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1981
Canada, 2009, 102 min.
This cheeky, semi-autobiographical coming-of-age tale tells the story of Ricardo, 11, who, struggling with his family's move and a new school, decides to become a liar. With a flare for inventiveness and a desperate desire to impress his classmates, Ricardo dismisses his family and weaves untruths.... more
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Angel at Sea
Belgium, 2009, 86 min.
Twelve-year-old Louis lives a charmed life in a small Moroccan town. But one night his father shares a secret with him that changes their relationship, and Louis' life, forever. This visually arresting and emotionally gripping film won the top prize at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.... more
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Beautiful Kate
Australia, 2009, 101 min.
Actor Rachel Ward makes a stunningly assured feature writing and directing debut with this emotional drama about a self-hating writer Ned (Ben Mendelsohn) who returns to his childhood home in the Australian Outback in search of answers about his family's dysfunctional past.... more
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Best of Times
Thailand, 2009, 118 min.
From the director of Iron Ladies (PSIFF 2002), this bittersweet romantic comedy uses the stories of two couples to show two kinds of love: the kind one wants to forget but will always remember, and the kind one always wants to remember but will ultimately forget.... more
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A Brand New Life
South Korea, 2009, 92 min.
It's 1975. Jinhee is nine years old, and the life she knows is about to be shattered. Inexplicably abandoned by her father in a Catholic orphanage outside Seoul, Jinhee begins an extraordinary emotional journey marked by rage and hope, death and rebirth.... more
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Broken Promise
Slovakia, 2009, 129 min.
Sheer luck and special skills help a Jewish Slovak adolescent survive the WWII years in this gripping Holocaust drama. Like Agnieszka Holland's Europa Europa and Lajos Koltai's Fateless, it traces an Eastern European youth's painful fight for survival.... more
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Chamaco (The Kid)
Mexico, 2009, 97 min.
Abner is trapped in the rough life of Mexico City. His escape? Boxing. Dr. Frank Irwin (Martin Sheen) and his son Jimmy, a pro boxer, come together to teach Abner that the heart fuels the punches we throw in life.... more
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Daniel & Ana
Mexico, 2009, 90 min.
Daniel and Ana Torres enjoy a careless, affluent existence. But when the siblings are kidnapped on the streets of Mexico and forced to perform the unthinkable in front of a camera, their relationship is violently shattered and their lives thrown into an utterly uncharted route. ... more
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Devil's Town
Serbia, 2009, 82 min.
A stylish black comedy about life in contemporary Belgrade that satirizes the moral malaise clouding Serbia, Devil's Town features a host of top actors as city dwellers whose lives intersect on a hot summer day while the country's tennis stars compete in an important tournament.... more
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Dogtooth
Greece, 2009, 96 min.
In this shocking satire on middle-class mores, the über-controlling parents of three teenage offspring plot to preserve them from worldly contamination. But the introduction of a lusty female security guard into their secluded life acts like a spark to tinder.... more
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Eamon
Ireland, 2009, 85 min.
A family holiday at the Irish seaside brings the tensions between a little boy with behavioral problems, his selfish mother and sexually frustrated father to a blackly comic peak. An entertainingly horrific, confidently stylized vision of the Oedipus complex in action.... more
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Expecting Mary
USA, 2009, 97 min.
Dan Gordon (screenwriter of Wyatt Earp and The Hurricane) marks his directorial debut with this effervescent dramedy about a pregnant teenage runaway who escapes the cosseting clutches of her parents and hits the road, where she finds a new kind of family.... more
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Fish Tank
United Kingdom, 2009, 124 min.
First-time actress Katie Jarvis gives an electrifying performance as a troubled teen with a passion for dance who develops a crush on her mother's new boyfriend in this bleak yet poetic tale of life and lust on an English housing estate. Winner, Jury Prize, Cannes Film Festival.... more
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Garbage Dreams
USA, 2009, 79 min.
