Cinema Directory

Summary: As a girl relates stories about her ordinary teenage life, there is an uncomfortable sense of sadness underlying her easygoing tales, but it is not until the end that we find out the very disturbing truth.

Languages: English

Comments: He's the burping, farting, snorting, spitting image of his dad.

Summary: "I will try to be normal" 12-year-old Ace Ventura Jr. promises. Thats cool, except whats normal for him is finding missing mutts, kidnapped kitties or gone gators and creating hilarious chaos every step of the way. Like father, like son, its in his nature to be a pet defective detective! And when a zoos baby panda is stolen and Aces mom is Suspect #1, our young hero sets out to clear the family name. Its a new generation of family fun and goof-brained comedy panda-monium as Ace Ventura Jr. (Josh Flitter of Nancy Drew and License to Wed) teams with adventurous girl-next-door Laura (Emma Lockhart) and nerdish gizmo-wiz A-Plus (Austin Rogers) to chase down leads and laughs. Ready for fun? Allriiiighty-then. Ace - Ace Jr. is on the case!

Languages: English

Comments: Thick as thieves. Only thicker.

Summary: In this hysterical comedy of errors Michael Caine plays O'Malley, adown-on-his-luck actor, who becomes convinced he can scam the local criminals using his acting skills. He recruits Tom (played by Dylan Moran) to help him in his scheme. Inevitably both end up way over their heads in trouble!

Languages: English, Dolby Digital 5.1; English, Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround

Comments: The Family Just Got A Little Stranger.

Summary: Pugsley and Wednesday Addams aren't very happy with the new addition to the family: their new baby brother, Pubert. Morticia is restless, and Gomez only wants her to be happy, so he tries to fix everyone's problems by hiring a nanny. The Addams' finally find the perfect nanny in Debbie: a seemingly innocent woman with an impeccable wardrobe and a way with her hands. She charms the family, especially Uncle Fester, who is head-over-heels for her. However, Wednesday and Pugsley see through her sensual facade: Debbie is only after Fester for his money. Before they can rat on her, she has the kids sent off to summer camp, as she and Fester get married. While she tries (several times) to kill Fester and make it look like an accident, Pugsley and Wednesday must battle ever-cheery camp directors and spoiled rich kids to get back to their family and warn them of Debbie's plans.

Summary: On the first day of Ramadan, Hasan arrives at a railway station in the middle of the Anatolian wilderness. He has with him a young wife and a young daughter. He has heard that the small station community needs an imam to lead the prayer ritual and teach the children Koran during the holy month. Before too long, realizing how aloof he is with his wife and daughter and through a series of events, the townspeople decide that for all his impassioned preaching, his mellifluous calls to prayer and committed worship, Hasan is essentially a cruel and heartless man and they start to develop an almost hostile attitude towards the imam.

Summary: A girl, orphaned in WW2 by an bomb attack, roams through Germany, accompanied by a young woman seeking her relatives. She meets a young man and has a good time until the young man, the "enemy", has to go back to France where he came from. The drama is situated in the last months of WW2. Many years later, both grown, they meet again...

Summary: Two friends. A sunny afternoon. A very special day for Mathilda who learns to say goodbye for the first time. A small journey through friendship and the meaning of life.

Summary: Paloma, 12, is pregnant by Arturo, 14; they try desperately to get information about their predicament, and their schoolmates do their best to help - as they can't expect prude parents, or a closed society to help. The movie includes many humorous moments as the gang of friends try their best to conceal the pregnancy from the adults, and come to terms with reality: babies are not delivered by storks from Paris (hence the movie title).

Summary: Directed by no-one less than Jeanne Moreau, this movie, known for it's quality as one of the standards in the 'Coming of age' genre, is far more than that. It's a story about 'La douceur de vivre', or the 'The gentle way of life' - the pureness of French country-life in the years before the second world war. It's an extremely well crafted story of love, death and life, and the little secrets the villagers share, seen through the eyes of a perfectly authentic 13-year-old girl.

Simone Signoret gives a stunning performance, subtle and genuine, as the grand-mere (Mamie) of Marie, guiding her grandchild through the summer and her first encounters with love and romance. Marie falls in love with a Jewish doctor, 30 years of age, only to find that the doctor has more interest in her Dutch mother, who is in the middle of marital troubles with her dominant spouse. Marie realizes she will be the only one who can save her parents marriage and, with the help of Mamie, consults the local 'witch' to create a love-potion.

The question is, will everything return to normal, before the end of summer? And if war awaits, will life ever be the same again? One thing's for sure: you'll only lose childhood once, and it will never return...

Languages: English, Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; French, Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround

Comments: She thought babysitting was easy money - until she started hanging out with the Andersons.

Summary: Set in the John Hughes-style suburbs of Chicago, the titular adventures follow babysitter Chris (Shue), who agrees to watch the Anderson kids (Keith Coogan and Maia Brewton) when her boyfriend cancels their anniversary date. All is quiet on the home front until Chris is called upon to rescue her best friend (Penelope Ann Miller, also doing good-girl duty) from the seedy downtown bus station. She can't leave the kids, and she can't leave her friend alone in the big bad city, so she packs everyone in the station wagon and heads into Chicago. Screwball craziness begins as they encounter car thieves, knife-wielding gangs, gun-toting truck drivers, and, worst of all, Chris's duplicitous boyfriend. It's hardly mature entertainment, but Shue makes it work; when she wins over the audience at a blues club with her improv singing, you'll be won over, too. In his directorial debut, Chris Columbus (who later went on to helm the sap-fests "Mrs. Doubtfire" and "Home Alone") gently skewers the suburbia white-bread mindset of the main characters, and plays up the comedy over the schmaltz with a subtlety of which he now seems incapable; the near romance between Shue and Coogan is played lightly and adorably. Look for brief appearances by art-house faves Lolita Davidovich as a college party girl and Vincent D'Onofrio as an unlikely savior. "--Mark Englehart"

Languages: English, Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; Spanish, Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; Portuguese, Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround

Comments: Remarkable. Unbelievable. Impossible. And true.

