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Cinema'Nasir' places the story of a saree salesman within the larger canvas of Islamophobia, and has received wide praise and critical acclaim.Tnm StaffFilmmaker Arun Karthick’s Nasir has been awarded the prestigious Grand Prix at the 14th Andrei Tarkovsky Zerkalo (Mirror in Russian) International film festival, Russia. Arun Karthick whose first film Sivapuranam came out in 2016, shared the news on his social media account. “This is indeed a special recognition for the entire team of Nasir and I would personally like to dedicate this award to the memory of our late editor Arghya Basu,” wrote the Coimbatore-based filmmaker. The cash award was announced by jury head Fred Kelemen, noted cinematographer who has worked in Bela Tarr's The Man from London and The Turin Horse. In India, Nasir, starring Koumarane Valavane in the pivotal role, streamed on June 6 as part of Mami’s online 'We Are One: A Global Film...

Two weeks in a row of classic horror films being remade, or at least a franchise being looked at with fresh eyes? We must be in late October. Hot on the heels of Halloween managing to give the Michael Myers series a worthwhile return from the indie mind of David Gordon Green, we now have Dario Argento’s classic Suspiria getting the remake treatment. Opening this week, this very unusual choice by filmmaker Luca Guadagnino, coming as the follow up to his Academy Award winning Call Me By Your Name, will likely confound you. Some open minded viewers may find its obtuseness infatuating. Me? I found it underwhelming and often pretentious. Folks, this is one of the year’s bigger disappointments. A remake of Argento’s classic, this flick follows the same broad strokes, but does diverge in a number of places. We’ll just focus on the plot of this new one here.

Béla Tarr © Zero Fiction FilmThe Hungarian auteur Béla Tarr bid a farewell to the active filmmaking at the age of 55 with the 146-minute long reckoning The Turin Horse (2011), consisting of 30 takes. His filmography counts nine features that elevated him into the pantheon of world cinema, earning Tarr epithets as legend, master, cult or visionary, among others. Tarr started shooting films as an amateur at the age of 16, and at 22 he got a shot to make a feature-length film, Family Nest (1979), at Béla Balázs Studio. The early stage of the filmmaker's career marked by Family Nest, The Outsider (1981) and The Prefab People (1982) is defined by social themes and documentary style akin to cinéma vérité. However, the core of his work features his singular aesthetics and bleak visions of the post-communist landscape, notably in Damnation (1988), the cinephiliac 432-minute long treat Sátántangó (1994), and Werckmeister Harmonies (2000). His distinctive style stems from black and white,...

Not yet thirty, the Hungarian director Béla Tarr was already making a name for himself both at home and abroad. During the late 1970s and early 1980s his early features earned prizes at film festivals west of the Iron Curtain; in Hungary, however, he remained a marginal figure as the regime did not take kindly to his films’ openly dissenting spirit. This rendered it increasingly difficult for him to make films in his native country and following the independently funded Damnation, he moved to West Berlin, only returning after the dissolution of the Eastern bloc. Upon his return, Tarr got to work on a project that had been gestating for a decade: the 432-minute Satantango, which was released in 1994 and became a cult sensation among cinephiles. The resulting recognition, together with the enthusiastic endorsement of his work by prominent peers such as Susan Sontag and Gus van Sant, turned the forever uncompromising,...

Exclusive: French producer Catherine Dussart, who co-produced Gurvinder Singh’s The Fourth Direction, has boarded Aditya Vikram Sengupta’s Memories And My Mother, which is selected for the Co-Production Market at Film Bazaar this year.

Dussart’s Catherine Dussart Productions (Cdp) will co-produce the film with India’s For Films, founded by Sengupta and producers Jonaki Bhattacharya and Vikram Mohinta. She is also looking for German and other co-producers for the Bengali-language project, which has already secured backing from France’s Cinemas Du Monde.

Sengupta previously directed Labour Of Love, which won best debut at Venice in 2014 and played at around 50 other film festivals.

“He is one of India’s most interesting young directors,” said Dussart. “I was stunned by Labour Of Love and loved this project, which deals with the rapid transformation of Kolkata and has underlying socio-political themes.”

Sengupta said he plans to start shooting in Kolkata in July 2016 during the monsoon season and work...

