Hengameh Panahi Movies

Having nothing at all to do with the famed circus performer, The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb is instead a dark, nightmarish fable, equal parts Grimm Brothers fairy tale and post-apocalyptic science fiction. The title character is the freakish result of a mishap in an artificial insemination laboratory, a young boy only six inches tall. Despite his deformity, Tom is accepted and loved by his normal, if poor, parents. However, the family's uneasy joy is disrupted when Tom is kidnapped and trapped in a secret scientific compound, along with numerous other tiny medical oddities. However, with the help of one of his fellow captives, Tom engineers an escape in an attempt to return to his heartbroken family. Once free from the lab, Tom and his new cohort face threats from the malicious scientists, the dangers of the harsh city, and a secret society of escaped little people. Written and directed by Dave Borthwick, The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb relies upon a stop-motion animation technique (combined with live action) reminiscent of the Brothers Quay and Jan Svankmajer, but with a less experimental, fable-like tone and narrative comparable to Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro's The City of Lost Children. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide

In this French-Japanese drama, Tokyo cop Roy (Tetta Sugimoto) is on the "Four Eyes" case, searching for punk K (Shinji Takeda), who goes about shooting at various people in positions of authority. K's thick-lensed glasses have caused him to be nicknamed "Four Eyes" in newspaper articles. Roy's sister, 17-year-old Hinano (Hinano Yoshikawa) spots Four Eyes one day, follows and befriends him, and even after seeing him shoot at people, she remains attracted to him. The film features a cameo by Takeshi Kitano. Shown in the Certain Regard section at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

A man finds his life taking a few unexpected turns after taking a spill off a motorbike in this engaging comedy-drama. After a serious motorcycle accident, Tung-ching (Lee Jiunn-jye) receives a scar on his hand that effectively erases his lifeline. Taking this as a sign from the fates, Tung-ching believes the accident indicates the path his life once followed no longer applies, and he soon discovers his life is being swayed by unusual circumstances. When his father falls ill, Tung-ching is put in charge of the family business, a pawn shop, and he finds himself coming in contact with a stream of new and unusual people -- something that impresses Tung-ching, but not his jaded girlfriend Eiko (Fan Hsiao-fan). Hoping to bring Eiko into the business, Tung-ching decides to draw on her interest in palm reading by using handprints as identification for their customers, but as she spends more time studying other people's hands (as well as looking at prints of Tung-ching's palm from before the accident), the more she drifts apart from him. Tung-ching, meanwhile, begins to fall for one of his customers, a pretty but enigmatic woman (Era Wang) known only as I Know. Ming Dai Ahui Zhu was the first feature film from writer and director Hsiao Ya-chuan, who got his start as an assistant to renowned filmmaker Hou Hsiao-hsien. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Unknown Pleasures takes place in China, in the small city of Datong, in 2001, where disaffected teenagers look for any kind of excitement to enliven their dreary existence. Bin Bin (Zhao Wei Wei) dates a quiet student, Yuan Yuan (Zhou Qing Feng) who's thinking of going to university in Beijing. They spend their time together holding hands, watching karaoke and Monkey King videos, and despairing for the future. Bin Bin envies the Monkey King his freedom. Bin Bin has quit his job at a local market, but he doesn't tell his mother (Bai Ru). When she finds out, she wants him to join the army. His less circumspect friend, Xiao Ji (Wu Qiong), stalks a flashy performer, Qiao Qiao (Zhao Tao), who promotes Mongolian King liquor and dates a gangster. The gangster doesn't appreciate Xiao Ji's attentions and slaps him around. Qiao Qiao seems to like him, but as free-spirited as she seems, she's afraid to defy her violent boyfriend. Bin Bin tries selling bootleg DVDs on the street to earn a living. One of his customers, a thug named Xiao Wu (Wang Hong Wei) complains that Bin Bin doesn't carry underground titles like Pickpocket and Platform (writer-director Jia Zhang Ke's previous features), but is pleased to find Pulp Fiction. Inspired by the latter film's opening, Bin Bin and Xiao Ji plot an ill-fated bank robbery. Unknown Pleasures showed in competition at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival and was also selected for the 2002 New York Film Festival. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide

The Brothers Quay return for their first film in a decade with this live-action story of an 19th-century opera singer who is murdered on-stage shortly before her upcoming wedding. Soon after being slain by the nefarious Dr. Emmanuel Droz (Gottfried John) during a live performance, Malvina van Stille (Amira Casar) is spirited away to the inventor's remote villa to be reanimated and forced to play the lead in a grim production staged to recreate her abduction. As the time for the performance draws near, piano tuner of earthquakes Felisberto (Cesar Sarachu) sets out to activate the seven essential automatons who dot the dreaded doctor's landscape and make sure all the essential elements are in place. Once again instilled with life after her brief stay in the afterworld, amnesiac Malvina is soon drawn to the mysterious Felisberto as a result of his uncanny resemblance to her one-time fiancé Adolfo (also Sarachu). ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

