Movies: Realism

A depressed wife and mother whose reality is starting to fracture into fantasy, drives her children to the beach. On the return journey she stops at a service station to fill up with petrol. Four mechanics eye her off and, as one of them walks toward...

This tale of familial warfare and sacrifice takes place in hard-pressed Shanghai at the end of the 1940s. Hu Zhiqing can barely support his wife and children, and his situation is worsened by the unexpected arrival of his mother, brother and sister-i...

Using verite conventions, a young couple with a baby and a child are worn away by the monotony of their lives....

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Siblings Aru, age 3, and Kino, age 1, have 3 parents: father Fumino, who is transgender; mother Honoyo, Fumino's partner who gave birth to the children; and father Gon, a close gay friend who donated his sperm. The 3 are now raising their children to...

Drama student Bethany McKabe is starring in a student short film helmed by her friends that’s being shot over Halloween. The premise being what would happen if a costumed killer came after their friend Bethany....

Struggling to survive on the margins of society, two outcasts manage to build a beautiful friendship as they face loss and hardship....

Auguste is an aging prostitute who falls in love with Felix, a younger student. While Felix has strayed away from his parents, Auguste starts taking care of him and spends her life savings into a cake shop to move further away from prostitution, but ...

In a summer’s sweltering heat, 20-something Fei begins to suspect her boyfriend is cheating. As doubt takes root for Fei, she drifts in search of connection elsewhere....

Part work of ethereal realism, part dance film, this contemporary-set short follows a young man facing the probability of an HIV+ diagnosis....

Amin, a construction laborer of a mosque, has to go to his sick wife in his hometown, but the salary of a construction worker is not enough for him to go back home, let alone pay for his wife's medical bills....

Since the pandemic hit in the spring of 2020, Metro Manila has been subjected to intermittent lockdowns with demeaning punishments. Despite the danger, Sandra, a single middle-aged reporter living there, continues to search for stories, even after wa...

The film was originally conceived as a portrait of Dr. Nawal El Saadawi, the well-known Egyptian doctor, writer, and women’s rights activist. But the director was disappointed by the encounter with the woman who had been her great role model. Instead...

After her release from involuntary hospitalization, “Annie” grapples with the trauma of her confinement, all while working as a lifeguard, a job that becomes increasingly challenging as she descends deeper into despair....

An experimental attempt that examines the four corners of the inner zoned quarantine world to question a person....

Although the past two years have been challenging for the Theatre industry, they also showed its incredible strength and resilience. Through interviews with West End performers and creatives, this documentary outlines the difficulties presented to ou...

Two officers—one idealistic, one cynical —pursue a brutal serial killer. As they close in on the elusive Jujji, their inner conflicts rise to the surface, exposing inner demons and challenging their notions of justice and morality....

Enter the relentless stress and pressure of one man's plight to make eggs on toast....

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The war in Ukraine continues to leave indelible scars, but beyond military strategies and political speeches, there are stories that are rarely told: those of people who survive day by day amid the conflict. In an effort to document the human reality...