Underskog

A boy is unwillingly thrust into the atrocities of war in WWII Byelorussia, fighting for a hopelessly unequipped resistance movement against the ruthless German forces. Witnessing scenes of abject terror and accidentally surviving horrifying situations he loses his innocence and then his mind.

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A boss of a black market ring (referred to as “The Chief”) wants to smuggle a batch of jewelry into the Soviet Union by hiding it into the orthopedic cast of a courier. By a confusing accident the contraband lands into the cast of a broken arm of a “simple Soviet citizen” Semyon Semyonovich Gorbunkov. He lets the militsiya know about this, and the militsiya captain uses Gorbunkov as a bait to catch the criminals. Most of the plot are various attempts of two crooks, Lyolik and Gennadiy Kozodoyev, to lure Gorbunkov into a situation where they could have quietly taken the cast off him.

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Somewhere in Nothern Russia in a small Russian Orthodox monastery lives a very unusual man. His fellow-monks are confused by his bizarre conduct. Those who visit the island believe that the man has the power to heal, exorcise demons and foretell the future. However, he considers himself unworthy because of a sin he committed in his youth. The film is a parable, combining the realities of Russian everyday life with monastic ritual and routine.

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Operation Y and Other Shurik’s Adventures is a 1965 Soviet slapstick comedy film directed by Leonid Gaidai, starring Aleksandr Demyanenko, Natalya Seleznyova, Yuri Nikulin, Georgy Vitsin and Yevgeny Morgunov. The film consists of three independent parts: “Workmate” , “Déjà vu” and “Operation Y”. The plot follows the adventures of Shurik, the naive and nerdy Soviet student who often gets into ludicrous situations but always finds a way out very neatly.

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Offret (The Sacrifice) is the final film by Russian film director Andrei Tarkovsky. Alexander, a journalist and former actor and philosopher, tells his little son how worried he is about the lack of spirituality of modern mankind. In the night of his birthday, the third world war breaks out. In his despair Alexander turns himself in a prayer to God, offering him everything to have the war not happen at all.

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Andrei Rublev is set against the background of 15th century Russia. Although the film is only loosely based on the life of Andrei Rublev, its depiction of medieval Russia is realistic. Tarkovsky created a film that shows the artist as “a world-historic figure” and “Christianity as an axiom of Russia’s historical identity”during a turbulent period of Russian history, that ultimately resulted in the Tsardom of Russia. The film is about the essence of art and the importance of faith and shows an artist who tries to find the appropriate response to the tragedies of his time. The film is also about artistic freedom and the possibility and necessity of making art for, and in the face of, a repressive authority and its hypocrisy, technology and empiricism, by which knowledge is acquired on one’s own without reliance on authority, and the role of the individual, community, and government in the making of both spiritual and epic art.

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Aboard a ship early in the 20th-century, a middle-aged Italian tells his story of love to a Russian. In a series of flashbacks filmed almost entirely in creams, whites, and ochers, the clownish and superfluous Romano Patroni leaves his wife’s opulent home to visit a spa where he falls in love with a Russian woman whose marriage is a horror. He pursues her into the Russian heartland and returns to Italy resolved to leave his wife and marry his love. His amazed and appreciative Russian listener then narrates a shorter story.

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Polyester is a 1981 comedy film directed, produced, and written by John Waters, and starring Divine, Tab Hunter, Edith Massey, and Mink Stole. It was filmed in Waters’ native Baltimore, Maryland, and features a gimmick called “Odorama”, whereby viewers could smell what they saw on screen through scratch and sniff cards.

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This classic 1957 American film noir was directed by Alexander Mackendrick, and stars Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, Susan Harrison and Martin Milner. The screenplay was written by Clifford Odets, Ernest Lehman and Alexander Mackendrick from the novelette by Lehman.

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Movies can wield a strange power over those who sit in the darkened seats of a theatre. The truly great ones manipulate your perception of reality, suspend your disbelief, and ultimately either alter or affirm your view on life. NUOVO CINEMA PARADISO is just such a movie. It is the near-perfect melding of direction, acting, script, sound track, and cinematography. Phillipe Noiret and Salvatore Cascio give the kind of performance…s usually associated with much more recognizable actors. The supporting cast looks like they could all be full-blooded Sicilians. The location shots add depth and realism to the entire production. Ennio Morricone’s music is simply the most appropriate and emotive I have ever had the pleasure to hear in a theatre. Tornatore’s script and direction are a joy, a breath of fresh air.

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Checkpoint (Machssomim) is a 2003 documentary by Israeli filmmaker Yoav Shamir, showing the everyday interaction between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian civilians at several of the region’s Israeli Defence Forces’ checkpoints. This award-winning, contoversial film is shot in cinéma vérité-style with no narration, but offers a fly-on-the-wall perspective of everyday situations at the border.

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This documentary film by Werner Herzog and cinematographer Peter Zeitlinger was completed in 2007, and released the year after. Herzog’s characteristic voiceover narration explains that this film will not be a typical Antarctica film about fluffy penguins, but will explore the dreams of the people and the landscape.

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This award-winning German documentary of 2005, originally named Die Grosse Stille, was written and directed by Philip Gröning. It is an examination of life inside the Grande Chartreuse, the head monastery of the reclusive Carthusian Order in France.

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Man with a Movie Camera is an experimental 1929 silent documentary film, with no story and no actors, by Russian director Dziga Vertov, edited by his wife Elizaveta Svilova.

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In the 1950s, when Werner Herzog was 13, he was sharing an apartment with Klaus Kinski, an ego-maniacal live-wire. In an unabated, 48 hour fit of rage, Kinski destroyed every piece of furniture in sight. From this chaos, a beautiful albeit volatile partnership was born.

In 1972, Herzog cast Kinski in Aguirre, The Wrath of God. Four more films would follow. In this personal documentary, Herzog traces the often violent ups and downs of their relationship, revisiting Munich apartment where they first met – and thrashed, and the various locations of their films.

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Fotograf og lærer Per-Anders Rosenkvist og tekstforfatter/verdens nordligste sogneprest Leif Magne Helgesen presenterer sin nye reportasjebok fra Svalbard.

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- I want to spend my time fighting for the unusual person’s right to be unusual. (Esben Esther Pirelli Benestad)

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Dag Alveng er en av Norges fremste og betydeligste fotokunstnere. 30 års karriere har resultert i 8 hyller med permer fulle av negativer og 70 000 fotografier. Han er den eneste nålevende norske kunstner som både er representert i The Metropolitan Museum of Art og i The Museum of Modern Art i New York. Ikke minst er han av de fotografene som har vært med på å gi kunst-fotografiet oppmerksomhet i Norge som en av stifterne av Fotogalleriet på 1970-tallet. Som den profilerte fotografen han er, har Dag bl.a. hatt store utstillinger på Henie-Onstad Kunstsenter og i Museet for Samtidskunst. Utstillingen Sommerlys med bilder fra Hvasser, som Dag viste i Museet for Samtidskunst, hang senere i Deborah Bell Gallery i New York.

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“I never drink….. wine”

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