KING OF THE RING
Other movies
AGORA
Director: Ala Eddine Slim
A blue dog and a black crow narrate the strange story of three revenants – people who are not quite dead, but not alive either – who resurge in a remote town, reviving the unsolved mysteries around their respective disappearances. Fathi, the local police inspector, is on the case, assisted by his friend Amine, the local doctor. What begins as a conventionally recognisable crime thriller, however, becomes more of a mood piece once Omar, a police investigator from the city, arrives to shine a light on what has happened and is overwhelmed by the irrationality of the chain of events. At once absurd and disturbing, Agora gradually reveals itself as both poetic fable and a political commentary on the state of Tunisia.
THE LAST RONIN
Director: Maksim Shishkin
Haunted by the ghosts of the past, lone traveller Ronin wanders the post-apocalyptic wastelands in search of his father's killer. The devastation caused by climate change led to a global nuclear war, destroying civilisation as we know it: lands are scorched and cities destroyed. Electrical equipment no longer works and gasoline has long lost the properties that made it the world's greatest resource. The main currency in this new world is AK47 cartridges. Everywhere Ronin goes, he encounters blood-thirsty headhunters and rogue gangs all fighting for scraps in this dangerous new world. Then, one day, Ronin meets a wayward teenage girl who offers him a precious bounty for escorting her to her birthplace, a journey that will require all his fighting skills.
LITTLE JAFFNA
Director: Lawrence Valin
“You’re not in Paris any more. You’re in Little Jaffna.” During the civil war in Sri Lanka that raged from 1983 until 2009, Tamils in the Parisian district of Little Jaffna were forced to contribute towards buying arms for Tamil Tigers. Aya, ostensibly a grocer, leads the ruthless extortion gang that bleeds the community dry. Michael, a straight-shooting young police officer with Tamil roots, is sent to infiltrate the organization but as he befriends the gang’s members at terrible risk to himself, he starts to see the issue in a more nuanced way and feels his loyalties shifting. Valin combines the theatricality of Tamil movies with the hard edge of new French cinema, using largely non-professional actors, in this spectacular thriller.
RAVENS
Director: Mark Gill
Acclaimed Japanese photographer Masahisa Fukase, who died in 2012, was best known in his lifetime for his photographic book The Solitude of Ravens (1976-82), with its bleak images of distant birds evoking themes of isolation and tragedy. That work was his response to his divorce from his second wife of 13 years, Yoko Wanibe, which left him devastated. During their tumultuous years together, he photographed her constantly; she was a model, collaborator and object of his obsession. Tadanobu Asano, who was Emmy-nominated for Shogun, plays Fukase in this intense portrait of a passionate man caught in a love triangle between his wife and his art, incarnated here as a talking raven – a humorous touch to this profound exploration of love and loss.