Brick Lane

U.K. 2008
Directed by Sarah Gavron
101 minutes, rated PG-13

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Nazneen's (Tannishtha Chatterjee) life is turned upside down at the tender age of seventeen. Forced into an arranged marriage to an older man (Satish Kaushik), she exchanges her Bangladeshi village home for a block of flats in London's East End. Pining for her home and her sister, she struggles to make sense of her existenceÑand to do her duty to her husband. A man of inflated ideas (and stomach), he sorely tests her compliance. Told from birth that she must not fight her fate, Nazneen submits, devoting her life to raising her family and slapping down her demons of discontent. Until the day that Karim (Christopher Simpson), a hot-headed local man, bursts into her life. Against a background of escalating racial tension, they embark on an affair that finally forces Nazneen to take control of her life. A truly contemporary story of love, cultural difference, and ultimately, the strength of the human spirit. Based on the bestselling novel by Monica Ali.

Werner Herzog ("Grizzly Man," "Rescue Dawn") confirms his standing as poet laureate of men in extreme situations with "Encounters at the End of the World." In this visually stunning exploration, Herzog travels to the Antarctic community of McMurdo Station, headquarters of the National Science Foundation and home to eleven hundred people during the austral summer (Oct-Feb). Over the course of his journey, Herzog examines human nature and Mother nature, juxtaposing breathtaking locations with the profound, surreal, and sometimes absurd experiences of the marine biologists, physicists, plumbers, and truck drivers who choose to form a society as far away from society as one can get.

The successful novelist Judith Ralitzer is interrogated in the police station about the disappearance of her ghost-writer. A serial-killer escapes from a prison in Paris. A missing school teacher leaves his wife and children. In the road, the annoying and stressed hairdresser Hughette is left in a gas station by her fiancé Paul while driving to the poor farm of her family in the country. A mysterious man offers a ride to her and she invites him to assume the identity of Paul during 24 hours to not disappoint her mother. Who might be the unknown man and what is real and what is fiction?

A smash hit in its native Italy, director/co-writer Daniele Luchetti's intensely cinematic and incisive comedy-drama looks at the dreams and disillusionments of the 1960s and '70s. In a small Italian town, two brothers want to change the world—but in completely different ways. The elder, Manrico (Riccardo Scarmaccio), is a handsome, charismatic firebrand who becomes the prime mover in the local Communist party. Accio (Elio Germano), the younger and more rebellious brother, finds his own contrarian voice by joining the reactionary Fascists. What starts as a typical tale of sibling rivalry becomes the story of the polarizing and paralyzing politics of those turbulent times, and the rift between the brothers when Accio realizes that he loves his brother’s girlfriend, Francesca (Diane Fleri).

Jasira, a 13-year-old Arab-American girl, navigates the confusing and frightening path of adolescence and her own sexual awakening. When Jasira's mother sends her to Houston to live with her strict Lebanese father, she quickly learns that her new neighbors find her and her father a curiosity. Worse, her budding womanhood makes her traditional and hot-tempered father uncomfortable. Lonely in this new environment, Jasira seeks friendship and acceptance from her neighbors Mr. Vuoso, an Army reservist, and Melina, a meddling but caring expectant mother. Thrown into an unfamiliar suburban world, Jasira must confront racism and hypocrisy at home and at school - and at the same time struggle to make sense of her raging hormones and newfound sexuality. Her boyfriend, Thomas, though a few years older, provides some comfort - but even that relationship causes problems when her father discovers that Thomas is black. Surrounded by adults who are just as lost as she is, Jasira yearns for understanding, even amidst often brutal acts.

It's the summer of 1994, and the streets of New York are pulsing with hip-hop and wafting with the sweet aroma of marijuana-but change is in the air. The newly inaugurated mayor, Rudy Giuliani, is beginning to implement his anti-fun initiatives against "crimes" like noisy portable radios, graffiti and public drunkenness. Set against this backdrop, Luke Shapiro (Josh Peck) spends his last summer before college selling dope throughout New York City, trading it with his shrink (Ben Kingsley) for therapy, while crushing on his step-daughter (Olivia Thirlby). Famke Janssen, Mary Kate Olsen, and Method Man round out the cast in this edgy, bittersweet and funny coming-of-age story. Winner of the Audience Award at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival.