TRAILER: Cinema Release: Leap Year

Film: Leap Year

SPECIAL FEATURE: Cinema Release: Slackistan

This is an English-language release.

Islamabad, Pakistan. A year has passed since democracy returned to the country and Hasan and his friends graduated from college. For both the civilian rule and this group of friends, things haven’t quite turned out as everybody had hoped.

Hasan has always dreamt of becoming a filmmaker and has recently bought a video camera. However, unable to find a pirated copy of Mean Streets, and deprived of even a single cinema in his town, he lets the camera sit in its box and roams around with his two best friends.

Everyday, the cocky but charming Sherry pulls up in his dad’s large Mercedes, with the ever perky Saad in the backseat, picking up Hasan and going through their routine of shisha cafes, house parties, high school stake-outs and lots of driving around town. Sherry is secretly borrowing cash from local rich loser Mani, who is trying to buy his way into Sherry’s social circle and contacts.

Hasan harbours feelings for his neighbour Aisha, a beautiful, sensitive girl who has been a long-time ally of Hasan’s, believing in his ability to make films. She has her own secret: she plans to leave the country and move to Boston to follow an American-Pakistani guy she has been involved with long distance. Hasan does not know this.

Zara, meanwhile, completes this group of friends, as the girl who constantly tries to fit in with the ‘Isloo’ crowd. Always lipsticked, made-up and desperately trying to please the spoilt and superficial Zeeshan, she doesn’t understand why her little brother won’t speak to her anymore.

When Aisha tells Hasan about her plans to leave the country for a career-driven guy, he is privately devastated, but supportive of his friend. She leaves him and his world in a state of aimless failure. Hasan needs to do something with his life. He needs to take his camera out of its box and point it at the people outside of his little world.

However, with Mani and his boys chasing down Sherry’s cash debt, Hasan might find moving on and getting out of ‘Slackistan’ harder than he imagined.

Film: Slackistan
Release date: 26th November 2010
Certificate: 15
Running time: 115 mins
Director: Hammad Khan
Starring: Shahbaz Shigri, Aisha Linnea Akhtar, Rafey Alam, Osman Khalid Butt, Uzair Jaswal
Genre: Drama
Studio: Big Upstairs
Format: Cinema
Country: Packistan

SPECIAL FEATURE: Cinema Review: Broken Sun

Film: Broken Sun
Release date: 19th November 2010
Certificate: 15
Running time: 92 mins
Director: Brad Haynes
Starring: Shingo Usami, Sam O'Dell, Kentaro Hara, Kuni Hashimoto, Mark Redpath
Genre: Drama/War
Studio: Metrodome
Format: Cinema
Country: Australia

This is an English-language release.

Centring on parallel stories of two survivors of war from opposing sides of the conflict, the chance encounter at the heart of Broken Sun forces its protagonists to acknowledge the profound connection they share as a result of their experiences of war.

Broken Sun’s multiple narrative shifts between its present day setting of New South Wales, Australia, in 1944, and the recollections of war which haunt its two main characters.

Jack is an Australian veteran of the Great War, living in isolation on his farm and plagued by guilt and regret. In a nearby prison camp, Japanese prisoners of war plot their escape. Their leader, Amamoto Shingo, declares death to be more honourable for a Japanese soldier than existence in captivity. Those who doubt the wisdom of his actions are too fearful to stand against him. Amongst them is Tanaka Masaru, a young soldier whose war injuries make him vulnerable.

Following escape from the camp, Masaru’s path crosses that of Jack, and both men come to realise that their experience of war forms a more profound understanding between them than any connection they might have with their own countrymen…


The film constantly switches between the narratives of past and present. Jack has nightmarish recollections of the trenches of the Somme, scenes characterised by a cold blue light and mist drifting across the desolation of no man’s land. His recurring visions of a bloodied soldier berating Jack for his past crimes suggest a dark and guilty secret, which is eventually revealed. By contrast, Masaru remembers sun soaked battles in the jungles of the Pacific, where he endured an inner conflict between his instincts of self-preservation and compassion, and the suicidal code of honour imposed on him by his commanding officer. The way the film jumps between these different narrative threads is potentially distracting, and, in fact, the lack of any revelation resulting from Masaru’s story makes the film’s structure somewhat unsatisfactory, although it does flesh out his character and the contrasting values held by the belligerent Amamoto Shingo.

The film has an oddly pared down quality, which is partly the result of its noticeably low budget and partly down to the spare nature of the script. The escape of the Japanese POWs forming the central action of the film was a historical event, in which some 330 soldiers fought their way out of a prison camp in New South Wales, the majority then taking their own lives rather than submitting to the shame of recapture. The film’s WWI scenes are set at Pozières, the site of the bloodiest battle fought by the Anzacs on the western front. Despite these references to factual events, there is a curious lack of historical detail. The setting of Masaru’s war is merely described as the South West Pacific, so this becomes more representative of a moral and ethical battle, rather than a physical one.

The paucity of detail seems to be a deliberate feature to minimise distraction from the film’s theme of the nature of war and its consequences upon the individual. The intense scenario of the two ex-soldiers confronting each other feels closer to a situation artificially engineered in a play than to the more naturalistic tendencies of film. The trenches scenes were clearly shot on a purpose built set, reinforcing this sense of a wider world condensed to the impressionistic intensity of a stage. This isn’t necessarily a criticism, although Broken Sun swims against the tide of fashion in taking this approach. It feels closer in tone to a literary morality tale such as Of Mice And Men than to the Hollywood sized pyrotechnics of Saving Private Ryan.

Shingo Usami gives a touching performance as Masaru, his limping shuffle conveying childlike vulnerability, and his open mouthed horror at death and destruction reflecting the truth and freshness of a child’s reactions to the horrors of the world. Jai Koutrae is convincingly embittered and tortured as Jack, although he is too young to be believable as a war veteran of thirty years’ standing, raising the question why this character was written as a veteran of the First rather than the Second World War.

The answer seems to be that the filmmakers wanted to show the relentless suffering, year upon year, which this character endures as a consequence of his experiences. He says that “this war keeps me burning, makes me angry. It’s the only thing I have to keep me alive.” His internalised suffering reflects the experiences of thousands of veterans who could not speak of the horrors that they had witnessed to an uncomprehending civilian populace. The unremitting mental torture which Jack undergoes seems to him a just price for the actions which he took during the war, actions which were the inescapable consequence of the inhumane choices he faced. The character of Masaru is, by contrast, a figure of hope, someone who values compassion and humanity, and who would rather choose survival than self-destruction - even at the cost of seeming ignoble.

The film’s Australian setting is a fitting location for the bleakness of its theme, with a harsh sun beating down upon a bone bare, yellow and brown bleached landscape. The best shots are quietly contemplative, as when Masaru, still a prisoner, gazes out of the window at abstract cloud formations, his face lit up by the sun while the rest of him remains huddled in darkness. The still nature of the film and its sparse dialogue create a meditative feel, giving the viewer time and space to reflect on its subject matter. In this, the film’s intentions seem to fall closer to The Thin Red Line than to the war films of Spielberg or Oliver Stone, but the feeling that Broken Sun lacks real substance means that it comes nowhere near matching the success of The Thin Red Line in creating an immersive and claustrophobic impression of the reality of war. Though well intentioned, there is not enough depth to the characterisation to give a convincing sense of understanding the experiences of Jack and Masaru, and how they have been affected by those experiences.


Finely acted, with a standout performance from Shingo Usami, Broken Sun is thoughtfully executed with some memorably touching shots, but it fails to reach deep enough into the hearts of its characters to achieve a satisfactorily powerful meditation on the nature of war and those who endure it. KR

NEWS: Cinema Release: The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets’ Nest

The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets’ Nest is the explosive final instalment of Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy.

Under police guard in hospital, Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace) is charged with murder and awaits the trial that has the country gripped. Cut off from all communication with the outside world, she must rely on journalist and former lover Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist) to prove her innocence - and expose the political cover up that threatens to destroy her freedom. In his way stands a mysterious group who will go to any lengths to keep the shocking truth of their actions a secret.

Film: The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets’ Nest
Release date: 26th November 2010
Certificate: 15
Running time: 148 mins
Director: Daniel Alfredson
Starring: Michael Nyqvist, Noomi Rapace, Erika Berger, Annika Gannini, Malin Erikson
Genre: Crime/Drama/Thriller
Studio: Momentum
Format: Cinema
Country: Sweden/Denmark/Germany

NEWS: Cinema Release: Tere Ishq Nachaya

Tere Ishq Nachaya tells the story of Kamal, a young and bubbly woman, who likes nothing more than to play, dance and sing.

When Kamal performs at the marriage of her aunt’s daughter, Gurjot falls in love with her. Despite Kamal’s initial resistance, Gurjot persists, and the marriage is arranged.

Ahead of her marriage, Kamal heads to Bangkok to visit her mother, who is unable to come to India to attend Kamal’s marriage because of her illness. Whilst in Bangkok, Kamal meets Karan, who, like her, is a great dancer. Kamal falls for Karan, and finally understands the true meaning of love.

Film: Tere Ishq Nachaya
Release date: 26th November 2010
Certificate: TBC
Running time: TBC
Director: Ravinder Ravi
Starring: Mannat Singh, Daksh Ajit Singh, Gavie Chahal, Kanwaljit Singh, Deep Dhillon
Genre: Bollywood/Comedy/Drama/Romance
Studio: Eros
Format: Cinema
Country: India

NEWS: Cinema Release: Leap Year

Official Selection at the 2010 London Film Festival and Winner of the prestigious Camera D’Or prize for Best First Feature at the 2010 Cannes International Film Festival, Leap Year is the shocking debut feature film of Australian director Michael Rowe, a character study on loneliness, featuring an extraordinary leading performance by Monica Del Carmen (Babel), supported by Gustavo Sánchez Parra (Man On Fire).

This highly charged sexual thriller, set within the small confines of a Mexican apartment, follows 29 days in the dispirited life of freelance Journalist Laura Lopez, as she moves from one anonymous sexual encounter to another.

Soon, Laura meets a man by the name of Arturo, and it is not long before she is submitting to demeaning sexual acts as part of their relationship - a tragic psychological reaction to a secret trauma from her past, which occurred on the previous leap year. When Laura marks a red square around an upcoming date on her calendar wall, the wheels are set in motion for what will turn out to be a startling conclusion.

Film: Leap Year
Release date: 26th November 2010
Certificate: TBC
Running time: 92 mins
Director: Michael Rowe
Starring: Monica del Carmen, Gustavo Sánchez Parra, Armando Hernández, Diego Chas, Marco Zapata
Genre: Drama
Studio: Axiom
Format: Cinema
Country: Mexico

NEWS: Cinema Release: Break Ke Baad

Abhay (Imran Khan) and Aaliya (Deepika Padukone) have known each other since they were 4 years old. Their friendship turned into love at the tender age of 15, when Abhay realises Aaliya is the girl for him.

Aaliya’s life is defined by her burning desire to become an actress, and she is unmindful of what or who comes in her way. Abhay, who is still unsure about what he wants to do, finds himself competing with Aaliya’s incessant plans and projects to fulfil her dreams. While their relationship blooms because of their personality differences, the baggage because of these differences also grows silently.

Things come to a head when Aaliya decides to go to Australia to study, and Abhay has to deal with the prospect of a long distance relationship, secretly fearing that he will lose Aaliya forever. He takes a leap of faith, and they decide to take this time off from each other to figure out what they want to do. The choices Abhay and Aaliya make from here on tests their relationship.