Summary: The fantastic tale of a 17th century aristocrat, his talented henchmen and a little girl in their efforts to save a town from defeat by the Turks. Being swallowed by a giant sea-monster, a trip to the moon, a dance with Venus and an escape from the Grim Reaper are only some of the improbable adventures.

Languages: English, Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo

Comments: A classic story of a young girl's spirit that lights up the American landscape...and your heart.

Summary: For the young, spirited nine-year-old Ociee Nash, nothing could be more exciting than romping through her beloved Mississippi countryside with her brother, Ben, and her faithful four-legged companion, "Woofer." But Ociee's idyllic life is thrown into a tailspin when her Papa realizes that since the death of Ociee's mother, and Ociee's run-in with a mysterious Gypsy, the rough and tumble world of their rural farm is not the place for Ociee to be growing up. Reluctantly, Papa decides it is time to send Ociee to Asheville, N.C., where her Aunt Mamie can teach her to become "a young lady." With a heavy heart, Ociee boards the train bound for her uncertain new life far from the home she's always known. Once on her way, it's not long before Ociee meets an array of interesting (and renowned) characters including the world's pioneering female investigative journalist Nellie Bly, Orville and Wilbur Wright, and even the President of the United States, William McKinley, for whom Ociee inspires a campaign slogan. Upon arriving in Asheville, Ociee and Aunt Mamie quickly find there are two sides to every story. Trading in dungarees for dresses, Ociee tries her best to adjust, but finds herself compelled to hold onto her spirited heart. Ociee befriends the proper young Elizabeth Murphy and the pair is soon in over their heads with a trip to the creek and a daring meeting with Harry Vanderbilt and his friends. Just when Aunt Mamie seems more determined than ever that Ociee conform to stricter standards, Mamie's soft heart is revealed when her childhood friend, Mr. Lynch, visits over for Sunday dinner on the invitation of Ociee. Ociee's true bravery, character and spirit come to the forefront when a fire at the Murphy house threatens the life of young Elizabeth Murphy. A triumphant "Ociee Nash Day" celebration ensues to everyone's delight.

Comments: Smaller heroes. Just as super.

Summary: A boy dreams up shark-boy and lava-girl and the horror that lies within their planet.

Summary: Melissa is a nice and pretty girl with natural dreams and ambitions. But because of bad influences, her life becomes a nightmare. Until her real friends decide to get her out of there.

Languages: English, Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English, Dolby Digital 5.1; French, Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; Spanish, Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; Commentary by director 'Wolfgang Petersen' , Dolby Digital 1.0

Comments: Harrison Ford is the President of the United States.

Summary: Hijackers seize the plane carrying the President of the United States and his family, but an ex-soldier works from hiding to defeat them.

Summary: Juan Olmedo is 40. From the shipwreck he survived, he was able to save only his niece and his mentally retarded brother. Behind him, in a different city, he left a past as dramatic and capricious as the winds that lash the Atlantic Coast of Cadiz where he goes to escape from his memories. In this out-of-the-way place, Juan meets Maribel, his cleaning lady, and Sara, another "outsider" and newcomer like himself. They unexpectedly help him face the memories that torment him relentlessly: a star-crossed love affair with his brother'€™s wife, and the mysterious death of the brother he both loved best and hated most: Damian.

Summary: After lightening strikes Flight 109, the only chance for survival is a young girl.

Summary: Mr. Kleks - full name, Ambroży Kleks - is the creator and leader of magical Academy, which is only open for boys whose names begin with an 'A'. In this academy, people eat painted food, talk with heroes of fairy tales and throw ink during classes.

Ten-year-old Adam, beginning his education at the Academy, finds the hideout of Bird Matt, who used to be a prince. Touched by his fate, he promises to find the magic button which has the power to restore him to human shape.

Summary: A beautiful girl, Yoko, gets lost one night during an air raid and is taken in by an orphanage. Eventually, she is reunited with her own family and goes home to live with them. But there, an unexpected fate awaits her as she is subjected to horrific brutality from these people who are tortured by a past mistake. In the original comic series, the character 'Tamami' left many readers traumatized, and it is interesting to see how Yudai, a proven talent at adapting comics for the screen, chooses to portray her.

Languages: English

Comments: Changing the world... one word at a time.

Summary: A young girl from South Los Angeles tries to make it to the National Spelling Bee.

Languages: Spanish

Summary: This drama features three stories about the bonds between children and absent parents. A Cuban boy who lives in poverty with his mother longs to visit his father in the United States, a Moroccan girl attempts to reunite with her father, and in Mexico, and a boy disobeys his father to visit a strange lagoon. These related vignettes showcase the powerful hold that parents have upon their children, which often remains strong despite their absence.

