Directed by Yong-Kyun Bae • Drama • With Yvonne Williams, Homer Nish, Tom Reynolds
• 1989 • 137 minutes
The first ever feature-length film from South Korea to gain theatrical distribution in the USA, WHY HAS BODHI-DHARMA LEFT FOR THE EAST? has received acclaim from critics and audiences around the world for decades. A film of remarkable power and beauty, the story follows a trio of monks in a remote mountain monastery as they grapple with the mystery of enlightenment. The oldest among them, a storied Zen master, wishes to make the ceremony of his upcoming death into a lesson for his conflicted apprentice, while the youngest among them attempts to nurse a bird he hit with a stone back to full health. The title of the film is a Zen koan, or a paradox meant to aid meditation, that provokes the question of the distinction between leaving and arriving. Magnificent, quietly powerful and astonishingly rich in formal beauty, this film is not only a cinematic gem, but an evocative meditation on the cyclical nature of existence.
Directed by Sharipa Urazbayeva • Drama • With Meruert Sabbusinova • 2019 • 75 minutes
After her husband mysteriously disappears, all the hardships of survival in the cold winter period in the far away village in Kazakhstan have to be carried out by Mariam, the mother of four small kids. To save ...
Directed by Hirokazu Koreeda • Drama • With Makiko Esumi, Tadanobu Asano • 1995 • 110 minutes
One of the finest films of Japanese cinema, Hirokazu Kore-eda’s first feature film Maborosi is a story of love, loss, and ultimately, regeneration.
Haunted by the mysterious loss of her grandmother ma...
Directed by N.C. Heikin • Documentary • 2009 • 75 minutes
North Korea is one of the world’s most isolated nations. For sixty years, North Koreans have been governed by a totalitarian regime that controls all information entering and leaving the country. A cult of personality surrounds its two re...
