Spectrum   

11 Flowers Wang Xiaoshuai was one of the first independent Chinese filmmakers to come to Rotterdam. His 11 Flowers is an enchanting paradox. Wang’s most... Wang Xiaoshuai, 2011, China, France, 110 min.

38 témoins A brutal murder in Le Havre: 38 people must have noticed, but say they heard or saw nothing. A claustrophobic, moving, beautifully shot film with a strong cast... Lucas Belvaux, 2012, France, Belgium, 104 min.

Ace Attorney Miike Takashi has a reputation for dark, violent films. So it was a surprise when he announced he would be adapting a light-hearted Nintendo game (Phoenix... Miike Takashi, 2012, Japan, 135 min.

Alps Lanthimos (Dogtooth) is a pioneer in new Greek cinema. In the absurd Alps, we follow a nurse, a paramedic, a gymnast and her trainer, who... Yorgos Lanthimos, 2011, Greece, 93 min.

amour de jeunesse, Un Farewell first love! A sensitive and beautifully shot portrait of a young girl who loses her first great love, because the boy doesn’t want to tie himself down... Mia Hansen-Løve, 2011, France, 110 min.

Apollonide - Souvenirs de la maison close, L' A members-only brothel in Paris, early 20th century. A prostitute’s face, mutilated by a client, bears a tragic smile. Around her, the other girls with their... Bertrand Bonello, 2011, France, 122 min.

Black Dove In a gripping and beautifully constructed narrative, victims and culprits of a car accident are linked by complex feelings of guilt. Roh (The Last Dining... Roh Gyeong-Tae, 2011, South Korea, 120 min.

Blindfold, The Recruits to a radical Islamic organisation are blindfolded before being taken to a contact address. So starts this look behind the scenes of a phenomenon that... Garin Nugroho, 2012, Indonesia, 90 min.

Buenas noches, España A road movie, but certainly not an ordinary one. A boy and a girl travel through Spain, but they also seem to travel through a lost world. An experimental... Raya Martin, 2011, Philippines, Spain, 70 min.

Bunohan A Malaysian kickboxing and gangster film with the flair of a Sergio Leone Western. A crime story about three brothers in a village near the Thai border, but... Dain Iskandar Said, 2011, Malaysia, 97 min.

Century of Birthing A majestic film in which two stories easily fit. One about a filmmaker who is a little like Diaz himself and wrestles with the completion of his film and with... Lav Diaz, 2011, Philippines, 355 min.

Comedy, The Ageing hipster Swanson is about to receive his father’s inheritance, but doesn’t care. He hangs around and acts like a complete jerk. Nevertheless, he’s... R. Alverson, 2011, USA, 95 min.

Cornelia frente al espejo The cream of Argentine acting talent collaborated on this fiction debut by the award-winning documentary filmmaker Rosenfeld. Stylish and mysterious drama... Daniel Rosenfeld, 2012, Argentina, 100 min.

cuaderno de barro, El Portrait of the world-famous Spanish artist Miquel Barceló. Inspiring documentary counterpart to the feature film The Double Steps featuring the... Isaki Lacuesta, 2011, Spain, Switzerland, 60 min.

Damsels in Distress Four female students want to cause a revolution at their University and end up in drily comic situations when they start getting involved with men, their... Whit Stillman, 2011, USA, 92 min.

Dangerous Method, A The titanic struggle between Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. The two giants of psychoanalysis are played by Viggo Mortensen and Michael Fassbender. Between them,... David Cronenberg, 2011, France, Ireland, United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, 93 min.

Day He Arrives, The The mastery of Hong Sang-Soo is recognisable in the sometimes hilarious, sometimes moving way in which he manages to restructure familiar elements in every new... Hong Sang-Soo, 2011, South Korea, 79 min.

Demain? Delmira Agustini (Uruguay, 1886-1914) is considered one of the greatest female poets in Latin America. Filmmaker Laurent provides a beautiful, calm and... Christine Laurent, 2012, France, Portugal, 95 min.

Dernière séance The lonely, taciturn Sylvain is a projectionist in an old local cinema. The place has to close because it doesn’t get enough customers, but the film lover... Laurent Achard, 2011, France, 81 min.

Descendants, The A father of two daughters (George Clooney) has to make fundamental decisions. His wife is in a coma; will he let her die? And will he sell his real estate in... Alexander Payne, 2011, USA, 115 min.

Duch, le maître des forges de l'enfer A new chapter by Panh about the Khmer Rouge. Duch is a unique testimony by the man who was responsible for Camp S21, where 12,000 people died. In a... Rithy Panh, 2011, France, 103 min.

Florentina Hubaldo, CTE As no other filmmaker, Lav Diaz is involved with the suffering of the people of the Philippines, with its history of colonialism, corruption and poverty. A... Lav Diaz, 2012, Philippines, 300 min.

Four Suns Since his debut Wild Bees (Tiger Award 2002), Sláma has become the figurehead of Czech cinema. Once again, his powers of observation are combined with... Bohdan Sláma, 2011, Czech Republic, 105 min.

Francophrenia (or: Don't Kill Me, I Know Where the Baby Is) Ian Olds and Paul Felten wrote a new script to accompany footage of Franco made while shooting the soap General Hospital. The result is an experimental... Ian Olds, James Franco, 2012, USA, 69 min.

géants, Les Three boys in the Ardennes: their summer becomes a fairy-tale adventure without parents, without money and - at one point - without shelter. Shot in beautiful... Bouli Lanners, 2011, Belgium, France, Luxembourg, 84 min.

Goodbye Without her husband and without her lawyer’s licence, which has been withdrawn, Noora is left pregnant and alone in her apartment. Her attempt to leave Iran... Mohammad Rasoulof, 2011, Iran, 104 min.

Heart's Boomerang Snowy Saint Petersburg. A young man with an incurable heart disease. Underground trains where he spends most of his time working as a subway machinist. Nikolay... Nikolay Khomeriki, 2011, Russia, 96 min.

Histoire de mes cheveux Artists and filmmakers can be unusual people. Of those unusual people, Boris Lehman is very unusual indeed. He has unusual obsessions, for instance with his... Boris Lehman, 2010, Belgium, Russia, 90 min.

Hoy no tuve miedo 'Today I felt no fear.' Under this beautiful title, the young Fund (The Lips, IFFR 2011) made a lyrical film in the rural Argentine town of Crespo about... Iván Fund, 2011, Argentina, 122 min.

Hunter, The Martin (Willem Dafoe) is sent by a mysterious biotechnology company to the Tasmanian Wilderness to find the very last Tasmanian tiger. The lonely expedition in... Daniel Nettheim, 2011, Australia, 101 min.

I Wish The great Japanese filmmakers have always been good at telling sensitive family tales. On the surface a summery children’s film, but underneath a drama about a... Kore-eda Hirokazu, 2011, Japan, 128 min.

I'm Still Alive She’s alive, but won’t be for long. Soon a host of angels will fetch her. Poetic portrait of a Polish woman called Jadwiga, who is old, poor and has lived in... Peter van Houten, 2012, Netherlands, 86 min.

Iceberg Stunningly shot in the wintry Spanish countryside, the delicate Iceberg, made largely without dialogue, shows the world of young people who bear... Gabriel Velázquez, 2011, Spain, 84 min.

Kotoko Tsukamoto has to answer for almost unbearable films such as Tetsuo II: Body Hammer and Tokyo Fist. Not exactly free of violence, to put it... Tsukamoto Shinya, 2011, Japan, 91 min.

Lacan Palestine The term essay film is sometimes used a bit too easily, but this really is one - and it isn’t an easy one. Skillfully cut and pasted from existing film... Mike Hoolboom, 2012, Canada, 70 min.

Le Havre An optimistic fairytale about a selfish old man who betters his life by helping a young African refugee. Heartwarming and drily comic scenes in the French port... Aki Kaurismäki, 2011, Finland, 93 min.

leggenda di Kaspar Hauser, La The historic Kaspar Hauser updated: in this surreal post-Western shot in beautiful black-and-white, Kaspar washes up on a Mediterranean beach where they try to... Davide Manuli, 2012, Italy, 90 min.

