Festival films

Lionel drives a train and his daughter Josephine works in a Virgin Records store. The two find consolation in their bond: Josephine is devoted to her father, and nothing gives her greater pleasure than to spend time with him. But she has caught the eye of a young taxi driver who starts to hang around, and she begins to feel gently pulled in two directions. Small moments follow in succession – drinking in bars,meeting up with friends,making nocturnal excursions to concerts. Meanwhile, Lionel has attracted the attention of a middle-aged woman, and several tentative encounters ensue. This general aimlessness is ruptured when Josephine‘s aspiring boyfriend decides to take a job overseas and move away. What his choice provokes is as surprising as it is cathartic, as father and daughter both realize that living – and loving – requires that they confront aspects of their past.

Mr. Jang lives alone in a small dormitory in Sillim-dong. He’s poor but kindhearted. He lends money to a young man who lives in the same dormitory. The youth repays him by stealing his job. What is worse, he is swindled by a neighborhood woman whom he met on the street. Mr. Jang feels as though his life is slipping away. Then he accidentally causes someone’s death and sinks into a deep depression.

Young Machisu has the creative spirit of the sprinter, but circumstances conspire to keep him crawling at the pace of the tortoise. There’s too much bad in his life – a bankrupt father, a harsh foster-uncle, hostile schoolteachers – and then, when he grows older, the endless struggle to find and develop a personal style while earning a crust. Kitano himself takes over the role of Makisu in the closing scenes and uses his own paintings throughout to illustrate the character’s travail – and, of course, to parody movements in modern art.

At the age of 13, Rafael Bregman has already lost his virginity, but has never kissed a girl. With his pimple-riddled face, his dysfunctional family, and a lowered self-esteem, getting this much anticipated first kiss proves trickier than expected. It’s now time for Rafa to build up some self confidence and attract the attention of his class mate, Nicole...

A young teacher with an impressive resume takes a job teaching natural sciences at a village grammar school. He becomes friends with a woman and her 17-year-old son. The teacher has no romantic interest in the woman but that doesn’t stop them from forming a friendship. One day, the teacher’s ex-boyfriend comes to visit. The ex-boyfriend quickly realizes that nobody in the village knows that the teacher is gay. He also realizes that the teacher harbors a secret affection for the 17-year-old boy. His jealous actions set in motion a series of events that tests the inner strength and compassion of the teacher, the woman and her son.

At a pallet-repair joint presided over by a boss named Mao, a crew of Muslim immigrants work together in seeming harmony. Unlike his namesake, Mao is something of a benevolent dictator. After he conflates Allah with a strong work ethic, Mao decides to build a mosque on his work site. But his choice of a religious leader creates conflict, and soon cross-faith/cross-cultural clashes begin to escalate. The chosen imam is not the leader the workers want, and when the men act on their frustrations, Mao announces that he’s closing the factory and they’re out of work. Before long, simmering tensions have ballooned into full-on labor unrest.

Bulgaria, the night of October 18, 1922. A rampageous young man – an American – is forced to get off the Orient Express at a small station. The chief of the railway station and his daughter are quite unwilling to put up the stranger. Gradually, the American wins their trust. The three of them become involved in a strange love triangle...

In 2057, a private forensic artist is using reflective technology to reconstruct a special 50 year old case.

Three young delinquents, who have just escaped from reform school, are driving along in a van. They pick up a woman they find on the side of the road and take her to the beach. Seemingly bored after this day, they decide to put her on trial together with their other victim, the van driver.

Omeris, a Turkish Cypriot boy, grows up with Greek-Cypriots in an age of innocence. He has been taught that human beings have no differences between them, whether they call themselves Greek or Turk, Muslim or Christian.When he falls in love with a Greek- Cypriot girl, he realizes that the world is not as he imagined it to be. Destiny ordains that he fight so that he can stay with his beloved, at a moment when the people around him are moving in exactly the opposite direction: towards separation and partition. If he doesn’t want to be defeated, hemust fight the absurdity of fanaticismthat is invading his personal life and trying to crush it.

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

Alexandria... Why? is centered on the story of high school student Yehia Mourad, Chahine’s cinematic alter ego; it is the first autobiographical film in Egyptian cinema. As the strains of nationalism place Arabs against British soldiers, political factions against one another and races and cultures at odds,Yehia manages to escape through the theater and the movies. He is dreaming of Hollywood as he stages his own theatrical plays, until he’s swept up in student activism. Yehia succeeds in making his dream come true by winning a scholarship to study in the USA. No stranger to challenging conventions and taboos, Chahine features, among the many stories that intermingle, an interfaith romance between a Jewish woman and a Muslim activist and a homosexual relationship between Yehia’s wealthy uncle and a young British soldier, in the film.

