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World Cinema

World Cinema
Blessed
A daringly complex study of the relationship between mothers with their children, from Australian director Ana Kokkinos.
World Cinema
45365
An elegiac portrait of goings-on in the middle-American town of Sydney, Ohio, a celebration of everyday life, be it mundane or profound.
World Cinema
The Absence
An intense drama of loss, solitude, love and hope.
World Cinema
Adrift
Almost a Vietnamese Les Liaisons dangereuses, Bui Thac Chuyen's elegant film about convoluted sexual relationships is a very grown-up song of innocence and experience.
World Cinema
Ajami
A powerful crime drama set on the mean streets of Israel. The fact Ajami is a collaboration between two young directors, Scandar Copti, a Palestinian, and Yaron Shani, an Israeli, serves as a statement in itself.
World Cinema
Alexander the Last
Smart, playful and inquisitive, Alexander the Last is the latest from Joe Swanberg, a prolific and challenging filmmaker who is developing a body of work that is both fascinating and inspiring.
World Cinema
At the End of Daybreak
Inspired by a tabloid news story, Ho Yuhang's tale of the illicit affair between a confused 23-year-old and an underage high-school girl is a kind of modern Malaysian film noir.
World Cinema
Bare Essence of Life Ultra-Miracle Love Story
The new teacher in an Aomori village primary school finds herself with a very persistent suitor (the 'differently wired' Yojin, played by hot young star Kenichi Matsuyama) in Satoko Yokohama oddball comedy-drama.
World Cinema
Beeswax
A charismatic and refreshingly uncontrived film, populated with well-drawn and believable characters to root for.
World Cinema
Behind the Rainbow
This absorbing documentary follows the transition of the ANC from a liberation organisation into South Africa's ruling party.
World Cinema
Burning Down The House: The Story of CBGB
World Cinema
City of Life and Death
Lu Chuan's remarkable and very moving film chronicles 'the rape of Nanking' by the invading Japanese army in 1937 as a series of telling vignettes.
World Cinema
Dear Lemon Lima,
An introspective 13 year old and her gang of social misfits take on the system in this sweetly melancholic tale.
World Cinema
Defamation
Israeli filmmaker Yoav Shamir's documentary deals with anti-Semitism, which he claims never to have experienced personally, yet he hears the term used everyday.
World Cinema
The Exploding Girl
An enjoyable, understated study of old friends spending spring vacation together, and finding that their feelings may run deeper than friendship.
World Cinema
Eyes Wide Open
A restrained and moving story of secret love in Jerusalem's Orthodox community.
World Cinema
Feast of Villians
In Pan Jianlin's pugnacious indie feature a young deliveryman in Beijing, desperately trying to pay his father's hospital bills, decides to sell one of his own kidneys on the black market.
World Cinema
Fire of Mansaré
Mansour Sora Wade presents a story about desire, choice and the freedom (or lack of it) of young people forced into a traditional practice where a male tags a girl at birth for marriage in adulthood.
World Cinema
Forbidden Door
Set in a slightly fantasticated present, Joko Anwar's astounding psycho-thriller centres on a deranged sculptor trying to rescue an abused child who may be his younger self... or may not be.
World Cinema
Gigante
From Uruguay comes a quirky, beautifully performed tale of obsession as a supermarket security guard becomes drawn to one of the cleaners he observes at work on the video security monitors.
World Cinema
Gulaal
A power-packed and provocative mélange of political intrigue, corruption, love and deceit, sewn together with poetic sensibilities and an evocative folk-music score.
World Cinema
Have You Heard From Johannesburg: The Bottom Line
As the British anti-apartheid movement celebrates it 50th birthday, a look at how grass roots movements mobilised during the 80s to enforce economic sanctions on South Africa.
World Cinema
Kamui
Probably the best ninja movie ever made, Yoichi Sai's adaptation from the legendary manga blends folk-tale, action fantasy and parable; with hot young star Kenichi Matsuyama as the hero.
World Cinema
Karaoke
A young man returns from college to his home village in Malaysia, expecting to take over his mother's karaoke bar; but the village has changed, and everything he thinks he knows is wrong.
World Cinema
Kinatay
Brillante Mendoza's Cannes prize-winner (Best Director) chronicles a young police cadet's horrified realisation that he's about to become an accessory to murder.
World Cinema
Like You Know It All
