Other movies
KILL
Director: Nikhil Nagesh Bhat
Toot toot, pay attention! One of the craziest and zaniest movies you’ll likely see this decade—all the action in this martial arts epic takes place aboard the Rajdhani Express bound for New Delhi. The plot is as thin as the edge of a very sharp sword, and there are plenty of those brought onto the train by a group of bandits determined to pillage everyone. They would get away if not for a damsel needing rescuing. Handsome Amrit (Lakshya) and his best buddy, Viresh, are on a rescue mission, determined to save Amrit’s sweetheart Tulika (Tanya Maniktala) before she is married off by her family. To save her, they must stave off the bandits. The martial arts and murder choreography must be seen to be believed.
GODARD SEUL LE CINÉMA
Director: Cyril Leuthy
When he died in September, aged 91, French-Swiss director Jean-Luc Godard left behind around 140 films in which he “redefined the very idea of what a movie was and where it could go”, to quote Martin Scorsese. In this portrait, director Cyril Leuthy’s stated aim was to go beyond the caricature of an obsessive cineaste, unable to forge working relationships in real life. He wants us “to meet a man more sentimental than it seems… because yes, Godard is human, not just a machine who thinks and creates images”. The famously reticent Godard barely joins him in this venture, but Leuthy does interview many people who worked with the French New Wave great over the years who recall telling details, like how he would feed actors lines on set. Copious clips from his films, especially the extraordinary run of original, playful works he made in the 60s, flesh out the abiding sense of his significance.
24 HOURS WITH GASPAR
Director: Yosep Anggi Noen
An action-packed martial arts adventure set in a steampunk futuristic version of Indonesia in 2032 that will put you on the edge of your seat from start to finish. When Gaspar's (Reza Rahadian) artificial heart starts malfunctioning, he is given 24 hours to live. That's just enough time for him to put together a team of assassins (Shenina Cinnamon and Laura Basuki on top form) to help him investigate a mass slaughter case involving the government. Along the way, he encounters an informant who hints that everything ties into the long-ago disappearance of Gaspar's childhood friend Kirana at the hands of a human-trafficking crook. Director Yosep Anggi Noen puts the audience through its paces in this visually stunning thriller.
METRONOM
Director: Alexandru Belc
The year is 1972; Nikolai Ceausescu has ruled Romania with an iron fist for seven years. Politics don't mean much to 17-year-old Ana (Mara Bugarin), who is mainly concerned that the family of the boy she is crushing on is emigrating to Germany in a few days. They meet at a classmate's house party, where the guests listen to the Doors on Radio Free Europe and make plans to resist Communism. Ana is humiliated by the boy and goes for a walk to clear her head. When she returns, the house is full of secret police interrogating the revellers about a letter. Everyone, including Ana, is arrested. Director Alexandru Belc's mesmeric film punches home how terrifying even the unspoken possibility of violence can be. And yet it is apolitical Ana who resists ratting on her friends. Her teenage petulance and romantic drive give her unexpected moral resolve to withstand authority.
(LA THÉORIE DU TOUT)
THE UNIVERSAL THEORY
Thriller and Fiction | Running Time: 100 minutes
2023 / German, French and Italian
Country: Germany, Austria and Switzerland
MENA Premiere
ProducerViktoria Stolpe, Heino Deckert
CastJan Bülow, Olivia Ross, Hanns Zischler, Gottfried Breitfuss, David Bennet, Philippe Graber, Imogene Kogge
ScriptwriterRoderick Warich, Timm Kröger
A congress for theoretical physicists in the snow-covered Swiss Alps is the spectacular setting for this truly extraordinary film, which plays with the idea of the multiverse and the infinite possibilities it suggests. Doctoral student Johannes (Jan Bulow) arrives with his disagreeable supervisor, expecting to hear an eminent Iranian scientist talk about his theory of quantum mechanics. But the keynote speaker doesn’t show up, another scientist is murdered, strange and apparently poisonous clouds billow overhead and, most mysteriously of all, there are ominous roars coming from tunnels rumoured to run under the mountains. Meanwhile, Johannes is falling for the hotel’s enigmatic pianist (Olivia Ross) who seems to know things about him he hasn’t told anyone – not in this universe, anyway.