A Place Called Chiapas

1998

Featuring a rare on-camera interview with mysterious insurgent leader Subcomandante Marcos, filmmaker Nettie Wild's documentary investigates the rebel movement in Chiapas and the government's attempts to quash the activities of the Zapatistas. One of the poorest regions in Mexico, the southern province of Chiapas drew worldwide attention in 1994 when Marcos and his Zapatista National Liberation Army staged a major uprising.

3.5 Average Rating

La Sierra

2005

Colombia-based journalists Scott Dalton and Margarita Martinez introduce us to a nation at civil war by hitting the streets of Medellín, a dangerous city ruled by a fierce paramilitary gang. By focusing on three vastly different personalities -- Edison, a gang leader; Cielo, a widowed teenage mother; and Jesus, a drug-using thug -- the filmmakers draw us into their world and capture startling moments of truth and sorrow.

3.5 Average Rating

Mukhsin

2006

When young Mukhsin (Mohd Syafie Naswip) arrives in a new town, 10-year-old tomboy Orked (Sharifah Aryana) adopts him as her new best friend, and the two develop a touching friendship that begins to spill over into the inklings of first love. And with turmoil at home, the sometimes-troubled Mukhsin discovers a deeper kind of love in the form of Orked's open and progressive Malay family. Yasmin Ahmad directs this charming drama.

3.5 Average Rating

Budrus

2010

Documentarian Julia Bacha delves into the fraught world of Palestinian-Israeli relations in this amazing account of one family's leadership of a movement to prevent Israel's Separation Barrier from slicing the Palestinian village of Budrus in half.

3.5 Average Rating

Take My Eyes

2005

Winner of seven Goya Awards, including Best Picture, Director, Lead Actor and Actress, Iciar Bollain's raw drama exposes the hard truths about domestic abuse. With her son in tow, battered wife Pilar (Laia Marull) finally flees her violent husband, Antonio (Luis Tosar), taking asylum at her sister Ana's (Candela Peña) home. Free from the clutches of her abusive husband, Pilar struggles to start a new life; problem is, she still loves Antonio.

3.5 Average Rating

A Simple Life

2011

After working for the Leung family for decades, a servant still takes care of filmmaker Roger Leung -- but when she falls sick, the tables are turned as Roger looks after her in this heartwarming tale inspired by a true story.

3.5 Average Rating

Inch' Allah Dimanche

2001

French-Algerian director Yamina Benguigi brings us the passionate story of an immigrant struggling against old world traditions. Zouina (Fjeria Deliba) leaves her homeland with her three children to join her husband in France, where he's been living for the past 10 years. In a land and culture foreign to her, Zouina struggles against her mother-in-law's tyrannical hand and her husband's distrustful bitterness as she adjusts to her life in exile.

3.5 Average Rating

Native Dancer

2008

When gangsters press a wealthy businessman (Farkhat Amankulov) to build a gas station and motel on his property, the construction evicts a spiritual healer (Nesipkul Omarbekova) who's lived on the land for decades. In her absence, chaos reigns -- and the businessman's son disappears. Gulshat Omarova directs this sweeping drama exploring the tension between tradition and progress in modern-day Kazakhstan.

3.5 Average Rating

Sequins

2004

After learning she's five months pregnant, 17-year-old Claire (Lola Naymark) leaves her former life behind to give birth in anonymity. An excellent embroiderer, Claire finds work with a professional in the business, Madame Melikian (Ariane Ascaride). Both women bear a heavy burden -- the Madame can't cope with her son's death, and Claire doesn't want to have a child. As they pour themselves into the work they love, the two develop a strong bond.

3.5 Average Rating

Alone in Four Walls

2008

In rural Russia, children convicted of theft, murder and rape are sent to a home for delinquents. Without the outside world's pressures, they're finally allowed to act as children, but for some of them, this new life proves to be a challenge. This documentary tells the stories of several of these adolescents, who must endure separation from their families and who, upon release, are unlikely to be forgiven for their crimes.

3.5 Average Rating

Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow

2010

Modern artist Anselm Kiefer and his monumental landscape creation at Barjac, France -- a vast complex including lakes, bridges, caves and galleries displaying Kiefer's other work -- are the focus of this documentary from Sophie Fiennes. The artist's ruminations on the creative process and his aims and ambitions are intercut with a careful study of the art itself, shining a spotlight on the processes at work in Kiefer's expanding mini-universe.

3.5 Average Rating

Silent Waters

2003

Religious extremism takes its toll on a small Pakistani village in this drama set in 1979. Now living under martial law, the widow Ayesha (Kiron Kher) struggles to adapt to Muslim rule. Her teen son Saleem (Aamir Malik) resists pressure from his girlfriend (Shilpa Shukla) to get a job and takes up with a group of Muslim fundamentalists. When Sikh pilgrim Jaswant (Navtej Johar) comes to town, Ayesha remembers long-forgotten secrets from her past.

3.5 Average Rating

The Desert of Forbidden Art

2010

Trace the incredible story of defiant visionary Igor Savitsky, an artist and museum curator who cunningly acquired more than 40,000 banned Soviet Union paintings and hid the illegal collection from the KGB in Uzbekistan's Nukus Museum. In addition to rare archival footage and interviews with the artists' children, this absorbing documentary also features letters and diary entries read by Ben Kingsley, Sally Field and Edward Asner.

3.5 Average Rating

In Darkness

2011

As Nazis overrun Warsaw, many of the city's Jews hide out in sewers, where they encounter Leopold, an anti-Semitic sanitation worker. His prejudice reflects the rift between Poland's Jews and Catholics in this film inspired by true events.

3.5 Average Rating

Sugar Cane Alley

1983

Jose is a bright young boy who lives among the poor black families of a sugar cane plantation community. His grandmother, believing her grandson is capable of great things, sacrifices to save him from the hard life of working the fields. Euzhan Palcy's award-winning film is an honest, deeply moving human drama of a young boy who fights against the odds for his future.

3.5 Average Rating

Hitler's Hit Parade

2003

This disturbing collage of Third Reich musicals, newsreels, home movies, cartoons and commercials includes rare segments in color and shows how the Nazis relied on escapist entertainment to promote their murderous ideology and bolster the veneer of normalcy during Adolf Hitler's reign. The film plays out without commentary, using Nazi catchphrases to preface segments on idealized German society. Oliver Axer and Susanne Benze co-direct.

3.5 Average Rating