Browse Movies : Kino Lorber : 2024

In the treacherous and swampy forests that make up the so-called “green border” between Belarus and Poland, refugees from the Middle East and Africa trying to reach the European Union are trapped in a geopolitical crisis cynically engineered by Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko. In an attempt to provoke Europe, refugees are lured to the border by propaganda promising easy passage to the EU. Finding themself pawns in this hidden war, the lives of Julia, a newly minted activist who has given up her comfortable life, Jan, a young border guard, and a Syrian family intertwine.

Banel and Adama are fiercely in love. The young married couple lives in a remote village in northern Senegal. For them, nothing else exists. But for the rest of their tight-knit village, duty dictates that Adama soon accept the role of chief. The young man and his lovelorn wife have their own plans — until something in the air changes. The rains do not come, the cattle begin to die, the men leave. Senegal's official submission to the Academy Awards and the only debut feature in competition at last year's Cannes Film Festival, Banel & Adama is a lush and lyrical fable that soars to the heights of longing and descends deep into the realm of myth, sending its protagonists' perfect everlasting love on a collision course with their community’s customs. Because in this world, there is no room for passion, let alone chaos.

Follows Max, a 25-year-old freelance writer and aspiring novelist who seems well on his way to success in London’s cultural spheres. Yet by night, he finds a different kind of exhilaration as a sex worker with the pseudonym Sebastian, meeting men via an escorting platform. Max uses his experiences as Sebastian to fuel his stories and the worthy debut novel that he has been longing to write, finally seems within reach. As Max increasingly struggles to remain in control of a delicately balanced double-life, he must reckon with whether Sebastian is merely a writer’s tool in their quest for the ultimate sense of first-hand authenticity — or whether something more is at stake.

Sol is an aspiring young rapper and musician, struggling to fund his studio sessions and living with his best friend Wesley’s family. When he meets a group of touring hip-hop musicians, Sol decides to take a chance, leaning into his creative dreams and impulsively joining them on a road trip through Texas. Leaving all that he knows behind, Sol embarks on a musical odyssey across the state, finding instant creative chemistry with his new companions and discovering his own identity as an artist. However, the world of opportunity is not all it appears to be, and soon Sol is forced to make some life changing decisions.

Joseph Santangelo (Vincent D’Onofrio) is a butcher with a wicked sense of humor who “wins” his wife Catherine (a stellar Tracey Ullman) in a pinochle game. Over the protests of his mother (Judith Malina) who talks to ghosts and makes deals with saints, Joseph marries Catherine. When the old lady dies, her spirit is channeled into her granddaughter Teresa who overtakes the film with her yearning to serve God. Perfectly embodying a modern-day Bernadette, Lili Taylor imbues Teresa with a mix of dedicated innocence and naïveté.

Seeking a retreat where they can salvage their struggling relationship, young couple Leyla (Mala Emde) and Tristan (Jonas Dassler) travel to a remote island at the invitation of Leyla’s childhood friend Stella, where it soon becomes clear that what the island offers is more mysterious than a simple vacation. Leyla and Tristan join another couple in a ritual to exchange bodies and see the world through the eyes of someone else – a chance to find themselves or, for some of them, a chance at escape. Free from the constraints of her former body, Leyla quickly finds she has never been happier, with a fresh outlook on life and a new sense of release and fulfillment. But when she refuses to return to her old self, the situation threatens to spiral out of control. Subverting genre and gender as it toggles from body swap thriller to intimate relationship drama, Skin Deep tells a story that transcends bodies, embracing the endless fluid possibilities in the question of what it means to truly love someone.

The sudden death of his sister-in-law brings unexpected responsibilities to Thien (Le Phong Vu), who is reluctantly tasked with bringing his five-year-old nephew Dao to their countryside hometown. On the road, Thien is drawn into a search for his long-missing older brother, haunted and spurred forward by a series of sublime dreams that reignite suppressed memories, forbidden desires, and specters of his own youth. What began as a journey home becomes a pilgrimage marked by visual splendor and mystical overtones, a quest for understanding and certainty in a Vietnam that seems unable to provide any clear answers. As Thien battles with the existential question of what is worth living for, Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell interrogates the persistence and complexity of faith, not only in the spiritual but in the delicate beauty of earthly existence.