Jacques Bidou Movies

A woman confronts the realities of life in the occupied Palestinian territories in this drama. While she was born and raised in New York, Soraya (Suheir Hammad) is of Palestinian heritage and has long dreamed of returning to the land of her ancestors. When Soraya learns that her grandfather bequeathed her a bit more than $15,000 he left in a bank account in Ramallah, she decides it's time to make a pilgrimage, especially since the inheritance can pay for a long stay in the country. However, Soraya arrives in Israel to find that immigration personnel and border guards are not helpful to tourists of Palestinian blood, and it takes no small amount of determination before she arrives in Ramallah. There, Soraya meets Emad (Saleh Bakri), a handsome Palestinian student who has a scholarship waiting for him at a university in Canada, but Israeli immigration authorities refuse to grant him a visa. Soraya and Emad bond over their frustrations at the injustice they see around them, and when she learns that the money in her grandfather's account (and all other Palestinian accounts at the bank) was forfeited after the establishment of the nation of Israel, they decide to take action. Soraya, Emad and his friend Marwan (Riyad Ideis) plan to stage a bank robbery, in which they'll take only the amount deposited by her grandfather as a protest against the discriminatory policies that have become a part of daily life under occupation. Milh Hadha Al-Bahr (aka Salt Of This Sea) was the first feature film from writer and director Annemarie Jacir. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The harsh realities of prison life are parallelled with the day-to-day drone of factory work in director Bénédicte Liénard's dramatic study in compromise. Serving time in prison for an unspecified violent crime related to her employment at the factory, Joanna (Séverine Caneele) experiences the dehumanization of the penal system while her old friends on the assembly line suffer the exploitations of the working class. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Patrice Lumumba was a passionate advocate for freedom in colonial Africa, and when the Belgian Congo was granted independent (and was later renamed Zaire), Lumumba was the new nation's first prime minister. However, Lumumba's dream of freedom and dignity for the people of the Congo made him a controversial and dangerous figure, and this biographical drama explores his short, tumultuous life. We first encounter Lumumba (Eriq Ebouaney) in the late 1950's, when his National Congo Movement is gaining widespread public support, despite opposition from the nation's political leaders. Hoping to avoid a violent overthrow, the Belgian government begins negotiations with the NCM to turn rule of the Congo over to the citizens, and Lumumba and his political party are swept into power during the nation's first independent election. However, Lumumba's desire to bring a peaceful and orderly transfer of power soon earns him enemies of all political stripes. Militant advocates for freedom demand that white Belgian officers of the nation's military be replaced with African soldiers at once, while Belgian colonists are met with violence, sparking a revolt by the white settlers that leads to a bloody civil war. Lumumba was directed and co-written by Raoul Peck, who previously directed the acclaimed documentary Lumumba: Death of a Prophet. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A bleak drama about street children abandoned by the Portuguese juvenile system, Os Mutantes/The Mutants was immediately controversial in Portugal, where it inspired nationwide debate over reform of the nation's youth authorities. Os Mutantes examines the lives of Pedro, Ricardo and Andreia, three kids in their early teens who have rejected life in juvenile homes or with foster families to take their chances on their own. They drift into petty crime and are exploited by sexual predators; the two boys end up working in a pornographic film, while Andreia becomes pregnant. When Andreia turns to her mother for help, the mother turns her away, telling her she can barely support herself, let alone a new baby. Os Mutantes was filmed with a largely non-professional cast; director Teresa Villaverde had originally planned to make a documentary about homeless children, but when government authorities refused to cooperate, she used her research as the basis for this screenplay, giving many of the children she met in her travels roles in the film. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Raoul Peck directed this French-German-Haitian drama set in Manhattan where medical examiner Chase Dellal (Geno Lechner) isn't happy with the diminishing aspects of her life: Not only does she face political pressures to soft-pedal her testimony, her marriage to a judge (Bob Meyer) is collapsing. Suddenly, new options appear after deposed Haitian politician Dimitri (Jean-Michel Martial) re-enters her life. Playwright Israel Horowitz has a role in this film as morgue cop Timothy. Shown in competition at the 1998 Montreal World Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

