Offside is a humorous and socially aware film that exposes what many female football aficionados do in Iran in order to attend the sport events of which they are not permitted into. The film is directed by Jafar Panahi and it tells the story of a group of six women who are caught sneaking into the Tehran’s Azadi Stadium to see the football match that will either qualify or eliminate Iran from participating in the Germany 2006 World Cup. Although there are women who are well familiarized with the process of deceiving security and entering these sport events without being…

In “Volver” director and writer Pedro Almodóvar that makes us wonder what is real and what is fiction. “Volver” means return. But return to what? Does Someone returns? Do we return in time and remember something? Do We travel to a place and we come back? “Volver” shows the story of a mother and her daughter who is also a mother herself. These women and the other characters are caught in a web of circumstances that could only happen inside the intrigues of a small town’s real life. Set in a town outside of Madrid, “Volver” shows us a surreal…

Two kindred spirits in a reality where they can’t seem to fit in. Growing up becomes an everyday ordeal for both Jesse Aarons (Josh Hutcherson) and Leslie Burke (Anna Sophia Robb). Ten year old Jess must contend with his harsh and martinet father (Robert Patrick), the Riga moral of daily chores, and a chatterbox little sister- May Belle (plus two older ones). Leslie, who is the daughter of novelist parents, and can pretty much beat any boy in a running race- must find escapism to a realm of sheer imagination when parents are just too busy. Based on the best…

“Earth and water”, for submission to the Persian Empire, King Xerxes I demanded this. However, both the Athenians and the Spartans did not take to this seemingly humble request as they both tossed the Persian messengers into pits in defiance. As part of the Greco-Persian War (incidently begun by Xerxes’ father Darius), The Battle of Thermopylae took place in 480 B.C. where 300 valiant Spartans led by King Leonidas, along with 700 Thespians and other allies, stood strong to protect a mountain pass vital to Greece’s survival. With morale very high to defend their lands, the Spartans battled forces numbering…

Zodiac is written by James Vanderbilt and directed by David Fincher. This film is based on the true life story of a serial killer who terrorized a nation in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. The killer was never convicted and to this day it is still an open case. One man was strongly suspected but there was never enough evidence to convict him in a court of law. The killings took place in California and were highly publicized in newspapers and on television. The film starts out with the first two victims of the Zodiac parked in a car…

Danièle Thompson’s “Avenue Montaigne” is her third directorial outing (preceded by La Bûche and Jet Lag/Décolage horaire) and is a breath of fresh air in a market of CGI studded films and empty romantic sex comedies. It tells the tale of a charming young woman, Jessica, who leaves her small province to come to Paris to experience life’s adventures. She gets hired for a waiting job at the old-fashioned Café des Arts on the fabled Avenue Montaigne, which is Paris’ nexus for art, music, theater and fashion. There, she meets a variety of characters which include a depressed Classical Pianist…

Showered in a multitude of praise, acclaim, and a whole list of awards from The European Film Award to recently an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film, Director/Writer Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck delves into the past just prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Taking place in 1984 however, in “The Lives of Others”, East Germany’s “shield and sword”, the Secret Police/Stasi used surveillance mercilessly on the populace, leaving no stone unturned-ascertaining the most minute and personal information during a time where it was stated, “glasnost is nowhere in sight”. We open the film with…

It is almost impossible to ignore that the movie’s title exemplifies its plot in a profound and eloquent manner. Water, is a film that encapsulates the isolation and seclusion that many Indian widows were forced to undergo in the 1930’s. Chuyia (Sarala) is a young girl who at the age of eight becomes a widow and is consequently forced to live the rest of her life in a widow shelter. The director Deepa Mehta, uses Chuyia as an instigator who questions why she should live this way. At an age where nothing is remotely complicated, where the sky is either…

Rachid Bouchareb tells the dramatic tale in 1943 of North African soldiers who enlist in the French army to liberate France from the clutches of the Nazis during World War II. Battling French racism and bullets from a common enemy, these unsung heroes of the French resistance left home and family for many reasons. Crossing through Algeria to Italy, then France with emotions running high from the start of the film, we first focus on one soldier, Saïd Otmari who leaves poverty and his mother behind for the cause of freedom for France. Why give one’s blood to free a…

Richly spun with artistic splendor, writer-director Guillermo del Toro weaves a fairy tale around war-torn Spain in the 1940’s. Definitely a tale strictly for adults, the film reflects dark overtones, stunning cinematography and a purely Spanish language dialogue. We find ourselves in the midst of a Spanish Civil War and a protagonist, in the form of a young girl named, Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) in search of her true greatness. Proclaimed as the young princess who once left her underworld kingdom in search of the world of Humans, Ofelia is believed to be this young royal reincarnated. With her immortal father…