Summary: 13-year old Rikke sees Bea, the new girl in her class, as a challenge. After an endurance test to find which of them can lie longer in a circle of flames, they become friends. However, as a result of some unfortunate truths and half-truths, the friendship falters. Rikke feels that Bea has let her down, and resolves to continue the rivalry between them, but now in a less physical, more artful way. In addition we meet Rikke's elder sister Ninni, who has been in England to learn the language, and has had to leave her great love, a man twelve years her senior. The film is also about the problems Rikke encounters in fulfilling the expectations of those around her as she approaches womanhood.

Languages: Norwegian

Summary: "Day In, Day Out" is about a divorced father who no longer spends weekdays with his daughter, with the result that on the rare occasions they meet he feels increasingly vulnarable and alienated from her. The film focuses on the man having to come to terms with a new reality, where he is losing his function as a father in the day-to-day family situation.

Languages: English, French, Russian

Summary: Lev Durov is a merchant, living in a fairytale Russia of hundreds of years ago. When he is making a journey to the market, his three daughters each ask for a present to be brought back. But a magic spell is cast on him, and they need to go and find him. In doing so, young Alyona falls in love with a tree-spirit, who turns out to be an enchanted prince...

Summary: Tavi, a man in his late thirties, discovers that Alexandra, his 4 years old daughter, is not calling him “Dad” anymore.

Languages: German

Summary: German journalist Philip Winter has a case of writer's block when trying to write an article about the United States. He decides to return to Germany, and while trying to book a flight, encounters a German woman and her nine year old daughter Alice doing the same. The three become friends (almost out of necessity) and while the mother asks Winter to mind Alice temporarily, it quickly becomes apparent that Alice will be his responsibility for longer than he expected. After returning to Europe, the innocent friendship between Winter and Alice grows as they travel together through various European cities on a quest for Alice's grandmother.

Languages: English,

Summary: A subversive and haunting retelling of the classic children's story featuring legendary actors Sir Michael Redgrave, Sir John Gielgud, Leo McKern, and satirists Peter Sellers, Peter Cook, and Alan Bennett. This surreal masterpiece was filmed for the BBC by stage and screen director Jonathan Miller. Miller's Victorian Gothic version of "Alice in Wonderland" captures the menacing undertones of Lewis Carroll's story while poking fun at middle-class England.

Summary: Alice is poised to fly. A young girl on the threshold of womanhood. But her wings have been
clipped. She is trapped. She hovers in childhood, denies her heart and appetite. Her life
descends into black and white… Will she find the strength to soar herself into a world of
colour?

‘Alice or life in black and white’ talks about the absence of communication, about the walls
dividing a family: there’s a complete lack of communication between Alice and both her
parents. Nobody sees who she really is. In fact, they don’t see each other. Alice wants to free
herself from this rigid familial harness. She revolts and wants to escape the cold-hearted
world that surrounds her at any price.
Through her glassy attitude, Alice wants to say as much as “I’d prefer to be dead”. And still
she is in search of courage to live or a way to survive.
Alice manages to liberate herself from her cocoon when she’s in a psychiatric institution. It’s
where the butterfly she drew comes to life. Her real life is not in black and white, but in full
colour.

Languages: English

Summary: Still mourning the death of her mother a few years back, ALICE McKINLEY finds her life seriously disrupted when her father BEN buys a store and moves her and her older brother LESTER to a new town. In the painful throes of adolescence, Alice has a rough time adjusting to her new school, especially after she gets the stern MRS. PLOTKIN as her core teacher. Feeling shy and isolated, Alice frequently escapes into a vivid fantasy life that occasionally gets her into hot water. But with a little unexpected help from Mrs. Plotkin, Alice learns not to judge by appearances or jump to conclusions. More importantly, she confronts her father over his inability to accept their loss and move on into the future...

Comments: Made in Wonderland, the most magical musical of all!

Summary: It tells the story of a girl named Alice who falls down a rabbit-hole into a fantasy world populated by peculiar and anthropomorphic creatures.

In Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Alice (Fullerton) follows a white rabbit (Crawford), tumbles down a hole, drinks a tonic that causes her to shrink, eats a cake that makes her grow, and takes tea with a bonkers milliner (Helpmann), a drowsy dormouse (Moore) and a rabid rabbit (Sellers). And that's before we get to the business with the hookah-smoking caterpillar (Richardson) and a royal family who bear a close resemblance to playing cards.

Summary: The story is about a 12 year old girl who loses her mother in an automobile accident. Her father struggles with the loss of his wife and trying to raise his young daughter who believes her father is partly responsible for her mother's death. Belle's maternal grandfather is a changed man since losing his daughter in the accident. He finds it difficult to have a relationship with Belle since she is a constant reminder of her mother. It is Atticus the new puppy who will change Belle's life and the lives of those who love her.

Summary: On the planet Venus, it rains almost constantly. A classroom full of young children are excited to hear that the rain will stop today, for just fifteen minutes. But they are also resentful of a new classmate from Earth, who remembers what it's like to see the sun. They lock her in a closet just before the sun comes out.

Summary: This film is a very special initiative. Three years ago, the project’s producers sought to create a cinematic project that would raise awareness about the plight of children around the world. Both UNICEF and the World Food Programme, the leading United Nations organizations devoted to children, lent their support and will receive the net profits from the film. The producers then approached a number of filmmakers – amongst them some of the best-known names in international cinema – who leapt at the opportunity to direct a short segment and contributed their efforts for free.

