Film Reviews

Set during the Bosnian war in the early 1990s, Luka is a mild-mannered railway clerk whose life is turned upside down, not just by the outbreak of the war, but when his wife runs off with a local musician. Then Luka's son is conscripted and eventually captured in the fighting. To recover his son, Luka is commanded to guard a pretty young Muslim nurse who will be used in a hostage swapping operation.

Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story is a movie based on the life story of world-renowned neurosurgeon Ben Carson from 1961 to 1987.

A college professor, left alone by his wife for the weekend, discovers his new TV set is not only alive, but determined to take control of his entire life.

A worldwide epidemic encourages a bio-tech company to launch an organ-financing program similar in nature to a standard car loan. The repossession clause is a killer, however.

While on assignment covering a volcanic eruption journalist Russell Woods' life is shattered when his wife is killed in the ensuing carnage. Grieving he travels to the small village in Italy where she was born. There he is followed by a curious young girl Angela whom the townspeople believe is cursed by the devil. Despite their warnings he feels a strange connection to her and believes her odd behaviour is somehow linked to the death of his wife. But when things turn otherworldly Russell realises that bigger events are unfolding. Something supernatural has come to this small village and Angela is the key.

After Malu grows suspicious of her boyfriend Samuel she hires a private investigator, only to discover she is not the only one in his life.

With unprecedented access, this documentary looks into the hidden world of one of Russia's most impenetrable and remote institutions - a maximum security prison exclusively for murderers. Deep inside the land of the gulags, this is the end of the line for some of Russia's most dangerous criminals - 260 men who have collectively killed nearly 800 people. The film delves deep into the mind and soul of some of these prisoners. In brutally frank and uncensored interviews the inmates speak of their crimes, life and death, redemption and remorselessness, insanity and hope. The film tracks them though their unrelenting days over several months, lifting the veil on one of Russia's most secretive subcultures to reveal what happens when a man is locked up in a tiny cell for 23 hours every day, for life. A startling insight into inscrutable minds and the forbidding world they have been condemned to. (Storyville)

Very Young Girls, whose title reflects the fact that in the United States the average age of entry into prostitution is just thirteen. The film takes us into the work of a former sexually exploited youth-turned-activist named Rachel Lloyd, who started the New York City organization GEMS (Girls Educational and Mentoring Services) to help victimized young women escape their pimps and find another way of life.

Reformed parolee Steve Lacey is caught in the middle when a wounded former cellmate seeks him out for shelter. The other two former cellmates then attempt to force him into doing a bank job.

Chronicles the rise and fall of legendary blues singer Billie Holiday. Her late childhood, stint as a prostitute, early tours, marriages and drug addiction are featured.

Two families bond when their teenage sons are killed in an explosion at a suburban mall only to discover one of their children is the prime suspect.

This solo, one-hour, stand-up show is the culmination of a dream made public on The Ellen Degeneres Show after Jones was diagnosed with cancer.

A ballet rendition of Bram Stoker's gothic novel DRACULA, presented in a style reminiscent of the silent expressionistic cinema of the early 20th Century. This work employs the subtle and sometimes bold use of color to emphasize its themes, but mainly is presented in black-and-white, or tinted in monochrome. No spoken dialogue can be heard, and the story of a sinister but intriguing immigrant who preys upon young English women unfolds through dance, pantomime and subtitles.

In a span of ninety minutes the film aims to show how the Netherlands administered its colony as a colonial enterprise and what the relations were like at the time. The usual commentary has been omitted and in its place poems and songs in Bahasa Indonesia have been included in a digital sound composition. In Mother Dao the Turtlelike, the viewer sees how the colonial machinery in the 1920s was implanted in a world so different from Western Europe.

A ticking-clock thriller following Winston Churchill in the 24 hours before D-Day.