ALL THE PRETTY LITTLE HORSES. Directed by Michalis Konstantatos ***

They are bourgeois secret squatters living at a rich woman’s house in the countryside with their son, without her permission. Aliki and Petros are truly having problems. Something in Athens at work happened that caused her to have a breakdown. She is an anaesthesiologist and there is a hint that a patient died under her care), and Petros is out of work. Their adorable young boy is having fun, but the energy he has does not carry though to his parents. Tension builds in this film, but the action is sparse and barren, An introspective film that has overly dramatic acting segments akin to a Greek drama.

 

OUR LADY OF THE NILE ***

Afghan director Atiq Rahimi views he brewing war between the Hutus and Tutsis in the conflict between elite Rwanda schoolgirls, based on Scholastique Mukasonga’s novel. The setting revolves aroudn an elite girls’ school runs by nuns where Hutus are accepted and only a fraction of Tutsis are. Inside intrigue, including attempting to change the nose of a Virgin Mary statue to a true-like Tutsi nose that the girls pray to every day, sets the ominous turn of events of bloodshed and then full out massacre of war that devastated this country for years.

 

LOVE TRILOGY: CHAINED, directed by Yaron Shani *****

 A low-key family situation tat tightly and subtly turns into a high voltage plot-build-up. It’s a family drama where the central figure – Rashi - a cop - implodes with each day bringing his whoel world down on all fronts. It is hard to believe that Rashi is played by a non-actor, Eran Naim the lead role.

 

He is utterly believable as he delivers his lines that coil around his wife and her 13-year-old daughter’s lives like a cobra who can’t let go. He masterfully plays a controlling sensitive macho cop, father and husband with such suffocating energy that in the end, he loses everything dear to him  His life unravels, starting with being accused of sexual impropriety when doing a strip search  on a young male student -  having hauled him into the station, just because he felt challenged by the young man’s non-compliance to do as asked when Rashi picks on him in the park.

Family life is portrayed in this film as a fragile entity ripe with power struggles. His wife is undergoing IV treatments  but a fetus in her womb does not grow. This foreshadows the break-down that marks his life and negatively affects others he loves.

The acting ensemble is brilliant. His step-daughter, played by Stav Potay was also a force to reckon with in her role as a rebellious teen. He puts an end to her fun all the time. He puts an end to more than one could ever imagine. The climax explodes in the last scene.

GULL, directed by Kim Mi-jo ***

A sixty-year-old woman of little education has spent over 30 years working in a fish market. She is raped by one of the workers, but no one will attest to it to help her when together with her daughter they go to the police. The comment made by her drunken husband about rape reflect as repulsive attitude about rape in Korea. The men in this film are drunk and vulgar. A touching but disturbing film.

EMPTINESS, directed by Paul Venegas ***

Lei and dozens other hide in a shipping crate traveling from China to Ecuador. Her dream is to get to New York. She is taken into the care of a good man, but a very bad man from China has other plans for her and her friend. She has even paid for her final destination to her dream city.

He uses them as a mule and gets them their ticket to New York. They plan a ruse to foil the plan, but sadly, the end shows that migrants’ dreams don’t always happen the way they wish. Non-actors make this film so real. The refugee plight is harrowing.

THE NEW PLASTIC ROAD, directed by Angelos Tsaousis, Myrto Papadopoulos ****

Davlat is a Tajik merchandiser and a humble yet ambitous father of three children. A well-respected businessman in the Pamir area, a mountainous region southeast of Tajikistan in the borders with China. His life has been transformed since the opening of the Tajik-Chinese border and the reconstruction of the old Silk Road: A road full of surprises and new experiences for Davlat and his family. The driving is long. The film documents his present life aS he speaks to the camera. He also speaks about his childhood - his favorite time of life. His life prospers, until his health with a bad back and leg caused by a car accident long ago in his childhood on route to China, now stops him from enjoying life. Traders have opened up China to the remote region in Tajikstan.  I loved this film.

 

TAR, directed by Aaron Wolf **

There’s a pit left open at a small out door area showing the La Brea tar pit prehistoric animals in LA. In 1976, archeologists dug a pit and went down to explore. They never came back. The tar monster got them, and though a man on the street tells the story of the monster and what happened, no one believes him. A father and son who just don’t get along work together next door, but they have to move to make way for a new development. The father doesn't think the son will ever amount to much, but guess what? Not true. This is a tar-tamed spoof of an urban horror flic, full of pretty women with big busts (one in particular), so I'm sure you can guess what happens.

 The tar monster is after them all because that area was built over this prehistoric tar pit area. Lots of guys and gals get tarred. This film has no surprises.