A woman who has recently returned to her hometown village in remote, northeastern Brazil after two years of living in São Paolo refuses to allow the actions of others to dictate her fate as she keeps her eyes towards new horizons in director Karim Aïnouz's follow-up to his dynamic feature debut Madame Satã. Hermilla (Hermilla Guedes) is a single mother living a marginal existence in modern day São Paolo. Upon returning to the village in which she was raised to await the arrival of her husband, Hermilla longs for the day that her family will become whole. Her hopes gradually fade, however, when it becomes painfully obvious to Hermilla that both she and her newborn son have been abandoned. Secrets are scarce in a village such as Hermilla's, and when word gets out about her dire situation the optimism of the once hopeful mother is quickly corroded by feelings of failure and humiliation. Though she briefly rekindles a relationship with former boyfriend João Miguel (João Miguel), Hermilla's painful realization that there is no returning to the past, coupled with an enlightening conversation with thoughtful prostitute Georgina (Georgina Castro), prods the troubled mother into devising a foolproof plan to finally break free of her troubled past. After adopting the name Suely as a means of both distancing herself from her family and preparing herself for the bold journey that lies ahead, the newly transformed Hermilla determines to raffle off a most unconventional prize to finance her flight into the future. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Adapted from the nonfiction book by Natalie Robins and Steven M.L. Aronson, Tom Kalin's Savage Grace recounts the true crime tale of the death of Barbara Baekeland. Stephen Dillane stars as Brooks Baekeland, the son of the man who invented Bakelite, one of the early forms of plastic. As the family fortune begins to decrease after years of wealth, Brooks marries Barbara (Julianne Moore), who desires to mingle in the highest social circles. They have a child, Antony, who is homosexual. Antony grows up to kill Barbara, in part because Barbara takes a personal interest in "curing" her son of his orientation. This was Kalin's first film since 1991's Swoon, a film about the infamous Leopold and Loeb murders. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

Director Todd Haynes' unconventional biopic of the legendary singer/songwriter Bob Dylan features different actors playing the part of the Minnesota native at various stages of his remarkable career. Among the actors playing the singer are Cate Blanchett, who portrays the man during his Don't Look Back era incarnation; Heath Ledger, as an actor playing one of the fictional Dylans in a movie within the movie; Christian Bale, as the Dylan beginning to chafe at being associated so strongly with political causes; Richard Gere, portraying the post-motorcycle accident period; and Marcus Carl Franklin as the young Dylan who passed himself off as the second coming of Woody Guthrie. Each section of the film not only has a different lead actor, but offers different looks that reflect various aspects of popular culture at the time. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

Notoriously nihilistic filmmaker Michael Haneke revisits one of his most controversial works in this remake of 1997's Funny Games starring Naomi Watts and Tim Roth. When a family of three arrives at their remote summer cabin for a quiet getaway, the sudden arrival of two psychotic men sets the stage for a harrowing life-or-death struggle that offers savage commentary on the use of violence in entertainment. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

In an era where juvenile delinquency in Japan has hit an all-time high, writer/director Jean-Pierre Limosin tells the tale of an aimless 20-year-old who is faced with the choice of walking two distinctly disparate paths in life. Naoki has proven himself a miserable failure at both school and life; unemployable and socially incapable, the shiftless young man soon determines to make a name for himself in the Japanese underworld. Now, despite his mother's objections, Naoki leaves home for a yearlong apprenticeship in the Japanese Mafia. Over the course of the next 12 months, the young man who could never find his way in life will be forced to choose between devoting himself to a life of crime and struggling to remain righteous in a world consumed by selfishness and greed. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

This unusual and offbeat historical drama rests on a little-known conceit. Though seldom discussed in history books (and reportedly undisclosed for half a century), fascist dictator Benito Mussolini conceived an illegitimate son by a woman named Ida Dalser -- a son Mussolini allowed to be born, acknowledged, and then promptly denied for the duration of his life. The tale begins in early 20th century Milan, with Benito (Fabrizio Costella) working as the socialist editor of a controversial newspaper called Avanti. His dream in life involves triumphantly leading the Italian masses away from monarchy and toward a "socially emancipated future." He met the young and wealthy Ida (Giovanna Mezzogiorno) once before, in Trento -- where they enjoyed a brief exchange; they re-encounter one another during Mussolini's period at Avanti and it becomes clear that Ida has fallen deeply in love with Benito; she believes wholeheartedly in his ideals and his future as the leader of Italy -- to such an extent that she sells everything she has (her apartment, furniture, jewelry, and the beauty salon she owns) to fuel the development of his newspaper, Popolo d'Italia. While the two become romantically entangled, with Ida positively magnetized by Benito's charisma and Benito hooked on a lust for power, Benito quickly switches spiritual and political allegiances overnight, changing from an atheistic socialist to a deeply Catholic fascist -- Catholic, because an allegiance with the Vatican will enable him to wrest and retain control over Italy's government. Benito and Ida marry and parent a son together, Benito Albino Mussolini (circa 1915), but the marriage certificate soon conveniently disappears and Ida learns, to her horror, that Benito has married someone else. She unwisely begins to protest the situation -- so loudly and persistently that she's first forced into house arrest and then shoved permanently into an insane asylum -- raising key questions about the fate and future of her young son. On a stylistic level, director Marco Bellocchio films this historical material with the passion, theatricality, lyricism, and tragedy of a classicist Italian opera. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide