Love Is Sin (白天的星星)
This is the second feature film by documentary filmmaker Huang Chao-liang (黃朝亮). Following the success of Huang’s 2009 debut Summer Time, Love Is Sin stars male model Edwin Chi (紀亞文), who plays a young American missionary whose arrival in a small mountain town sends ripples through the whole community. As a result, various secrets are revealed. A real effort is made to capture the rhythms of small-town Taiwan life, but the conventions of TV melodrama cast a deep shadow over the production.
Tales of Night
Retro animation from award-winning French filmmaker Michel Ocelot that brings together shadow puppet stylings reminiscent of vintage camera obscura entertainments and 3D technology to create a series of six classic fairy tales that span a wide range of exotic locations, from Africa to the Orient. Ocelot is a consummate craftsman, and the attention to detail shines through in these tiny gem-like tales.
Paper Birds
Spanish film by director Emilio Aragon in the tradition of Life Is Beautiful, with ordinary people finding consolation and hope in the strength of the human spirit even when all around them they face the horrors of an oppressive political regime. Two vaudeville performers (played by Imanol Arias and Lluis Homar) team up with an orphan boy (Roger Princep from The Orphanage) in post-Spanish Civil War-era Madrid, and beat the cynicism and despair of their lives by entertaining others. Their precarious happiness comes under threat when their performances are scrutinized by the authorities in the form of Captain Montero (Fernando Cayo). The high-quality acting does not quite make up for the unwillingness of the director to face up to the dark side of politics and human suffering. Instead, he finds refuge in lachrymose sentiment.
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