THE SUITCASE
Other movies
BIN U BIN, ELSEWHERE THE BORDER
Director: Mohamed Lakhdar Tati
In the rocky desert Algerian border country, Fethi and his fellow villagers eke out a living smuggling goods – mostly petrol – into Tunisia, working at night and paying off the local crime lords. Saad, a film-maker trying to raise money to finish his movie, has worked for a year with Fethi. He lives in his family’s shed, included as part of a loving household as well as their risky business. At the same time he is obviously an outsider: smartly dressed and prepared to talk back to anyone, including the imam. Tough, gritty but also moodily atmospheric, its tension sustained by a tumultuous soundscape, theis remarkable film delves deeply into the complexities of family, friendship and daily survival.
6 AM
Director: Mehran Modiri
Sarah is leaving Teheran for three years to study for her doctorate in Canada. Her flight is at 6 am. After an emotionally fraught final dinner with her family, she heads to an impromptu farewell party at her friend Farida’s apartment, intending to go straight to the airport afterwards. That plan implodes, however, when the morality police swoop in. Drinks are emptied, musical instruments hidden and women put on their overcoats, while Sarah is seized with terror that they will all be arrested – and she, of course, will miss her plane. Mehran Modiri, Iran’s popular satirist, who also has a chilling cameo as a police hostage negotiator, proves here that he is just as at home with a nail-biting drama.
PANDA BEAR IN AFRICA
Director: Richard Claus
When Panda Ping’s best friend, Jielong the Dragon, is kidnapped by a baboon and smuggled to Africa, Ping sets off from their forest home in South China to rescue him - stowing away on a junk ship, he lands in East Africa and gets captured. Alongside the monkey Jojo, Ping escapes, and they cross deserts and mountains facing down the hippopotamus, an army of meerkats and a suspicious hyena before discovering Jielong at the court of King Ade, a spoilt teenage lion. But Ade is not safe either: his uncle, evil Malume, is plotting to dethrone him and destroy the neighbouring jungle home of Niala, Ping’s new hyena friend. Ping is just one small panda. Can he save everyone?