Demimonde

Valkyries

May 2024 •German

It is the year 2020 and the Corona pandemic has Germany firmly in its grip. Thus, the red-light business must also close its doors and the sex workers are driven onto the unsafe streets, where the situation is shamelessly exploited.

Memoirs of a Geisha

December 2005 •English

In the years before World War II, a penniless Japanese child is torn from her family to work as a maid in a geisha house.

Or (My Treasure)

September 2004 •Hebrew

Or shoulders a lot: she's 17 or 18, a student, works evenings at a restaurant, recycles cans and bottles for cash, and tries to keep her mother Ruthie from returning to streetwalking in Tel Aviv. Ruthie calls Or "my treasure," but Ruthie is a burden. She's just out of hospital, weak, and Or has found her a job as a house cleaner. The call of the quick money on the street is tough for Ruthie to ignore. Or's emotions roil further when the mother of the youth she's in love with comes to the flat to warn her off. With love fading and Ruthie perhaps beyond help, Or's choices narrow.

Irina Palm

February 2007 •English

Maggie, a quiet retiring grandmother, finds herself helpless as her grandson’s health deteriorates. When one last chance appears, but money is desperately short, Maggie acts to raise the cash in a fashion that surprises everyone but her.

Maria

November 2018 •Portuguese

Maria spends her daytime sewing and cleaning, while at night she works as a prostitute in Oporto's streets. Years ago her path crossed with José, a married man who became her most faithful client but who couldn't help her to escape the hard life. Today this old prostitute continues showing off her body through the long city's nights, though the clients are almost gone. José is still there, but he failed at what she desired the most: a son. In a very intimate and raw portray of a woman, MARIA disclosures how love and getting older can feels like.

The Shape of Night

November 1964 •Japanese

Yoshie Nogami, a factory worker by day, works as a bar hostess at night. She begins a passionate affair with one of her regulars, but his changing demeanor and constant demands for money lead Yoshie down a dark path.

The Way Through the Bleak Woods

October 1997 •Czech

The Šumava Mountains hide buildings lost in the mountains, the Vydra River, a church, a rectory, marshes, a post office, a gold mine, and a hermit's hut. In this environment, the fates of the beautiful girl Anna, a tormented widow, her perpetually drunk husband—a postman—and dentist Holoubek, who left his native Vienna, intertwine. Over the course of the year, their paths cross, but then the summer of 1914 arrives and war intervenes decisively in the lives of all those involved... However, the characters' desires and quests are timeless.

Dværgen og luderen

October 2009 •Danish

The dwarf Jacob has a hard time finding true love. He therefore spies on his neighbor, the prostitute Laila.

Mifune

March 1999 •Danish

Kresten, newly wed, is on the threshold of a great career success in his father-in-law’s company. But when the death of his own father takes him back to his poverty-stricken childhood home, far out in the country, his career plans fall apart. For one thing he has to deal with his loveable, backward brother, who is now all alone; for another, he meets a stunning woman who comes to the farm as a housekeeper, in disguise of her real profession as a call-girl.

Breaking the Waves

July 1996 •Danish

In a small, conservative Scottish village, an oilman is paralyzed in an accident. His wife, who prayed for his return, feels guilty; even more, when he urges her to have sex with another.

Shanghai Express

February 1932 •English

A beautiful temptress re-kindles an old romance while trying to escape her past during a tension-packed train journey.

Policewoman

May 2000 •German

A young police woman is faced with the difficulties between her responsibilities at work and her personal responsibilities.

Doctor Zhivago

December 1965 •English

The life of a Russian physician and poet who, although married to another, falls in love with a political activist's wife and experiences hardship during World War I and then the October Revolution.

Paths of Glory

October 1957 •English

A commanding officer defends three scapegoats on trial for a failed offensive that occurred within the French Army in 1916.

Irreversible

May 2002 •French

A woman’s lover and her ex-boyfriend take justice into their own hands after she becomes the victim of a rapist. Because some acts can’t be undone. Because man is an animal. Because the desire for vengeance is a natural impulse. Because most crimes remain unpunished.

Rváč

January 1980 •Czech

East of Eden

April 1955 •English

In the Salinas Valley in and around World War I, Cal Trask feels he must compete against overwhelming odds with his brother for the love of their father. Cal is frustrated at every turn, from his reaction to the war, how to get ahead in business and in life, and how to relate to his estranged mother.

Live Flesh

October 1997 •Spanish

When Victor attempts to seduce Elena, all he gets for his trouble is a one-way, six-year ticket to prison, where he concentrates on strengthening his mind, his body... and his desire for vengeance on the man who put him there. After his release and still madly in love with her, Victor will stop at nothing to win her over even if means revenge, for Elena has married David, the cop who sent him to prison!

Strange Days

October 1995 •English

Former policeman Lenny Nero has moved into a more lucrative trade: the illegal sale of virtual reality-like recordings that allow users to experience the emotions and past experiences of others. While they typically contain tawdry incidents, Nero is shocked when he receives one showing a murder.

Monsieur Ibrahim

September 2003 •French

Paris, 1960s. Momo, a resolute and independent Jewish teenager who lives with his father, a sullen and depressed man, in a working-class neighborhood, develops a close friendship with Monsieur Ibrahim, an elderly Muslim who owns a small grocery store.