Rushes collects news, articles, images, videos and more for a weekly roundup of essential items from the world of film.The New York Film Festival has revealed that Robert Zemeckis's much-anticipated 3D quasi-heist film The Walk will open the 2015 event. The newly released full trailer can be watched above.Famed writer Jean Gruault has died at the age of 90. Gruault had written scripts for François Truffaut (Jules and Jim), Jacques Rivette (The Nun), Alain Resnais (Mon oncle d'Amérique), and others, including writing the novel on which Valérie Donzelli's Cannes competitor this year, Marguerite & Julien, was based.We're crossing our fingers that Quentin Tarantino's The Hateful Eight will make 50+ cinemas in the U.S. equipped to project 70mm.This week is a trailer bonanza, including Mistress America, the new Noah Baumbach collaboration with actress Greta Gerwig after Frances Ha.This Long Century has published several new pieces, including...

Chris Rock's been on a tear, giving one excellent interview after another all last week. More recent interviewees: Béla Tarr, cinematographer Fred Kelemen and composer/actor Mihály Víg; Olivia de Havilland on Gone With the Wind; Im Kwon-taek, who's made 102 films; John Boorman, who thinks he may have one more film in him; Liv Ullmann on working with Jessica Chastain, Colin Farrell and Samantha Morton; Jennifer Kent, whose The Babadook William Friedkin has declared is the most terrifying film he's ever seen; and interviews on video with Pedro Costa and Koji Fukada. » - David Hudson...

Chris Rock's been on a tear, giving one excellent interview after another all last week. More recent interviewees: Béla Tarr, cinematographer Fred Kelemen and composer/actor Mihály Víg; Olivia de Havilland on Gone With the Wind; Im Kwon-taek, who's made 102 films; John Boorman, who thinks he may have one more film in him; Liv Ullmann on working with Jessica Chastain, Colin Farrell and Samantha Morton; Jennifer Kent, whose The Babadook William Friedkin has declared is the most terrifying film he's ever seen; and interviews on video with Pedro Costa and Koji Fukada. » - David Hudson...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has revealed its 276-member-strong class of 2013.

The list, published by The Hollywood Reporter, includes actors, cinematographers, designers, directors, documentarians, executives, film editors, makeup artists and hairstylists, "members-at-large," musicians, producers, PR folks, short filmmakers and animators, sound technicians, visual effects artists, and writers.

Jason Bateman, Rosario Dawson, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Milla Jovovich, Lucy Liu, Jennifer Lopez, Emily Mortimer, Sandra Oh, Jason Schwartzman, and Michael Peña are among the roster of actors, while "The Heat" and "Bridesmaids" helmer Paul Feig made the directors' cut.

"We did not change our criteria at all," says Academy president Hawk Koch of this year's larger-than-usual class. "Yes, this year there is a tremendous amount of women, a tremendous amount of people of color, people from all walks of life. This year, we asked the branches to look at everybody who wasn't in the Academy but who deserved to be.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced today the 276 members of the entertainment industry invited to join organization. The list includes actors, directors, documentarians, executives, film editors, producers and more. Of those listed below, those who accept the invitations will be the only additions to the Academy's membership in 2013. "These individuals are among the best filmmakers working in the industry today," said Academy President Hawk Koch in a press release. "Their talent and creativity have captured the imagination of audiences worldwide, and I am proud to welcome each of them to the Academy." Koch also told Variety, "In the past eight or nine years, each branch could only bring in X amount of members. There were people each branch would have liked to get in but couldn't. We asked them to be more inclusive of the best of the best, and each branch was excited, because they got...

The Academy just added 276 Oscar voters.

That’s 100 more than last year, and part of an easing of a longstanding cap on the number of new members allowed to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences each year.

AMPAS usually adds between 130 and 180 new members, replacing those who have quit or passed away. The membership now stands around 6,000.

Jason Bateman, Jennifer Lopez, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Emmanuelle Riva, and Chris Tucker are among the actors who have been invited to join, the organization announced today.

Other interesting additions: the musician Prince, Girls and Tiny Furniture writer/director/actress Lena Dunham,...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is extending invitations to join the organization to 276 artists and executives who have distinguished themselves by their contributions to theatrical motion pictures. Those who accept the invitations will be the only additions to the Academy’s membership in 2013.

“These individuals are among the best filmmakers working in the industry today,” said Academy President Hawk Koch. “Their talent and creativity have captured the imagination of audiences worldwide, and I am proud to welcome each of them to the Academy.”

The 2013 invitees are:

Actors

Jason Bateman – “Up in the Air,” “Juno”

Miriam Colon – “City of Hope,” “Scarface”

Rosario Dawson – “Rent,” “Frank Miller’s Sin City”

Kimberly Elise – “For Colored Girls,” “Beloved”

Joseph Gordon-Levitt – “Lincoln,” “The Dark Knight Rises”

Charles Grodin – “Midnight Run,” “The Heartbreak Kid”

Rebecca Hall – “Iron Man 3,” “The Town”

Lance Henriksen – “Aliens,” “The Terminator”

Jack Huston – “Not Fade Away,” “Factory Girl”

Milla Jovovich – “Resident Evil,...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is extending invitations to join the organization to 276 artists and executives who have distinguished themselves by their contributions to theatrical motion pictures. Those who accept the invitations will be the only additions to the Academy’s membership in 2013. “These individuals are among the best filmmakers working in the industry today,” said Academy President Hawk Koch. “Their talent and creativity have captured the imagination of audiences worldwide, and I am proud to welcome each of them to the Academy.” The 2013 invitees are: Actors Jason Bateman – “Up in the Air,” “Juno” Miriam Colon – “City of Hope,” “Scarface” Rosario Dawson – “Rent,” “Frank Miller’s Sin City” Kimberly Elise – “For Colored Girls,” “Beloved” Joseph Gordon-Levitt – “Lincoln,” “The Dark Knight Rises” Charles Grodin – “Midnight Run,” “The Heartbreak Kid” Rebecca Hall – “Iron Man 3,” “The Town” Lance Henriksen – “Aliens,” “The Terminator” Jack Huston – “Not Fade Away,” “Factory Girl” Milla Jovovich – “Resident Evil,...

Sheffield Doc/Fest | Dunoon film festival | A Nos Amours | Seret – The London Israeli film and television festival

Sheffield Doc/Fest

Sheffield doesn't quite have the same ring as Cannes or Venice, but in documentary terms it's a fair comparison. This is a market and a meeting place for professionals, and guests this year include Walter Murch, Jonathan Franzen, Trevor McDonald and Captain Sensible, as well as just about every British documentarian you can think of. But this is also the place to see the latest in non-fiction film: 120 films, many of them premieres, on topics ranging from Pussy Riot to Uri Geller's CIA missions, Indonesian genocide, and Bradley Wiggins.

Various venues, Wed to 16 Jun

Dunoon film festival

Edinburgh and Glasgow festivals bring world cinema to Scotland, but this inaugural festival brings Scottish cinema to Scotland, and helps put a seaside town on the cultural map. There are some recent international releases,...

Operating somewhere between Bergman and Tarkovsky, Béla Tarr has been a wholly original inspiration for remodernist filmmakers for his spiritually exploratory form of cinema that revels in extremely long takes and the dire desolation of humanity itself (see his 7.5 hour epic Sátántangó). With his longtime editor, Ágnes Hranitzky, Tarr co-directed what may turn out to be his final feature, the brutal, coldly intense paragon of philosophic, but to-the-point filmmaking, The Turin Horse. Pushing his craft to the bleakest edge of mankind, Tarr masterfully paints the maddening monotony and utter futility of waking up day after day in austere black in white. This is dark stuff, people. Real dark. And sadly, Tarr is said to be leaving cinema (directing) on this high, bleak note.

The film begins with a spoken word preface that tells the tale of Friedrich Nietzsche, in 1889 in Turin, Italy, observing a cab driver whipping his stubborn horse.

Hungarian director Béla Tarr announced that the University of Split (Croatia) curriculum will be a three-year course, which will in the first year take 16 international students. The classes are meant as a combination of theoretical courses, workshops with filmmakers and practical work.

“In my view, it is impossible to teach art, because every artist is different: they have their language and cultural background, they possess a talent of their own. In order for that talent to develop, they need to be free and brave,” Tarr said. “This is why I want this film school to give them a chance to do what they want. Myself and other teachers will support that process, protect them and put them ‘under an umbrella’. Because once they enter the film industry, they will suffer enough pain and humiliation, and here they can learn how to resist that.”

The impressive list of lecturers includes Jim Jarmusch,...

Kinoteka Polish Film Festival, London, Belfast & Edinburgh

The presence of Juliette Binoche gets this festival off to a high-profile start – she plays a French journalist studying teenage prostitution in Elles. And the prestige continues with Agnieszka Holland's Oscar-nominated In Darkness, a Schindler's List-like wartime drama. More interesting though are Suicide Room, an angsty teen movie partly set in a virtual world, and Courage, mixing biblical themes with modern social commentary. This being the festival's 10th anniversary, there are also classic Polish films selected by 10 top film-makers, including Mike Leigh, Andrzej Wajda and Nicolas Roeg, plus – in London – a special concert with master composer Krzysztof Penderecki and Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood.

