HPL 2024 New Foreign Films | Homewood Public Library District

1) Inside the yellow cocoon shell

Description

After a car accident claims the life of his sister-in-law and leaves his 5-year-old nephew an orphan, a thirtysomething man named Thien leaves Saigon for a trip back to his rural hometown. During his meditative, wandering visit, Thien wrestles with his own agnosticism in the face of others' religious beliefs, summons memories of his long-disappeared brother, and reconnects with a former girlfriend who now lives as a nun at a Christian church and school,...

Series

Criterion collection volume 1212

Description

Bringing a documentarian's sense of open-ended inquiry to her first narrative feature, writer-director Alice Diop constructs a morally and emotionally layered courtroom drama unlike any other. When she travels to Saint-Omer, France, to attend the trial of a young Senegalese woman accused of murdering her infant daughter, novelist Rama finds herself shaken to the core by a case that proves to have profound resonances with her own life. Interweaving...

3) The crime is mine

Description

After a struggling actress stands trial for the murder of a lascivious producer in 1930s Paris, she ascends to scandalous stardom with her lawyer roommate. A new life of fame, wealth, and tabloid celebrity awaits, until the truth comes out.

4) Yuni

Series

Description

Yuni is a smart teenage girl with big dreams of attending university. When two men she barely knows ask to marry her, she rejects their proposals, sparking gossip about a myth that a woman who rejects three proposals will never marry. The pressure is building when a third man asks for her hand, and Yuni must choose between the myth of a final chance at marriage, or her dream of future happiness.

5) Afire =: Roter Himmel

Series

Janus contemporaries

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Description

While vacationing by the Baltic Sea, writer Leon and photographer Felix are surprised to encounter Nadja, a mysterious young woman staying as a guest at the holiday home of Felix's family. Nadja soon distracts Leon from finishing his latest novel, not only because of her passionate liaison with lifeguard Devid but also because her brutal honesty forces Leon to confront his artistic inadequacies. As Nadja and Leon grow closer, an encroaching forest...

6) Yūko no tenbin =: A balance

Series

Description

Investigative filmmaker Yuko is putting together a piece about the bereaved families connected with a bullied schoolgirl's suicide. Determined to shed light on the truth, Yuko's uncompromising nature brings her into conflict with the conservative-minded management at her television network but succeeds in getting her interview subjects to place their trust in her. Then Yuko discovers that her father, Masashi, who runs a test prep school, has made...

7) Other people's children =: Les enfants des autres

Description

Rachel is a dedicated teacher who forms a deep bond with her boyfriend's young daughter, loving the family she's found but yearning for one of her own in this soulful, sexy, resolutely grown-up story of the elusive quest for belonging.

8) Under the fig trees

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Series

Description

On a hot summer day, a crew of workers men and women, young and old arrive at dawn at a picturesque fig orchard in northwest Tunisia. We eavesdrop, through the sun-dappled leaves of the fig trees, on the young women stealing away precious moments from the foreman's watchful gaze. Meanwhile, the older women, tasked with packing the tender fruit, watch and reminisce together as well. They joke, argue, debate, gossip, and flirt while painting an unhurried...

9) Four daughters

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Description

The riveting exploration of rebellion, memory, and sisterhood reconstructs the story of Olfa Hamrouni and her four daughters, unpacking a complex family history through intimate interviews and artful reenactments to examine how the Tunisian woman's two eldest were radicalized by Islamic extremists. Casting professional actresses as the missing daughters, along with acclaimed Egyptian-Tunisian actress Hend Sabri as Olfa, award-winning director Kaouther...

10) Before, now & then

Description

Set amid the political violence of late-1960s Indonesia, this film follows Nana, the beautiful wife of a wealthy plantation owner whose inner life remains with her deceased first husband, murdered in the civil war a decade prior. A survivor, Nana values her safety and material comforts, but carries out a haunted existence, dreaming of her lost love. Forced to confront her husband's blatant infidelity, Nana makes an unusual connection with his younger...

11) return to dust dvd

This entry no longer exists in the catalog

12) Bodeng sar =: White building

Description

Aspiring 20-year old dancer Samnang and his family face the impending demolition of their lifelong home in Phnom Penh and the loss of a close-knit community in the White Building, a historical apartment block. They find their lives suddenly shattered by the news of their home's impending demolition and are forced to face the pressures from family, friends, and neighbors which arise and intersect in this moment of sudden change.

13) L'immensità

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Description

Clara and Felice struggle to raise their three children in the 1970's Rome. Their trans son Andrew yearns for another life, escaping into his own imagination to defuse family tension in this creative and moving film about growing up and breaking the mold.

14) Return to Seoul

Description

The compelling and unpredictable film from director Davy Chou (Diamond Island). Freddie has returned to South Korea for the first time since her adoption and move to France. Freddie suddenly finds herself embarking on an unexpected journey in a country where she knows very little, including the language, to learn about where she was born.

15) Cadejo blanco

Series

Description

Sarita goes out dancing one night at the insistence of her free-spirited sister, Bea. Uncharacteristically, Sarita dances the night away, heading home alone when the party drags on too late. The next morning, after calling friends and neighbors, Sarita begins to panic when she realizes that Bea never made it home. The police are indifferent and unhelpful, but Sarita suspects that Bea's disappearance has something to do with Andrés, her sister's dangerous...

Description

Faced with a future of strict ceremony and royal duties, Empress Elisabeth of Austria rebels against her public image and comes up with a plan to protect her legacy.

17) Decision to leave

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Description

A man falls from a mountain peak to his death. The detective in charge of the investigation, Hae-Joon, comes to meet the dead man's wife Seo-Rae. When she becomes a suspect, Hae-Joon finds himself slowly developing an interest in her.

18) All quiet on the Western Front =: Im Westen nichts Neues

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Description

"The gripping story of a young German soldier on the Western Front of World War I. Paul and his comrades experience first-hand how the initial euphoria of war turns into desperation and fear as they fight for their lives, and each other, in the trenches. The film from director Edward Berger is based on the world-renowned bestseller of the same name by Erich Maria Remarque"--Container.

19) Hold me tight =: Serre moi fort

Description

A woman one day simply walks out on her family. Or does she?

Series

Description

Mustafa, a Palestinian construction worker, lives 200 meters away from his wife Salwa and their children in villages separated by the Israeli border wall. Though his family are all Israeli citizens, Mustafa refuses to obtain a permit to live with them. Unwilling to succumb to what he believes are unjust laws, he instead uses his work permit to visit daily. However, one day he gets a call every parent dreads: his son has been injured and brought to...