Aaliya risks everything and everyone she loves only to realise that there is no joy in achieving one’s dreams if one has no one to share it with. Abhay risks losing every shred of his ego, dignity and self-respect only to realize that there is no bigger high than seeing your dream come to life, brick by brick. They make mistakes, deal with disappointments, even lose each other – and become stronger individually.

Break Ke Baad is not just a coming of age film, but a film about couples growing up - together. In a fickle world where relationships break up on the smallest of differences, Abhay and Aaliya manage to save theirs despite geographical ones.

Film: Break Ke Baad
Release date: 26th November 2010
Certificate: TBC
Running time: TBC
Director: Danish Aslam
Starring: Imran Khan, Deepika Padukone, Sharmila Tagore, Lillete Dubey, Shahana Goswami
Genre: Bollywood/Comedy/Drama/Romance
Studio: Reliance Big
Format: Cinema
Country: India

NEWS: Cinema Release: An Ordinary Execution

Based on his own hugely successful novel of the same name, Marc Dugain’s debut feature, An Ordinary Execution, is an encounter between the aging Joseph Stalin (Andre Dussolier) and a young doctor, Anna.

Anna (Marina Hands), who has extraordinary healing powers, is brought in to treat the escalating physical woes of the dictator’s old age, after his own doctor has been “purged.” Seen entirely through Anna’s eyes, he lays bare his philosophy of terror - rambling, plotting, and intimidating.

Ingeniously shot to reflect the grimness of oppression, and filled with tension and mystery,
An Ordinary Execution is a compelling examination of the police state, and a piercing insight into the mind of the last days of a dictator.

Film: An Ordinary Execution
Release date: 26th November 2010
Certificate: 12A
Running time: 105 mins
Director: Marc Dugain
Starring: André Dussollier, Marina Hands, Edouard Baer, Denis Podalydès, Tom Novembre
Genre: Drama
Studio: Arrow
Format: Cinema
Country: France

TRAILER: Cinema Release: Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives

Film: Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives

NEWS: Cinema Release: Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives

Suffering from acute kidney failure, Uncle Boonmee has chosen to spend his final days surrounded by his loved ones in the countryside. Surprisingly, the ghost of his deceased wife appears to care for him, and his long lost son returns home in a non‐human form.

Contemplating the reasons for his illness, Boonmee treks through the jungle with his family to a mysterious hilltop cave – the birthplace of his first life.

Film: Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
Release date: 19th November 2010
Certificate: 12A
Running time: 113 mins
Director: Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Starring: Thanapat Saisaymar, Jenjira Pongpas, Sakda Kaewbuadee, Natthakarn Aphaiwonk, Geerasak Kulhong
Genre: Comedy/Drama/Fantasy
Studio: New Wave
Format: Cinema
Country: Thailand/UK/France/Germany/Spain

TRAILER: Cinema Release: Dream Home

Film: Dream Home

TRAILER: Cinema Release: Chico & Rita

Film: Chico & Rita

TRAILER: Cinema Release: Adrift

Film: Adrift

REVIEW: Cinema Release: Dream Home

Film: Dream Home
Release date: 19th November 2010
Certificate: 18
Running time: 96 mins
Director: Pang Ho-cheung
Starring: Josie Ho, Anthony Wong Chau-sang, Michelle Ye, Eason Chan, Norman Chu
Genre: Horror
Studio: Network
Format: Cinema
Country: Hong Kong

Morbid new offering from director Pang Ho-Cheung has actress Josie Ho stopping at nothing to get her foot onto the (literally) deadly Hong Kong property market.

Set in the early days of the global financial crisis, actress and musician Josie Ho plays Sheung, a long suffering young woman forced to work two menial jobs in order to support her family. Her current living situation is reminiscent of many young Asian adults, forced to share her childhood home (a cramped and dilapidated flat in a high-rise tower) with her aging parents and brother.

The only real pleasure Sheung seems to get out of life is fantasising about moving into a prestigious block of flats overlooking the plush Victoria Harbour, a dream she has had since childhood. However, along the way a series of unrelenting estate agents, surly mortgage lenders, and heartless insurance salesmen all threaten to derail her dream.

