Italian for Beginners

Several lonely hearts in a semi-provincial suburb of a town in Denmark use a beginner's course in Italian as the platform to meet the romance of their lives. The film, which unspools the connections and family drama shared between the students, complies with several aesthetic principles of Dogme 95 movement.

Rosamunde Pilcher: Amys Wunschkind

Sports photographer Amy Boyd's biological clock is ticking as she approaches the big 40. Nevertheless, her desire for a child is great, but she just can't get pregnant. She decides to go to a fertility clinic, but her partner Derek is not very enthusiastic about it. However, Amy is so desperate to have a child that she would go it alone. She is hoping for the support of her mother Libba, who also raised her alone. However, the death of her husband Jay almost 40 years ago still affects her, which is why she doesn't think much of Amy wanting to have a child from an unknown donor.

A Bronx Tale

Set in the Bronx during the tumultuous 1960s, an adolescent boy is torn between his honest, working-class father and a violent yet charismatic crime boss. Complicating matters is the youngster's growing attraction - forbidden in his neighborhood - for a beautiful black girl.

Mamma Mia!

A spirited young bride-to-be living with her single mother on a small Greek island secretly invites three of her mother's ex-boyfriends in hope of finding her biological father to walk her down the aisle.

Rififi

Out of prison after a five-year stretch, jewel thief Tony turns down a quick job his friend Jo offers him, until he discovers that his old girlfriend Mado has become the lover of local gangster Pierre Grutter during Tony's absence. Expanding a minor smash-and-grab into a full-scale jewel heist, Tony and his crew appear to get away clean, but their actions after the job is completed threaten the lives of everyone involved.

Everybody Wants to Be Italian

Are all relationships based on lies? Jake Bianski runs a fish market in north Boston, surrounded by Italians. For years, he's carried a torch for Isabella, an ex-girlfriend now married with three children and no interest in Jake. Yet, he tells everyone she's his girlfriend, including Marisa, a veterinarian his employees set him up with at the Italian singles club. She's interested in him until he tells her about his girlfriend, then he's persistent in asking her to be his friend. As the friendship bumps along, Jake realizes that reality may be better than fantasy, but what if Isabella changes her mind about Jake, and what if it comes out that Marisa, like Jake, isn't Italian?

The Horseman on the Roof

In a time of war and disease, a young officer gallantly tries to help a young woman find her husband.

Kind Hearts and Coronets

When his mother eloped with an Italian opera singer, Louis Mazzini was cut off from her aristocratic family. After the family refuses to let her be buried in the family mausoleum, Louis avenges his mother's death by attempting to murder every family member who stands between himself and the family fortune. But when he finds himself torn between his longtime love and the widow of one of his victims, his plans go awry.

Mambo Italiano

When an Italian man comes out of the closet, it affects both his life and his crazy family.

Die Pfarrhauskomödie

When Ambrosia, the pastor's cook, leaves the village for a while to give birth to the child she is expecting from the pastor in a secluded place, the buxom and love-struck Irma takes her place in the parish. And soon she too is looking forward to the joys of motherhood. But who is the father of the child? The curate she seduced, or even the pastor himself...?

Ira

Ira translates as “Anger,” but the titular emotion isn’t often conveyed by the unnamed man and woman at the center of this subdued Italian drama set on the grim fringes of society. Instead, they spend their nights working—he in the market, she on the streets—or wandering restlessly and relentlessly around their dark, decaying city. Writer/director Mauro Russo Rouge follows his characters as they drive down roads lit by the yellow glow of streetlights, push through the crowds at a pink-hued nightclub, pick up supplies in a glaringly bright supermarket, and meander down sidewalks with drinks in hand. They rarely emerge into the sunlight; most of the action takes place in claustrophobic indoor spaces or in the cold, gray light of dusk or dawn. So, too, do their expressions remain withdrawn—even when their nascent relationship triggers a decisive act of violence.

Pagliacci

Based on Ruggero Leoncavallo's opera Pagliacci. The film recounts the tragedy of Canio, the lead clown (or pagliaccio in Italian) in a commedia dell'arte troupe, his wife Nedda, and her lover, Silvio. When Nedda spurns the advances of Tonio, another player in the troupe, he tells Canio about Nedda's betrayal. In a jealous rage Canio murders both Nedda and Silvio. The only actor in the cast who also sang his role was the celebrated Italian baritone, Tito Gobbi, but the film is largely very faithful to its source material, presenting the opera nearly complete.

General Gramophone

Halit Berati, a virtuoso clarinet player, is invited by the Italians to record his music, which is to be sold along Italian records.

Warriors Five

World War II Italy...1943. After parachuting behind enemy lines on an espionage mission, an American soldier is imprisoned by the enemy. He escapes with four Italian prisoners, enlisting their aid in exploding a bridge.

Good Like Bread

Lisetta (Carmen Russo) a high-priced call-girl, that entertained her eccentric clients in her apartment and in empty theaters over opera! She met Filippo (Saverio Marconi), a bumbling astronomer , and after a series of mishaps, they got married.

Cheeky

While scouting out apartments in London for her Venetian boyfriend, Carla rents an apartment overlooking the Thames. There, she meets a real estate agent by the name of Moira.

Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell

After the end of WWII, an Italian woman receives child support payments from three former US soldiers who all believe themselves to be the father of her daughter, Gia.

Christmas Holidays

Christmas holidays on the snow of Cortina D'Ampezzo. Mario, a guy from Rome who has not much money, falls in love with the American Samantha, the girlfriend of hypochondriac Roberto. Billo, a singer and a playboy, meets Ivana: she's married with a rich man, Donatone, but in the past she had a flirt with Billo, who wants to reignite the flame.