Loneliest Planet, The A young couple, played by Gael García Bernal and Hani Furstenberg, hike through the mountains of Georgia led by a local guide. Amid the lush landscape, their... Julia Loktev, 2011, USA, Germany, 113 min.

Mercado de futuros Álvarez won a Tiger Award for The Sky Turns, a beautiful documentary elegy for the village she was born in. Here she utilises an equally measured style... Mercedes Alvarez, 2011, Spain, 110 min.

Miss Bala Naranjo made a spectacular and expensive film that, in view of the statistics and news reports, still stays close to the reality of the Mexican-American... Gerardo Naranjo Gonzalez, 2011, Mexico, 113 min.

Mondomanila Mondo Cane is the legendary and cruel shockumentary by Gualtiero Jacopetti. Khavn sees his own Mondo in Manila. Jacopetti was an outsider; Khavn... Khavn De La Cruz, 2011, Philippines, Germany, 75 min.

Monsieur Lazhar One morning, an elementary class finds their teacher’s body hung in the classroom. Lazhar, an Algerian immigrant, is hired for replacement. He will teach the... Philippe Falardeau, 2011, Canada, 94 min.

Nick Where were you, Fow Pyng Hu? It took four years after his impressive debut Jacky before Paradise Girls appeared. Another eight years later, he... Fow Pyng Hu, 2012, Netherlands, 84 min.

noms de Crist, Els Serra freely interpreted a ‘television series’ for an exhibition at the MACBA in Barcelona. His series deals with the problems involved in funding ‘difficult... Albert Serra, 2010, Spain, 193 min.

Old Dog Third feature by the front runner of Tibetan cinema, whose first short film was screened in Rotterdam. Without raising the tempo, he gets better and better. In... Pema Tseden, 2011, China, 88 min.

pasos dobles, Los This visually impressive combination of the lives of saints, painted portraits and the Billy the Kid myth earned the Rotterdam regular Lacuesta the main prize... Isaki Lacuesta, 2011, Spain, Switzerland, 87 min.

Patience (After Sebald) Unique, beautifully shot essay about the work of the influential writer W.G. Max Sebald (1944-2001). Gee ventures to East Anglia to provide an impression of... Grant Gee, 2011, United Kingdom, 82 min.

Peace versus Justice Gripping documentary explores the different conceptions of Western values in other countries, focussing on the situation in Uganda with the Lord's Resistance... Klaartje Quirijns, 2012, Netherlands, 64 min.

Play With merciless precision, Östlund dissects how three kids are robbed of their mobile phones by street toughs. Does it matter that the perpetrators are... Ruben Östlund, 2011, Sweden, France, Denmark, 113 min.

Punk in Africa The striking story of a hidden, underground, even secret and banned movement. Bands with both black and white musicians broke the law. In the apartheid era,... Keith Jones, Deon Maas, 2011, South Africa, Czech Republic, 82 min.

Rat Fever High-power report of freedom and love on the fringes of tropical Recife. Anarchistic poet Zizo falls for the down-to-earth Eneida, while his friends succumb to... Cláudio Assis, 2011, Brazil, 110 min.

reste du monde, Le A family drama. A deceased mother and a father with a new wife. Three sisters; the middle one has lost her lover by whom she is pregnant. During a family... Damien Odoul, 2012, France, 82 min.

Roman Diary Pilz's description of his film doesn’t even mention Rome or the hill of Gianicolo, which overlooks the Trastevere district. The film should provide a... Michael Pilz, 2012, Austria, 124 min.

Rua Aperana 52 Bressane, a leading name in progressive Brazilian cinema for the past forty years, was honoured with a retrospective at the IFFR in 2000. He has made a musical... Júlio Bressane, 2012, Brazil, 80 min.

