Trading Happiness

Shed Your Tears and Walk Away

2009 · ★ 7.5

Real-life drama about why, in a beautiful and quirky rural town, film- maker Jez Lewis' childhood friends are killing themselves. Beginning with a personal quest for understanding, the film moves into a year-long drama of human tragedy and redemption as principal character Cass comes to terms with his own mortality and attempts to lift himself out of his cycle of self-destruction. This core narrative carves an upward arc through an intimate study of a place often described as paradise, but which harbours an undertow of lethal hedonism and disillusionment. As people continue to kill themselves during the making of the film, a maelstrom of conflicting values throws up unexpected truths about the human condition.

Tatami

2024 · ★ 7.7

Iranian female judokas Leila and her coach Maryam, travel to the Judo World Championship, intent on bringing home Iran’s first gold medal. Midway through the Judo World Championships, they receive an ultimatum from the Islamic Republic ordering Leila to fake an injury and lose, or she will be branded a traitor of the state. With her own and her family’s freedom at stake, Leila is faced with an impossible choice: comply with the Iranian regime as her coach Maryam implores her to do, or fight on, for the gold.

Le Havre

2011 · ★ 7

In the French harbor city of Le Havre, an elderly shoeshiner with an ailing wife crosses paths with a young African refugee pursued by the police for deportation.

Lunch Break

2021 · ★ 7

1979. Four female workers have lunch break inside the ladies' room, at a metallurgical factory. Between laughs and scuffles, each one has a secret of their own.

Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles

2019 · ★ 7

Paris, 1930. Luis Buñuel is penniless after the scandal surrounding the release of his last movie. Sculptor Ramón Acín, a good friend, buys a lottery ticket and promises Buñuel that he will pay for his next movie if he wins the prize.

Rage

2018 · ★ 6.9

Alentejo, Portugal, 1950. In a desolate region, where the wind seems to speak, where misery and hunger reign over poorest, a desperate man takes his revenge on those who caused his ruin during the darkest night, unable to get honestly the bread needed to feed his family in the daylight.

Mouna Raagam

1986 · ★ 7.8

Divya, a college student, is forced to marry Chandrakumar due to family pressure. However, she asks for a divorce as a wedding gift, revealing her past.

Buñuel en el laberinto de las tortugas

2015 · ★ 6

Spain, 1932. Spanish filmmaker Luis Buñuel travels to the region of Las Hurdes, in Extremadura, where he shoots his third film, a very critical and later controversial documentary about the living conditions of the poor peasants, abandoned and forgotten by the national authorities.

Out of My Hand

2015 · ★ 7.1

A struggling Liberian rubber plantation worker risks everything to discover a new life as a Yellow Cab driver in New York City.

Oh The Cruel World

1981 · ★ 7

Ratna is married off into a rich family and leads a happy existence with her husband. But the doings of a relative and her husband's tragic death push her down a road full of trials and tribulations.

Hors la loi

In 1972, 16-year-old Marie-Claire Chevalier was raped and became pregnant. Helped by her mother to have a clandestine abortion, she was finally denounced and arrested. Both faced imprisonment. Gisèle Halimi, their lawyer, transformed their trial into a historic battle. By denouncing an unjust law, they mobilized public opinion and paved the way for the Veil law, legalizing abortion in France. This forgotten struggle resurfaced almost half a century later, in 2019, when schoolchildren proposed that Marie-Claire be made a Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur, transforming what had long been her shame into a source of pride and a symbol for future generations.

Through the Mill

2018 · ★ 4.9

Long live the strike! Lucie Baud, one of the pioneers of the women's movement, went with creativity, fighting spirit and the power of singing against the weapons of male-dominated capitalist society in nineteenth-century France. The film, based on true events, describes the ambitious fight of a silk moth. She stood up for the rights of the female working class to end maltreatment and oppression once and for all. For the revolution in women's rights, she even put her family back and fought to the end for their beliefs.