The Spider's Stratagem

A young man returns to his countryside hometown to investigate the unclear circumstances behind the death of his father, ostensibly killed by Fascists in 1936, before his birth. As he unravels a web of lies that seems to encompass the whole town, he finds himself entangled in the same web.

La notte più lunga dell'anno

Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

Three tales of very different women using their sexuality as a means to getting what they want.

Sunflower

After World War II, a woman refuses to believe her husband, missing on the Russian front, is dead. Flashbacks reveal their brief courtship and marriage. Years later, she travels to Russia with his photo, determined to find him. What will she discover?

A Special Day

Two neighbours — a persecuted journalist and a resigned housewife — forge a strong bond on the day of Adolf Hitler's historic 1938 visit to Rome.

Two Women

A young widow flees from Rome during WWII and takes her lonely twelve-year-old-daughter to her rural hometown but the horrors of war soon catch up with them.

Oscar and Lucinda

After a childhood of abuse by his evangelistic father, misfit Oscar Hopkins becomes an Anglican minister and develops a divine obsession with gambling. Lucinda Leplastrier is a rich Australian heiress shopping in London for materials for her newly acquired glass factory back home. Deciding to travel to Australia as a missionary, Oscar meets Lucinda aboard ship, and a mutual obsession blossoms. They make a wager that will alter each of their destinies.

Fathers and Sons

The adventures of a young couple of high school students: her father is not opposed to their love, but the other, a doctor of prestige, is not at all happy about it.

Romantic Guide to Lost Places

Benno and Allegra: he's over fifty, English, and drinks like a fish; she's twenty years younger, a travel blogger with lots of imagination. They both live off their lies and have no intention of stopping now. Next-door neighbors who had never met until the day he wound up on the wrong landing, and nothing would ever be the same. Sheer chance leads this odd couple on a flight towards lost or forgotten places, where their mutual support makes for self-discovery.

Totò Seeks Peace

Two widowers decide to get married but their decision is continually hampered by their grandchildren, who are just interested in their inheritance.

Combat Shock

A dangerously disturbed Vietnam veteran struggles with life 15 years after his return home, and slowly falls into insanity from his gritty urban lifestyle.

If You Don't, I Will

A couple goes on a hike in the woods, and the woman refuses to return.

Doctor and the Healer

Francesco, a young doctor, is appointed doctor to the imaginary village of Pianetta in the province of Avellino, but is immediately in competition with Don Antonio, a so-called "healer".

Birds Are Singing in Kigali

We meet ornithologist Anna in 1994 just as genocide is raging in Rwanda, perpetrated by the majority Hutus against the Tutsis. Anna manages to save the daughter of a colleague whose family has been murdered, and she takes her to Poland. But the woman returns to Rwanda to visit the graves of her loved ones. The director originally worked on the movie with her husband Krzysztof Krauze (My Nikifor – Crystal Globe, KVIFF 2005), but after his death in 2014 she eventually finished this challenging picture alone.

Branded

A gunfighter takes part in a scheme to bilk a wealthy cattle family out of half a million dollars by pretending to be their son, who was kidnapped as child.

Switched Shifts

A story about a girl, a foreign worker employed at a printing house. A boy and several men long for the girl, but they do not meet even the girl’s low demands. Her current boyfriend (and superior) is cheating on her, her new admirer at work is currently homeless, and the third man is probably a liar.

Ein Sommer auf Malta

Franka Eyckner is in Malta on business. As the controller of a language school, she wants to get the principal on track. But the man is a real challenge. John sincerely vows to do better, but there's no sign of real change! It's a good thing there's also Till. The smart craftsman sees into Franka's soul and responds to her sensitively. Unfortunately, Franka is not the only woman who understands Till so well. Franka comes to Valletta to train John, the new head of the language school there. He is to use the sophisticated learning system that is the basis for the success of "Talk to Me", a global language school for which Franka works. But John, a bon vivant, humorously lets Franka down.

Shoeshine

Two shoeshine boys in postwar Rome, Italy save up to buy a horse, but their involvement as dupes in a burglary lands them in juvenile prison; the experience take a devastating toll on their friendship.

Variety Lights

In Italy, Checco Dal Monte manages a troupe of traveling performers with plenty of heart but minimal talent. At a small town engagement, he encounters the starry-eyed, gorgeous Lily Antonelli, and hires her as a dancer on the show. Vivacious Lily quickly sells out crowds and earns the resentment of Checco's mistress, Melina Amour, but the fledgling performer has far bigger ambitions and soon sets her sights on a higher-profile role.

Somersault

Australian teenager Heidi is left with little choice but to leave home after she's caught red-handed with her mother's boyfriend. With few options, Heidi ends up in Jindabyne, a tourist community. Upon meeting Joe at a bar, she pursues a relationship with him and tries to find something resembling a normal home life. Heidi makes small strides by getting a job and finding a place to stay, but her relationship with Joe must overcome more than its share of hurdles.

Anne of the Thousand Days

Henry VIII of England discards his wife, Katharine of Aragon, who has failed to produce a male heir, in favor of the young and beautiful Anne Boleyn.

Boeing, Boeing

Living in Paris, journalist Bernard has devised a scheme to keep three fiancées: Lufthansa, Air France and British United. Everything works fine as long as they only come home every third day. But when there's a change in their working schedule, they will be able to be home every second day instead. Bernard's carefully structured life is breaking apart