Cypher
USA – 2002
Director: Vincenzo Natali
Cypher
An intriguing sci-fi mystery about a man
who suddenly finds himself deeply embroiled in the
fast-paced and dangerous world of corporate intrigue and
espionage.
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Mango Yellow
( Mango Sarisi)
( Amarelo Manga )
Brazil - 2002
Director: Claudio Assis
Mango
Yellow (
Mango Sarisi ) – ( Amarelo Manga )
Mango
Yellow
is a provocative tale of amorous meetings and
misunderstandings among low-rent losers, set in the
coastal town of Recife, Brazil. Like Characters out of
some Carnival hell , a macho butcher and his born-again
wife , a forlorn , young and beautiful barmaid , a
sinister sadist, and the gay cook of flophouse called
the
Hotel Texas
run in and out of each other’s lives..
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Maria
Romania 2003
Director:
Peter Calin Netzer
"Maria" is a film that presents a destiny! In a
desperate situation, a woman chooses prostitution as a
last-ditch solution to fend for her children. Beyond the
implications of this case real, the film also depicts
the struggle of transition. Ion Maria’s husband, Milco,
and Mala are characters who try to make a change in
their lives. In fact, for them this change means nothing
more than survival. Unemployed people, prostitutes who
try to accost truckers at road junctures, tenants of
flats who can no longer pay for their rent, two-bit
crooks, all live a chaotic, ruthless, most of the time
unfair life. Still, responsibility, friendship, and even
love are not absent from the picture. Yet none of the
characters can actually alter his destiny, except of
Maria. Moved by her plight, the authorities decide to
come to her assistance. But this is only a tiny flicker
of hope …
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Ring Of Fire
Lebanon
2004
Director:
Bahij Hojeij
In this universe, where every minute of life is a
miracle, “Shafic“remains disconnected and refuses to put
up with the surrounding elements. He totally rejects the
logic of war.
Disconnected, lost; he is in love with the student he
met in the janitor’s room under a flood of falling
bombs. Later, the girl he seeks remains missing until a
point where we ask ourselves whether she really exists.
If this is the case, she seems to be the sole pretext of
his quest for salvation.
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Love in Concrete
Venezuela 2003
Director: Franco de Pena
Caracas is a chaotic city, crammed with high concrete
buildings that hide the mountains. People are jammed
with traffic, and robbery and murder are common. Many
people living in poverty are in anguish and struggle for
money to survive. The country is played by the rising
crime rate and plundered by politicians. It is a
tropical version of the worst side of Los Angeles.
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Pupendo
Czec
2003
Director: Jan Hrebejk
Bedrich Mara, a sculptor, lives with his wife, Alena, a
potter, and thier two sons, Matej and Bobes, in a small
apartment on the Prague riverbank. For political
reasons, he was forced to leave his post as the head of
a studio at Prague’s Academy of Art several years
earlier. His work is banned from being exhibited and he
is deliberately overlooked in lucrative orders. His
fishing rod is his companion during his lonely moments
of contemplation…
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Guarded
Secrets
Hungary 2004
Director: Zsuzasa Boszormenyi
Imma Varro was eighteen years old when she left the
orphanage. All she knows about her past is that she was
abandoned at birth. She knows only a few sure, hard
facts about her life. She is pregnant; she has just
found her first decent opportunity in life, a job as a
cleaning woman. As this is the best deal of her life,
she decides to sell her unborn baby with the help of a
child- dealer. But who is she? Who was her mother? …
More to come…
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Under The Same Sky
Bulgaria 2003
Director: Krassimir Krumov
In a mountainous village, the 15-year-old Rufie lives
with her granny. Forced by the unemployment, her father
had gone to Turkey, but there has been no word of him
for the past three years. Even Rufie’s relatives start
that he has forgotten about her and will not come back.
She decides to cross the border to search for him.
Hairedin, Rufie’s father, is one day among a group of
refugees who are traveling to Bulgaria. In the night
they meet but do not recognize each other in the dark ….
