The exploitation of religion in a poor village is the subject of Bernal’s best-known, and at times, shocking work, as word spreads about a woman who claims to have visions of the Virgin Mary.
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Himala (1982)
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Category / Others
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Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat (2024)
One of 2024’s absolute gems, this rapturous, stunningly-edited Sundance award-winning documentary sets the GOATs of American jazz against the tumultuous political history of Congo’s struggle for independence during the decolonisation phase of the Cold War.
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Harmonica (1974)
Naderi’s early social realist work is raw and boisterous, as a boy is handed an innocuous musical instrument that becomes a tool of power and exploitation towards his gang of village friends.
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Memories of a Burning Body (2024)
A delicate and imaginative work as three female voices share the ‘composite’ body of an elderly woman who must confront her traumatic past to liberate herself for one last hurrah at an optimistic future.
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Omar (2013)
A Palestinian resistance fighter falls in love with a girl on the opposite side of the West Bank Wall in this romance drama that operates as a deft, noose-tightening thriller when he is captured by Israeli authorities and forced to become an informant.
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Boxer from Shantung, The (1972)
Works somewhat like a Sergio Leone spaghetti western, this satisfying martial arts action drama set in centuries-old Shanghai sets a poor ‘newbie’, a boxer with ‘fists of fury’, against a world of rampant corruption and injustice.
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No Other Land (2024)
A documentary project by both Palestinians and Israelis that provides the necessary context for the eradication of several Palestinian villages in the occupied West Bank by the IDF and armed settlers—it’s hard-hitting but a testament to courageous and responsible filmmaking in torrid circumstances.
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36 Chowringhee Lane (1981)
Aparna Sen’s first feature is a well-tuned Indian melodrama about the relationships that define and change us as a tender-hearted teacher lends her apartment to an ex-student and her boyfriend.
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Snow in Midsummer (2023)
Malaysia’s taboo but painful ‘513’ incident is tackled through Chong’s sophomore feature, an exceptional work that shrewdly uses a diptych narrative structure to delve deeper into unresolved trauma.
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Intimate Confessions of a Chinese Courtesan (1972)
This ‘exploitative’ curious oddity in the Shaw Brothers canon blends bloody vengeance wuxia action with taboo-breaking erotica as a powerful Madam operating a brothel lusts over a rebellious sex worker.
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