Tina Leisch

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One Way or Another

"Yolanda, a female teacher, cannot find the best methods to teach the marginalized children of the slums because of their different origins. Mario, a worker in a bus factory and a typical macho man, is confronted by Yolanda's instinct for emancipation. The two nonetheless become lovers. Their relationship portrays the idea that racism, sexism, and class-based prejudices must be demolished in order to succeed." (Wikipedia)

A militant film, between feature film and documentary. Deep from Cuban reality. Reality-changing because it presents the starting points for change. With the death of the Afro-Cuban director Sara Gómez at the age of 31, during the completion of the film, world cinematography lost a great talent.

Daisies

Two young women, Marie and Marie, turn the world upside down in the most entertaining way. Poetic, radical, feminist. A punk film before there was punk, a homage to riotgrrrls before there were riotgrrrls. A reconciliation of butterfly love and the pleasure of destroying. The film was banned in Czechoslovakia after the crushing of the Prague Spring.

Une AUSSI LONGUE ABSENCE

Sixteen years after the end of World War II, Thérèse Langlois (Alida Vally) owns a pub in Paris. One day a tramp (Georges Wilson) walks in and Thérèse believes to recognize her husband Albert Langlois, who had been arrested and disappeared by the GESTAPO. But the tramp suffers from amnesia and doesn't remember anything.

Therese's burning desire to see, hold, feel her beloved husband feeds her deep conviction that the tramp is her husband. But we never know whether he really is. This hovering uncertainty also pulls the top of certainty from under the viewer's feet. Can I rely on my memory? Who are we without memory?

The film, written by Marguerite Duras and Gérard Jarlot, is a disturbing etude on memory, consciousness, projections. A precise case study on war traumas. A poignant film of a desire tragically racing against the glass pane of oblivion.

Lugar más pequeño

A perfect documentary. Sheltered by nature, it seems idyllic to live under the big trees of the Salvadoran village Cinquera. But the inhabitants have only recently returned to their old lives ravaged by the Salvadorian civil war. With care and patience, Tatiana Huezo accompanies them in their new old everyday life, in which the traumas of the war, the dead and the mourning, the losses and the injuries are gradually remembered. Slowly the ability to overcome the cruel legacy and to find, create and shape healing grows.

Ceddo

"Set in the seventeenth century, at the onset of enslavement trade, Ceddo unravels the complex religious and social forces at work in a Senegalese village. According to Sembène, "Ceddo was the name given to the last holders of African spiritualism before it became tinged with Islam or Christianity." When the villagers ("Ceddo") are introduced, their traditional religion is being threatened not only by the presence of the white trader and the missionary, but also by the influence gained by the Islamic leader (Imam) on the king. Princess Dior Yacine is kidnapped to force the king to take action against the Imam. The ending has the unexpected beauty of a Greek tragedy, with the Princess proudly reassuring her rights as a woman and as an African." (African Filmfestival New York)

A fairy tale of the highest realism spanning centuries. A stunningly exciting, philosophical, funny, tragic, brilliant, indispensable film.

FILM D'AMORE E D'ANARCHIA

"Tunin, a peasant, has ended up among the anarchists, has ended up in Rome, in a high-class brothel. Intimidated, he sits among the joking sex workers. He is supposed to make an assassination attempt on Mussolini, but he oversleeps. "Love and Anarchy" exposes the pomposity of fascism and male heroes alike.

Wertmüller's great art was to exaggerate the everyday in the staging and thus transfer it into a microcosm of society. Few directors in post-war European film history have understood how to process political debates aesthetically and in terms of staging, right down to the details of the films, as Wertmüller did." (www.taz.de)

Lumumba

Belgian colonial rulers, CIA agents and rival Congolese factions, between which Lumumba wants to lead the newly independent Congo to real decolonisation. Precisely written, staged, and acted historical figures turn a primal scene of African drama into a packing thriller. Should be watched in all schools.

ZAMANI BARAYE MASTI ASBHA

One of Ghobadi's masterpieces, filmed with non-professional actors. As important as "Turtles Can Fly".

Freaks

Incredible, stunning and highly controversial: So much to see, to think about, to discuss with this outstanding film about the not-normal people of a Circus.

Riff-Raff

Difficult to choose one of Ken Loach's masterpieces of working-class films with working-class heroes. All of them are so important.