Japan, 1944. Trained for intelligence work, Hiroo Onoda, 22 years old, discovers a philosophy contrary to the official line: no suicide; stay alive whatever happens; the mission is more important than anything else. Sent to Lubang, a small island in the Philippines where the Americans are about to land, this role will be to wage a guerrilla war until the return of the Japanese troops. The Empire will surrender soon after; Onoda, 10,000 days later.
1936. Giovanni Comini, the youngest Federal in Fascist Italy, is summoned to Rome for a delicate mission: to surveil aging national poet Gabriele D'Annunzio, whose increasingly restless behavior Mussolini fears could damage his alliance with Nazi Germany. However, after spending time with D'Annunzio, Comini finds himself torn between loyalty to the Party and his fascination with the poet, who will put his burgeoning career at risk.
Ebba is a lonely 18-year-old who finds a wounded man in the Oslo harbour. When she discovers he has amnesia, she lies and tells him they are lovers.
Louise revisits her childhood when her family decides to sell their farm. 20 years ago, she was Louloute, a mischievous and exuberant little girl, helping her father with their farm, fighting with her siblings and worrying her mother… When the family's debts accumulate and overwhelm them, tender childhood moments become intertwined with the harsh adult reality of a disappearing rural world.
Two languorous summer days, two thorny tales of romantic misunderstanding: in part one, two girlfriends head to the Cergy leisure park for a day of swimming and equally vigorous flirtation; in the second, a Norwegian exchange student finds herself the target of unwanted attention from two would-be suitors.
Ady, a 13 years old boy, no longer listens to his father who raises him alone. The latter, running out of resources, decides to entrust Ady to his uncle Amadou for the summer. Uncle Amadou and his family live on the other side of the Mediterranean sea... in Burkina Faso! There, at 13 years, one must become a man but Ady, persuaded to go on holidays, understands things differently.
Abel Ferrara headlines a film retrospective and a series of concerts in France dedicated to songs and music from his films. Preparations with his family and friends will form the material of this self portrait, showing another side of the director of legendary films BAD LIEUTENANT, THE KING OF NEW YORK and THE ADDICTION. Ferrara is joined on stage by past collaborators, including composer Joe Delia, actor-singer Paul Hipp and his wife actress Cristina Chiriac for concerts at the Metronum in Toulouse and the Salo Club in Paris in October 2016.
1996, Bruno publishes his first novel. He is critically acclaimed and is seen as the french John Fante. Twenty years later, Bruno is soon 50 and has not published anything since. He is single, has no children and lives with a young Femen as a roommate. For him, all goes well but his loved ones are worried and decide to take action.
A summer on an island of leisure in the Paris region. Land of Adventures, dredge and transgression for some, place of refuge and escape for the other. Its pay range to its hidden nooks, the exploration of a Kingdom of childhood, in resonance with the bustle of the world.
Kabwita, a young man living with his wife and daughters in Kolwezi, a town in the southwest of the Democratic Republic of Congo, dreams of buying land to build a house. To do so, he produces charcoal (makala), extracted from the ashes of a mighty hardwood tree. Carrying the sacks of charcoal on the back of his bicycle, he embarks on a dangerous journey to sell them on the market.
One summer evening in a small town in France, two teenage boys, Clarinet and Piano, say goodbye. For twelve years, they rejoin each other at irregular intervals in the same town, discussing their ambitions as they drift apart. Michaël Dacheux's 'Here and There' is a delicate exploration of the eager aspirations of two young men, wise beyond their years yet still innocent in their experience.
It starts like a fairy tale: there is a queen, a king and their beautiful children, Pauline, Anaïs and Guillaume. But it's a little more complicated than that actually ...
Victor, in his early 20s, works at the town hall and lives with his girlfriend Charlotte, who is expecting their first child. When an incident happens at the nearby nuclear power plant, he and his high school friends are forced to confine themselves inside a farmhouse, whereas they should have evacuated the area. As the rain is threatening, they are keeping an eye out for the radioactive cloud. The next 24 hours will be crucial.
Spooky stuff is afoot in a French school. All of a sudden, 10-year-old Daniel finds himself alone with Marthe – their encounter is both tender and troubling, and it seems to take place in a sort of vacuum. In Marine Atlan’s dream-like feature film debut, children dance tango timelessly, recite poems and do the drill for an imaginary terrorist attack.
A short film by French director Christelle Lheureux.
Two police officers investigate a murder in the middle on an endless winter in a small town.
Can high school friendships last a lifetime? One thing's for sure: before long, Aurore, Nours, Jeanne, Diane and the others will say goodbye to their boarding rooms, swimming in the Drôme and parties in the mountains. Louison will cut his dreads and the little family will break up. For some of them, it's not the first time, and it hurts even more...
This film is a rare glimpse into one of the most secret places of the world, Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea. Slowly, an unexpected natural phenomena devours this strange city. But the city's atmosphere of eternal celebration never changes no matter how obvious the nearing end is. The people keep absurdly demonstrating the same preset patriotic behaviour.
For a residency organized by the University, Miranda Ackerman, a writer, returns to Caen where she lived a decade earlier. She is astonished to discover that the University is hosting her in the very house where she lived with Richard, her partner at the time. Richard now teaches at the university. As they reconnect, she begins to be disturbed by presences in the house.
This portrait of the French film theorist and avant-garde director Jean Epstein (1897-1953) concentrates on the period when he filmed in Brittany, the spot where he became inspired by the sea. Using rare archive footage, Jean Epstein, Young Oceans of Cinema also looks at Epstein’s views on the specificity of the film medium.
