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Other movies
IRKALLA: GILGAMESH'S DREAM
Director: Mohamed Jabarah Al-Daradji
Nine-year-old dreamer Chum-Chum and Moody, a tough 13-year-old, navigate the harsh streets of Baghdad. Moody is obsessed with escaping to the Netherlands with Chum-Chum and his sister, Sara. Things changes when they meet Maryam, a fiery woman who has converted an old double-decker bus into a mobile school for street kids. After Maryam shows Chum-Chum an animation about the mythical hero Gilgamesh’s journey to the underworld, a new obsession takes hold. But Chum-Chum’s dream collides with a dark secret: Moody’s alliance with a ruthless militia leader and his plot to bomb protestors. Chum-Chum must now confront a brutal reality. Can one child's mythical quest save his friend, or will Moody’s dark path consume them both?
THE WORLD OF LOVE
Director: Yoon Ga-Eun
How do we rebuild our sense of self after deep emotional wounds? The World Of Love, the latest from Korean director Yoon Ga-eun, offers a moving portrait of a teenager navigating trauma with unexpected honesty and detachment. Jooin (Seo Su-bin), appears cheerful and outspoken, but her confidence masks a more painful past. Rather than focusing on suffering, the film explores resilience and the subtle power of reclaiming one’s own story. With understated direction and a remarkable performance from Chang Hyae-jin as Jooin’s mother, Yoon brings a lyrical sensitivity to the emotional terrain of family relationships and adolescence. Grounded and quietly courageous, The World Of Love is a deeply human story of survival and the quiet triumph of emotional healing.
TWO SEASONS, TWO STRANGERS
Director: Sho Miyake
Adapted from Yoshiharu Tsuge’s manga short stories from the 1960s, Two Seasons, Two Strangers follows Li (Shim Eun-kyung), a creatively blocked Korean screenwriter adrift in Japan. As she imagines a bittersweet seaside tale of two lonely youths crossing paths, a film-within-a-film unfolds onscreen and we realise her own emotional journey is mirroring theirs. Months later, in a snowy mountain village, Li finds connection with a solitary innkeeper, and slowly reclaims her voice, rediscovering purpose and the beauty of the understated. Filmmaker Sho Miyake distills transformation into its quietest form, where meaning clings to the ordinary and unravels in near-silence. The film explores relationships born of chance — not romance or friendship, but something softer, stranger and just as essential.
GIRL
Director: Shu Qi
Superstar Shu Qi, icon of Asian cinema and muse of Hou Hsiao-hsien, makes her directorial debut with this self-penned, deeply personal coming-of-age drama. In a cramped home ruled by abuse, young teenager Lin Xiaoli keeps her head down, caring for her little sister while her father’s drunken rages cascade into her mother’s cruelty. Everything shifts when she befriends Li Lili, a rebellious classmate who skips class, smokes and urges Xiaoli to challenge the family’s toxic status quo. As escape glimmers, Shu Qi films with poised restraint, observing at a remove and tuning the viewer to intimate, everyday textures with a quietly harrowing strength. Tender yet unsentimental, Girl finds fragile beauty amid hurt and announces a formidable new directorial voice.