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Morning
Raga
A Meeting of Worlds
India 2004
Director: Mahesh Dattani
The "dramatic personae" are people from a small village
in South India on a bus journey to the city. They are
full of varied aspirations, oblivious to the tragedy
that is about to befall them. An accident on the way
leaves many villagers coping with the loss of their
loved ones. It is the story of three such lives
inextricably linked by this tragedy and how they come to
terms with their loss by one strong uniting force-
music!
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The Miracle
( Il Miracolo )
Italy - 2003
Director: Edoardo Winspeare
One day, twelve year-old Tonino is hit by a car
whose driver, Cinzia, runs away in fright without trying
to help the injured child. Before he loses
consciousness, Tonino sees something that will change
his life. After being taken to the hospital, he comes
out of his coma, and, while wandering through the
hallways and rooms at night, he comes across a dying
man. The line on the patient’s electrocardiogram monitor
is flat. But when Tonino touches him, the man’s heart
starts beating normally once again. Is it a
miracle?
The Best Day Of My Life
(Il
Piu Bel Giorno Della Mia Vita)
Italy - 2002
Director: Cristina Comencini
Irene lives in an old house linked to memories from
the past. Her greatest regret is not having been able to
transmit her attachment to the house and concept of the
family to her three children. After losing her husband,
her oldest daughter, Sara, lives in absolute emotional
solitude. Her other daughter, Rita, has a beautiful
house, a husband and two children, but is having an
affair with Davide. Finally, there is Claudio, her son,
who is a lawyer and hides his homosexuality. The
combination of dissatisfaction and repressed desires
generates a continual state of tension. However, when a
mysterious man called Sandro turns up to disturb Sara’s
tranquil existence, and Luca’s arrival, forces Claudio
to make a choice, the emotional earthquake provoked by
these two events changes everyone’s lives.
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Saniye’s
Pleasure
(Saniyes
Lust)
Germany - 2003
Director: Subiye V. Gunar
Saniye’s
Pleasure (Saniyes Lust)
Saniye, a modern young woman of Turkish descent,
after her wedding, develops a strong desire to catch up
with her family’s expectations. She desperately wants to
become a mother.. It’s a film about love between Saniye
and Tom. Saniye believes that a marriage can only be
completed with a child..
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Down The
Colorful Hill
(W dol
Kolorowym Wzgorzem)
Poland -
2004
Director: Przemyslaw Wojcieszek
A story of a twenty- some year old man
who tries hard to start life after being released from
prison. He comes back to his native town with the hope
of restoring a relationship with his girlfriend. She,
however, is already married to his brother, who is just
about to sell their family house and she move to Warsaw.
This is an” unhappy-end” story, set deeply in the
reality of the provincial Poland.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Big Fish
USA - 2004
Director: Tim Burton
Big Fish
A wonderful storyteller Edward Bloom
recounts tall tales of his wild worldly adventures. Told
through a series of vignettes, his stories involve a
witch, a giant, a haunted forest, and yes, a big fish. A
self-described small-town hero, Bloom explains how he
left home at 18 determined to experience anything and
everything life could dish out. Utterly unbelievable yet
magical and delightful, his stories just don’t translate
to his son Will who wants to know his dad’s “ true “
life story. But little by little – through increasingly
outlandish tales at which Will can not resist smirking –
the two begin to understand each other, and Bloom weaves
his stories into their genealogical fabric.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Take Me Away
Prendini E Portami Via
Italy - 2003
Director: Tonino Zangardi
A dozen firemen are battling flames at the gipsy
camp tonight. Somebody set fire to a trailer and the
area is full of smoke. Frightened screams are echoing in
the distance. Two men are arrested in the middle of the
night, as we are told by a young voice off screen. “And
that is where our story begins…”
Six months ago, a thirteen–year old gipsy girl moved
into the nomad camp of a dull and ordinary suburb on the
outskirts of Rome .The locals have a hard time accepting
strangers and show little sympathy for the newcomers.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fatal Attraction
( Attraction Fatale)
( Dot The I ) - 2003
Director: Matthew Parkhill
Fiery Flamenco dancer Carmen is engaged
to wealthy, kind, but dull Barnaby, who wants only to
spoil her and protect her from her violent past in
Spain. On the night of her bachelorette party, she
encounters Kit, a sweet but reserved Brazilian actor who
awakens in her a mysterious passion …
Pharaoh
Faraonul / Faraon
Romania - 2004
Director: Sinisa
Dragin
Costache Nicolau is a seedy old beggar who wanders
around Bucharest. Once a day he eats at a charity
shelter and at night sleeps in a squalid apartment. He
is a former political prisoner who spent 40 years in
Siberia. A young TV reporter, interested in his story ,
would like to shoot a program about him. How did he
return home from exile? Why won’t he speak about his
family? Why do they call him the Pharaoh? The reporter
who seeks the answer to this question herself becomes
part of a documentary testimony about contemporary
Romania which is now passing through a process of social
transformation, “ It’s also a film about her, a fairly
normal and ordinary girl, and about her first taste of
discovery. Will she start looking at the world through
different eyes? “
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sinisa Dragin:
-
Born in 1960 in
Kula
- Studied economics in Subotica , then
went on to Film Academy in Bucharest - Since 1992 he
has worked as a camera man for Reuters, shooting in
addition his own documentaries ( e.g.
The
Sorrow Of Black Gold, The
Rain,
Sun Is Shining Over Tichilesti
– awarded prizes at many festivals .
- His first television feature
Long Journey By train
won several awards such as Best Screenplay-Grand Prix-
at Geneva, the Special Jury Prize at Dijon, and the
Special Prize at the European Film Forum in Strasbourg
in 1998.
- The Success was followed by
Every Day God Kisses Us On The Mouth
2001; in 2002 the film was shown in the Horizons section
at Karlov Vary and won Best Director and the Special
Jury Prize at the Cairo IFF, among many others.
-
Pharaoh
is his latest feature .
Beyond The
Frontline
(Etulinjan
Edessa
)
Finland - 2004
Director: Ake Lindman
Beyond The Front Line
( Etulinjan Edessa )
The film’s story centers on Finland’s
Continuation War with the Soviet Union and especially
the experiences of Finland’s Swedish- speaking Infantry
Regiment 61 in Karelia during 1942-1944. In the spring
of 1942, a young Lieutenant named Harry Jarv is sent to
the front, at a time when the front was relatively
quiet. Jarv proves his skill at plans and executing
patrols and quickly earns the respect and trust of his
men. The new commander of the regiment, Lieutenant
Colonel Marttinen also notices Jarv’s skill and makes
him responsible for the execution of the whole
regiment’s patrols. Jarv and Marttinen become friends.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Addiction
– When Nothing Is Enough
( Levottomat 3 – Kun
Mikaan Ei Riita )
Finland - 2004
Director: Minna Virtanen
Addiction – When
Nothing Is Enough ( Levottomat 3 – Kun Mikaan Ei Riita )
A story about a woman and her destructive
obsession.. Jonna is an ambitious businesswoman in her
thirties. On the surface, her life appears to be in
order: she is successful in her career at an advertising
agency, married to a nice and respected man with whom
she has two lovely children… Jonna is living a lie. She
is not at all satisfied with her marriage and she flings
herself into a maelstrom of casual sex and one-night
stands, all the time believing in an illusion of control
over the situation. She is quickly drawn into a cycle of
sexual addiction, with no way out.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mrs. De
?
( Madame De…)
France / Italy - 1953
Director: Max Ophuls
Mrs. De ? ( Madame De…)
Countess Louise De... sells her valuable earrings, a
gift from General André De…, her military officer
husband. But she tells him a different story, claiming
that she lost the earrings while attending the opera.
This story reaches the newspapers, whereupon the jeweler
who bought the earrings resells them to the General. The
husband chooses to say nothing and gives the baubles to
his mistress.
