Tom Robbins: A Writer in the Rain

José Emilio Pacheco: me llamo Nadie

The remarkable 83-year-old Helga Schubert lives in the remote landscape between Schwerin and Wismar. Her days are filled with the loving care of her sick 95-year-old husband, Johannes Helm, once a professor of psychology and passionate painter. But amidst this rural tranquility, Helga is anything but idle. Every day she dedicates herself to her passion, writing.

A huge bestseller in its day, the novel Uncle Tom's Cabin championed the abolitionist cause while perpetuating racist prejudices about African Americans. A remarkable analysis of a work steeped in ambivalence, which left a lasting impression on readers.

A Short film by Christophe Bisson

Les chiens-loups

102 Years in the Heart of Europe: A Portrait of Ernst Jünger (Swedish: 102 år i hjärtat av Europa) is a Swedish documentary film from 1998 directed by Jesper Wachtmeister. It consists of an interview by the journalist Björn Cederberg with the German writer, philosopher and war veteran Ernst Jünger (1895-1998). Jünger talks about his life, his authorship, his interests and ideas. The actor Mikael Persbrandt reads passages from some of Jünger's works, such as Storm of Steel, The Worker, On the Marble Cliffs and The Glass Bees.

In the late ‘70s, in the midst of the military dictatorship, a surrealist literary work- shop is the oasis of Martín, a tormented young man who seeks to improve his poetry. Caron, a brilliant and eccentric writer, adopts him as a son. Their bond is recorded in short home movies and an unusual correspondence.

Between 1967 and 1976, Italian writer Goliarda Sapienza (1924-76) wrote The Art of Joy, a subversive novel about the dazzling social ascent of a rebellious heroine; too scandalous to be published at that contradictory time.

Donoso por Donoso

An analysis of The Kindly Ones, Jonathan Littell's controversial novel, published in 2006, which dissects the ruthless mechanisms of the Shoah from the detached point of view of Maximilian Aue, a high-ranking Nazi officer.

Passers-by, those who knew him in his youth, René Barjavel, witness of his beginnings, his wife, his doctor, writers ... By questioning them Michel Polac tries to better understand the troubled personality of Louis-Ferdinand Céline, Notorious anti-Semite and genius writer.

When the Nuxalk trace their vanished ooligan alongside a land claim filed the day smallpox arrived, their radio station becomes courtroom, confessional and conjuring ground, where an older law insists: the fish and the people return together or not at all.

From the series "The Modern World: Ten Great Writers", this playful documentary introduces James Joyce's most famous work "Ulysses". It includes fantastic adaptations to film from passages of the novel. It also includes excerpts from a book written by Joyce's friend, the artist Frank Budgen, entitled "James Joyce and the making of Ulysses". Amongst those interviewed is author Anthony Burgess.

BBC documentary about Franz Kafka played by GREEK TV in 1990. This documentary is one of the ten films of “The Modern World: Ten Great Writers (1988)”.

A meeting between the daughter and the grandmother of the director, Iván Mora Manzano, at a time when the memories of one, the girl’s, were taking shape, and the other’s the grandmother’s, were vanishing. This starting point is used as a pretext to talk about other topics such as the importance of family memories and the search for memory.

About the poet C.A.Conrad, an eccentric Elvis worshiping poet and tarot card reader, who confronts his violent past and the suspicious death of his boyfriend, Earth. The film attempts to unravel the mystery of Earth's death, while Conrad wrestles with his inner demons through a series of unconventional rituals and a tour of the deep South.

San Francisco's North Beach in the 50's - A mix of jazz, poetry and art - The Beach recreates the atmosphere that prevailed through first-hand accounts from the actual "players" along with photographs and artwork from that vibrant time.

Paris, France, February 2, 1922. The novel Ulysses, by Irish writer James Joyce (1882-1941), is published by US poet Sylvia Beach (1887-1962), owner of the small bookstore Shakespeare & Co. The book, whose writing consumed seven years of Joyce's life, years in which his family was in financial need, would have a profound and unprecedented impact on 20th century literature and culture.

Revealing the flaws of Japanese society, the 1995 sarin gas attack in the Tokyo subway prompted Murakami to return to his homeland, whose conformism he rejected, to examine it closely. This led to the creation of two works: Underground and 1Q84.

THE PERFUMED GARDEN is an exploration of the myths and realities of sensuality and sexuality in Arab society, a world of taboos and of erotic literature. Through interviews with men and women of all ages, classes, and sexual orientation, the film lifts a corner of the veil that usually shrouds discussion of this subject in the Arab world. Made by an Algerian-French woman director, the film begins by looking at the record of a more permissive history, and ends with the experiences of contemporary lovers from mixed backgrounds. It examines the personal issues raised by the desire for pleasure, amidst societal pressures for chastity and virginity. The film discusses pre-marital sex, courtship and marriage, familial pressures, private vs. public spaces, social taboos (and the desire to break them), and issues of language.