Browse Movies : 2009 : Drama : R

At once a gripping thriller and a tragic drama of nearly Greek proportions, "Revanche" is the stunning, Oscar–nominated, international breakthrough film from Austrian filmmaker Götz Spielmann. In a ragged section of Vienna, hardened ex-con Alex (the mesmerizing Johannes Krisch) works as an assistant in a brothel, where he falls for Ukrainian hooker Tamara (Irina Potapenko). Their desperate plans for escape unexpectedly intersect with the lives of a rural cop (Andreas Lust) and his seemingly content wife (Ursula Strauss). With meticulous, elegant direction, Spielmann creates a tense, existential, and surprising portrait of vengeance and redemption, and a journey into the darkest forest of human nature, in which violence and beauty exist side by side.

Tato (Gael García Bernal) and Beto (Diego Luna), two brothers living a hard life of manual labor in rural Mexico, have a simple dream of saving enough money to build their mother her dream house. But fate has other plans; a friendly game of soccer leads to first one, then the other being taken on by the nation’s top talent scout, Batuta, and gives rise to the first of many emotional head to heads between brothers. Suddenly, they find themselves living the high life of star athletes—fame, riches, fast cars, and beautiful women. But every dream has a dark side, and when they are forced to compete on rival teams, bitterness brews between them. Mutual trust gives way to resentment and betrayal, while the dangers of their wild new lifestyles threaten debt and the safety of their entire family. In the end, all will ride on the one big game between their two clubs. Tato and Beto must face each other on the pitch but also reunite again as brothers before they lose everything they had once dreamed of.

In 208 A.D., in the final days of the Han Dynasty, shrewd Prime Minister Cao Cao convinced the fickle Emperor Han the only way to unite all of China was to declare war on the kingdoms of Xu in the west and East Wu in the south. Thus began a military campaign of unprecedented scale, led by the Prime Minister, himself. Left with no other hope for survival, the kingdoms of Xu and East Wu formed an unlikely alliance. Numerous battles of strength and wit ensued, both on land and on water, eventually culminating in the battle of Red Cliff. During the battle, two thousand ships were burned, and the course of Chinese history was changed forever.

When Katie, an ordinary woman, meets Paco, an ordinary man, something magical happens: a love story. From this union an extraordinary child is born: Ricky.