Shape of Error, A Child based this imagined home movie about the life of Mary and Percy Shelley on the real diaries of Mary and her sister Claire. Together with the factual... Abigail Child, 2012, USA, Italy, 70 min.

Shock Head Soul A mixture of documentary and fiction film about Daniel Paul Schreber, who wrote a famous autobiography about his psychiatric past, Denkwürdigkeiten eines... Simon Pummell, 2011, Netherlands, United Kingdom, 86 min.

Simple Life, A A very meticulously observed and, as a result, very moving phase in the very ordinary life of two very ordinary people - see the title. A single Hong Kong... Ann Hui, 2011, Hong Kong, 117 min.

small roads Benning’s latest work fits in perfectly with his extensive oeuvre of landscape films. In small roads, Benning films 47 roads in the USA. Not only... James Benning, 2011, USA, 103 min.

Stateless Things Claustrophobic drama about two stateless boys struggling with life. Although they couldn’t be more different, they are linked by their loneliness and... Kim Kyung-Mook, 2011, South Korea, 115 min.

Surprise Film A great tradition is the surprise film on the last Friday evening of the festival about which nothing is known except that it is a one-off screening. This year... 2011, 90 min.

Tatsumi Basing a film on a manga is often a commercial decision, but filmmaker Eric Khoo is a real fan of Japanese manga artist Yoshihiro Tatsumi. Tatsumi invented the... Eric Khoo, 2011, Singapore, 98 min.

Temple, A A light-hearted black comedy that explores states of the human mind. Kesha, a young village man, gets a visit from God. Satirical regarding religious belief,... Umesh Vinayak Kulkarni, 2011, India, 146 min.

últimos cristeros, Los The eternal battle between worldly rulers and believers resulted in the 1930s in Mexico in a bloody rebellion by the so-called Christeros. Meyer... Matías Meyer, 2011, Mexico, Netherlands, 90 min.

Unfair World It’s hard to be honest in a dishonest world. Sotiris has almost given up. Luckily he still has his work as a cop, which provides a modest opportunity to fight... Filippos Tsitos, 2011, Greece, Germany, 118 min.

Unsichtbare, Die Fine lives with her mother, who only has eyes for her autistic sister. She is passionate about drama but is constantly told to stop being invisible on stage.... Christian Schwochow, 2011, Germany, 113 min.

Verano The informal intimacy of amateur film formats, such as Hi8 or MP4, is often used by film makers. But seldom with such intense beauty as by Torres Leiva. Moving... José Luis Torres Leiva, 2011, Chile, 93 min.

vie meilleure, Une After failing in the restaurant business, Nadia travels to Canada to earn a living. She leaves her son in the excellent hands of her friend Yann. Everything... Cédric Kahn, 2011, France, Canada, 110 min.

Visiting Room They meet in person many years after seeing each other for the first time in photos sent by regular mail. They have waited for this meeting for a long time, in... Alexandru Baciu, Radu Muntean, 2011, Romania, 60 min.

Way of Passion Trapani, Sicily. Its inhabitants are preparing for the Good Friday procession that has taken place annually for 400 years. A swift and ubiquitous camera takes... Joerg Burger, 2011, Austria, 89 min.

When the Lights Went Out Yorkshire, 1974. A family finally moves into their dream home, but are soon plagued by an increasingly aggressive poltergeist that primarily targets the... Pat Holden, 2012, United Kingdom, 85 min.

Woman's Revenge, A This version of the famous story from Les diaboliques by Barbey d'Aurevilly (1874) features beautiful classical music, costumes and theatrical... Rita Azevedo Gomes, 2011, Portugal, 100 min.

Women on the Edge The disaster on 11 March 2011 made a huge impression in Japan. Few filmmakers were capable of coming up with an original response, but Kobayashi found a... Kobayashi Masahiro, 2011, Japan, 101 min.

Wuthering Heights The fact that cameraman Robbie Ryan won an award for his camerawork will not surprise anyone who sees this earthy Brontë filming: seldom was the mood of the... Andrea Arnold, 2011, United Kingdom, 130 min.