Young Person's Guide to Cinema

With input from actor and writer Jan Hlobil, director and cinematographer Rene Smaal presents a film in the true surrealist tradition, in the sense that only 'found' elements were used, and that it defies interpretation based on ordinary cause-and-effect time sequence.

During World War I, a novelist declared dead is recruited by British intelligence and sent to Switzerland under a new identity to assassinate a German spy. Teamed with a fellow agent posing as his wife and an eccentric assassin known as “the General,” the trio close in on their target — until two of them grow ambivalent when their duty to the mission clashes with their consciences.

When a young writer is falsely accused of murdering a famous actress, he escapes custody and joins forces with the daughter of a police constable to prove his innocence.

Last Call is a fictional account of the final days of exuberant and notorious Welsh poet Dylan Thomas as he sets out on a final poetry tour of New York. Desperate for money and with a wife and three children dependent on him, Thomas accepts a job believing it is beneath him. He spends his time in the city drinking at the White Horse Tavern and becoming increasingly ill between poetry readings. Everything comes to a head when he goes on a bender so extreme he cannot perform the last lecture, makes a scene at the bar, and has his final drink while ruminating on life, death, and the concept of love.

Zuhra has nothing to do but to runaway after her family forced her to marry an old rich man. She goes to Alexandria where she works in a motel and there she meets people with different ideologies and thoughts about life.

Abbas, a resident of Cairo, is appointed by the government to hold the office of supervisor in a post office in a small village in Upper Egypt.

The true, harrowing story of a young Jewish girl who, with her family and their friends, is forced into hiding in an attic in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam.

Sherlock Holmes investigates a series of so-called "pajama suicides". He knows the female villain behind them is as cunning as Moriarty and as venomous as a spider.

In a chaotic 19th-century Paris teeming with aristocrats, thieves, psychics, and courtesans, theater mime Baptiste is in love with the mysterious actress Garance. But Garance, in turn, is loved by three other men: pretentious actor Frederick, conniving thief Lacenaire, and Count Edouard of Montray.

Deranged scientist, Gustav Niemann, escapes from prison and overtakes the director of a traveling chamber of horrors, soon reviving the infamous Count Dracula, the frozen Frankenstein Monster, and the Wolf Man.

In Depression-era West Virginia, a serial-killing preacher hunts two young children who know the whereabouts of a stash of money.

This is the only feature directed by the famed French painter and sculptor Martial Raysse. In keeping with the revolutionary spirit of the time, the movie has no plot to speak of and appears to have been largely made up on the spot. We follow the cat man into a bizarre fantasy universe presented in negative exposure that reverses color values (black is white and vice versa) and written words. The cat man steals a car and then picks up a young girl he promises to take to “Heaven.” Heaven turns out to be a country chateau inhabited by several more animal mask wearing weirdoes...

In the wake of the Cairo Fire, Essam feels guilty for betraying his friend Samir by messing around with his wife Madiha. Essam decides to take revenge on Madiha's father who pressured him to marry her to avoid a scandal.

For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. You have done a foolish thing, and from now on you will be at war.

A 1956 Belgian film, Low Light and Blue Smoke, showcases the music of American blues guitarist Big Bill Broonzy, capturing his performance at the Chapel of Les Brigittines in Brussels during his 1956 European tour.

Images complement what is always lacking in words. The poems complement what is always present in the city. Freely inspired by the poetry Cidade City Cité, by Augusto de Campos.

The story of journalist Edward R. Murrow's stand against Senator Joseph McCarthy's anti-communist witch-hunts in the early 1950s.

A vehicle of consciousness navigates the vertiginous labyrinths of San Francisco. ROMAN CHARIOT was filmed over several months with a spy camera mounted on filmmaker David Sherman's son's baby carriage.

As the Allied forces approach Paris in August 1944, German Colonel Von Waldheim is desperate to take all of France's greatest paintings to Germany. He manages to secure a train to transport the valuable art works even as the chaos of retreat descends upon them. The French resistance however wants to stop them from stealing their national treasures but have received orders from London that they are not to be destroyed. The station master, Labiche, is tasked with scheduling the train and making it all happen smoothly but he is also part of a dwindling group of resistance fighters tasked with preventing the theft. He and others stage an elaborate ruse to keep the train from ever leaving French territory.

A husband and wife detective team takes on the search for a missing inventor and almost get killed for their efforts.