To Flourish

Inspired by Picasso's Guernica (1937), this film is fundamentally about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

A troubled young man discovers a secret from his childhood when he returns home for a funeral.

Rosa, 15, lives in an oyster-farming family. As her gravely ill father nears death, the support of Adel, her childhood friend, forges a new bond between them. In this fragile in-between, Rosa moves forward and falters…

Bacio

Happy Anniversary

It's love at first sight for the Boy, but obstacles— namely shyness, and the temerity of other suitors— place themselves in the way of his love. Unknowingly, the Boy and the young woman of his fancy both stay at the home of mutual friends— But all is not well, as robbers lurk outside the house.

Awakening on the floor of a destroyed suburban bedroom, we discover a global invasion has begun and we are not alone in the house.

Ina, an introverted 11-year-old immigrant, finds herself captivated by Petra, a new classmate coming from the same country as her. Faced with the newcomer’s indifference towards her, Ina embarks on a desperate quest for connection in a world oscillating between dream and reality.

Lucille, an introverted eleven year old girl, live with her parents, who are caretakers of the swimming pool in which they stay. Because of the weirdness of this place, which looks like a flying saucer, an awful anguish comes out of Lucille's mind. The "unidentified frightening object" of her confusion would happen to be even more obsessing than all fears of childhood.

A soldier escapes from a World War II concentration camp. Once he gets out, he finds himself on an unknown planet in an unknown future controlled by a homicidal alien race.

On the eve of deportation, a refugee hacker fights for a chance at the American dream after he is betrayed by a politician using him to sway public opinion.

Unfamiliar Ties

When Tatiana's friends find her catatonic, they decide to gather the group of friends to try to help her. Between mystical and medical approaches, they realize that to wake Tatiana up they must call Arthur, her ex-boyfriend. When he arrives, he manages to snap her out of the trance, but not in the way they expected.

This delightful short is a world away from Tomomatsu's later works. It's a lovely story, told well. The reason that I tracked it down is because I'm quite a fan of Alice Sailor's music. She fronts new wave band Amaryllis and I was curious to see her acting. She has frequently supplied theme songs and other music to several of Tomomatsu's films. Indeed, the most disturbing sequence in this movie is accompanied by a psychotic Amaryllis track, 'Haha', and the closing piece is another Amaryllis song, 'Usagi'. This rip comes from the 'Eat The Schoolgirl' DVD, where it was one of the extras. Having just watched the main feature from that disc, I can say with some certainty that I found this tale far more enjoyable.

I always left that memory buried deep in my mind. Until one day she came back as a movie.

A teenage captain of a high school drill team pushes his squad toward perfection, but his desperate need to prove himself slowly turns discipline into cruelty.

A man trying to get home to his dog becomes stuck in a time loop that forces him to relive a deadly run-in with a cop.

Many years ago, in a nearly deserted town at the foot of a mountain, lives Agostino with his wife Nina and his son Giovanni. The mountain rises up like a wall blocking out the sun that never reaches their fields below, now reduced to just stones and underbrush. Agostino, even though everything suggests him to leave, decides that the destiny of his family is there, among the peaks. He is not only driven by stubbornness, but by the certainty that our roots cannot betray us and that with the help of our spirit we can bring the sun on every destiny.

A roadside movie about a teenage girl who feels trapped by her life in a remote petrol station in the Scottish Highlands.

Losing you until I lose myself, memories that were all left behind was the beauty of your eyes, me without you.