With no organized sanitation in Cairo, the Zabbaleen, a minority group in Egypt, have for generations collected and recycled the city's garbage. Now, suddenly, foreign companies move in, recycling ceases, and the three Zabbaleen boys have to fight for their families' survival.... more
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The Girl
Sweden, 2009, 98 min.
A haunting, poetic portrait of childhood solitude that brings to mind resonant mood pieces such as Lynne Ramsay's Ratcatcher, The Girl excels at depicting the private realms kids create when free of adult supervision.... more
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The Happiness of Kati
Thailand, 2009, 105 min.
With the impending death of her mother, a young girl living with her adoring grandparents completes the puzzle of her past and discovers the reason that her mother gave her up as a baby. A delicate and touching adaptation of one of Thailand's most beloved novels.... more
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In My Father's Country
Australia, 2008, 80 min.
In one of the most remote corners of indigenous Australia a boy will soon become a man. Following preparations for the ritual, the film shows the life lessons he receives from his father and grandfather.... more
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Last Ride
Australia, 2009, 100 min.
When his ex-con father (Hugo Weaving) bundles him into the car in the middle of the night, 10-year-old Chook knows that something is wrong. As the two drive into the desert towards an unknown future, their troubled relationship and the need to survive sees them battling the elements and each other.... more
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Miracle Seller
Poland, 2009, 106 min.
An engrossing drama about finding compassion under the most trying circumstances, Miracle Seller is a testament to how caring about others enriches our lives. A recovering alcoholic conman gives a lift to two fierce Dagestani children who've fled a refugee camp.... more
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The Misfortunates
Belgium, 2009, 108 min.
With great performances, superb direction and a wonderful score, Felix van Groeningen's alternately hilarious and poignant tale of the loser Strobbe brothers and the looking-to-get-out son of one of them mixes belly laughs with more introspective and thoughtful moments to great effect.... more
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My Queen Karo
Belgium, 2009, 103 min.
Moved from Belgium to the chaos of a 1974 Amsterdam artists' commune, a precocious 10-year-old witnesses the disintegration of her parents' marriage in this compelling coming-of-age story.... more
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The Other Bank
Georgia, 2009, 90 min.
A 12-year-old Georgian refugee travels back to war-torn Abkhazia to find his father and a second chance at life. His odyssey takes him across physical and emotional borders, where nationalism and revenge are the way of life.... more
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Restless
France, 2009, 100 min.
This delicately wrought gem proves the "coming-of-age" story knows no age limit. Orphaned 18-year-old Claire lives with her elderly grandfather Maurice. As she meets a hopeless romantic and fumbles through her first feelings of love, he struggles to heal love's old wounds in his waning days.... more
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Samson & Delilah
Australia, 2009, 101 min.
One of the year's most cinematically satisfying films, this unconventional love story of two aboriginal teens from a dusty settlement in the Central Australian Desert is full of fascinating ethnographic detail, gentle humor and breathtaking cinematography.... more
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Sons of Cuba
United Kingdom, 2009, 88 min.
Wielding their fists like pinwheels, nine-year-old Cuban boxers fight for national pride, Olympic glory and, most importantly, the love of their families in this poignant, riveting documentary.... more
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Thanks Maa
India, 2009, 120 min.
After 12-year-old street kid Municipality rescues an abandoned infant, he begins a relentless search to find the baby's mother in the urban jungle of Mumbai. Using real locations and street kids a la Slumdog Millionaire, this sentimental social commentary captures the lives of children.... more
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What You Don't See
Germany, 2009, 89 min.
Vaguely reminiscent of François Ozon's See the Sea, this impressive psychological thriller about a sensitive German adolescent grappling with his father's suicide and his mother's new boyfriend plays out against the eerie woods and fantastic rock formations of the Brittany Coast.... more
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Winter in Wartime
Netherlands, 2008, 103 min.
The perfect blend of classical cinema and arthouse sensibilities, this exciting WWII coming-of-age story portrays a 14-year-old Dutch lad's brutal loss of innocence when circumstances force him to become a one-man Resistance movement.... more
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