In All the Invisible Children, Brazil, Italy, England, Serbia, Burkina Faso, China and the United States provide the backdrops for deeply moving portraits of children who face terrible adversity – deprivation, disease, violence – on a daily basis. The struggles of street children to survive is a theme common to the episodes by Katia Lund, Stefano Veneruso and Emir Kusturica; we find these unfortunates collecting cardboard and scrap metal in the streets of São Paolo or stealing to get by in Naples and the Serbian countryside. Mehdi Charef focuses on the brutal armed conflicts that have torn Africa apart, and we witness shocking images of child warriors who wield machine guns with practised ease. Woo’s section deals with two girls from different classes whose paths cross when one’s discarded doll becomes the most treasured possession of the other. Spike Lee’s film is a searing examination of an HIV-positive Brooklyn teenager who is the daughter of two junkies, while Jordan and Sir Ridley Scott join forces to explore the ravaged life of a shell-shocked photojournalist who escapes back into his childhood to salvage his humanity.

Each of the segments that comprise this affecting omnibus work is a labour of love, told with all the compassion these remarkable filmmakers can bring to these all-too-common situations.

Summary: Teenaged Alice (Natalie Bjork) tries to save her parents' faltering marriage. Her father, Johan (Mikael Persbrandt), is cheating on her mother, Lotta (Marie Richardson), with his co-worker Anna (Lena Endre). When Lotta eventually kicks Johan out, he moves in with Anna and her son Patrik (Anastasious Soulis). Alice is then torn between siding with her mom and grandparents (Marie Goranzon and Sverre Anker Ousdal) or seeing her dad with his new family.

Summary: Enchanting family film from Lasse Hallstrom ("My Life as a Dog") detailing the adventures of six loquacious kids in their village, shortly before World War II. They explore the countryside, invent fun-filled games and enjoy themselves during a much simpler time

Comments: A film about friendship, secrets and betrayal

Summary: Sanna and Moa are best friends. One afternoon a week the two girls are allowed to be home alone instead of going to After-school. It is exciting and of course they have to try everything they normally aren't allowed to do. But after a while the games become more serious and Sanna has a hard time finding a way out.

Languages: English, Dolby Digital 5.1; English, Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; French, Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround

Comments: The game is far from over.

Summary: Based on the book by James Patterson and a partner to the film Kiss the Girls, Morgan Freeman stars as the detective/psychologist Alex Cross. After losing his partner in an out of control 'bust' Alex Cross stops working and cannot forgive himself. He is drawn back to work reluctantly when a senator's daughter is kidnapped and the kidnapper seems to want to deal with Alex personally.

Summary: This is a summer story about a travelling fairs' stay at a country village. Ede takes an interest in the gypsy girl Unku, they become friends and almost girlfriend and boyfriend. But some of the people in the village (including Ede's father) don't like gypsies...

Languages: English, French

Comments: She gave her innocence, her passion, her body. The one thing she couldn't give was her love.

Summary:
The Lover is director Jean-Jacques Annaud's adaptation of Marguerite Duras' minimalist 1984 novel. Set in French Indochina in 1929, the film explores the erotic charge of forbidden love. Jane March plays a French teenager sent to a Saigon boarding school, while Tony Leung is a 32-year Chinese aristocrat. They look at each and they both see a blinding white flash; it's kismet. He offers her a ride in his limousine and soon they meet in his "bachelor room" where they revel in a wide variety of creative sexual encounters. However, they both realize their love is doomed. She comes from a troubled family that includes a mentally-disturbed mother (Frederique Meininger) and drug-addicted brother (Arnaud Giovaninetti). It also appears that her family would not approve of an interracial tryst. But then neither would his family, since in order to inherit his father's wealth, he must not break from a traditional Chinese arranged marriage.

Summary: A mysterious, very old solicitor Mr. Blunden visits Mrs. Allen and her young children in her squalid, tiny Camden Town flat and makes her an offer she cannot refuse. The family become the housekeepers to a derelict country mansion in the charge of the solicitors. One day the children meet the spirits of two other children who died in the mansion nearly a hundred years previously. The children prepare a magic potion that allows them to travel backwards in time to the era of the ghost children. Will the children be able to help their new friends and what will happen to them if they do??

Summary: On an observatory set high on a mountain, astronomers make a stunning discovery somewhere out in the galaxy. A flying object in the depths of the cosmos is showing signs of life, emitting an intelligent signal. The UFO has just landed on Earth somewhere in the midst of a rainforest. Margot, the enthusiastic young woman heading up the research team, decides to go to the spot and check out this phenomenon. Meanwhile Edouard, our hero, studies the flora and fauna of the tree tops in the rainforest. He perches on an enormous net that stretches over the still pure, unadulterated forest that spreads out beneath him. He discovers a naked little twelve-year old girl seated on the net. He covers her with a broad banana leaf and asks where she comes from. She quickly replies, in perfect French 'from another world'.

Summary: On January 13, 1996, Amber Hagerman was riding her bicycle in Arlington, Texas, when a neighbor heard her scream. The neighbor saw a man abduct the child and drive away at a high rate of speed, then immediately called the police. A search began that involved Arlington Police, the FBI and local radio and television stations. Four days later, Amber's body was found about four miles away. Her kidnapping and murder still remain unsolved.

