Upcoming reviews (during july/beginning of august):

1. Country Teacher

- A very new Czech film about a middle aged teacher who is going to the countryside to work in the local school, at the same time struggling with his own acceptance of his homosexuality and with his falling in love with a teenage boy. A very rare and good film!

2. Nachttocht

-A Dutch coming-of-age story about a boy who is falling in love with his sports/canoe-teacher, who in turn is falling in love with the boy´s mom. A very nicely done and rare triangle drama about love and friendship. Similar to ”Country teacher”, though with totally different twists and also much older (but equally good!).

3. Gutta boys

- A Norwegian TV-series about a group of boys in a coming-of-age drama.

4. Russian film (rare)

- A rare film (so rare I have forgotten the title but will of course update you with that information later), about a boy who is struggling to survive a hazardous boat trip.

5. My uncle Antoine

- Considered to be the best Canadian coming-of-age film, and is about the developing consciousness of a young boy as he learns to deal with both sexuality and death.

6. Malena

- An Italian coming-of-age-story about a young boy who encounters the beautiful Malena, the dream of all men. Said to be an intense and very interesting film.

7. City of Men

- A Brazilian TV-series about kids in the slum of Rio de Janeiro.

8. Captain Abu Raed

-A new film, not yet released in my country, about an older man finding a new task in life and becoming a sort of father figure to a group of boys/children. Seems interesting on the trailer, more info will come later.

And some bonus reviews…..

1. ”Close to Leo”

2. ”This boys life”

3. ”The wizard”

4. ”Saving Shiloh”

Greenhouse Effect

They were two lonely, lost teenagers. 18-year-old Rita (Elena Polyakova), a small-town girl alone in an unfamiliar busy city, and Nemoy (Aleksandr Yakin), a 14 year old boy, nicknamed ”Mute”, who makes his living on the streets and sleeps in a Greenhouse.

 

Upon Rita´s arrival at the Moscow train station her bagage is stolen. She has no papers, no money and she doesn´t know the address of her new friend. But it is Mute who comes to her rescue and cares for her.

Nominated for ”Grand Prix des Amériques” at the 2005 Montréal World Film Festival.

This exceptional film is the tale of a lonely young boy´s coming of age and the friendship that spawns from a chance encounter. 

Pixote

- What is there in life for a queen?

- Nothing, Lilica.

The story of Pixote could have been told about just any of the very many homeless children living in the streets in Brazil. Poverty and starvation are daily concerns which easily force these kids into drugs and violent crime. In this unique and rare film we’ll follow Pixote when he in the beginning of the film is taken to a youth detention center. Here the guards as well as other kids don’t hesitate in committing rape and murder. He soon gets to know the transvestite Lilica and his lover Dito, and together they manage to escape the center. But life is not much better outside, and there is a hard struggle just to survive.

The actors are all a group of amateurs, and this makes this film from 1981 especially interesting. The film’s star Fernando Ramos da Silva, who plays Pixote was actually shoot dead by police in 1987.

Ali Zaoua

Ali, Kwita, and Boubker are a group of street urchins living on the hard streets of Casablanca. Their everyday lives are filled with violence, begging and indifference. In order to survive, they create a bond of friendship and family between them. The bond is cut short when Ali is senselessly killed at the beginning of the film; his life taken by a single act of a rival gang. Ali’s friends decide not to report his death to the police, but rather to bury him ”like a prince”. Ali Zaoua captures the power of dreams and presence of hope in the harshest of circumstances.

 Film Movement

Street Kids

A poignant and uniquely-told tale of two Hawaiian boys whose life on the streets reveals the true mindset of the street kid.

This is a short film by Hawaiian filmmaker George Tahara.