And God Created Woman
( Et Dieu Crea La femme)
France - 1956
Director: Roger Vadim
And God Created Women ( Et Dieu Crea La femme)
Sexy orphan Juliette marries Michel. Juliette,
however, is pursued by the wealthy Eric. She has an
affair with Antoine; Michel’s brother. Nonetheless,
Michel fights for Juliette and manages to lure her back.
It’s a simple story, but full of strength and energy.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Singing Behind Screens
Cantando Dietro I Paraventi
Italy / UK / France - 2003
Director: Ermanno Olmi
Singing Behind Screens (Cantando Dietro I Paraventi)
A young and ingenious student finds himself in a
small, out of way theatre, where it is possible to buy
transgressions and sexual relations. From the stage the
Old Captain is telling the story of Ching and a pirate
during the period of the Chinese Empire. Ching was
married to a brave pirate who had been killed by
treachery even if he was co-operating with the Emperor.
The widow never accepted this outrage so decided to
become the most fearful pirate all over China.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Replay
(La Repetition)
France / Canada – 2001
Director: Catherine Corsini
Replay ( La Repetition)
Nathalie and Louise are friends from
childhood. While studying drama at University, Louise
becomes hopelessly obsessed with her friend. Jealous of
the male friends she has, she breaks up the friendship,
followed by a suicide attempt. Later, Louise marries,
but finds the time to see Nathalie who is an
accomplished actress by now. They fight through the
years. La Repetition following them as their friendship
comes together and breaks up frequently, while never
actually reaching anything that can be called a climax.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
His Secret Life
( Le Fati Ignoranti)
Italy / France - 2002
Director: Ferzan Ozpetek
His Secret Life ( Le Fati Ignoranti)
Aid’s doctor Antonia’s husband is
killed in a car accident. She gets depressed until she
learns he had been cheating on her with a man. Following
her newly born curiosity for life, she goes to see her
husband’s lover, Michele, and finds a huge apartment
that he shares with gay and transgendered friends,
including a Turkish immigrant and a prostitute. Antonia
is reluctant to tell these people of her relationship
with the dead man, but needs prompting to move on to a
new phase of life.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Three Colors: Blue
(Trois Couleurs: Bleu)
France / Poland / Switzerland / Uk - 1993
Director: Krzysztof Kieslowski
Three Colors: Blue is the first part of
Kieslowski’s trilogy on France’s national motto:
Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. Blue is the story of
Julie who loses her husband, an acclaimed European
composer and a young daughter in a car accident. The
theme of the film - liberty - is manifested in Julie’s
attempt to start a new life free of personal
commitments, belongings, grief, and love. She intends to
commit suicide spiritually by withdrawing from the world
and live completely independently, anonymously and in
solitude in the Parisian metropolis. Despite her
intentions, people from her former and present life
intrude with their own needs.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Endless Way
China
Director: Shen Wensheng
Though love stories are more or less alike, lovers
always are unique. So, is our story , where a young man
called Ah Ming loves a young woman called Ah Shui in a
remote, old and water - scarce village of West Hunan in
China. As the girl's father was accused by somehow being
responsible for the death of her lover's father, the
story turns to be dramatically romantic. The lover never
reaches , as the road is endless. This is of course the
tragic end of such a love as all the great romance
stories , whether, in life or in movies.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In 1904, Russia is rocked by a series of cruel and cold
blooded murders. Prominent government and military
officials fall vicitim to terrorists
The Rider Named Death
Russia
2003
Director
: Karen Shakhnazarov
Karen Shakhnazarov
- Film director, scriptwriter and producer.
- In 1975, he graduated from the Film Directing
Department of Moscow State Institute of Cinematography
(Vigik, studio I, Talankin).
- Since 1976 he has been a film director in Mosifilm
Studios.
- From 1991 ttill now , he has been the chairman of
the" Courier "studios at Mosifilm Cinema Concern.
- Since 1998, he has been the General Director and
Chairman of Mosifilm Cinema Concen.