Various venues, Thu to 22 Mar

Bev Springs 2012, London

Sadly there weren't sufficient funds to mount a full-blown Bird's Eye View festival this year, but the event won't be kept down. So, to mark International Women's Day, there's an evening of international shorts,...

The opening event of Béla Tarr‘s The Turin Horse may, perhaps, set up false expectations for many a viewer — set over a pitch-black screen, a coarse-grained voice-over recounts the demise of the life of Friedrich Nietzsche, which, according to the story (as well as popular belief, in some sense), was initiated by the philosopher’s lamented reaction to a cab driver’s whipping of an unresponsive horse. The incident took place on January 3, 1889, and was followed by ten years of catatonic inactivity for Nietzsche.

The most obvious reason why this introduction might tweak viewers’ expectations in the wrong direction is the presence of words. While the curtain-raiser is sustained, without imagery, by an off-screen articulation, the rest of the film — maybe ever-so-slightly ironically — is the exact opposite. It’s image-driven, with unimaginably long takes (often exceeding five minutes) and with an almost complete aversion to dialogue. Even the one...

Almost exactly 11 months ago, we got the spare teaser for Bela Tarr‘s reportedly final film, The Turin Horse. Today, the full thing has arrived and don’t expect a quick-cutting, easily marketable piece. The auteur’s restrained style still reigns supreme with this trailer, showing off some gorgeous cinematography. The Hungarian filmmaker’s approach isn’t for everyone, but his latest looks to be continuing with his meditative, stark aesthetic. Check it out below.

Synopsis:

After witnessing a carriage driver whipping his horse, the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche ran to the scene, threw his arms around the horse and then collapsed; he would spend the next, final ten years of his life in almost total silence. Focusing not on Nietzsche but on the driver and his family, Béla Tarr and his longtime collaborator Ágnes Hranitzky, working from a screenplay by Tarr and novelist László Krasznhorkai, create a mesmerizing, provocative meditation...

Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Melancholia Melancholia Tops European Film Awards, Lars von Trier Bypassed, Colin Firth Beats Jean Dujardin Lars Von Trier/Melancholia Dominate European Film Awards European Film 2011 The Artist, France Written & Directed By: Michel Hazanavicius Produced By: Thomas Langmann & Emmanuel Montamat Le Gamin Au Velo (The Kid with a Bike), Belgium/France/Italy Written & Directed By: Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne Produced By: Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, Denis Freyd & Andrea Occhipinti HÆVNEN (In a Better World), Denmark Directed By: Susanne Bier Written By: Anders Thomas Jensen Produced By: Sisse Graum Jørgensen The King's Speech, UK Directed By: Tom Hooper Written By: David Seidler Produced By: Iain Canning, Emile Sherman, Gareth Unwin Le Havre, Finland/France/Germany Written & Directed By: Aki Kaurismäki Produced By: Aki Kaurismäki & Karl Baumgartner * Melancholia, Denmark/Sweden/France/Germany Written & Directed By: Lars von Trier Produced By: Meta Louise Foldager & Louise Vesth European Director 2011 * Susanne Bier for...

The live stream of the European Film Awards from Berlin this evening was pretty spotty, but a few fine moments came through, particularly the moment when a special honorary award was inaugurated and presented to a very surprised Michel Piccoli by Volker Schlöndorff and Bruno Ganz.

Another special award was given to producer Mariela Besuievski, Stellan Skarsgård presented the European Achievement in World Cinema Award to Mads Mikkelsen, and Stephen Frears received this year's Lifetime Achievement Award.

The full list of winners and nominees:

European Film 2011: Melancholia, Denmark/Sweden/France/Germany

Written and Directed by Lars von Trier

Produced by Meta Louise Foldager and Louise Vesth.

Also nominated:

The Artist, France

Written and Directed by Michel Hazanavicius

Produced by Thomas Langmann and Emmanuel Montamat

Le Gamin au Velo (The Kid with a Bike), Belgium/France/Italy

Written and Directed by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne

Produced by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne,...

Melancholia, The Artist, Le Havre and the other nominations for the 2011 European Film Awards have been announced. The 24th Annual European Film Awards are presented “by the European Film Academy to recognize excellence in European cinematic achievements. The awards are given in over ten categories of which the most important is the Film of the year. They are restricted to European cinema and European producers, directors, and actors.” This year’s European Film Awards “ceremony will be held on December 3, 2011 in Berlin’s Tempodrom near Potsdamer Platz.”

