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12:08 East of Bucharest
Romania, 2006, 89 min.
The Best First Feature winner at Cannes, this hilarious movie wrings substantial mileage out of a single joke. A television newscaster in a small Romanian town has convened a panel to discuss their town's role in the overthrow of Ceausescu, but recollections of the revolution seem to differ.... more
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Beauty in Trouble
Czech Republic, 2006, 110 min.
Another smart comedy from the team responsible for Cosy Dens and Up and Down. Ana Geislerová plays the beauty of the title, whose solution to marital problems, financial crises and family troubles comes in the form of a rich older man. ... more
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Border Post
Croatia, 2006, 94 min.
This comedy about people on the verge of tragedy unfolds at an army base along the Yugoslav-Albanian border in the spring of 1987. The boring daily routine of the young soldiers suddenly changes when the commanding officer decides to hide a personal problem, namely syphilis, by declaring a state of ... more
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The Bothersome Man
Norway, 2006, 95 min.
Andreas arrives in a strange city with no memory of how he got there. He is presented with a job, an apartment, and soon finds a girlfriend. But before long, he notices that something is wrong. A strong shot of new Nordic humor, this surreal parable won Best Film at the Hamptons International Film F... more
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Gravehopping
Slovenia, 2006, 103 min.
A top prizewinner at multiple prestigious festivals, this black comedy centers on eulogy writer Pero (a Gene Wilder look-alike) and his eccentric family who live together in a typically Balkan world of black humor and irony, where tragedy always looms.... more
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The Iceberg
Belgium, 2006, 84 min.
After surviving a night in an industrial freezer, a harried housewife becomes upset with her family who failed to realize she never made it home, to say nothing of a newfound attraction to all things sub-zero. Chock full of French physical comedy delivered with deadpan Kaurismäkian cool.... more
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Lights in the Dusk
Finland, 2006, 80 min.
Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki’s latest deadpan, black comedy presents a lonely and unassuming security watchman who meets a beautiful blonde, but finds himself brutally enmeshed in a criminal heist plot of which he will become the fall guy.... more
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Little Miss Sunshine
USA, 2006, 101 min.
The Little Miss Sunshine Pageant is the impetus for this dysfunctional family road trip in which seven-year-old Olive, is vying for the title. Her family—including a suicidal uncle, her failing motivational speaker father, her mother at her wit’s end, her silent angst-ridden brother and... more
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Lunacy
Czech Republic, 2006, 121 min.
A masterpiece from Jan Svankmajer, the master of Czech surrealism, Lunacy introduces us to a man whose horrifying dreams make his nights unbearable. An offer of assistance from a sadistic nobleman leads the man into an asylum where the doctors are even more dangerous than the patients.... more
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Never on a Sunday
Mexico, 2006, 125 min.
In trying to bury his uncle who dies on the unluckiest of Sundays, a young man becomes embroiled in a series of gruesome adventures in today’s Mexico City. This biting dark comedy with poignant dialogues and characters is one of the revelations of this year’s program.... more
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Taxidermia
Hungary, 2006, 90 min.
Three generations of men are each beset by an extreme obsessions—Vendel, by sex, Kalman, by gluttony and Lajos, by taxidermy. Young Hungarian hotshot György Pálfi’s eye-popping, savagely funny debut is a thinly disguised excoriation of the failure of his country’s successive governmental philosophie... more
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The Tiger's Tail
Ireland, 2006, 103 min.
John Boorman has created a triple-whammy black comedy thriller of sex, lies and devilish twists in one of his finest works to date, starring long-time collaborator Brendan Gleeson who gives a captivating and career-defining performance.
Liam O’Leary (played by Gleeson) is a wealthy Irish property... more
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