- Awards: People's Artist Award of the Russian
Federation (2002) Lenin Komsomol Award (1986) Vasiliev
Brothers State Award (1988) and Memeber of the European
Film Academy.
-His films are well known to both Russian and foreign
spectators and have received prizes at the world's
most prestigious film festivals and forums.
-His feature films are: "Kind- Hearted Ones" (1979)
"Jazz Men "(1983), "A Winter Night in Gagra" (1985),
"The Town of Zero" (1988), "Assassin of the Tsar"
(1991), " Dreams" (1993)"American Daughter" (1995)," The
Day of the Full Moon" (1998)," Poisons" or the World's
History of Poisoning (2001)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Magician
Mexico
2004
Director: Jaime Aparicio
Upon finding out he's suffering from a terminal disease,
Tadeo the street magician decides to settle matters from
the past. Felix, his assistant, is a blind man involved
in drug trafficking in the slums. When he thinks he has
paid his debts, Tadeo, with the help of Morgana - his
neighbour- performs one last magic act that will
transform the meaning of the final days of his life.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Visitor
Bahrain
2003
Director: Bassam Al- Thawadi
Fatima, is a young woman who suffers from frequent
visual hallucinations, regarding a man . One day, this
mysterious man gives her a visit. After that, she feels
responsible to uncover these mysterious painful
visions, and their connection with the graves in the
city of "Aaly".
Not Me
Italy
2003
Director: Simona Izzo - Ricky Tognazzi
Brotherhood, love, passion, treason.. this is the life
for some people who prefer to take advantage of what
they've got . Whether they have it by birth or blood or
nature or kidness, is not important. Mercy is not a
game, it is a card, you can throw it away if you want to
win. So, play Flavio with his brother Franscesco, their
mistress Elisa and even with the mother of his children
Laura. But , a life like this will end in a way
equivalent to its deeds, indeed.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Black Room
Moroco
2004
Director: Hassan Benjellon
Kamal and Najat are two young people who are in love,
with a hopeful future in their jobs in the airport.
Suddenly, all their dreams turn upside down with the
fact that Kamal was a political activist during the
university' days , when he was a student . Although , he
no longer has any connections with his former comrades,
he refuses to mention their names or place, and bravely
accepts a harsh sentence for the old days.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
C'Era una Volta il West
Once Upon a Time in The West
Italy / USA
1968
Director : Sergio Leone
Brett McBain is preparing a welcoming feast for the
woman he married last month in New Orleans when he and
his three children are gunned down by desperadoes.
Frank, the most hardened villain, works for the railroad
that will pass through the land McBain's widow, Jill ,
has just inherited . Will auctioning off the land
quickly increase her odds of surviving ? Harmonica gets
the money for the high bid by turning in Cheyenne for
the $5,000 award . He gets the property and Jill too,
but seems more interested in settling an old score with
Frank than either the land or the lovely widow.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
L'Avventura
The Adventure
Italy/ France 1960
Director : Michelangelo Antonioni
A group of rich Italians head out on a yachting trip to
a a deserted volcanic island in the Mediterranean.When
they are about to leave the island, they discover that
Anna, the main character up to this point, is missing .
Sandro , Anna's boyfriend, and Claudia, Anna's friend ,
try without success to find her. While looking for the
missing friend, Claudia and Sandro develop an attraction
for each other. When they get back to land, they
continue the search with no success. Sandro and Claudia
proceed to become lovers, and all but forget about the
missing Anna.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Bless The Woman"
Russia 2003
Director : Stanislav Govorukhin
Vera in her mid-thirties, follows her husband from one
garrison to another. In the hardest conditions she tries
to create an atmosphere of cosiness in her house and to
find happiness. The war is already inevitably
approaching, war destroyed everyday life and her
husband's life ruined by war. Vera finds happiness and
peace only after she returns to her beloved sea, in a
southern Russian city.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Bellissimia"
Luchino Visconti
Italy 1951
Film director Alessandro Blasetti is looking for a
little girl for his new movie. Along with other mothers.