Eventually, when she finally manages to scrape together the money for a deposit, her offer is rejected, causing her to go on a murderous rampage inside the building…


The film is not alone in its cynical and negative depiction of the property market. Earlier in 2009, Dwelling Narrowness (also known as Snail House), a highly popular television drama set in a fictional city similar to Shanghai, was banned in mainland China for tackling issues such as corruption, poverty and the real estate bubble. Although Dream Home focuses on the Hong Kong property market, themes such as regeneration, urbanisation and gentrification are universally relevant to most city-dwellers. Whilst it does not directly address the causes of such issues, the film highlights the commodity fetishism attached to the property market, and questions the idealised image of the ‘perfect’ home.

In many senses, this is not a conventional horror film. The killer is not a supernatural monster or a depraved maniac, but a relatable young woman. Her murders are carefully planned out, born out of a twisted desire to help her family, and her victims are always morally bankrupt individuals, undeserving of their wealth. However, one area where the film fails is the explanation for how normal, relatable desires can motivate an individual to commit, abnormal, psychotic acts of murder. Even though it delves into her background to some extent, the connections are tenuous, and not explored deeply enough, making the film simply unbelievable and a little silly at times. The ending of the film is also more than predictable, and provides a somewhat obtuse and crude moral to be gleaned from all the violence.

Nevertheless, any fans of horror will undoubtedly revel in the spectacularly gruesome death scenes the film has to offer. But this is not a typical Hollywood slasher film by any means. From the opening scene in which our protagonist disposes of a security guard using only a plastic tie and a Stanley knife, the violence is always brutal and shocking. Perhaps to show Sheung’s inexperience when it comes to killing, the murders are unbearably drawn-out, accompanied by agonising long shots of the disembodied victims writhing around on the floor.

Moreover, the tools she uses are household objects, making the deaths even more gruesome and slow due to their ineffectiveness as murder weapons. Whereas conventional Hollywood films would have already cut to the next scene or victim, the camera in Dream Home lingers on the struggling body of the victim, with only the sound of their last gasps of air punctuating the silence. The sadistic voyeurism of the cinematic gaze is undoubtedly present here.

Towards the end of the film, the violence becomes almost comical, with one victim disembowelled and another castrated. It does beg the question, would the film have worked better if had just been a gritty, well-acted drama about Sheung’s life instead. There isn’t anything that intrinsically links the property market to the horror genre, so, at times, the violence feels slightly forced, shoehorned in just to make the subject matter more interesting. Or that perhaps, to some degree, the violence detracts from whatever social commentary the film is trying to make, making it appear cheap and tacky. Whatever the answer, the concept of a ‘real estate slasher’ is peculiar, and Dream Home doesn’t quite manage to get the right balance of tongue-in-cheek satire, realism and horror in one mix.


An unconventional slasher film that isn’t sure whether it wants to offer serious social commentary on modern living and consumerism, or play it for laughs, yet it still manages to entertain with its enjoyable, gory violence. KW

REVIEW: Cinema Release: The Silent Army

Film: The Silent Army
Release date: 19th November 2010
Certificate: 15
Running time: 93 mins
Director: Jean Van de Velde
Starring: Marco Borsato, Abby Mukiibi Nkaaga, Andrew Kintu, Thekla Reuten, Jacqueline Blom
Genre: Action/Drama
Studio: High Fliers
Format: Cinema
Country: Netherlands

In the heart of the African jungle, an ever-growing army of child-soldiers are on the rampage. As the trail of slaughter grows, it’s up to our hero to rescue the brain-washed children and put an end to the bloodshed.

We begin by following Abu, a child who is dragged from his home by The Holy Army and quickly indoctrinated to a life of militaristic murder. The leader of the army insists that the children call him Daddy, and isn’t above forcing his disciples to kill their own parents or provide him with sexual pleasure. Soon Abu is helping to plant land-mines, massacre other villages, and kill his friends.