Following the military coup d’etat of the Greek junta, a young man is led to the firing squad. One of the soldiers will refuse to take part in the execution and will be sent to jail. After the execution, the soldiers are given leave. We follow one of them, as he gets together with his friends, his girlfriend, and his relatives, and we observe the path he takes until he realizes the true meaning of his act.
Film trailer: Quick Time / Windows Media Player

Mustafa is an Egyptian immigrant, owner of Habibi’s Cafe, a hangout for Los Angeles with Middle Eastern backgrounds. He provides his children with a moral upbringing despite urban life pressures and finds himself cast in the role of protector to his unwed sister Salweh, forwhom he must find a suitor. His respect for tradition contradicts his aspirations to live the American Dream: he wants to open a restaurant with a Jewish partner. Mustafa’s friend Omar is a struggling actor, an Egyptianwho supports himself byworking as a cab driver. Because of hisMiddle Eastern looks, he is typecast in terrorist roles. Finally, an opportunity for a non-racially designated role arrives. But prejudices related to his background conspire against him, pushing Omar to make an irrational decision that sets off a violent finale which affects all the characters.

“...Those analytical, experimental works connecting to mine are inspired by animation, that is, the concentration of a longer time period on celluloid. Whereas each roll of my Anatomy is based on a still object. Solid objects, figures and faces are forced to move, thus revealing their true nature.”
Sebestyen Kodolanyi
Coupled with a score by Austrian “Sil Electronics” a.k.a. Susanne Brokesch, "Anatomy" is one of the latest classical experimental films to be produced at the BBS. Kodolanyi’s supreme craftsmanship as director of photography and his influences by the Studio’s older masters such as Janos Toth are visible here. His more recent work, both as conceptual artist/thinker and as filmmaker, shows a critical turn in his influences and creates great expectations for the future from one of the most informed BBS enthusiasts.

A tour spaceship, built by Olakeros, a Greek ship owner, is designed for interplanetary travel but begins to present problems with its defense shield on its very first journey. Chiefgoon Swag comes along to offer protection and put on a live show, from the spaceship, starring a waiter who has a gift for satire. Koukis is responsible for the problems that may occur in communication. But the ship is suffering from very serious problems and it is almost impossible for it to complete its voyage, despite visiting the dark side of the Moon, Venus, the Amazing Yellow Planet, Mars, Mercury, the Comet with its priceless crystals and Pluto. Whoever tries to talk about the ship’s problems is taken care of by Arpachtis and his goons. When Koukis finally makes one last dramatic plea, no one believes him because he is no longer taken seriously.
Film trailer: Quick Time / Windows Media Player

Υoung Tariq is about to marry Bilquis, who is the eldest daughter of a prominent and powerful judge and whom Tariq has never met. But as he wanders through the cobblestone streets of Sana’a late one night, he spots a beautiful young woman dancing in the street, wearing a wedding dress, and falls madly in love with her. The woman is a munagasher (henna) artist and, therefore, belongs to a low caste, thus forbidding her union with Tariq. Before long, the young groom must choose between following his heart and protecting his family’s honor.

On the island of Nissyros, a contract binds the local keeper of the volcano, nicknamed “The Weightlifter,”to Angel, an Athenian producer who plans to stage a song and dance extravaganza in the volcano’s crater. Little by little, Angel’s presence begins to interfere with the life of the Weightlifter who enjoys an idyllic existence with his beloved Margarita in a little house in the volcano’s valley. During the preparations for the extravaganza, the differences between the twomen escalate, until finally, in the shadow of an old story told on the island, a fatal accident occurs. Through the darkness, a well-hidden secret is brought to light, and its weight is crushing...
Δείτε το τρέιλερ της ταινίας: Quick Time / Windows Media Player

In 1969, several BBS newcomers including Pinter, Body and Peter Dobai, published a declaration entitled “We want a sociological film group.” Their manifested aim was “to achieve cognitive development while making documentaries” and remained a central issue throughout the studio’s heyday, bringing about many thought-provoking documentary crossovers into the experimental film terrain. "Archaic Torso" blends philosophy and bodybuilding and the essence of documentary-making, and it becomes the most self-reflective chronicle of this effort. Peter Dobai did not continue with documentary pursuits at the BBS, nor professionally. Instead he turned his efforts to literature and scriptwriting, with great success.

The film is set in five parts, five seasons that are part of the Chinese almanac. The story takes place in the jianghu, the world of the martial arts. Ouyang Fen has lived in the western desert for some years. He left his home in White Camel Mountain when the woman he loved chose to marry his elder brother rather than him. Instead of seeking glory, he ends up as an agent. When people come to him with a wish to eliminate someone who has wronged them, he puts them in touch with a swordsman who can do the job.

Marilyn Monroe at the peak of her career, a homosexual young boy during the late 70s and a young woman of today become links in a chain, sharing an obsession for the same red dress. They do everything in their power to possess it, but at the same time they do not imagine the price they will have to pay.
Film trailer: Quick Time / Windows Media Player