Maddelena takes her daughter to Cinecitta,hoping she’ll
be selected and become a star. She is ready to sacrifice
anything for little Maria, even if her husband would
prefer to save their severely limited money for thw
rent, instead of paying teachers, hairdressers or brides
for her illusions.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Roma Citta ‘ Aperta
Roberto Rossellini"
Italy 1945
Rome, 1944. Giorgio Manfredi, one of the leaders of the
Resistance, is tracked down by the Nazis. He goes to his
friend Francesco’s and asks Pina, Francesco’s fiancée.
For help, Pina must warm a priest, Don Pietro
Pellegirini, that Giorgio needs to leave the town as
soon as possible..
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"L’Onorevole Angelina"
Luigi Zampa
Italy 1947
A
rowdy woman is so forceful she outdoes her husband in a
loud cry against speculators who refuse poor people
entrance to a block pf new apartments, built after World
War Il. Without realizing it, she starts a people’s
movement, and leads a march to the capital. She returns
to her village a winner, an honourable MP. Yet, she is
still the same simple, fiery woman, able to get into a
hairpulling brawl with bramid for the affection of her
man.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Campodi Fiori”
Mario Bernard
Italy 1943
Reppino sells fish at the market in the
square,Campo di Fiori. Next to him Elide sells fruit and
is attracted to him but Peppino and his friend Aurelio,
called the Sheep, are macho and don’t want to hear about
getting married. So when Elsa stops by to buy a fish
from him Reppino is swept away and tries to win her over
in any way he can, and he winds up gambling, in prison
and then goes to see Elsa in jail, even playing daddy to
carletto, Elsa’s son. But just when his dreams seem to
be coming true, he realizes that what he had been
looking for, all along was much closer than he thought.
*******************************************************
Up Against Them All
Brazil 2004
Director: Roberto
Moreira
In a barren district on the outskirts of
ٍSao
Paulo, we find Teodoro and his teenage daughter,
Soninha, living with Claudia, Teodoro’s second wife. The
daily life of this low middle-class family, however, is
built upon lies. Behind a mask of religiosity, Teodoro
makes a living as a hired gun-man, beats his rebellious
daughter, Soninha, and has an affair with Terezinha, his
church going companion.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Kyun Ho Gaya Na
India
2004
Director: Samir
Karnik
It is a simple story about love and life. But who said
that love and life are all that simple …??? Diya
Malhotra meets Arjun Khanna under unusual circumstances.
It proves to be a perfect beginning to a memorable
relationship. Once she arrives in Mumbai she realizes
that she will be staying in the same house as Arjun. The
ground is thus set for events that were always meant to
be. The friendship that develops between Diya and
Aarjun, spiced up with their opposing views on love and
marriage, form the heart of this film.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Take Me Away
Italy
2004
Director:
Tonino Zangardi
A dozen firemen are battling flames at the gipsy camp
tonight. Somebody set fire to a trailer and the area is
full of smoke. Frightened screams echo in the distance.
Two men are arrested in the middle of the night, as we
are told by a young voice off screen. Six month ago, a
13-year old gipsy girl moved into nomads’ camp of a dull
and ordinary suburb on the outskirts of Rome … That’s
where our story begins…
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Ay
Juancito
Argentina 2003
Director: Hector
Olivera
Here is the rise and fall of Evita’s brother, a charming
social climber whose days of glory and crisis run side
by side with the rise and beginning of the fall of
President Peron. The fortunate brother-in-law is thus
transformed from being a traveling salesman into a man
of influence and the most sought- after bachelor in the
country.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
The Ivy
Mansion-Life
Turkey 2003
Director: Abdullah
Oguz
What will Bahar and Seymen face during their stay in the
U.S. for Bahar’s medical treatment ? Will the great love
of Seymen for Bahar be enough to save her life from the
serious illness? And the family in Cappadocia … Will
they get to know the good news they expect from US?
---------------------------------------------------------------------
A Passion Play
India 2003
Director:
Rituporno Ghosh
