CHOCOLATE (2008)

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Directed By: Prachya Pinkaew
Written By: Napalee & Chookiat Sakveerakul
Cinematography: Decha Srimantra
Editor: Rashane Limtrakul & Pop Surasakuwa

Cast: Jeeja Yanin, Hiroshi Abe, Ammara Siriphong 


When Zin, former girlfriend of a Thai mob boss, falls for Masashi, a Japanese gangster in Thailand, the boss banishes them: Masashi to Japan, and Zin, with her small daughter Zen, to live next to a martial arts school. Zen is autistic, with uncanny swift reflexes. She watches the students next door and Muay Thai movies, absorbing every technique. She’s now a teen, and her mother needs chemotherapy. Zin has taken in a chubby kid, Moom, who watches over Zen. Moom finds a ledger listing business men who owe Zin money; he goes to them one at a time to collect in order to pay for Zin’s treatment. Zen, with her martial skills, becomes his enforcer. A showdown with the boss is inevitable.

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SHALL WE KISS? (2007)

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Written & Directed By: Emmanuel Mouret
Cinematography: Laurent Desmet
Editor: Martial Salomon

Cast: Emmanuel Mouret, Virgine Ledoyen, Julie Gayet, Michael Cohen, Frederique Bel, Stefano Accorsi

When Gabriel and Emilie meet by chance, he offers her a ride, and they spend the evening talking, laughing and getting along famously. At the end of the night, Emilie declines Gabriel’s offer of “a kiss without consequences”. Emilie admonishes him that the kiss could have unexpected consequences, and tells him a story, unfolding in flashbacks, about the impossibility of indulging your desires without affecting someone else’s life.

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VALHALLA RISING (2009)

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Directed By: Nicolas Winding Refn
Written by: Roy Jacobsen & Nicolas Winding Refn
Cinematography By: Morton Soborg
Editor: Matthew Newman

Cast: Mads Mikkelsen, Alexander Morton

1000 AD, for years, One Eye, a mute warrior of supernatural strength, has been held prisoner by the Norse chieftain Barde. Aided by Are, a boy slave, One Eye slays his captor and together he and Are escape, beginning a journey into the heart of darkness. On their flight, One Eye and Are board a Viking vessel, but the ship is soon engulfed by an endless fog that clears only as the crew sights an unknown land. As the new world reveals its secrets and the Vikings confront their terrible and bloody fate, One Eye discovers his true self. 

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THE INTOUCHABLES (2012)

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Written & Directed By: Oliver Nakache & Eric Toledan
Cinematography By: Ludovico Einaudi
Editor: Dorian Rigal-Ansous

Cast: Francois Cluzet, Omar Sy, Audrey Fleurot, Anne Le Ny, Clotide Mollet

In Paris, the aristocratic and intellectual Philippe is a quadriplegic millionaire that is interviewing candidates for the position of his caretaker with his red-haired secretary Magalie. Out of the blue, the rude African Driss cuts the line of candidates and brings a document from the Social Security and asks to Phillipe to sign it to prove that he is seeking a job position to receive his unemployment insurance. Philippe challenges Driss and offers a period of adaptation of one week to him to gain experience helping him. Then Driss would decide whether he would like to stay with him or not. Driss accepts the bet and moves to the mansion, changing the boring life of Phillipe and his employees.

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HALL OF FAME: FILE #0062: 13 TZAMETI (2005)

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Written & Directed By: Gela Babluani
Cinematography By: Tariel Meliava
Editor: Noemie Moreau 


Cast: George Babluani, Aurelien Recoing, Pascal Bongard, Vania Vilers 

Sebastian, a young man, has decided to follow instructions intended for someone else, without knowing where they will take him. Something else he does not know is that Gerard Dorez, a cop on a knife-edge, is tailing him. When he reaches his destination, Sebastian falls into a degenerate, clandestine world of mental chaos behind closed doors in which men gamble on the lives of others men.

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THE LADY IN THE CAR WITH GLASSES AND A GUN (2015)

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Directed By: Joann Sfar
Written By: Patrick Godeau & Gilles Marchand
Based on the Novel By: Sebastien Japrisot
Cinematography By: Manuel Dacosse
Editor: Maryline Monthieux & Christophe Pinel 


Cast: Freya Mavor, Stacy Martin, Benjamin Biolay, Elio Germano, Thierry Hancisse

A secretary steals her boss’ car to go joyriding. She visits a seaside town she swears she’s never been to, but everyone knows her name. And when a body turns up in the trunk of the car, she is the lead suspect in a murder she knows nothing about. Is she going crazy?

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THELMA (2017)

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Directed By: Joachim Trier
Written By: Eskil Vogt & Joachim Trier
Cinematography: Jakob Ihre
Editor: Oliver Bugge Coutte 


Cast: Elili Harboe, Kaya Wilkins, Henrik Rafaelsen, Ellen Doritt Petersen, Anders Mossling 


A confused religious girl tries to deny her feelings for a female friend who’s in love with her. This causes her suppressed subconsciously-controlled psychokinetic powers to reemerge with devastating results.

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HERE COMES THE DEVIL (2012) AHI VA EL DIABLO

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Written & Directed By: Adrian Garcia Bogliano
Cinematography By: Ernesto Herrera
Editor: Carmen Vargas 

Cast: Laura Caro, Francisco Barreiro, Alan Martinez, Michele Garcia,

A married couple lose their children while on a family trip near some caves in Tijuana. The kids eventually reappear without explanation, but it becomes clear that they are not who they used to be, that something terrifying has changed them. While the film certainly plays into it’s genre, especially the direction with it’s angles and camera movements that alerts the audience to the films sinister nature, before anything really happen.

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THE LURE (2015)

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Directed By: Agnieszka Smoczynska
Written By: Robert Bolesto
Cinematography By: Jakub Kijowski 


Cast: Martz Mazurek, Michalina Olszanka, Kinga Preis, Andrzej Konopka, Jakub Gierszal, Magdalena Cielacka, Zygmunt Malanowicz, Marcin Kowalczyk 


One dark night, at water’s edge, a family of musicians encounter aquatic sirens Silver and Golden. After assuring the family that they won’t eat them up, the winsome sirens are recruited to join the Figs and Dates band at a neon-lit Warsaw dance club. When Silver becomes romantically entangled with beautiful blonde bassist Mietek, the more cunning Golden, who cannot escape her bloodthirsty nature, worries that her sister’s relationship will doom their shared dream of swimming to a new life in America.

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ONE CUT OF THE DEAD (2018)

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Written, Edited & Directed By: Shin’ichiro Ueda
Based on a Play By: Ryoichi Wada
Cinematography: Takeshi Sone 

Cast: Takayuki Hamatsu, Yuzuki Akiyama, Hariuma Shuhama, Kazuaki Nagaya, Hiroshi Ichihara 


A low-budget film about zombies soon features the best cast money could not buy, but the problem is that the new actors are not exactly getting along with the crew. Everyone involved is soon receiving a lesson in the merits of perseverance, the preciousness of family bonds and of course the dangers of the living dead.

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