All titles released on 22nd April 2011.
Film: Taxi Zum Klo
Country of Production: West Germany
Frank Ripploh is a bit of a rascal: he's a bearded and shaggy-haired teacher, and he's gay with a very active sex life and an interest in making films. He keeps his personal life and teaching separate, but he sometimes corrects student papers in public toilets as he waits to score. He cruises constantly, and one evening, he meets Bernd. They become lovers. While Bernd is attentive and caring, Frank gets bored and continues his polymorphously perverse ways. For how long will Bernd and Frank tolerate each other's habits, and for how long can Frank keep his sexual orientation out of the classroom?
When Taxi Zum Klo was first released in cinemas in the UK in 1982 it became one of the year’s most notorious ‘sex films’. It was seized by US Customs, restricted to screenings in private clubs in London and in Paris, and hailed as the first ‘post-gay liberation movie’ by Newsweek. Despite its limited release in the UK at the time, audiences flocked to cinema clubs such as The Screen On The Green and The ICA to see Taxi Zum Klo, which remains to this day a cult classic.
Film: Dum Maaro Dum
Country of Production: India
Dum Maaro Dum is set in the exotic Indian beach resort of Goa, and tells the story of six characters whose lives change forever when they become embroiled in the shady and perilous world of the region’s drugs mafia. An edgy, stylised thriller which races through the by-lanes, beach shacks and wild raves of Goa, Dum Maaro Dum is a compelling tale of sex, drugs and scandal set against the stunning backdrop of one of the world’s most famous tourist hotspots.
Directed by Rohan Sippy (Bluffmaster, Kuch Naa Kaho ) and produced by Ramesh Sippy, who brought audiences one of the greatest classics in the history of Indian cinema, Sholay, Dum Maaro Dum features a stand-out soundtrack that moves from haunting Konkani songs to pulsating dance music by maverick composer, Pritam.
Dum Maaro Dum’s cast combines Bollywood’s most established and best loved film actors with India’s brightest rising stars. Acclaimed beauty and leading lady, Bipasha Basu, plays Zoe – a bright and beautiful young woman who falls foul of Goa’s sinister underbelly. Joining her on screen is the Bollywood star Abhishek Bachchan portraying ACP Vishnu Kamath, a cop on a relentless mission to bring Goa’s drugs barons to justice. Rising star of Indian cinema, Prateik Babbar, plays Lorry – a student with huge potential, whose fall from grace is marked by an encounter with a hustler from the wrong side of the tracks. Acclaimed star of the Telegu film industry, Rana Daggubati makes a memorable Bollywood debut as DJ Joki, a local musician who becomes the film’s unlikely hero.
Starlet Deepika Padukone features in the film’s title track which is already creating waves in the Indian music scene. Bold and explosive, the song is a contemporary remix version of the iconic classic track (originally performed by the daring Zeenat Aman in pioneering ‘70s film Hare Rama Hare Krishna) and is choreographed by famed duo, Bosco and Cesar.
Film: How I Ended This Summer
Country of Production: Russia
On a deserted Russian Arctic island, two men work diligently at a small meteorological station. Their task is to take regular readings from their partly radioactive surroundings and relay this crucial data on to headquarters via radio – their only bridge to the outside world.
For a seasoned pro like Sergei, a gruff man in his fifties, this job has become routine. During the years he has spent in extreme isolation, he has learned to take this task very seriously. His new work partner is the fresh-faced Pavel, a bright-eyed college graduate assigned to spend the summer at the station. The two men have little in common, with Pavel sticking to the company of his MP3 and video games to avoid the bullish, vaguely threatening presence of Sergei.
The balance tips one day when Sergei leaves his post to go fishing for trout in a nearby lagoon. He has entrusted Pavel to do the readings and radio them through to headquarters as required. Inexperienced, Pavel misses the appointed reading time and falsifies the logs to cover it up. Worse yet, there is terrible news for Sergei from HQ. Intimidated and uneasy, Pavel keeps quiet, unable to bring himself to share the distressing news with Sergei. When the truth finally emerges, its inevitable consequences play out against a desolate backdrop of thick fog, sharp rocks, crashing waves, and the Arctic Sea…
Film: Pina
Country of Production: Germany/France/UK
Pina is a feature-length dance film in 3D with the ensemble of the Tanztheater Wuppertal.
Pina is a film for Pina Bausch by Wim Wenders. He takes the audience on a sensual, visually stunning journey of discovery into a new dimension: straight onto the stage with the legendary ensemble and follows the dancers out of the theatre into the city and the surrounding areas of Wuppertal – the place, which for thirty-five years was the home and centre for Pina Bausch's creativity.
After the sudden death of Pina Bausch in the summer of 2009 – in the middle of joint preparations before shooting – Wim Wenders, after a period of mourning and reflection, had to rethink and start again with his film about and with Pina Bausch. The result was a film for Pina Bausch.
Using the choreographies which had been jointly selected – 'Café Müller', 'Le Sacre du printemps', 'Vollmond' and 'Kontakthof' - and using some images and audio files of her life, as well as 3D recordings of individual ensemble members of the Tanztheater Wuppertal who in spring of 2010 danced personal memories of the precise, critical and loving nature of their great mentor.
During more than twenty years of personal friendship, Wim Wenders and Pina Bausch never lost sight of their idea to make a dance film together. But only now, with the latest possibilities created by digital 3D technology, did Wenders find the aesthetic means to bring the unique plasticity and emotional expressiveness of Pina Bausch’s innovative Tanztheater to the cinema screen. Only now can the dimension of the space be reproduced in the cinema. It is this dimension in which movement and dance take place, and into which the new 3D cinema can take the viewer on a sensual journey of discovery.
Film: The Extraordinary Adventures Of Adele Blanc-Sec
Country of Production: France
The year is 1912. Adèle Blanc-Sec, an intrepid young reporter, will go to any lengths to achieve her aims, including sailing to Egypt to tackle mummies of all shapes and sizes.
Meanwhile, in Paris, it's panic stations! A 136 million-year old pterodactyl egg on a shelf in the natural history museum has mysteriously hatched, and the bird subjects the city to a reign of terror from the skies.
But nothing fazes Adèle Blanc-Sec, whose adventures reveal many more extraordinary surprises...
Legendary cartoonist Jacques Tardi's original stories perfectly recreate the intrigue, romance and excitement of one of the most tumultuous periods in history. The film is directed by Luc Besson.