This is the true story of what happened to this sweet nine-year-old from Texas and how her family came together to help others as a result.

Languages: English

Comments: ... look closer

Summary: Lester Burnham, a depressed suburban father in a mid-life crisis, decides to turn his hectic life around after developing an infatuation for his daughter's attractive friend.

Comments: This has been the most terrible crime ever committed in the state of Indiana

Summary: Based on a true story that shocked the nation in 1965, the film recounts one of the most shocking crimes ever committed against a single victim. Sylvia and Jennie Fae Likens, the two daughters of traveling carnival workers are left for an extended stay at the Indianapolis (3850 E. New York St. is hardly suburban, nor was it in 1965, by any stretch of the imagination.) home of single mother Gertrude Baniszewski and her seven children. Times are tough, and Gertrude's financial needs cause her to make this arrangement before realizing how the burden will push her unstable nature to a breaking point. What transpires in the next three months is both riveting and horrific.

Languages: English

Summary: A fourth grader and her friends deal with bullying from a more popular girl in their class.

Comments: Possession Knows No Bounds

Summary: Based on true events validated by the State of Tennessee of the only case in US History where a spirit or entity caused the death of a man. With over 20 books written on the subject, and a town that still lives in fear of the return of the unseen spirit, the story of "An American Haunting" is terrifying. Between the years 1818-1820, the Bell Family of Red River, Tennessee was visited by an unknown presence that haunted the family and eventually ended up causing the death of one its members. Starting with small sounds around the farm, and the sighting of a a strange BLACK WOLF with piercing yellow eyes, the sounds escalated into full brutal contact with the certain family members, causing psychological and physical torment. The attacks grew in strength, with the spirit slapping, pulling, dragging, and beating the Bell's youngest daughter. The Bells searched for rational explanations and ways to rid their house of this entity, but to no avail as the spirit began to communicate with them through sounds, and eventually multiple voices that sounded like the wind. The cause of its actions could always be felt, but no being could be seen, and no explanation found- only the promise that one day it would kill one of the family members. Fearing that the haunting was caused by a local woman -branded a witch- who had put a curse upon the family as a result of a land dispute, the Bells tried desperately to find ways to get rid of the woman's curse, yet the attacks and disturbances only escalated. It was not until a manuscript of the local schoolteacher -who lived on the property during the disturbance- was found in 1998 that the horrifying and shocking answer to what caused this haunting would finally be unveiled.

Languages: English

Comments: One family struggles for survival, for justice, for freedom.

Summary: In 1950, a Hungarian couple, Peter and Margit, are forced to flee from the oppressive communist country for the USA with their eldest daughter Maria, but are forced to leave behind their infant daughter Suzanne who is raised by kindly foster couple. 6 years later, Peter and Margit arrange for the American Red Cross to bring Suzanne to their new home in Los Angeles where the perplexed youth is forced to accept her sudden change in home and country which leads to a troubled growing up. At age 15, the rebelious and unsure-of-herself Suzanne tries to come to terms with her roots and decides to travel back to Budapest, Hungary to find her true idenity.

Summary: Without any uncomfortably explicit scenes, this film clearly shows the toll that a fifteen-year-old girl's incestuous relationship with her outwardly serene father takes on her. When Sabrina goes on a date with a boy, she becomes violently ill when the unwary lad tries to kiss her. Her father is such a mild-acting man that no one would imagine what he's been up to. She has dropped out of high school, and progressing away from her claustrophobic relationship with her father seems nearly impossible, until she takes a job at a clothing store and genuinely falls in love with one of her co-workers. This seems to offer her a way beyond her current circumstances, until her jealous father gets wind of it.

Comments: Katch 'em, kill 'em

Summary: A family is terrorized by demonic forces after moving into a home that was the site of a grisly mass-murder.

Summary: Having spent the 1970s living in a happy commune in Finland, Marja and her Italian husband Fortunato have just moved to Sicily with their two children. Fortunato feels it is time to leave the happy-go-lucky hippie years behind and grow up, whereas for Marja, peace and love are still living values which she doesn’t want to give up. The lifestyle of the Finnish child of nature causes problems in conservative Italy, and eventually the disapproval of the little village’s inhabitants forces Marja to change.

Summary: A young girl who has been orphaned, meets a man who has recently escaped from an insane asylum. The two pretend to be father and daughter and after falling in love with the man, the girl discovers he is married and vows to kill his wife.

Comments: You've heard nothing until you hear her song.

Summary: A little girl has PTSD from watching her father die a horrible death. She can hear but only pays attention if you sing. The plot is a little silly at times but only the most cynical will not be touched. The personality of little Amy and her beautiful voice makes this a worthwhile film to see.

Summary: This Spanish drama verges on parody as it explores the convoluted, repressed personalities of a family dominated by a powerful mother. The mother's frustrations have warped the men. The three men's foibles are revealed during the visit of a young English woman. Director Saura has used intensified, heightened symbolism to tell this story in the somewhat surreal manner of his better-known film Garden of Delights.

Languages: Italiano: Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS

Summary: 11-year-old Tommi, his older sister Viola and their father Renato have formed a strangely united family since the most important woman in their life, the mother of the two children and Renato's wife, abandoned them. Despite all, this family, so full of fury, failings and inconsolable loneliness, keeps going, thanks to their abiding concern for others and their love.

