Directed by Yoko Yamanaka • Drama • With Yuumi Kawaii, Daichi Kaneko • 2024 • 137 minutes
21-year-old Kana (rising star Yuumi Kawai) works a disaffected job at a beauty salon, where she bristles against the beauty expectations placed on women her age. Her erratic mood and default to self-destruct impacts all of her relationships, as moments of levity erupt into violence and optimism simmers to despair. Bored with her slavish boyfriend, she finds another; the novel excitement of it all soon devolving into a volatile predicament. Uncommitted and trapped in her own life, Kana slowly makes her way towards the inner desert of her emotions.
Alternating between claustrophobic blocking, ample zooms and expressive whip-pans brought together by dryly comedic editing and an intense actor’s direction, the sophomore effort from director Yoko Yamanaka (the youngest filmmaker to have a film selected at the Berlin International Film Festival with her 2017 debut Amiko) provides a frank and dynamic examination of womanhood and mental health in contemporary Japan. Inspired by the female protagonists of Yasuzo Masumura as much as the intense Cassavetes/Rowlands collaboration, Yamanaka breaks out with a work of stark confrontational honesty.
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Manas
Directed by Marianna Brennand • Drama • With Jamilli Correa • 2024 • 107 minutes
Island of Marajó, Amazon rainforest. Marcielle (Tielle), 13, lives by the riverbanks with her father, mother, and three siblings. Prompted by her mother's words, she idolizes her older sister who supposedly escaped ...
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The Maiden
Directed by Graham Foy • Drama • With Jackson Sluiter, Marcel T. Jiménez • 2022 • 117 minutes
A perfect summer day ends in tragedy, weaving a cosmic connection between three suburban teenagers. Best friends Colton and Kyle float the river, trade dreams, and spray-paint in the local ravine. Like ...
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M20 Matamoros
Directed by Leonor Maldonado • Documentary • 2023 • 87 minutes
M20 Matamoros captures incredible choreography, dancing from the Matachines, and a remarkable street dance performed by a group of young people from Matamoros, Mexico. This documentary also collects the testimonies of a youth that mo...