Two Greek rubes get into trouble while trying to enact a harebrained get-rich scheme. Irresponsible Stavros is married to the pragmatic and more mature Eleni. She is pregnant and he has not reconciled himself to this fact. His good buddy Fotis is still single and loves chasing women. Neither man is terribly intelligent, but both are sure they have come up with a brilliant way to easily make their fortunes. The plan is thus: they will take a large amount of Greek drachmas, convert them into American dollars and convert them to Bulgarian currency. They will then head for Switzerland and convert the Bulgarian lev to U.S. dollars and thereby make a big profit. The plan involves travel and a good sum of money to begin. They get the needed stake from Eleni who temporarily appropriates 7 million drachma from her vacationing boss's account and reluctantly gives it to Stavros, who immediately sets off in a beat up jalopy with Fotis. They only have a week to get the money exchanged. Right from the start, things begin going wrong when they get a lousy exchange rate on the drachmas. Things don't get better in Bulgaria. Complicating matters is the constant bickering between the two friends. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The comedy in this lively film barely conceals its darker, more serious undertones as it chronicles a young Algerian's eye-opening introduction to the joys and travails of being an immigrant in Paris. Alilo has left his home to pick up an important suitcase for his employer. Unfortunately, he has lost the Parisian address. Fortunately, his cousin Mok, emigrated there several years before with his middle-class family before and is able to act as a guide. Mok, an aspiring rap singer, comes from a middle-class family, but chooses to live on his own in the dilapidated deteriorating 18th district, known as 'Moskova.' Mok characterizes the place as a haven for artists and intellectuals, but it is plainly just a Third World slum filled with tightly knit and colorful neighbors. Mok and Alilo have many interesting, some tragedy-tinged adventures over the five days it takes them to find the suitcase. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This entry in the British Film Institute-sponsored international centenary celebration of cinema -- in which noted directors make a film that exemplifies their country or region's cinematic history -- represents continental Africa. Unlike many other series filmmakers, Jean-Pierre Bekolo, a native of the Cameroons, chose not to make a creative documentary, but rather a satirical narrative debate between the characters Cinema and Cineaste about the movie preferences of African audiences. Do viewers prefer to see serious African art films (the kind that populate international festivals) or American action features? ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A poor, rural Cambodian family slowly disintegrates during the cycle of a single rice crop in this moving, and beautifully photographed European drama adapted from a novel by Shahnon Ahmad. Pouev, his wife Om, and his seven children, live in a small rural village in Cambodia. Their whole precarious life depends upon the success of their rice crop. Both husband and wife are worried, but for different reasons. Pouev is concerned because their acreage is shrinking. Om worries about Pouev; what would happen to her and the children if he died or was injured? Her worst fear is manifest after Pouev steps upon a poisoned thorn and dies. Om finds herself heavily burdened with the responsibilities of maintaining the crop and caring for seven youngsters. She suffers paranoia from worrying about whether the children are doing their share and the other villagers lock her up leaving eldest daughter Sokha to bring in the crop. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Though an earlier film was made in Papua, New Guinea under Australian auspices (Australia governed the country until 1975), this is the first genuinely homegrown feature film to come out of that very new country. Thus, whatever its shortcomings, it is a landmark event. The story concerns the adventures of Papa, who owns a "private motor vehicle," PMV for short, which he uses as a taxi. These adventures take him all over the island country. In one notable series of events, he and a buddy travel around taking a politician from one village to another to make speeches. As word of the politician's ways gets around, the audiences for these speeches grow smaller and smaller. Papa returns to his home village when word of a tribal battle comes to him, complete with spears, bows and arrows, and war dances. He also has to cope with his daughter's intention to marry whom she chooses, rather than submit to an arranged marriage. This film was intended for local audiences, and its dialogue is in native dialects and in the local (and difficult to understand) variant of English. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide