Turtles Can Fly (Lakposhtha parvaz mikonand)

Some Kurdish orphan teens and children struggle to survive amid the war in a refugee camp at the Iraqi border with Turkey, days before the fall of Saddam Hussein and the U.S. invasion.

Goodbye Lenin!

It's true: real socialism was a failure. But an economic and thinking system that divided and made the entire planet discuss for two centuries deserves better than a lame burial. "Good bye Lenin" is somehow, to put it simply, a respectful funeral that socialism deserved.

Like every well-made film, "Good Bye Lenin" has many successes. Alex Kerner, the protagonist, tells us the story of East Germany and its decline while he tells us the story of his life and his family.

The New World

"The New World" is based on the English landing on the shores of North America in 1607. The film tells the story of the formation of the Jamestown settlement and the encounter between the English and the natives who inhabited the lands of Virginia, then Tenakomakah territory.

This event holds a special place in the American imagination from the legend of the romance between John Smith, one of the captains of the English expedition, and the Indian princess Pocahontas.

Downfall (Der Untergang)

The Adolf Hitler in "Downfall" (Der Untergang) is primarily a symbolic figure. As a human being, we actually see very little of him, just a small decadent external layer. What we appreciate is a sick man, listless and overwhelmed by bad news from the war and by the failures of those in his inner circle.

Director Oliver Hirschbiegel was not able to go through the skin of the character. We never get a look of what is in his mind; there is never a moment of introspection that brings us closer to his motives; Hitler rarely has a moment of peace.

Waltz with Bashir (Vals Im Bashir)

Ari looks at his picture taken twenty years ago in Beirut. Thin, wearing his uniform, with a crossed Galil, no beard, no white hairs, young. The city in the background, destroyed by the bombing. I do not recognize this, he admits. There's something wrong there. I can’t remember.

Defiance

WWII. Bielorussia is the battlefield between the German lines and the Russian ones. Jews are hunted and persecuted as in the rest of Europe. There is never going to be enough talking and reminding of the shame of those years, but we have to admit that a lot of the movies dealing with this issue are quite similar.

The Iron Lady

I finally got the chance to watch The Iron Lady...just finished actually so this is my fresh impression: average. It is not necessarily a bad thing: the industry needs average movies, people need average movies to watch every once and a while and so on. It may be a bad thing if we consider that probably expectations for this one were higher.

Casablanca

1942-2012: 70 years are more than enough for something to become a legend, especially if that something is Casablanca. It is without a doubt one of those few movies where you can legitimately make a face if someone tells you they have not seen it. Everyone saw it, everyone knows it, everybody likes it. I am no exception.

Battleship Potemkin (Bronenosets Potyomkin)

"Battleship Potemkin" is a movie partially based on real events that occurred in the port of Odessa (Russia) during the week following to June 26, 1905.

The sailors of the "Battleship Potemkin" have had enough of abuse and, when they try to force them to eat rotting meat, they decide to revolt. Full of expressive images, almost like a photo album, "Battleship Potemkin" represents the magnification of the figure of the masses and of the collective cause.

Schindler's List

It was 1971 when there was a big change in the life of Steven Spielberg. Due to the movie "Duel", filmed for television, Spielberg showed the ease with which he could maintain the viewer's attention and made ​​himself known as a leading man when it comes to science fiction themes. Four years later he released "Jaws", movie that opened him the doors of Hollywood, placing him away from the rest of the average directors and showing some vestiges of what would become his future works. The ease in which he handled the adventure genre led him to produce works that turned into  blockbusters, such as "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," "ET" and the trilogy  of "Indiana Jones".

The Debt

 John Madden, director of the multi award-winning movie "Shakespeare in Love," presents us this time with "The Debt", a film with the premise of being a solid thriller with historical references and a good squad of actors, which has translated into good box office results.