Karl Baumgartner Movies

Aki Kaurismaki's La Havre stars Andre Wilms as Marcel, a free-spirited, good-natured writer who is currently making a living as a shoeshiner. He meets Idrissa (Blondin Miguel), an African refugee and helps the young man hide from officials who want him deported., Meanwhile, Marcel's loving wife suffers from a serious illness. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

A mid-level businessman learns something about human nature and himself when he's given an unusual assignment in this comedy drama from Israeli filmmaker Eran Riklis. Yulia (Galina Ozerner) is a longtime employee at a major baking company in Jerusalem, but when she stops coming to work, it's two weeks before anyone thinks to look into her absence. As it happens, Yulia, a Russian émigré, died in a politically oriented bombing, and a journalist covering the story is preparing an inflammatory piece that criticizes the bakery for their lack of compassion toward an employee. The situation becomes all the more embarrassing when it's discovered Yulia had been fired from her job but was still getting paid thanks to the actions of an employee who fancied her. Determined to keep the bakery from getting a black eye in the press, the owner of the company (Gila Almagor) orders her human resources manager (Mark Ivanir) to pick up Yulia's remains and escort them back to her family in Russia. As the manager meets a variety of people who had some connection with Yulia, it forces him to think about his own relationships with others and the ways he's disappointed his own wife and children. The Human Resources Manager was an official selection at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Tomas Lunak's rotoscoped drama Alois Nebel tells the tale of a Czechoslovakian train dispatcher who is haunted by events he was a part of during the Second World War involving a shooting and an orphaned child. In 1989, just as the Berlin wall falls, Alois ends up in an asylum, but when he gets out there he has no job and can't quite adjust to the new social and political realities. Thankfully, he meets a woman who might just provide the love he so badly needs. Alois Nebel screened at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

Director Ludi Boeken draws inspiration from Marga Spiegel's 1965 memoir of the same name to tell the story of a desperate German family that is saved from extermination by a group of heroic Münsterland farmers. As Adolf Hitler plunges Europe into chaos, Marga, her husband Siegfried, and their young daughter Karin flee for their lives. Incredibly, a group of heroic farmers from southern Münsterland take pity on the desperate refugees -- putting their own lives on the line to hide the trio from 1943 to 1945. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

One man's journey through three decades of political uproar in Ethiopia sets the stage for this independent historical drama from director Haile Gerima. Anberber (Aaron Arefe) was born and raised in Ethiopia, but he became disillusioned with the poverty and political turmoil of his country, and in the 1970s he relocated to Germany to study medicine. As Anberber completed his medical training in Europe, he planned to return to Ethiopia and use his knowledge to help battle disease and raise the standard of living at home. But when he arrived in 1989, just as the collapse of the Berlin Wall was changing the face of global politics, he found an Ethiopia in even worse straits than when he left. Haile Mariam Mengistu became the nation's ruler in the wake of a revolution that brought down Haile Selassie, but while his socialist policies promised a better life for everyone, Mengistu's regime had become bitterly oppressive, and Anberber comes to believe that his knowledge is useless in helping the people around him. Teza was an official selection at the 2008 Venice Film Festival and Toronto Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Emerging filmmaker Malgoska Szumowska draws on her own life experiences to craft this semi-autobiographical drama concerning a woman who is suddenly prompted to re-evaluate her sense of self when her whole world begins to collapse. Julia is a successful photographer with a loving husband and a beautiful home, though over the course of just one year her good fortune gradually begins to take a turn for the worse. Shortly after Julia's dog dies, her mother is diagnosed with terminal cancer and her career hits the skids. The bad news seems to be snowballing, though with her husband overseas, her sister engaged in an affair with a priest, and her father becoming increasingly needy, the beleaguered woman has no one to turn to. Now forced into a new kind of adulthood due to the close proximity of sickness and death, Julia gradually begins to accept the things that she cannot change in life by finding laughter in the most unusual places, and entering into an unexpected affair. Over time, Julia learns to find courage in the chaos, and accept the inevitable pain as just another part of life. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Having just completed his naval service, a young man travels back to the Kazakh steppe to take a bride and begin his new life as a shepherd. Asa is eager to go back to the countryside, where he plans on living a nomadic life along with his sister and her husband. His sister's husband is a shepherd, a career that Asa, too, hopes to someday undertake. But before that happens, Asa will have to find a bride -- not an easy task on the deserted steppe. Young Tulpan is the daughter of another shepherd family and the most obvious choice, yet she isn't attracted to Asa due to his big ears. Will Tulpan ever be able to fulfill his lifelong dream of becoming a shepherd, or is he forever condemned to lead the life of a lonely bachelor? ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

A search for both family and cultural identity takes place on a tandem bicycle in this emotional drama from Bulgarian filmmaker Stefan Komandarev. Alexander was born in 1975, when Bulgaria was being ruled by an oppressive political regime that encouraged distrust among its people. Alexander (Carlo Ljubek) was raised in an extended family, with his parents Vasko (Hristo Mutafchiev) and Yana (Ana Papadopulu) sharing their home with Yana's folks Bai Dan (Miki Manojlovic) and Sladka (Lyudmila Cheshmedzhieva). Free-spirited Bai Dan shows little respect for Bulgaria's leadership, and Vasko is approached by authorities who want him to file intelligence reports on his father-in-law. Afraid of where this could lead, Vasko brings together the family and flees the country, making their way to Germany after a stay in a refugee camp. When Alexander, now in his early thirties, is involved in an auto accident with his parents in the car, he survives but they perish. Alexander's memory of his past has been shattered by his injuries, so Bai Dan proposes a journey to lift his spirits and refresh his mind. Bai Dan gets a two-seater bicycle and together they set out to travel from Germany to Bulgaria strictly by pedal power. Adapted from a novel by Ilija Trojanov, Svetat e golyam i spasenie debne otvsyakde (aka The World Is Big and Salvation Lurks Around the Corner) was voted best Bulgarian feature presentation at the 2008 Sofia Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Norwegian director Bent Hamer follows up his quirky and critically acclaimed Kitchen Stories with a heartbreakingly humorous look at the life of depressive writer Hank Chinaski -- the fictional counterpart of real-life author Charles Bukowski. Adapted from Bukowski's 1975 novel of the same name, Hamer's film follows the perpetually unemployed, alcohol-swilling Chinaski (Matt Dillon) as he drifts through the city streets in search of a job that won't come between him and his first love, writing. Consistently rejected by the only publishing house he respects but driven to continue by the knowledge that he could do better than the authors they continually publish, Chinaski soon begins sleeping with fellow barfly Jan (Lili Taylor), a kindred spirit he meets while drowning his sorrows at a local watering hole. When Hank eventually gets abandoned by the only woman with whom he is able to relate, a brief fling with gold-digging floozy Laura (Marisa Tomei) finds him once again falling into a morose state of perpetual drunkenness and unemployment. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi