THE GLOBAL LENS COLLECTION 2006

ALMOST BROTHERS
Lúcia Murat
Brazil, 2004

This poignant film is the story of two men: white, middleclass Miguel, and black favela-dweller Jorge who meet as boys through their fathers’ passion for music. Director Lúcia Murat offers a commentary on the lowest rung of society in contemporary Rio de Janeiro when, as adults, Miguel and Jorge, one a government official and the other a drug lord, respectively, discover that their lives have more in common than they ever realized.

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BORDER CAFE
Kambozia Partovi
Iran, 2005

Reyhan, a young Iranian woman with two daughters, faces a difficult choice when her husband dies. Nasser, her brother-in-law, provides her financial support, as required by tradition, but he also demands that she become his second wife. She resolves to work to support her family instead, and despite Nasser’s threats, re-opens her late husband’s café on the highway. Reyhan blooms in her new role, and the café soon attracts truck drivers from the other cafés, including the one run by Nasser. As Nasser loses business to Reyhan, his anger grows. Nasser has tradition and the law in his favor, and Reyhan knows that his threats of retaliation may be more than she can resist.

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CINEMA, ASPIRINS AND VULTURES
Marcelo Gomes
Brazil, 2005

1942. Johann, a young German opposed to Hitler’s war, travels the dusty roads of northeastern Brazil selling a new wonder drug, Aspirin, to peasants and farmers. Along the way he picks up a hitchhiker, the sharp-tongued Ranulpho, who helps in his efforts. But as Brazil enters the war against Germany and Johann is ordered back home, each man must decide his own fate.

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IN THE BATTLEFIELDS
Danielle Arbid
Lebanon, 2004

Daughter of self-destructive parents, Lina, 12, doesn’t show much interest in the war taking place around her in 1980’s Beirut. Instead, Siham, her aunt’s beautiful adolescent maid, is the focal point of her rebellious and neglected childhood. As the basis for the girls’ relationship shifts, issues of loyalty and power set off a series of events, which isolate Lina even more. Unlike films in which the violence of an urban war zone motivate a family to strengthen their ties, in this film, director Danielle Arbid depicts, instead, relationships that are shattered by passion, reprisal and guilt.

MAX AND MONA
Teddy Mattera
South Africa, 2004

Max Bua, 19, from a South African farm community, has his sights set on becoming a doctor and must travel to Johannesburg to begin his studies. With money the villagers collected for his tuition fees, and a wedding gift, he sets off to the city. Arriving too late to register and secure his room at the university, Max must seek out his infamous Uncle Norman. Director Teddy Mattera has constructed a slapstick comedy about a young boy’s coming of age and his wild adventure with a most unlikely partner in crime.

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THE NIGHT OF TRUTH
Fanta Régina Narco
Burkina Faso, 2004

This award-winning feature debut by one of Africa’s most talented female directors takes place in an unnamed country, where two peoples, the ruling Nayak and the opposition Bonandés, have finally embarked on a path to peace after a decade of atrocities. To commemorate the reconciliation, a celebratory feast is planned. But with each side haunted by memories of the past, will the night of truth bring understanding - or revenge?

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STOLEN LIFE
Li Shaohong
China, 2005

A young girl is taken to live with her aunt and grandmother in Beijing. As an adolescent, Yanni, becomes withdrawn and reclusive, believing that she has been abandoned by her parents, and that she has no control over either her life or her fate. The fact that her “family” doesn’t have much hope for her future only compounds her depression. Surprising everyone in her hostile household, Yanni is accepted to college. As she prepares to begin her new life, an encounter with a delivery boy triggers a series of unexpected events.

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THIRST
Tawfik Abu Wael
Israel/Palestine, 2004

Ten years ago, a middle-aged Palestinian man moved his wife and children out of town, fleeing a scandal involving his older daughter. Now they’re squatters at an abandoned Israeli military outpost. It’s a hardscrabble existence— isolated and lonely, without running water or electricity. One night, the older daughter runs away, and is found by her father, collapsed on a deserted road. He carries her home but then locks her away in a storeroom, an outrageous act that turns his whole family against him. The father’s obsession with his daughter’s shame has reached the point of madness, as even he knows. If he cannot abandon the harsh traditions that forced his family’s exile, his wife and children will surely abandon him, a tragic choice with only tragic results.