CIFA (the Chinese Independent Film Archive) has recently helped restore The Crack, a low-budget independent film made on 35mm, which has been screened only four times to a small circle in China since its completion in 2000. This semi-autobiographical film, set during the Cultural Revolution, provides the missing link between the roots-seeking and scar literature and art of the 1980s and the performance art of the 1990s and 2000s. It grounds many of the embodied extremes of China’s famous performance art in the persistent psychosexual fetishes and neuroses produced by the extreme denial of individual desire under “mass line” socialism.
In a country whose people have just been successfully persuaded of their superiority and the justification for military expansion by the fiery speeches of a dictator, the bacillus of a highly destructive form of leprosy has spread.
Córdoba, Spain. Lord Killarney, representative of the British Museum, acquires an Arabic incunabulum at an auction; but he is murdered and the book disappears.
An injured amnesiac woman is discovered by a reclusive mountain man in the remote wilderness, igniting a quest for lucidity that would be better left undiscovered.
Based on the Ayyat train accident that killed 361 in 2002, this ensemble drama delves into the intense human stories of the passengers in a third-class coach car during the hour and a half before the crash.
Jean just quit her coveted job as an investment banker on Wall Street. After a soul-searching journey traveling around the world, she retreats to an empty vacation home owned by a friend's rich family.
The Baltic captain Terje Wiggen works as a pilot on the island of Muhu. When the mate of the ship “Carola” calls in sick, he jumps at the chance of reviving his life as a sailor.
"Complexity" is about a young woman stuck in a place of complete uncertainty. When she meets Scott, a man who will turn her world upside down and make her question her decisions, things turn from bad to worse.
A man signs up as a driver for a group of criminals on a dangerous job. On the way to the hit the man hears the lottery numbers and realises he's got the winning ticket on him.
A player in a famous orchestra finds sexual experiences with a Russian opera singer, which he enjoys much because his wife has just left due to the fact that he has purchased a porno movie.
Xander Cage is your standard adrenaline junkie with no fear and a lousy attitude. When the US Government "recruits" him to go on a mission, he's not exactly thrilled.
