Andres Pfaeffli Movies

The constant interaction between humans, animals, plants, and the earth is pondered as a physical process as well as a philosophical allegory in this drama from Italian filmmaker Michelangelo Frammartino. An aging shepherd (Giuseppe Fuda) is watching over his herd of goats on a hilltop in a small village in Calabria. The ailing shepherd uses the floor sweepings from a nearby church as a medicine, but the treatment fails him and he dies alone. As he passes, one of his goats gives birth, and the other goats tend to the new member of the flock. While grazing, the young goat is separated from the herd, and as darkness comes it rests under a tree where it is protected from the elements. Before long, the tree falls victim to a handful of lumberjacks, and it's taken into town, where the tree is stripped of its bark, used as part of a village celebration, and eventually turned into charcoal and used as fuel. Le Quattro Volte (aka The Four Times) received its American premiere at the 2010 New York Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

French filmmaker Paolo Franchi's sophomore feature follows a psychologically damaged youth who makes the grim decision to kill his parents. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Hamro (Maruf Pulodzoda) is a thug--an irresponsible lowlife ex-con who seems to care for nothing but his own fleeting satisfaction. He lives in Moscow, but when he hears that his elderly mother, Halima (Uktamoi Miyasarova), is sick, he returns to his hometown of Asht in Tajikistan. He's not greeted with any joy. The townspeople remember him too well, and he owes money to too many of them. The doctor gives him the bad news. Halima will be dead in a few days. Savri (Malkqat Maqsumova), his mother's pretty nurse, tells Hamro that Halima's dying wish is that he fix up her ramshackle home, and replace her narrow door with a double door, so that her casket will fit through. As Hamro works on getting Halima's house in order, and on seducing Savri, his creditors come calling. His abandoned young son, Yatim (Kova Tilavpur), is brought to him by the family of the boy's mother, who forcefully demand that Hamro take him in. After spending a good deal of money to get the house fixed up, in anticipation of selling it after his mother dies, Hamro learns that Halima was faking her illness. As he struggles to find a way to address his many problems, Hamro surprisingly begins to take an interest in his son's well being. Director Jamshed Usmonov, who also wrote and co-directed the festival hit Flight of the Bee and starred as a filmmaker in Darezhan Omirbaev's The Road, set Angel on the Right in his own hometown, and cast his own mother (Miyasarova) and brother (Pulodzoda) in the lead roles. The film was selected for Un Certain Regard at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival and the 2003 installment of New Directors/New Films. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi