter the death of their mother, who emigrated to England from St. Lucia to be with their father, two sisters and a brother of white English and Black Caribbean parentage attempt to fathom her psyche, her homesickness and depression after their father left the family, and their own ambiguous sense of identity and belonging.
- DirectorOliver SchmitzStarsThomas MogotlaneMarcel van HeerdenThembi MtshaliMapantsula tells the story of Panic, a petty gangster who inevitably becomes caught up in the growing anti-apartheid struggle and has to choose between individual gain and a united stand against the system.
- DirectorMona HatoumLetters from a Palestinian woman living in war-torn Lebanon to her daughter, whom she has not seen for years, and a series of photographs of the woman, convey the effects of war and exile on personal and cultural life, and nuances of family relationships.
- DirectorTrinh T. Minh-haTrinh T. Minh-ha combines archival footage, text, and interviews to paint portraits of Vietnamese women past and present. She explores the fiction of documentary and the truth of subjective experience and all their inherent contradictions.
- DirectorJohn BoskovichStarsSandra BernhardJohn DoeSteve AntinSandra Bernhard stars in a studio version of her off-Broadway show, blending re-enactments of the original show's pieces with concept vignettes and 'testimonials' to underscore the relationship between a performer and an audience.
- DirectorCaroline LeafStarsKathleen FeeMichael RudderJane WoodsTwo sisters live alone on an island. Viola, whose face is terribly disfigured, writes beautiful novels in her room. Marie is protective and won't let anyone see her sister. Then, a fan of Viola's books swims up on shore.
- DirectorIdrissa OuedraogoStarsBakary SangaréMariam KabaAbdoulaye KomboudriSamba Traore returns to his village flush with funds. Soon enough he manages to charm the beautiful Saratou into marrying him and, along with another friend, builds the first bar their village has ever seen. But his conscience keeps nagging him and the police are on the lookout for the "gas station murderer."
- DirectorEuzhan PalcyStarsJean-Claude DuvergerJacob DesvarieuxJocelyne BéroardThe ghost of a music teacher pushes a young mechanic to start a career in music.
- DirectorRolf de HeerStarsNicholas HopeClaire BenitoRalph CotterillBubby has spent thirty years trapped in the same small room, tricked by his mother. One day, he manages to escape and, deranged and naive in equal measures, his adventure into a modern and nihilistic life begins.
- DirectorTracey MoffattStarsDiana DavidsonJack CharlesBen KennedyThree Australian stories of the supernatural are recounted in this anthology. Rick (Jack Charles), an Aboriginal boy living near a swamp on Bribie Island, is haunted by an American solider who drowned in quicksand. Ruby (Tracey Moffatt) and her family live in a house near long-abandoned train tracks, which still carry ghostly apparitions. A landlord (Lex Marinos) has trouble evicting the tenants of an old warehouse: a couple that's been dead for years.
- DirectorSarah JacobsonStarsKristin Bree CalabresePhil CalabreseCoreyMary was a good girl until she decides to kill all the "sexist pigs". She of course encounters many of which, and enjoys killing them.
- DirectorIbrahim ShaddadStarsMohamed M. AliNasir El TayebFatin A. MagidSudanese filmmaker, Ibrahim Shaddad provides a dramatic and powerful account of the trials and tribulations of a Sudanese villager in an alien, large city. Shot entirely without dialogue, the film's innovative use of sound helps tell the story of a shepherd who leaves his wife and herd to settle in a nearby town. Since its premiere at the Alexandria Film Festival, Insan has been shown in a number of festivals in the Middle East and Europe. This film is a prime example of experimental Arab cinema.
- DirectorOlivier AssayasStarsVirginie LedoyenCyprien FouquetLászló SzabóWhen the girl of a rebelious teenage couple finds out she is being sent away, they both believe escaping the rigid order suffocating them is the only way to be free. But is it?
- DirectorLucian PintilieStarsKristin Scott ThomasClaudiu BleontOlga TudoracheRomania in the 1920s. Marie-Thérèse Von Debretsy (Dame Kristin Scott Thomas) refuses the advances of her husband's commanding officer. As a result, the cosmopolitan family is reassigned to a dark and dangerous outpost on the frontier between Bulgaria and Romania where their relationship and humanity are severely tested.
- DirectorStig BergqvistMartti EkstrandJonas OdellA short film about time.
- DirectorYôichi SaiStarsMasato HagiwaraKiichi NakaiMasato FuruoyaA string of brutal murders are being committed around Tokyo. As a rebellious police officer tries to piece together the clues, the only connection he can find is the victim's membership in the same college club back in the 60's. Fighting against the bureaucratic ineptitude of his colleagues, he must figure out who could be connected to the victims, and what the killer's motivation could possibly be.
- DirectorSergei DvortsevoyThe story of old people living in a forgotten village. Once a week they need to push the carriage with bread for several kilometers towards their gloomy settlement.
- DirectorOmar AmiralayThe film was based on an interview with the late dramatist Saadallah Wannous a few months before he died of cancer.
- DirectorKira MuratovaStarsSergey BekhterevNina RuslanovaNatalya BuzkoKira Muratova's "Checkhovskie motivy", adapted from a couple of works by the famous writer, concerns a man who, in the middle of his wedding, notices that in the audience is his deceased ex-lover.
- DirectorVít KlusákFilip RemundaStarsVarhan Orchestrovich BauerJaromír KalinaVít KlusákTwo students from the Czech Film Academy commission a leading advertising agency to organize a huge campaign for the opening of a new supermarket named Czech Dream. The supermarket however does not exist and is not meant to. The advertising campaign includes radio and television ads, posters, flyers with photos of fake Czech Dream products, a promotional song, an internet site, and ads in newspapers and magazines. Will people believe in it and show up for the grand opening?
- DirectorVíctor EriceStarsVíctor EriceSpanish director Victor Erice discusses the first film he saw as a 5 year old and the impact it had on his life.
- DirectorEsteban SapirStarsAlejandro UrdapilletaValeria BertuccelliJulieta CardinaliThis near-silent black and white film from Argentina tells the story of a city that has lost its voice, stolen by Mr. TV, and the attempts of a small family to win the voice back. Similar in design to early German expressionist films.
- DirectorDjo MungaStarsPatsha BayManie MaloneDiplome AmekindraRiva returns to his home town of Kinshasa to sell fuel, however the people whom he stole it from are close behind and when Riva tries to get with a girl her crime boss boyfriend isn't too happy about this.
- DirectorUlrike OttingerStarsSetsuko ArakawaKiyotsugu FujimaTakamasa FujimaIn Echigo in Japan the snow often lies several feet deep well into May covering landscape and villages. Over the centuries the inhabitants have organized their lives accordingly. In order to record their very distinctive forms of everyday life, their festivals and religious rituals Ulrike Ottinger journeyed to the mythical snow country - accompanied by two Kabuki performers. Taking the parts of the students Takeo and Mako they follow in the footsteps of Bokushi Suzuki who in the mid-19th century wrote his remarkable book "Snow Country Tales". A beautiful vixen fox leads the two protagonists astray and they undergo a wondrous metamorphosis. As a man and woman of the Edo period they now travel through the past and again and again encounter the present: Temple children build the holy mountain Fuji-san out of snow; a woman weaver, producing flimsy crepe in the icy cold, is haunted by an evil mountain demon; at the festival of the gods of paths and roads the rice straw pyramid with New Years' poems and wishes is burned and the popular ritual of bridegroom throwing takes place. The son of the transformed couple becomes a famous actor. Yet the jealous Emperor banishes him to the gold and silver island of Sado, to whose thousand-year history of exile we owe the saddest and at the same time most beautiful Japanese poems. From the island his longing gaze roams over the ocean. These three elements: Kabuki, poetry and the reality of the Snow Country combine with the music of Yumiko Tanaka to make a visually striking and moving film.
- DirectorNobuhiko ÔbayashiStarsYasuko MatsuyukiAkira EmotoMasayuki YuiEndo Reiko visits the city of Nagaoka and listens to a motley cast's stories. She learns about the fireworks in the city and its history, how war ravaged and changed the city and the narrator's lives. In the process much obscure information is offered and digested and there are hints of what constitutes the Japanese character.
- DirectorAinsley GardinerCasey KaaRenae MaihiStarsTanea HekeRoimata FoxNgapaki MoetaraA powerful, challenging story surrounding the tangi (funeral) of a small Waru boy who dies at the hands of his caregiver and how his death impacts the community.
- DirectorBlitz BazawuleStarsJoseph OtsimanMamley DjangmahKobina Amissah-SamA man is trapped in a mine shaft by his vengeful brother while his daughter embarks on a magical journey to rescue him.
- DirectorOnyeka IgweThe truth - obscured behind the static noise of old VHS tapes, behind the gaze of photographed subjects in a colonial archive, behind the words of the stories told - is hard to pinpoint. And as the title of this film suggests, it can be altered. Onyeka Igwe trudges through personal, colonial and televisual archives in Nigeria to tell the story of her grandfather. The tales she encounters are complicated, but she finds her own rhythm in recounting them.