The full listing of the 2011 European Film Awards nominations is below.

European Film 2011

The Artist, France

Written and Directed by: Michel Hazanavicius; Produced by: Thomas Langmann & Emmanuel Montamat

Le Gamin au Velo (The Kid with a Bike), Belgium/France/Italy

Written and Directed by: Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne; Produced by: Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, Denis Freyd & Andrea Occhipinti

Hævnen (In a Better World), Denmark...

Lars von Trier’s Melancholia leads the nomination race for the 24th European Film Awards with 7 nominations in various categories including Best European Film and Best European Director.

The award ceremony will be held in Berlin on December 3, 2011.

The complete list of nominees:

European Film 2011

The Artist

The Kid With A Bike

In A Better World

The King’s Speech

Le Havre

Melancholia

European Director 2011

Susanne Bier for In a Better World

Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne for The Kid with a Bike

Aki Kaurismäki for Le Havre

Béla Tarr for The Turin Horse

Lars von Trier for Melancholia

European Actress 2011

Kirsten Dunst in Melancholia

Cécile de France in The Kid with a Bike

Charlotte Gainsbourg in Melancholia

Nadezhda Markina in Elena

Tilda Swinton in We Need To Talk About Kevin

European Actor 2011

Jean Dujardin in The Artist

Colin Firth in The King’s Speech

Mikael Persbrandt in In A Better World...

"Melancholia" is the film to beat at this year's European Film Awards, which announced its nominated films Saturday at the Seville European Film Festival. The Lars von Trier film leads the pack with eight nominations including best film, best director, two best actress nods for Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte Gainsbourg and best screenwriter. Following "Melancholia" -- all with half the number of noms it earned -- are Tom Hooper's "The King's Speech," Michel Hazanavicius' "The Artist," Aki Kaurismaki's "Le Havre," Susanne Bier's "In a Better World" and Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne's "The Kid with a Bike." "The King's Speech" and "In a Better World" won best picture and best foreign film, respectively, at the Academy Awards this year.

Whether "Melancholia" will get as much love outside of Europe remains to be seen, when it opens in the U.S. in limited release on Nov. 11. The film,...

"Lars von Trier's Melancholia led the 24th European Film Award nominations, which were announced this morning," reports indieWIRE's Peter Knegt. "The film took 8 nominations including best film, director, screenplay and a double nominations for best actress with Kirsten Dunst [who, of course, won Best Actress in Cannes] and Charlotte Gainsbourg." Peruse the full list below and note that the list of nominees for European Film 2011 is identical to the one for European Director 2011 — except that Michel Hazanavicius (The Artist) has been switched out for Béla Tarr, whose The Turin Horse also scores nominations for cinematographer Fred Kelemen and composer Mihály Vig.

European Film 2011

The Artist, France

Written and Directed by Michel Hazanavicius

Produced by Thomas Langmann and Emmanuel Montamat

Le Gamin au Velo (The Kid with a Bike), Belgium/France/Italy

Written and Directed by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne

Produced by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, Denis Freyd and Andrea Occhipinti

Haeven (In a Better World...

"Béla Tarr is the cinema's greatest crafter of total environments and in The Turin Horse, working in his most restricted physical setting since 1984's Almanac of Fall, he dials up one of his most vividly immersive milieus," begins Andrew Schenker in Slant. "Excluding one of the director's now-famous virtuoso, film-opening tracking shots, the film is entirely confined to the dilapidated rural spread where a farmer lives with his daughter and the horse he depends on for his livelihood, but in Tarr's hands, the unpromising setting teems with textures and, if not exactly vitality, then an almost tangible sense of presence…. In this most Beckettian of films, the characters endlessly enact the same quotidian tasks over the course of six days, unable to leave their property both because of a windstorm that rages the entire time and because of the horse's stubborn Bartleby-like refusal to not only pull the man's wagon,...

The Turin Horse (Béla Tarr, 2011). My kneejerk reaction to Béla Tarr's Berlinale winner The Turin Horse is to recite the childhood jingle, "One potato, two potato, three potato, four." Exacting but exquisite, Tarr's (allegedly) final film depicts the weight of life through the repetition of daily tasks rendered in shades of grey. The Turin Horse contests mythologist Joseph Campbell's assertion that it is through the performance of everyday tasks that one's brilliance shines through. Instead, it poses that the weight of life extinguishes life's light. Though Fred Kelemen's B&W cinematography seems less lustrous than Tarr's last Tiff entry The Man From London--the whites less milky and the blacks less inky--the look of the film remains unquestionably beautiful, if daunting. Tarr's pacing, of course, is...