Hong Sang-Soo's latest wry, comic bulletin from the sex-war centres on a middle-aged man who encounters two married women - and has two very different experiences.
World Cinema
Nymph
The supernatural intervenes in a failing marriage in Pen-ek Ratanaruang's wonderfully offbeat tale of a photographer who enters the jungle and emerges a changed man.
World Cinema
One-Zero
Cairo's bustling metropolis is brought thrillingly to life in this kaleidoscopic drama which sees multiple characters hurtling towards each other with a refreshing twist.
World Cinema
Passenger Side
On the morning of his 37th birthday, Michael Brown takes a call from his estranged, drug addict brother and immediately regrets picking up the phone...
World Cinema
Plan B
Marco Berger's debut feature sees conniving Bruno dumped by his girlfriend and deciding to win her back by hook or by crook; only she is happy with a new boyfriend Pablo and so Bruno devises another plan to get him out of the way.
World Cinema
Polytechnique
An effectively minimalist telling of the atrocity of the Montreal engineering school massacre of 14 women students in 1989.
World Cinema
Power of the Poor
The second chapter of a planned trilogy critical of the imbalance of power in Dogon social life.
World Cinema
Ride the Wave Johnny
A young boy from the Mumbai slums who dreams of escaping to Dubai, but who instead must deal drugs supplied by a local Mafia.
World Cinema
The Search
Pema Tseden's Tibetan road movie centres on the search for actors to star in a traditional Buddhist opera; a beautiful film about a rapidly changing society, about dying traditions, about spiritual confusions... and about fragile hearts.
World Cinema
Sergio
The life and death of Sergio Vieira de Mello, one time UN special representative in Iraq, described as 'a cross between James Bond and Bobby Kennedy'.
World Cinema
A Shine Of Rainbows
Tomas leaves his orphanage home and moves to a magical island but tragic events conspire against him.
World Cinema
Shirley Adams
This intense social-realist drama, set in Cape Town, follows a mother as she struggles to rehabilitate her son, a victim of gun violence.
World Cinema
Sightseeing
From Argentine director Ezequiel Acuña comes a wry, droll tale of masculine friendship as two old friends meet again over ten years after leaving school to complete work on a new play.
World Cinema
Still Bill
A revealing portrait of Bill Withers, telling his story from being a child raised by his grandmother in Slab Fork, West Virginia, up to the celebrations surrounding his 70th birthday.
World Cinema
Sweethearts of the Prison Rodeo
Documentary following the preparations for the Oklahoma State Penitentiary Rodeo, in just the second year female inmates are allowed to compete.
World Cinema
Today's Special
This super-feel-good movie has it all – love, comedy and mouth-watering Indian food!
World Cinema
Trash Humpers
A film suggesting Harmony Korine is comfortable with the label of provocateur...
World Cinema
The Traveller
Omar Sharif delivers the performance of a lifetime as an ageing Egyptian looking back at a life of love lost.
World Cinema
Trimpin: The Sound of Invention
A portrait of the artist known simply as Trimpin, a sonic experimenter, a combination of inventor, engineer and composer.
World Cinema
Visitors
A triptych of digitally-shot stories from East Asian directors, linked by the motif of the home-coming outsider. Hong Sang-Soo, Naomi Kawase and Lav Diaz contribute funny, touching and surreal episodes, respectively.
World Cinema
Wah Do Dem
A daring and inventive slice of slacker cinema, a fish-out-of-water story that will leave you unsure whether to laugh or despair...
World Cinema
Well Done Abba
Shyam Benegal, whose Welcome to Sajjanpur was showcased at the Festival last year, returns with a new comedy on Indian village life.
World Cinema
The Wind Journeys
A nomadic Colombian minstrel embarks on a journey to return his cursed accordion from where it came...
World Cinema
The Window

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Master filmmaker Buddhadeb Dasgupta returns to the Festival with a tale of conflicting dreams.

Festival News

In Pictures | Day 16 of the Festival

30 Oct 2009

In Pictures | Day 16 of the Festival

We wave goodbye to the Festival at the Gala screening of Sam Taylor-Wood's Nowhere Boy.

Sight & Sound Young Journalist Winners

30 Oct 2009

Sight & Sound Young Journalist Winners

We tally the entries and present the winners.

Awards Ceremony

29 Oct 2009

Awards Ceremony

We announce the winner of the Best Film award, plus we welcome our new BFI Fellows.

In Pictures | Day 15 of the Festival

29 Oct 2009

In Pictures | Day 15 of the Festival

Behind the scenes at the Awards Ceremony.