Languages: English Dolby Digital 5.1, English Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround, French Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo

Comments: The greatest adventure is finding your way home

Summary: Toni Whitney and her family adopt a baby seal. When it grows and starts getting into mischief, it antagonizes some of the fisherman in the town. One of the fisherman, Mark Baker, is upset with the Whitney's because Toni's father, Harry, was appointed Harbor Master instead of him, partially because of the seal. But when the humorous antics of the seal attracts media attention, further squeezing out Mark, and running down his business, he gets even more upset.

Summary: This eerily beautiful film stars Miranda Stuart Rhyne as Angela, a young girl trying to cope with her family's falling apart. Her mother (Anna Thomson) has drastic mood shifts that bring her from manic happiness to utter misery. Her father (John Ventimiglia) tries to hold everyone together, but Mae's vacillations are becoming more than he can manage. Adrift, Angela and her little sister concoct magical rituals and have visions of fallen angels and the Virgin Mary; reading signs in the way a towel falls off a chair or a tool falls off a truck, they set off to find their way to heaven. "Angela" succeeds because of writer-director Rebecca Miller's keen understanding of childhood, when imagination and reality are fluid and fantasies can exert a potent influence over a child's life. An unsettling and affecting movie, with an excellent performance by Rhyne. "--Bret Fetzer"

Summary: Carlos is a happy businessman, with a nice family. One very unfortunate day he dies in an accident. Once arriving in heaven, he looks down upon his daughter Isabel and sees that she has no one to look after her. He is sent down back to earth in the form of a professor to look after his young daughter,

Summary: An enchanting story of faith, redemption, and joy, ANGELITO MIO is the story of a disgruntled angel, Mary of the Stars, who becomes Heaven's unlikely heroine. Heaven is in a state of chaos because God has left on a journey to Earth, seeking to regain his faith in humankind; His regent, San Wichon, has turned the Celestial Senate into an unholy mess! Mary goes in search of her Boss, and embarks on a quest fraught with mystery, excitement, and wonder, as well as no shortage of song and dance, as she endeavors to find God.

Summary: A fading baseball star (Patrick Warburton, from SEINFELD) begins to lose confidence in himself after making a mistake in a key play. His daughter tries to help him reconnect with his family and the game, with the help of her guardian angel (David Alan Grier) who was himself a second-string pitcher.

Languages: English

Summary: Georgia Nicolson is fourteen, lives with nosey parents who don't understand her, an annoying three year old sister and has to wear a beret to school. She would, however, rather be blonde, have a smaller nose and a boyfriend. Revolving around her hilarious journal entries, prepare to be engulfed in the world of the soaring joys and bottomless angst of being a teenager.

Summary: A wonderfully offbeat comedy about teenage self-discovery in the early '70s, Anita & Me explores the world of 12-year-old Meena (Chandeep Uppal), who has moved to England with her Indian family. In the tradition of Bend It Like Beckham and My Big Fat Greek Wedding, she is embarrassed by her eccentric relatives and friends and latches onto the town bad girl, the blonde, rebellious Anita Rutter (Anna Brewster). At 14 - blonde, aloof, beautiful, outrageous and sassy - Anita is everything Meena thinks she wants to be. Meena wheedles her way into Anita's life, but the arrival of a baby brother, teenage hormones, impending entrance exams for the posh grammar school and a motorcycling rebel without a future, threaten to turn her salad days sour. With a stellar cast including Lynn Redgrave, Sanjeev Bhaskar, Meera Syal (The Kumars at Number 42), Mark Williams (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) and Kathy Burke (Absolutely Fabulous), the clash of cultures in the era of flared pants and glam rock reaches new heights of hilarity.

Summary: In Northeastern of Brazil, the father of the twelve years old illiterate Maria sells his daughter to Tadeu to be employed as a housemaid and have a better life. However, the girl is resold to the farmer Lourenço that deflowers her, and he gives the abused girl to his teenager son to have his first sexual experience. Then she is sent to a brothel in a gold field in Amazonas and explored his owner, the despicable Saraiva. When Maria escapes to Rio de Janeiro expecting a better life, she is exploited by Madame Vera.

Languages: Deens

Summary: The every day life of an ordinary family father is shredded to pieces, when he is accused of having had intercourse / incest with his 13-year old daughter. We follow the father Henrik, and how his life and whole existence is turned upside down. Even before the case against him begins, everybody except his loving wife and his best friend now takes an extra look at him. And when he gets be remanded in custody he is close to devastation.

Summary: Swiss mix of real life / animation, about a girl named Anna ho has a strong imagination. One day, a talking fotocopy machine creates a copy of Anna. Anna decides to hide her new friend in her house and all kinds of funny situations occur, until eventually, mother finds out she's having two daughters..

Summary: The film is based on the biography of the legendary Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova. She became an internationally regarded ballerina after her performances in 1909 with the Dyaghilev's Ballet in Paris and in London. Anna Pavlova (Belyaeva) eventually formed her own troupe. She made a successful world tour together with Viktor d'Andre (Fox), who was her husband and manager.

Summary: Anna Hart was always an odd child, a genius, a shoplifter, desperately afraid of flickering lights, with strange prophetic dreams. Simultaneously, several strange things begin to happen. A strange, mysterious neighbor, by the name of MacKayla moves in next door to the Harts. And, most frightening of all, Anna sees her exact double on the television one night. As her investigation of the other Anna, Anna Smithson, progresses, she begins to learn the truth. The truth about a woman named Anna Zimmerman that has been dead for twenty years, and most importantly, the truth about herself.

Summary: A small town in Germany, in the early 1960s, a summer full of surprises. The eleven-year-old Anna has everything but a sheltered upbringing. Her whining brother Rolli always in tow, she increasingly has to take care of her mother Sophie. Sophie is a sensitive but frail woman who tends to drown her sorrows in alcohol. While Sophie uses her seductive powers to turn every man's head in the bars she goes to, Anna has no bigger wish than a real father.When Anna asks about him, she finds out about Sophie's great love and despair: Fritz, the hero who returned from one war only to leave for the next one, died long ago. But the quick-tempered Franz suddenly turns out to be his brother. Anna now has an uncle, at least. He is heavily courting Sophie, but she has no interest in him at all. Meanwhile young Micky is starting to woo Anna. Anna feels that much could be discovered there if it weren't for the worsening situation of her family. Sophie kills herself with alcohol, but before she does so, she confesses to Anna: Fritz is still alive, and somewhere in France. So Anna makes a decision. She grabs Micky's seabag and a picture of Fritz and sets out for France to find her father.

Summary: In WWII Munich, Anna works for a Nazi family as a nanny but secretly steals food and cigarettes and bring those to a Jewish family, who hides from the Nazis. One day, the family is discovered and only by chance can Anna save the family's only daughter, Franziska. Together they escape to Anna's native village where Anna tells everybody that Franziska is her daughter...

Comments: The hiding was only the beginning

Summary: This film covers young Anne Frank's life from her childhood before the war in Amsterdam, through the harsh war years covered in her diary, to her final days leading up to her death in a Nazi concentration camp. The resulting story is more heartbreaking than ever, as the full scope of Anne's life and family are covered in greater scope than ever before, featuring outstanding performances and a harsh, unblinking look at the conditions experienced by millions during the dark days of World War II.

Summary: In 1952, 7 year old Helene and her brother Michel of 9 years, are seperated from their divorced parents, and move to Lille. There they will be taken care of by their grandparents, who are traumatized by the war. Helene learns her jewish identity and tries to make sense of the new family situation.

Languages: English, Dolby Digital 5.0

Comments: The Music. The Memories. The Magic.

Summary: Eleven-year-old Annie (Alicia Morton, film debut) has been living in an orphanage her whole life run by cruel Miss Hannigan (Kathy Bates). After unsuccessful escape attempts, Grace Farrell (Audra McDonald) comes to take the child home to live two weeks with billionaire Oliver Warbucks (Victor Garber) during Christmas. The plucky orphan worms her way into the hearts of the staff and Mr. Warbucks and even the president of the United States! Even though Mr. Warbucks wants to adopt her, she is still looking for her real parents who left a locket with her when they dropped her off at the orphanage. Miss Hannigan's brother (Alan Cumming) and his sleezy girlfriend (Kristin Chenoweth) pose as Annie's parents to gather the reward that Warbucks has offered to Annie's real parents.

Summary: A bizarre biblical fantasy, acted entirely by children between 8 and 14 years of age. An adolescent Adam is cast out of the garden of Eden, becomes a general in Athens, a crusader in Byzantium, and a witness to mankind's depravity through the ages.

Summary: In 1970, near the World Cup, Daniel Stern and his wife Miriam leaves Belo Horizonte in a hurry and scared with their ten years old son Mauro in their Volkswagen. While traveling to São Paulo, the couple explains Mauro that they will travel on vacation and will leave Mauro with his grandfather Mótel. Daniel promises to return before the first game of the Brazilian National Soccer Team in the Cup. The boy is left in Bom Retiro, a Jewish and Italian neighborhood, and waits for Mótel in front of his apartment. When the next door neighbor Shlomo arrives, he tells the boy that Mótel had just had a heart attack and died. Alone and without knowing where his parents are, the boy is lodged by Shlomo and the Jewish community. Through the young neighbor Hanna, Mauro makes new friends, cheers for the Brazilian team and sees the movement of the police and militaries on the streets while waiting for his parents.

Languages: English

Summary: A guy (Seeley) who danced with what could be the girl (Gomez) of his dreams at a costume ball only has one hint at her identity: the Zune she left behind as she rushed home in order to make her curfew. And with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity in front of him, he sets out to find his masked beauty.

Languages: English, French

Comments: A story of a mother who knows best... and a daughter who knows better.

Summary: Fed up with her small-town Bay City existence, Adele August leaves her family and second husband and heads for Beverley Hills with her daughter. The teenager resents the move and her mother's always flamboyant behaviour and in turns plans to get away to university on the east coast. Mum's plans are different - she wants a movie star for a daughter.

Languages: French

Comments: Ils sont jeunes. Ils veulent reussir vite. Elle est...

Summary: Three adolescents, a girl who serves as the priming and two boys, kill two men cold blooded who were known by the girl only for to steal the money of them. With the money the three want to open a shop for clothing in the United States. But their dream turns out to be more difficult to realize than the assassination.

Summary: The conflict in question is World War II; even though hostilities have all but ceased, the Germans and the French are not precisely reconciled. German soldier Richard Bohlinger, absent without leave, is befriended by a couple of pre-teen boys (Antoine and Julien Hubert, sons of director Jean-Louis Hubert). Despite the fact that they seem to have found a lasting peace, the adult world doesn't see things the boys' way, and Bohlinger is put to death. Apres le Guerre is the second felicitous collaboration between director Hubert and veteran character-actor Richard Bohlinger; the first was the popular Le Grand Chemin.

