World Cinema

During WWII, a solitary prospector crosses paths with Nazis in northern Finland. When the Nazis steal his gold, they quickly discover he is no ordinary miner. While there is no direct translation for the Finnish word "sisu," the legendary ex-commando will embody what it means: a white-knuckled form of courage and unimaginable determination in the face of overwhelming odds. And this one-man death squad will go to outrageous lengths to get his gold...

Tharlo is a Tibetan shepherd, used to living with little human contact. Visiting a Tibetan town in Qinghai province to obtain a proper ID card from the local police station, Tharlo surprises Police Chief Dorje by reciting from memory a lengthy excerpt from one of Chairman Mao's essays. But things develop in a romantic rather than a political direction. To prepare for his ID photo, Tharlo needs his hair washed, and so meets Yangtso, a beautiful local...

In a Japanese prison camp on Java in 1942, two British officers, John Lawrence and Jack Celliers, encounter camp commander Yonoi and his sergeant Hara. Things had been going pretty well, until charismatic, rebellious Celliers arrived. Yonoi is a devotee of the samurai ideal; neither he nor Hara can understand the stoic way in which the British prisoners accept their situation of defeat. Lawrence speaks Japanese, and ceaselessly tries to mediate between...

In a smoky gambling den in 1940's China, a drunken young man runs through his family's fortune, losing their ancestral home and all their possessions. This staggering loss proves to be their salvation ... and the first step in an odyssey of survival that will take them through war and revolution, love and loss, tragedy ... and triumph. Through the terrors of China's civil war, the passions of the communist takeover, the betrayals of Chairman Mao's...

Ten years after the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps, this piece documents the abandoned grounds of Auschwitz and Majdanek. One of the first cinematic reflections on the horrors of the Holocaust and contrasts the stillness of the abandoned camps' quiet, empty buildings with haunting wartime footage.

At the center of this intimate and touching story is Georges Lopez - a remarkably devoted teacher responsible for nurturing a dozen children ages 3-11 in all their school subjects and life's lessons. Demonstrates how a teacher, if well trained, dedicated and sensitive to a child's educational and emotional needs, can hugely influence a generation of children at their most critical time of development.

Durante los anos de la Post-guerra, los ninos jugaban en las calles sentados en circulos para contarse historias (aventis). El tema de estas historias era una mezcla explosiva de fantasias y cronicas urbanas, todas ellas integraban personajes y lugares reales y aveces hasta se incluia el mismo narrador. = In the post Spanish civil war years, Catalan kids would sit in circles among the ruins and tell 'aventis', stories with no beginning or end or purpose,...

Maria, a poor Colombian teenager, is desperate to leave a soul-crushing job. She accepts an offer to transport packets of heroin, which she swallows, into the United States. The ruthless world of drug trafficking proves to be more than she bargained for. "...film is both poignant and potent...compelling..."--Video Librarian "...destined to be one of the most important films of the year."--Jeffrey Lyons, NBC "Stunning...a powerhouse film."--Rolling...

Mamá tiene ochenta y dos años y su hijo Jaime, cincuenta. Jaime tiene mujer, dos hijos, una hermosa casa, dos autos y una suegra que atender. Un día Jaime se queda sin empleo por razones de ajuste. Jaime y su mujer son los dueños del departamento donde vive Mamá. Tendrán que pedirle a mama que deje el departamento para poderlo vender, solo que cuando Jaime llega a darle las malas noticias a su madre esta le tiene e el una sorpresa mas grande. Jaime...