In the meantime, Eduard Zuiderwijk, a white cook, is trying to recover from the death of his wife. When his son begins investigating the loss of his missing friend, Abu, the two begin a journey to find him. This takes them to a refugee camp where Eduard finally decides to go and find the rebel army himself and bargain for Abu’s release.

Deep in the mountains, the rebel-leader has arranged to pick up more ammunition, and soon the scene is set for a gun-blazing, action-packed finale which will test the children’s loyalty to their new ‘Daddy’…


The first thing that strikes you about The Silent Army is its pacing. The first half-hour is like watching a film in fast-forward. The average shot is less than ten seconds long, which makes it difficult to be bored, but even harder to care. Eduard’s wife is killed in a car-crash six minutes into the film, by the half hour mark Abu’s entire family are dead, Eduard has travelled half way across Africa and the audience are left struggling to keep up. It could be argued that the film is placing us in the children’s mind-frame. The situation these children are put in is illogical, frenzied and horrid. But cinematically this pacing is un-engaging. We cannot be expected to mourn the passing of a character who we have barely been introduced to. Characters need to earn our sympathy, our respect. In the absence of any real characterisation, or dramatic tension, all we are left with is a series of war-crime re-enactments, filmed with all the frantic editing and cold precision of a music video.

When the film finally does begin to slow-down, it simply falls apart. Ignoring the glaring plot-holes, self-important lecturing characters are given no emotional justification for their actions. It is never explained, why Eduard decides to take on an army of dangerous gun-touting rebels, or, for that matter what it is that the rebels are hoping to achieve. The leader, Michael Obeke, seems aimless and pantomimic. The female aids-worker we meet at the midway point serves no real dramatic purpose - by the end it never becomes clear what the film is actually trying to achieve.

The finale finds our hero take on the guise of the ‘Hollywood vigilante’, using weaponry to blow his enemies to pieces, and ends with a credit sequence urging us to do our bit to help the plight of real child-soldiers. Yet the film makes every effort to tell us that charity, good-will and ‘white moral-superiority’ are not the answers. The only thing that seems to work is a semi-automatic and a crate of grenades.

What we are left with is a sense of bewilderment. The only thing that achieves any semblance of emotional response is the violence against children. What The Silent Army doesn’t realise is that the reason why films like City Of God are so effective is because we are allowed time to get to know the victims of such violence. Here violence is a means to an end. We have no sense of what has been lost. We are left with a sub-standard action movie in which the answers to all of life’s problems are found at the end of a white-man’s gun.


An exploitative action movie that uses the pain of others to hide its own vacuous nature. AC

SPECIAL FEATURE: Cinema Release: Broken Sun

This is an English-language release.

Brad Haynes directs this Australian World War Two drama based on real events.

In 1944, a group of Japanese soldiers held in a P.O.W. camp deep in the Australian outback make an escape attempt. One young soldier, Masaru (Shingo Usami), ends up hiding in the remote hilltop farm of reclusive farmer Jack (Jai Koutrae), a World War One veteran who never recovered from the traumas he experienced as a soldier.

Despite their differences and mutual suspicions, it soon becomes evident that the two men share the understanding that war is not simply a question of good versus evil but a complex set of rules by which each of them is duty-bound to abide.

Film: Broken Sun
Release date: 19th November 2010
Certificate: 15
Running time: 92 mins
Director: Brad Haynes
Starring: Shingo Usami, Sam O'Dell, Kentaro Hara, Kuni Hashimoto, Mark Redpath
Genre: Drama/War
Studio: Metrodome
Format: Cinema
Country: Australia

NEWS: Cinema Release: Guzaarish

Bollywood romantic drama following one man's mission to earn the right to die.

Renowned magician Ethan Mascarenhas (Hrithik Roshan) is left paralysed after the outcome of one of his tricks proves disastrous.

