2004 Movies : Foreign

With Pedro Almodovar • Gael García Bernal • Daniel Gimenez Cacho • Javier Camara • Lluis Homar • Fele Martínez • Agustin Almodovar

This is the story of two men, one of whom is a film director, in Spain who meet again 20 years after they attended a Catholic school together as children during the time of Franco's rule. The film will flash back to extended sequences from their youths, and will also include a movie-within-the-movie sequence.

With Leila Hatami • Nezam Manouchehri • Mehran Rajabi • Mahmoud Pak Neeyat • Ali Reza Raisian

Based on a concept the director and Abbas Kiarostami developed on a photography trip together, a man and a young woman (Leila Hatami of Leila) are stranded in a remote village after their car breaks down. The photographer and the sole adult male inhabitant, a schoolteacher, leave to get help while the young woman, herself childless, bonds with the children whose parents are nowhere to be found.

With Alain Sarde • George Aguilar • Ruth Waldburger • Sarah Adler • Nade Dieu • Rony Kramer • Leticia Gutierrez

The film follows the structure of Dante's masterwork, beginning in Hell. In Godard's hands, hell becomes a devastating but beautifully collected montage of war images. War - be it World War II, Algeria, Vietnam, Israel or Bosnia - is a constant in his films, but never has he pieced together an assemblage of such poetic power. Purgatory finds Godard himself in Sarajevo, where he has been invited to attend a European literary conference with other artists and writers. Here we are introduced to a young French-Jewish journalist based in Israel who has come to Sarajevo to see a place "where reconciliation is possible." Paradise is the most enigmatic section of the film, where the journalist finds peace by the water on a small beach guarded by American Marines.

With Li Bingbing • Toru Nakamura • Ziyi Zhang • Liu Ye • Feng Yuangzheng • Lou Ye • Wang Wei

Itami, a young Japanese man, falls deeply in love with Cynthia, a beautiful Chinese girl. Their brief happiness ends when he is called home for his military service and they are forced to part. Three years later, Shanghai has been unofficially occupied by Japan. Cynthia - now known as Ding Hui—is working for Purple Butterfly, a resistance group planning to assassinate Yamamoto, head of the Japanese secret service. Itami is also in Shanghai, operating as a secret agent and reporting directly to Yamamoto.