Hidden Agenda - Ken Loach

Political Thriller

Grande Bretagne, English, 1990

Main actors: Frances McDormand, Brian Cox and Brad Dourif

Prix Special du Jury, Cannes 1990

Hidden Agenda depicts an investigation into the murder of an American civil rights activist in Northern Ireland by the police while driving in the company of a Provisional Irish Republican Army sympathiser.

A conspiracy is gradually revealed involving a successfulCentral Intelligence Agency plot to influence the 1987 UK General Election and keepMargaret Thatcher in power, and previously to get Margaret Thatcher electedConservative Party chairman over the ex-PM Edward Heath and beat Labour in 1979 through alliance with MI6 distributing black propaganda about communists influencing strikes in the 1970s and Heath's infidelities.

Although fictional, the film was inspired by the investigation into the Royal Ulster Constabulary's alleged "shoot to kill policy". Cox's character represents John Stalker, the leader of that investigation. An undercover unit of the Royal Ulster Constabulary claimed to be involved in the killings, is mentioned briefly in the film.

Indigenes - Rachid Bouchareb

Prix interpretation masculine ex-aequo, Cannes 2006

Francais.

Main actors: Samy Naceri, Jamel Debouze, Sami Bouajila.

1943. They had not yet set foot in France, but because it's war, Saïd, Abdelkader, Messaoud and Yassir are going to join the French army to free the motherland from the Nazi enemy, like 130 000 other "natives". These heroes, forgotten by History, will vanquish in Italy, in Provence, and in the Vosges before finding themselves alone defending a village in Alsace against a German battalion.

My blueberry nights - Wong Kar Wai

Selection Cannes 2007 - China

Langue: Anglais.

Main actors: Jude Law, Nathalie Protman, Rachel Weisz, Norah Jones

After a rough break-up, Elizabeth sets out on a journey across America, leaving behind a life of memories, a dream and a soulful new friend; a café owner -- all while in search of something to mend her broken heart.

Waitressing her way through the country, Elizabeth befriends others whose yearnings are greater than hers, including a troubled cop and his estranged wife and a down-on-her luck gambler with a score to settle.

Through these individuals, Elizabeth witnesses the true depths of loneliness and emptiness, and begins to understand that her own journey is part of a greater exploration within herself.

White Wedding - Jann Turner

The loyal, committed and very decent Elvis (Kenneth Nkosi) leaves Johannesburg on Tuesday en route to pick up his best friend and best man Tumi (Rapulana Seiphemo) in Durban. The two will then journey on to Cape Town to begin rehearsals for Elvis’s wedding to the beautiful Ayanda (Zandile Msutwana) at an upmarket hotel in glamorous palm-fringed Camps Bay under the cloak of Table Mountain.

But things don’t go according to plan. Tumi, a serial flirt, has a spat with his girlfriend that leads to his car being rendered unusable; eventually the duo get on their way but Tumi’s short-cuts don’t end up making up for lost time.

As Tumi and Elvis struggle to find their way through the Eastern Cape they are picked up by Rose (Jodie Whittaker), a young English doctor who fled the altar after discovering her fiancée was serially unfaithful to her. Now there’s an unlikely trio on the road, with romantic sparks igniting between the flirtatious Tumi and their spirited British companion. Who knows if they’ll make it on time, whether the wedding will be delayed or cancelled or come perilously close to not even happening if Ayanda ditches dependable Elvis for dashing Tony, the township boy turned flashy entrepreneur.

Cry the Beloved Country - Darell Roodt

Cry, the Beloved Country is a 1995 film directed by Darrell Roodt. Based on the novel Cry, The Beloved Country by Alan Paton it stars James Earl Jones and Richard Harris. It features the song Exile by Enya. The score was composed by John Barry.

Alan Paton's classic novel about two fathers coming to terms with personal loss and the emotional scars inflicted on South Africa during the era of apartheid was brought to the screen for a second time with this adaptation, the first major film produced in South Africa after Nelson Mandela's election ended mandatory white rule in that nation. Rev. Stephen Kumalo (James Earl Jones) is a minister from a poverty-stricken farming community who travels to Johannesburg for the first time in search of his son Absalom (Eric Miyeni), who moved to the city some time back and has gone missing.

Kumalo regards the big city as a den of iniquity, and his low expectations are not betrayed; he is robbed and beaten shortly after he arrives, and when he visits his brother John (Charles S. Dutton), he discovers that Absalom has become a petty thief with a pregnant girlfriend, his sister Gertrude (Dambisa Kente) is a prostitute, and John has renounced his faith in God and advocates the violent overthrow of South Africa's white leadership. James Jarvis (Richard Harris) -- a wealthy white landowner from the same part of the country as Kumalo -- has also arrived in Johannesburg, also with sad personal business to attend to; his son, a well-liked activist for the rights of the city's black majority population, was killed during a robbery.

Yesterday - Darrell Roodt

Yesterday is a 2004 South African movie written and directed by Darrell Roodt.

It tells the story of a young mother, called Yesterday (played by Leleti Khumalo), who discovers she has AIDS. Her husband, a migrant mine laborer, who originally gave her the disease, rejects her. Her ambition becomes to live long enough to see her daughter, Beauty, go to school.

This film is the first commercial feature-length production in Zulu.

La Meglio Giuventu - Marco Tullio Giordana

The Best of Youth (Italian: La meglio gioventù), is a 2003 Italian film directed by Marco Tullio Giordana. The six hour film originally aired in Italy in from December 7 to 15, 2003 on Rai Uno, the state television channel, in four 100 minute parts. It was also given a theatrical release in Italy in which 40 minutes of the original broadcast were edited out.

The film was a sensation in Italy, winning many national film awards, and was also the recipient of the prestigious Un Certain Regard award at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival. In the U. S., the film was screened in several cities in two three-hour parts.

The Best of Youth is a family saga set in Italy from 1966 through 2003. It chronicles the life of an Italian family, the Caratis, but focuses primarily on two brothers, Matteo (Alessio Boni) and Nicola (Luigi Lo Cascio), documenting their journey from the prime of their wild youth in the mid-1960s counterculture, to parenthood and retirement in the early 2000s. The film aims to show the interaction of the personal and the political, the ways in which small events may become turning points in the important choices made by individuals.

Attention, film of 6 hours (2 x 3 h). May require a special edition of the cine-club (one night from 7:00 pm to 1:00 am or two nights).

Old Boy - Park Chan-Wook

Oldboy (Hangul: 올드보이, the phonetic transliteration of "old boy") is a 2003 South Korean film directed by Park Chan-wook. It is loosely based on the Japanese manga of the same name written by Nobuaki Minegishi and Garon Tsuchiya. Oldboy is the second installment of The Vengeance Trilogy, preceded by Sympathy for Mr.

Vengeance and followed by Sympathy for Lady Vengeance. The film follows the story of one Oh Dae-Su, who is locked in a hotel room for 15 years without knowing his captor's motives. When he is finally released, Dae Su finds himself still trapped in a web of conspiracy and violence. His own quest for vengeance becomes tied in with romance when he falls for an attractive sushi chef.

The film won the Grand Prix at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival and high praise from the President of the Jury, director Quentin Tarantino.

Critically, the movie has been well received in the United States, with an 81% "Certified Fresh" rating at Rottentomatoes.com.[2] Film critic Roger Ebert has claimed Oldboy to be a "...powerful film not because of what it depicts, but because of the depths of the human heart which it strips bare".[3] In 2008, voters on CNN named it one of the ten best Asian films ever made.[4]