This absorbingly surreal tale of a mysteriously dislocated flight attendant who goes AWOL and joins a militant band of young animal rights activists is secured by a captivating performance by the ethereal Jeanne Balibar.
Films — by Genre
Women Make Movies
Attenberg
A wonderfully original coming-of-age film from Greece as a late-blooming 20-something embarks on her first sexual relationship. “An imaginative curio… whose emotional power creeps up on you.” — Sight & Sound
Circumstance
Sharayet
“The world of sex, drugs, and underground nightclubs in Iran provides the backdrop for Maryam Keshavarz’s lusty, dreamy take on the passionate teenagers behind the hijabs.” — San Francisco Bay Guardian
The Future
In this delicately cracked comedy from Miranda July (Me and You and Everyone We Know) a 30-something LA couple give up their jobs for a last taste of freedom – before adopting a cat. “Surreal, precious, devastating and brilliant.” — The Playlist
Guilty Pleasures
A fond, good-humoured doco about Mills & Boon romance novels and how they bear on the love lives of a handful of writers and readers. “A movie about fantasy: creating it, living in it, and learning its limitations.” — SlantMagazine.com
Happy, Happy
Sykt lykkelig
City couple meets country couple in this shrewd and frank Scandinavian sex comedy. Grand Jury Prize, Sundance 2011.
Love Like Poison
Un poison violent
A teenage girl learns some lessons about sex, death and the love of Jesus in this award-winning French drama. "An auspicious debut... beautiful and unsettling" — Sight and Sound
Magic Trip: Ken Kesey’s Search for a Kool Place
Colour footage shot by Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters on their legendary 1964 bus trip across America is seen for the first time, collated by Oscar-winning documentarian Alex Gibney. Turn on, tune in, drop out!
Mana Waka
In tribute to the late Merata Mita, the New Zealand Film Archive presents a rare screening of her breathtaking documentary, fashioned from archival footage, detailing the construction of waka for the 1940 Waitangi centennial.
A Matter of Taste: Serving Up Paul Liebrandt
Ten years in the rollercoaster career of Paul Liebrandt, a brilliant young English chef in New York, documented by expat Kiwi Sally Rowe. “Liebrandt makes a charismatic focus… a gastronomic thriller.” — Wall St Journal
Meek's Cutoff
Based on fact, Kelly Reichardt’s beautiful, eerily poetic alt-Western follows three families heading west in 1845. With Michelle Williams, Bruce Greenwood, Will Patton.
Miss Representation
Wanting a better world for her baby daughter, filmmaker Jennifer Siebel Newsom embarks on an unashamedly personal journey to figure out why women are so under-represented in the media and what can be done to change this.
Pink Saris
Kim Longinotto follows fiery activist Sampat Pal Devi as she crusades against child marriages, dowry deaths and the abuse of women in northern India. “A multilayered, psychologically complex portrait of both a woman and a moment.” — Variety
The Round Up
La rafle
Moving, meticulously researched, controversial concentration camp drama. “Hailed as an important step in France’s acknowledgment of its complicity in the crimes of the Occupation.” — The Guardian
She Monkeys
Apflickorna
Teenage girls immersed in the world of competitive equestrian vaulting are drawn to each other as friends and rivals in this sexually charged drama of adolescent power play. Best Film Award, Tribeca Film Festival 2011.
Sing Your Song
With intimacy, style and classic performance clips, Susanne Rostock’s documentary surveys the inspiring life of singer, actor and activist Harry Belafonte. “Personal, candid, historic, and impassioned.” — Reverse Shot
Sleeping Beauty
This icily erotic modern fairytale by Australian novelist Julia Leigh was a controversial contender at Cannes. “A brave and beautiful calling card for both filmmaker and star.” — Empire
Sons of Perdition
Documentary portrait of young men struggling in the real world after fleeing or being evicted from Warren Jeffs’ Fundamentalist Latter-Day Saints sect. “A moving, thrilling yarn of heartland life and masculinity.” — Salon.com
Strawberries with the Führer
In Amy O’Connor’s lively doco German New Zealander Helga Tiscenko talks about meeting Hitler and the privileges and subsequent travails of growing up the daughter of a loving father who was also a Nazi General.
Tiny Furniture
Actor/writer/director Lena Dunham made indie headlines with this autobiographical comedy. “The honest story of a young woman’s vulnerable desires and a bemused satire of real-life Gossip Girlhood.” — Entertainment Weekly
Tomboy
This bold, luminous drama of childhood and gender identity centres on ten-year-old Laure, happily passing for a boy when her family move to a new neighbourhood. Superbly acted by a largely child cast.