Jevgeni Sitochin Movies
- 2007
A beautiful woman is suddenly forced to rely on her wits on a cold night in December in this character study from Germany. Valerie (Agata Buzek) was a successful fashion model when she was living in Paris in her mid-twenties, but now she's turned thirty and her career is not what it used to be. With her bank account empty, Valerie can no longer afford the fancy hotel room that had been her home for several months, or even get her car out of their underground parking garage. The photographer who discovered Valerie and was her lover for years (Birol Unel) has found a new protégé and isn't interested in her anymore, while Valerie's agent (Sabine Vitua) tells her in no uncertain terms her career is probably over. While she's able to use her looks and charm to persuade Andre (Devid Streisow), a parking attendant, to let her sleep in her car, she finds herself essentially homeless in Berlin with Christmas just around the corner. Valerie can still turn heads with the right dress and make-up, but with no cash or practical skills, she's forced to turn to others to supply her with food, drinks and cigarettes, and flirts with the idea of prostitution in order to support herself. Valerie was the first directorial effort from cinematographer Birgit Moller. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Agata Buzek, Devid Striesow, (more)
A woman assumes a new identity in order to start her life over again in this drama from Germany. Fariba Tarizi (Jasmin Tabatabai) is an Iranian woman who wants to leave her country to escape the persecution that comes with being a lesbian. Fariba manages to make her way to Germany before it's discovered that her passport and visa are forgeries; she applies for political asylum, but is told she doesn't have much of a chance of being allowed to stay. While held in custody by immigration officials, Fariba meets Siamak (Navid Akhavan), a young man who has also fled Iran and is terrified by the prospect of having to go back. Siamak panics and kills himself, and when Fariba discovers his body, she takes his belongings, dresses in his clothes, cuts her hair and escapes custody posing as a man. Making her way into Stuttgart, Fariba gets a job at a canning plant, where she becomes friendly with Anna (Anneke Kim Sarnau), a single mother who has no idea Fariba is really a woman. Fariba becomes infatuated with Anna, and Anna makes it clear she feels the same way, but Fariba isn't sure how to tell her that she's really a woman, a situation made all the more difficult when she learns "Siamak" must return to Iran in two weeks. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jasmin Tabatabai, Anneke Kim Sarnau, (more)
The second chapter in the "Bourne Trilogy," based on Robert Ludlum's best-selling espionage novels, reaches the screen in this sequel to the 2002 thriller The Bourne Identity. Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) has abandoned his life as a CIA assassin and has been traveling beneath the agency's radar, eventually reconnecting with Marie Kreutz (Franka Potente), the woman he loves. But Bourne is haunted by vivid dreams and troubling memories of his days as a killer, and he's not certain how much really happened and how much is a product of his imagination. When Bourne is led out of hiding by circumstances beyond his control, he must reconcile his past and present as he struggles to keep Marie out of harm's way and foil an international incident with dangerous consequences. The Bourne Supremacy also features Joan Allen as one of Bourne's superiors, while Julia Stiles and Brian Cox reprise their roles as intelligence agents from the first film. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Matt Damon, Franka Potente, (more)
