The Embargo Project

On an Algerian beach, kids splash about, sleep, squabble - and then suddenly go to war. And it’s neither Lord of the Flies nor La Guerre des boutons. In her first film, full of grace, Narimane Mari films this childish freefor- all closely, at the irregular pace of an imagination inspired by the highest form of reality, national History — actually, nothing less than the Algerian War of Independence. When their make-believe induces a general upheaval, we follow the flock of children as they stamp their feet up the stairs, invade houses, cross village squares, in a whirlwind of shouts and empty words. Time is stretched like in a dream, through a choreography of belligerent shadows or the night-time explosion of the cemetery, as so many warning signs of dangers to come.

An emotional goodbye between longtime best friends begins an unexpected love affair, putting two marriages and many friendships at stake.

A woman celebrates her 40th birthday by having her three best friends come and stay with her and her husband for a long weekend. This woman has been in a wheelchair for the past two years, and it has led her to isolate herself inside of her home. Her husband stands by her as he lives with the guilt of causing the car accident which put her in the wheelchair. Over the course of the three day celebration, it is revealed that everyone is struggling with their own lives and identities. When one best friend makes a terrible mistake and betrays the woman on her birthday, everyone is immediately and uncomfortably forced into looking at their own lives and their own limitations.

Penelope is forced to marry Jonathan but there is no attraction between the two. As a matter of fact, Jonathan is more interested in spending time with the butler than with his wife. Penelope finds a way of reuniting with the love of her life and manages to hire him as the gardener. Two secret affairs in one household soon lead to major scandalous situations.

When the groom's oldest friend, Cole, finds out his best friend, Jason, is getting married, he escapes from the institution he has been incarcerated in and makes a surprise visit to serve as the best man. Something does not seem right between bride, Gretchen, and groom. None of their friends seem to fully support the marriage and have secrets of their own. Unresolved about their relationship and endlessly obsessed with the groom, Cole stirs up everyone and everything, making it a weekend to remember.

The lives of six roleplaying gamer friends are thrown into upheaval when one of them enlists to go to Iraq. A geek movie without the self-loathing.

A reclusive teenage boy, suffering from identity crisis, discovers his father is not his real father and seeks out to meet his biological father for the first time.

When Realtor Sandra visits a foreclosed property with her client, the former owner Danny attacks them.

The pain, the weakness, the silence, the despair. These are some of the feelings faced by a couple lost in drugs. Nights can be seen as the story of people who made mistakes in life, but who still continue to seek happiness. It is about the despair of hopeless lives. The characters are, from the beginning, thrown into an empty and sterile world of indifference. In this true no-man's-land, João and Teresa are confronted with their precarious existence. They are broken pillars of a love that has become silent and painful, they share everything: the house, the drugs, the emptiness and the deprivations of their lives. To make the situation even more dramatic, Teresa falls ill. João does everything to help her, betting on his love for her. He, too, an addict, knows how to ease the pain of his beloved. But unfortunately this help also requires extra money, which forces João to prostitute himself, accelerating his process of destruction and his path to a tragic end.

A woman living in a remote rural area is driven to the brink of insanity by marriage and motherhood.

In this mother-daughter story, a young woman explores her own mortality through art and poetry as her terminal illness holds her back from a normal life.

In an insurrectionary climate, four twenty-year-old friends talk about politics. As a big protest looms, one of them, Clara, has to write a college essay. Caught in the virtual images and the comfort of her bedroom, going out is harder than expected.

A strong tale of racial integration, two different stories of young men who both are looking for a land to put their roots down.

Luks Glück is a tragicomedy about the dubious happiness of a Turkish family between Hamburg and Istanbul, whose life by a lottery win out of joint.

When Sarah has a chance to go to a first class university and to join its premiere athletic club, her suburban mother is fearful of the change and refuses to help financially. But Sarah's roommate knows that they will get a grant if they marry. Sarah agrees but only to discover that her true heart lies elsewhere. Sarah prefers to run.

Irene, nicknamed 'Miele', has devote herself to people looking for help, and tries to alleviate their suffering even when they make extreme decisions. One day she has to cope with Grimaldi and his invisible malaise.

A young unemployed man finds work at a nuclear power plant and begins an illicit affair with the fiancée of one of his senior workmates.

The Suzie in the title refers to The World Of Suzy Wong, a great novel by British author Richard Mason which was made into a terrible Hollywood movie in 1960. Like Suzy, Shu Mei goes to work in a bar in Wanchai around the late 1950s, where sailors and foreign money are plentiful. But there isn't much similarity beyond this.

The lead, arrested and processed after a police raid on a Canal St. clothing workshop. He has no status in HK, where he'd swam, or the US, where he arrived as a stowaway, to avoid metal detectors which would pick up the bullets still in his body.

In this fresh retelling of the famed Ancient Roman poet's life set in contemporary Detroit, the young Ovid finds his life in danger when he clashes with the emperor by writing a guide to love and seduction.