Free Zone

Seven Samurai

April 1954 •Japanese

A samurai answers a village's request for protection after he falls on hard times. The town needs protection from bandits, so the samurai gathers six others to help him teach the people how to defend themselves, and the villagers provide the soldiers with food.

Das Boot

September 1981 •German

A German submarine hunts allied ships during the Second World War, but it soon becomes the hunted. The crew tries to survive below the surface, while stretching both the boat and themselves to their limits.

Lisbon Story

December 1994 •English

Wim Wenders' homage to Lisbon and films. A sound engineer obtains a mysterious postcard from a friend who at the moment is filming a film in Lisbon. He sets out across Europe to find him and help him.

Walk on Water

February 2004 •Hebrew

Eyal, an Israeli Mossad agent, is given the mission to track down and kill the very old Alfred Himmelman, an ex-Nazi officer, who might still be alive. Pretending to be a tourist guide, he befriends his grandson Axel, in Israel to visit his sister Pia. The two men set out on a tour of the country, during which Axel challenges Eyal's values.

Paradise Now

September 2005 •English

Two childhood friends are recruited for a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv.

Land Without Evil: Ivy Maraey

October 2013 •Spanish

A filmmaker and a Guarani Indian travel from La Paz to Bolivia’s swamps, exploring Guarani culture, ancient knowledge, and identity.

40 días

October 2008 •English

Desperate to experience something real after feeling dead on the inside for far too long, three young Mexicans take a road trip from Mexico City to New York. Andres, El Pato, and Ecuador each suspect that there is more to life than they realize. In an attempt to escape from themselves, the three melancholy friends gas up their convertible and begin driving north. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Casablanca

January 1943 •English

In Casablanca, Morocco in December 1941, a cynical American expatriate meets a former lover, with unforeseen complications.

But Where Is Daniel Wax?

March 1974 •Hebrew

10 years after he left Israel and "played it big-time in America", Benny Shpitz returns for a visit, self-exploring his youth, friends, dreams, beliefs and idol, Daniel Wax, who symbolized the "beautiful Israeli". Shpitz finds out his friends are melancholic, unsatisfied with marriage life, hiding a vast hole in their sole. In a wider context, Israel post 67' will no longer be the society that it was meant to be.

Arctic

March 2014 •English

Simon and Jota are two young scoundrels who hit the street every day to eke out a living. Each one wants what he lacks. Simon cannot stand being surrounded by his large family all the time. Jota wants to stop leading a lonely life and will do his best to have his own family.

The Grump: In Search of an Escort

September 2022 •Finnish

Grump's life follows the same familiar routines: spring is here and the early potato harvest is ripening. But Grump crashes his beloved Ford Escort and the car has to be scrapped. A new, modern vehicle is no match for quality and the nearest Escort, a 1972 model, can be found in Germany. When the Grumps's sons refuse to help, he must travel to Germany alone.

The Wizard

December 1989 •English

A boy and his brother run away from home and hitch cross-country, with help from a girl they meet, to compete in the ultimate video-game championship.

The Last Emperor

October 1987 •English

A dramatic history of Pu Yi, the last of the Emperors of China, from his lofty birth and brief reign in the Forbidden City, the object of worship by half a billion people; through his abdication, his decline and dissolute lifestyle; his exploitation by the invading Japanese, and finally to his obscure existence as just another peasant worker in the People's Republic.

Little Miss Sunshine

July 2006 •English

A family loaded with quirky, colorful characters piles into an old van and road trips to California for little Olive to compete in a beauty pageant.

Aufwachsen im Westjordanland - Gefangen im Zorn

October 2024 •German

Eastman

August 2020 •Ukrainian

This is a portrait of a man, for whom the war in Eastern Ukraine has become a personal challenge. Beard is a native of the Donbas, a man of about forty-five, a family guy, an ordinary worker. Director is a young man of about twenty-six, single, a west-man, coming from the intelligentsia. This is the usual day of the ordinary military. These are events and people whom you can meet there. This is the relationship between people who have to be here and now during the war. This is not only a unique life experience but also a kind of cultural exchange between different social strata and communities. This is the birth of new, special traditions.

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.

Crash

July 1996 •English

After getting into a serious car accident, a TV director discovers an underground sub-culture of scarred, omnisexual car-crash victims, and he begins to use car accidents and the raw sexual energy they produce to try to rejuvenate his sex life with his wife.

Grand Illusion

June 1937 •French

A group of French soldiers, including the patrician Captain de Boeldieu and the working-class Lieutenant Maréchal, grapple with their own class differences after being captured and held in a World War I German prison camp. When the men are transferred to a high-security fortress, they must concoct a plan to escape beneath the watchful eye of aristocratic German officer von Rauffenstein, who has formed an unexpected bond with de Boeldieu.

Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade

November 1999 •Japanese

A member of an elite paramilitary counter-terrorism unit becomes traumatized after witnessing the suicide bombing of a young girl and is forced to undergo retraining. However, unbeknownst to him, he becomes a key player in a dispute between rival police divisions, as he finds himself increasingly involved with the sister of the girl he saw die.