The 49th New York Film Festival has announced their main slate which takes place September 30th thru October 16th at Lincoln Center. The closing night selection is Alexander Payne’s The Descendants which joins the gala screenings of opening night’s Roman Polanski’s Carnage, David Cronenberg’s A Dangerous Method, and the Almodóvar/Banderas reunion The Skin I Live In. Check out the lineup below along with a synopsis of each film:

Opening Night Gala Selection

Carnage

Director: Roman Polanski

Country: France/Germany/Poland

Centerpiece Gala Selection

My Week With Marilyn

Director: Simon Curtis

Country: UK

Special Gala Presentations

A Dangerous Method

Director: David Cronenberg

Country: UK/Canada/Germany

The Skin I Live In

Director: Pedro Almodóvar

Country: Spain

Closing Night Gala Selection

The Descendants

Director: Alexander Payne

Country: USA

Main Slate Selection

4:44: Last Day On Earth

Director: Abel Ferrara

Country: USA

The Artist

Director: Michel Hazanavicius...

Press Release:

New York, August 17, 2011 -The Film Society of Lincoln Center announced today that Alexander Payne.s The Descendants will be the Closing Night Gala selection for the 49th New York Film Festival (September 30-October 16). Nyff.s main slate of 27 feature films was also announced as well as a return to the festival stage of audience favorite, On Cinema (previously titled The Cinema Inside Me), featuring an in-depth, illustrated conversation with Alexander Payne.

The 2011 edition of Nyff will also feature a unique blend of programming to complement the main-slate of films, including: the Masterworks programs, additional titles added to the previously announced Ben-hur, Nicholas Ray.s We Can.T Go Home Again and Velvet Bullets and Steel Kisses: Celebrating the Nikkatsu Centennial, as well as Views from the Avant-Garde, and several special event screenings, all of which will be announced in more detail shortly.

.In many of the films in this year.s Festival,...

The New York Film Festival have officially announced their main slate, including the closing night film. The latter will be Alexander Payne‘s The Descendants starring George Clooney, which will also bow at Toronto. Their line-up includes a lot of Cannes holdovers including new films from the Dardenne brothers, Lars von Trier, Wim Wenders, Jafar Panahi and Mojtaba Mirtahmasb, Joseph Cedar, as well as buzzed-about hits like The Artist, Le Havre, Once Upon a Time in Antatolia and Miss Bala. Out of the new films, we’ll be getting Martin Scorsese‘s George Harrison doc, Steve McQueen‘s Hunger follow-up Shame, as well as Abel Ferrara and Béla Tarr and Agnes Hranitzky films. I was also glad to see Sean Durkin‘s utterly excellent Martha Marcy May Marlene as part of the slate. Check out the full line-up below.

4:44: Last Day On Earth

Abel Ferrara, 2011, USA, 82min

How...

There is a thought-provoking idea behind The Turnin Horse, just over the stark horizon and obscured behind a flurry of leaves: what of the untold stories which litter history? The lives never committed to fable, legend or film?

The opening voice-over tells of an alleged encounter Friedrich Nietzsche once had with a cabman engaged in beating his horse. Intervening, Nietzche returned home to his mother and sisters whereupon he entered a demented silence that was to last ten years until his eventual death. While no connection is explicitly made onscreen, it is probable that the film picks up the horse’s story, opening as it does with the horse and cart-driver returning home amid a heavy and unrelenting gale.

The plot – for want of a better word – follows Ohlsdorfer (Janos Derzsi), a bearded peasant who lives in a humble cottage with his hardy daughter (Erika Bok) and their afflicted horse.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

We are told, to begin with, that Frederick Nietzsche once saw a horse being beaten in Turin and threw his arms around its neck, before collapsing to the ground. This (possibly apocryphal) tale is reasonably well-known; afterwards Nietzsche barely spoke again for the remaining ten years of his life. But what, it is reasonable to ask, happened to the horse?

Béla Tarr’s deceptively simple new movie – it is widely reported to be his last – begins with this question.

In Tarr’s fictionalised version, he gives the horse to an old man who lives in a farmhouse with his daughter. There is too little evidence of vegetation to call it a ‘farm.’ They live a simple existence: collecting water from the well, feeding the horse, eating a single boiled potato each (with their hands) every day. Outside, the wind howls constantly. Every time they leave the...