11th Göteborg Film Festival (1989)

The life of a working class couple living in London and their complicated relationships with other members of the family.

Linda is still tormented by giving up a baby for adoption at 15. She wants a baby, but her husband has enough in his model trains, mistress and being a doctor.

In England during World War II, a repressed dressmaker and her sister struggle looking after their seventeen-year-old niece, who is having a delusional affair with an American soldier.

The eldest daughter of a broken and troubled family works to keep the family together and look after her younger siblings, who are slipping into a life of crime.

Three generations of women share the same problem--marriage woes--and want to put an end to it.

A snake charmer is held in a jail cell. A mother leads a double life of saint and harlot. A man who practiced euthanasia dies in a fire. A film supposedly seen from the perspective of someone in a police station.

Based upon the life and writing of literary visionary Danil Harms, a Russian avant-garde poet of the 1920s who was persecuted and ultimately silenced by the Soviet authorities.

Maria is a young ambitious photographer. Her editor has sent her off on a mission. To photograph premature born children.

The writer Stig Larsson's feature film debut. A different film which moves around various acting styles - various reality levels. The writer Stig converses with his friend Kim who's in London. A conversation which will get a fateful result.

Playboy Hamlet sees the ghost of his father, a paper baron in today's Finland.

Based on the novel of the same name by Finnish author Antti Tuuri, this delicious late-'80s comedy builds its dark humour on the stereotypical mentality of the northern part of Finland. While perhaps not as entertaining to a person unfamiliar with Finnish traditions, the brilliant acting and directing, plus the warm, beautiful Finnish summer more than make up for the cultural gap. The story begins with a group of brothers and their families coming to honour the memory of their recently-deceased father. Spending time together, opening old wounds and creating new ones--it all boils down to brotherhood. No matter what happens, brothers take care of their own. Considering that the events of the movie all take place within a 24-hour period, nothing feels rushed. The film rolls on naturally. The best part about this film is the cast that they managed to put together for the movie. Esko Salminen, Taneli Mäkelä, Vesa Vierikko, and Esko Nikkari are all well-known, extremely-talented Finnish actors, but this movie contains among the best performances of their careers. Especially Mäkelä and Nikkari are brilliant; Mäkelä's quiet and contemplative character has depth that you can just feel--and Nikkari's convincing portrayal of a town drunk. Funny, dramatic, entertaining and definitely a movie that makes you FEEL.

A young woman goes on a vacation at an old farm, which once belonged to her deceased grandmother. Childhood traumas and the memories of her strict and authoritarian grandmother haunts the young woman and leads her to scary delusions and a mental breakdown.

Based on an interview with Ingmar Bergman and footage taken during the director's visit to the Reykjavík Art Festival in 1986, this film focuses on Mr. Bergman's methods and philosophy on film direction. The longer version also deals with the director's career in the theatre.

An unlikely romance blossoms between an introspective, illiterate baker and a woman he met through dating ads.

(spoilers!) Vanity, polygamy, Weltschmerz! - The young Turk R. and his German buddy, M., both proud denizens of Berlin-Kreuzberg, try their hands at the Art of Being a Man. They love their women in a Ferris wheel, can recite 100 classic cocktail recipes by heart and reveal why their private parts need to be able to swing as they please. Both have two girlfriends at a time, believing that their body simply needs the change. They are sure that the male is polygamous by nature, and can prove it with quotes form world-renowned philosophers. They also know that it is advisable to not to share this knowledge with modern women. Eventually the two cheating scoundrels are caught and all hell breaks loose. Caused by the ensuing depression they ask themselves the big questions of life: Where from, where to, and why? Not finding an immediate answer they decide to travel to Warsaw instead, only to get entangled in a new web of love interests, which leads to a severe fight among themselves, making them vow never to speak to each other again. But theirs wouldn't be a true friendship if they would not reconcile in the end.

The movie starts while Floreal, the main protagonist, was being released from the prison when the military coup ended in 1983. He is estranged to his former life because of his last few years in prison and especially discovering his wife has cheated on him soured their relation. He is not sure if he wants to go back to his old life and family. Wandering through the night his old friend "El-Negro" appears in the dark. He announces that he was assassinated during the military coup and he is a dead man now. But he has a special mission this night and he is back for this special occasion: To help Floreal catch up fast and face with his life and his time in prison. El-Negro helps him to watch through the important events happened in his absence. He confronts some people of importance to him as he wanders around through the night while his wife is waiting for him anxiously thinking he might never come back. During the long night El-Negro helps him to get past with his anger, makes him to understand the difficulties in such a controversial time and how military coup crushes people's lives and even killing a some of them relentlessly. Finally during the dawn, El-Negro announces that he is ready to go on with his life now and he must be back. Floreal figures that he must be strong and continue his life where he left off like his coup stricken country.

A fled Tango show owner returns to Buenos Aires to join his partners after the oppressive government of Argentina has dissolved.

José is a young journalist who gets fired over refusing to write an article about an American film crew, overdramatizing the situation in Argentina. When he goes looking for his old girlfriend, he runs into the crew again.

Augusta kneads dough for her cooking pot, but the dough has other ideas.

A French woman returns to her childhood home in Cameroon - formerly a colonial outpost - where she's flooded by memories, particularly of Protée, her servant.

A night in the life of a young woman who wishes to learn and experience more of life. The men she meets have as much to learn from her as they can offer her, or more.

Martial's mother owns a chain of supermarkets. He had spent some years in a mental hospital because of pervasive indolence. Hoping that an active task may improve his condition, he is sent to inspect one of the supermarkets. The manager had taken a large loan of money belonging to the firm. When exposed he expects to lose his job. Instead friendship develops between him and Martial who remitted the debt. A sexual relation begins between Francine and Martial, without jealousy from her boyfriend Fernand. Suddenly Martial disappears. He was called to his mother's sickbed. Francine took a job as a waitress. It is not clear if she understood that the owner of the bar would force her to do sexual services for some customers. To save Francine Fernand kills the owner. The only witness is Martial who says 'Run! Do you want to spend ten years in prison!' If he takes the murder on him, he will just return to the luxury hospital he recently came from. Only Francine saw a glimpse of Fernand and understood what really happened. The double sacrifice radically changed her emotions: she came to feel for Fernand as for an older brother and they parted.