Despite being confined to his wheelchair and reliant upon his nurse, Sofia D'Souza (Aishwarya Rai), who he is also romantically involved with, Ethan always manages to see the positive side of life. However, 14 years after the accident, he decides he is ready to die, and campaigns to the court for his right to euthanasia.

This leaves a divide among his family and friends, some offering their support, others unable to understand his actions. But will the court rule in his favour?

Film: Guzaarish
Release date: 19th November 2010
Certificate: TBC
Running time: TBC
Director: Sanjay Leela Bhansali
Starring: Aishwarya Rai, Hrithik Roshan, Aditya Roy Kapoor, Nafisa Ali, Shernaz Patel
Genre: Bollywood/Drama/Romance

Studio: UTV

Format: Cinema

Country: India

 

NEWS: Cinema Release: The Silent Army

Life as a restaurant owner in an eastern African country is not easy for the 40-year-old, African born and bred Eduard Zuiderwijk after the sudden death of his wife. He now stands for the task of raising his 9-year-old son Thomas all by himself.

The young Thomas seeks and gains support from his friend Abu, son of Mafillu, one of the female black staff members in the restaurant.

One day Abu disappears suddenly together with at least ten other children, after a nightly and violent raid of his village by the rebel army.

Young Thomas cannot be consoled. He wants Abu back, and Eduard, who feels he is failing as a father, decides to try to find Abu.

While Eduard proceeds to an IDP camp in the middle of the conflict-infested area to gather information about the possible whereabouts of Abu and the other abducted children, Abu himself is undergoing harsh child soldier training in the rebel army of Michel Obeke, formerly Minister of Defence.

Eduard persists in his plight towards finding and saving his son’s friend, and after a dangerous search through the jungle, he manages to reach Michel Obeke’s camp.

Film: The Silent Army
Release date: 19th November 2010
Certificate: 15
Running time: 93 mins
Director: Jean Van de Velde
Starring: Marco Borsato, Abby Mukiibi Nkaaga, Andrew Kintu, Thekla Reuten, Jacqueline Blom
Genre: Action/Drama
Studio: High Fliers
Format: Cinema
Country: Netherlands

NEWS: Cinema Release: Dream Home

A satirical film about the ‘cut-throat’ property market in Hong Kong.

Josie Ho stars as thirty-something Cheng Lai-sheung, the daughter of a dying builder. She sells home loans by phone in the day and works at a sales assistant in a fashion store in the evenings in the hope of one day being able to buy her dream home in Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour. But when she finally has enough money for the deposit, the owners decide to raise the price. This sends her over the edge, and she embarks on a serial-killing rampage using only household and construction items to slay her prey.

Told through an intricate series of flashbacks, Dream Home will appeal to gore lovers and art house move-goers alike, with many elaborate killings. A chilling satire on the housing and economic crisis affecting Asians, the subject matter will also resonate with people slaving away in the hope of getting on the property ladder in the UK.

They wouldn’t slash the price, so she slashed them up!

Film: Dream Home
Release date: 19th November 2010
Certificate: 18
Running time: 96 mins
Director: Pang Ho-cheung
Starring: Josie Ho, Anthony Wong Chau-sang, Michelle Ye, Eason Chan, Norman Chu
Genre: Horror
Studio: Network
Format: Cinema
Country: Hong Kong

NEWS: Cinema Release: Chico & Rita

Cuba, 1948. Chico is a young piano player with big dreams. Rita is a beautiful singer with an extraordinary voice. Music and romantic desire unites them, but their journey – in the tradition of the Latin ballad, the bolero – brings heartache and torment.

From Havana to New York, Paris, Hollywood and Las Vegas, two passionate individuals battle impossible odds to unite in music and love.

Film: Chico & Rita
Release date: 19th November 2010
Certificate: 15
Running time: 94 mins
Director: Fernando Trueba, Javier Mariscal, Tono Errando
Starring: Limara Meneses, Emar Xor Oña, Mario Guerra, Estrella Morente
Genre: Animation
Studio: CinemaNX
Format: Cinema
Country: Spain/UK