Comments: A Fish-Out-Of-Water Comedy.

Summary: Two teenage girls discover a mermaid in their beach club's swimming pool.

Summary: A brother and sister arrive alone in the new country of Israel after World War II where they hope to find their lost mother. The complexities of life with colorful characters in the refugee transit camp and nearby kibbutz makes it hard to reconcile their real lives with their deeper dream of still finding the Newland.

Languages: French, Dolby Digital 2.0; English, Dolby Digital 2.0; Spanish, Dolby Digital 2.0

Summary: Critic Pauline Kael neatly summed up the timeless appeal of François Truffaut's 1976 film by calling it "that rarity--a poetic comedy that's really funny." In other words, Truffaut's brilliant, upbeat study of resilient children in a French village is both artistically satisfying and joyously entertaining, proving yet again (after his acclaimed debut film "The 400 Blows") that few directors remembered and understood the experience of childhood as clearly as Truffaut. The film's episodic structure reveals its young characters gradually, leaving them and returning to them as their individual stories unfold. Most of the sketches are hilarious (as when a little girl uses a megaphone to announce that she's been "abandoned," resulting in generous gifts of food from her surrounding neighbors), but there's also a story about a boy with abusive parents who learns to survive by his own ingenuity. Throughout, this remarkable film gets all the details precisely right, featuring a youthful cast of kids who don't seem to be acting at all. It's as if Truffaut had somehow gained privileged entrance into their world, and they carried on as if the camera simply wasn't there. (Another French film, "Ponette", would achieve a similar, more heartbreaking feat two decades later.) "--Jeff Shannon"

Summary: The bear leaves Berlin. He's fed up. On the way, two Russian ladies - Anna and her daughter, Arisha - hire him as their driver. During the trip, a Santa Claus who cannot stand Christmas, and then a Vietnamese family, join the group whose destination is a spot by the sea. There, on the beach, lies a stone ring, which
wants to be found.

Summary: An introspective 14-year-old boarding school student initiates a consensual sexual affair with her 28-year-old advisor while posing as a model for his amateur "art" photos.

Summary: "Die Doppelte Dalmatiner"

A group of kids have a number of adventures and lots of fun with their two high-spirited Dalmatian dogs (Artus and Merlin) until a nasty neighbor decides he wants the dogs dead.

Summary: Csöre, the seven-year-old orphan, is maltreated by her foster-parents. They punish her severely for every tiny mistake she makes. Csöre runs away and an other family adopt her, nevertheless she is abused more than ever before.

Languages: Russian

Summary: Izrael (Iz'ia) Arje (played by the Polish actor Jerzy Stuhr), a Lithuanian Jew and a world-renowned Moscow heart surgeon, learns that he has only six months to live because of pancreatic cancer. He retires immediately and sets out to find his first love, Sonia Schworz (the Israeli actress Sandra Sadeh), with whom he shared an attic on a Lithuanian farm while hiding from the Nazis for a large part of World War Two. Their re-union takes place in Israel, where Sonia settled after the war. Although the couple has not seen each other for sixty years, it turns out that in the meantime they have been following similar life paths, not unlike twins separated at birth. Both have achieved enviable prosperity and enjoy the company of much younger bedfellows. To get these youngsters out of the way, Sonia unceremoniously dumps her lover Chaim (Yuval Levy), while Iz'ia’s pregnant wife Ol'ga (Angelina Chernova) is quickly persuaded to marry Sonia’s grandson Yossi (Aleksandr Balk).

Yossi bears an uncanny resemblance to the Lithuanian farmer Juozas (also played by Balk), who hid Sonia and Iz'ia as children (Zhenia Mel'nikov and Vera Ivanko; later Vitalii Rosenwasser and Bella Sarkisova) in 1941, and won over Sonia’s heart in 1944 in an unequal competition with the inexperienced Iz'ia. Although Juozas is killed by Lithuanian Nazi sympathizers, Iz'ia does not forgive Sonia for what he sees as betrayal, and refuses to follow her to Palestine when Lithuania is liberated. The irony of it all, commonly known as “Jewish happiness,” lies in the patterns that keep repeating themselves sixty years after: Iz'ia loses his woman (Ol'ga this time) to a Juozas look-alike again and fails to keep Sonia too (she suddenly dies in a terrorist explosion at Yossi’s and Ol'ga’s wedding). Apparently, Sonia’s and Iz'ia’s union was never meant to last, either at the beginning or at the end of their lives. On his deathbed, pondering on the lost opportunities, Iz'ia reiterates God’s commandment to multiply and replenish the earth (Gen. 1: 28) in the form of an impassionate plea to Ol'ga and Yossi to waste no time in going forth and procreating, presumably to contribute to the survival of the Jewish people, constantly threatened by extermination.

Languages: Spanish

Summary: In the small town of San Jorge, a 12- year-old girl watches in horror as her father, a local telegraph operator is thrown in prison by the local military dictatorship. Meanwhile, her mother, Florencia, must make tough moral decisions in order for them to survive under the political oppression. Even Carnival, with all its colorfulness and celebration, can't disguise the mounting tension between the villagers and government making the girl's coming of age all the more difficult when the two collide.