Fipresci winners 2009
FIPRESCI is an international association of film critics, they award their own prizes at many of the prestigious film festivals which are generally different picks from the main prize winners. There is an emphasis on humanism in the picks. These were winners first released in 2009, awarded in both 2009 and 2010.
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- DirectorHeidi Maria FaisstStarsLærke WintherMads RiisomSolbjørg HøjfeldtKatrine has just given birth to a beautiful girl, but she worries about being a good mother, and when her boyfriend goes away for work she asks her own mother for help. But the two women have unresolved issues, and instead of feeling helped, Katrine feels more and more insecure and slowly falls apart.
- DirectorClaudia LlosaStarsMagaly SolierSusi SánchezEfraín SolísFausta is suffering from a rare disease called the Milk of Sorrow, which is transmitted through the breast milk of pregnant women who were abused or raped during or soon after pregnancy. While living in constant fear and confusion due to this disease, she must face the sudden death of her mother. She chooses to take drastic measures to not follow in her mother's footsteps.
- DirectorRune Denstad LangloStarsAnders BaasmoKyrre HellumMarte AunemoNORTH Following a nervous breakdown, ski athlete Jomar has isolated himself in a lonely existence as the guard of a ski park. When he learns that he might be the father of a child way up north, he sets on a strange and poetic journey through Norway on a snowmobile, with 5 liters of alcohol as sole provisions. On this trip through amazing arctic landscapes, Jomar seems to do everything in his power to avoid reaching his destination. He meets other tender and confused souls, who will all contribute to push Jomar further along his reluctant journey towards the brighter side of life.
- DirectorJaime Rogel
- DirectorRadu JudeStarsAndreea BosneagVioleta Haret-PopaVasile MuraruDelia, a young Romanian girl, drives to Bucharest with her parents to collect a prize she won in a contest.
- DirectorSebastián SilvaStarsCatalina SaavedraClaudia CeledónMariana LoyolaA drama centered on a maid trying to hold on to her position after having served a family for 23 years.
- DirectorHumberto Hinojosa OzcarizStarsChristian VazquezRodrigo CoreaXimena RomoTwo friends plan to steal the sheep from the ranch where they work and make a killing selling them. When the plan seemed like it could actually work, Maria, a young girl learning her ways with men, appears to shake things up even more.
- DirectorZou PengStarsWu Rui-PengYi-Wen TianLiu Xing-Ping
- DirectorMaren AdeStarsLars EidingerBirgit MinichmayrHans-Jochen WagnerWhile on a Mediterranean vacation, a seemingly happy boyfriend and girlfriend find their connection to one another tested as they bond with another couple.
- DirectorGeorge OvashviliStarsTedo BekhauriTamar MeskhiArchil TabukashviliA young refugee and his mother flee war and ethnic cleansing in the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia, leaving his father behind. After arriving in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi, the young boy encounters difficulties with his mother, and begins a lonely journey back to Abkhazia to find his father.
- DirectorFrazer BradshawStarsRigo Chacon Jr.Jered DanielHannah KernEVERYTHING STRANGE AND NEW is an intimate portrait of ordinary people and their longing for certainty in uncertain times.
- DirectorTeresa VillaverdeStarsAna MoreiraViktor RakovRobinson StéveninSonia, a girl from St Petersburg, decides to seek a better life in western Europe. She first gets a job at a car dealer in Germany. But she is suddenly kidnapped and sold into sexual slavery. She will be dragged from country to country and resistance will only bring her misery and humiliation.
- DirectorMichael HanekeStarsChristian FriedelErnst JacobiLeonie BeneschStrange events happen in a small village in the north of Germany during the years before World War I, which seem to be ritual punishment. Who is responsible?
- DirectorCorneliu PorumboiuStarsDragos BucurVlad IvanovIon StoicaA police officer refuses to arrest a young man for offering drugs to his friends.
- DirectorCherien DabisStarsNisreen FaourMelkar MuallemHiam AbbassA drama centered on the trials and tribulations of a proud Palestinian Christian immigrant single mother and her teenage son in small town Indiana.
- DirectorUrszula AntoniakStarsLotte VerbeekStephen ReaTom CharlfaAlone in her empty flat, from her window Anne observes the people passing by who nervously snatch up the personal belongings and pieces of furniture she has put out on the pavement. Her final gesture of taking a ring off her finger signals she is leaving her previous life in Holland behind. She goes to Ireland, where she chooses to lead a solitary, wandering existence, striding through the austere landscapes of Connemara. During her travels, she discovers a house that is home to a hermit, Martin.
- DirectorQuan'an WangStarsZhengwu ChengXiong ChunleiLiv FuyouDiagnosed with cancer and unable to afford treatment, a woman decides to leave her unhappy marriage search for her first love in Beijing.
- DirectorJessica HausnerStarsSylvie TestudLéa SeydouxBruno TodeschiniIn order to escape her isolation, wheelchair-bound Christine makes a life changing journey to Lourdes, the iconic site of pilgrimage in the Pyrenees Mountains.
- DirectorBruno DumontStarsJulie SokolowskiKarl SarafidisYassine SalimeA young nun is expelled from a convent because of her extreme devoutness and forms a relationship with a radical Muslim.
- DirectorEsmir FilhoStarsÁurea BaptistaIsmael CaneppeleTuane EggersA Bob Dylan fan who goes by the name Mr. Tambourine passes his time in the Brazilian countryside by looking at photographs and movies on the Internet that seem to feature the same mysterious woman.
- DirectorJosé Celestino CampusanoStarsRubén Orlando BeltránArmando GalvalisiGabriel Rogelio MéndezThe story of Vikingo, a rude motorcyclist whose rigid principles are honor and respect.
- DirectorShawkat Amin KorkiStarsShwan AttoofHamed DiyarHamajaga HilinInside a beat up stadium in Kirkuk, Iraq, live many refugees trying to escape Sadam Hussein's administration. Asu lives with his younger brother who has lost his legs from a landmine. Next door lives Hilin, who has not been able to express her feelings. One of the only sources of happiness for these people who live amid fear of poverty and bombings is soccer. Asu gathers together the Kurdish, Arabs and Turkish in order to hold a soccer match. Although they are of different races, they become close neighbors.
- DirectorCãlin Peter NetzerStarsVictor RebengiucCamelia ZorlescuMimi BranescuAccidentally receiving a Romanian Medal of Honor, a 75-years-old retiree uses it to regain respect from his family.
- DirectorBorys LankoszStarsAgata BuzekKrystyna JandaAnna PolonyA story about women, set in the present and in 1950s Warsaw. The main character is Sabina, a quiet, shy woman who has just turned thirty. Clearly, she lacks a man in her life. Her mother knows all about it and tries at all costs to find her daughter a good candidate for a husband. The whole situation is controlled by the grandmother, an eccentric lady with a sharp tongue from whom no secret can be concealed. Successive admirers arrive at the pre-war tenement where the women live, but Sabina is interested in none of them. One day, appearing out of nowhere, comes the charming, intelligent, and terribly good-looking Bronislaw. His presence will spark off a series of unexpected events revealing the darker side of the women's nature.
- DirectorCary Joji FukunagaStarsPaulina GaitanMarco Antonio AguirreLeonardo AlonsoA young Honduran girl and a Mexican gangster are united in a journey across the U.S. border.
- DirectorFrazer BradshawStarsRigo Chacon Jr.Jered DanielHannah KernEVERYTHING STRANGE AND NEW is an intimate portrait of ordinary people and their longing for certainty in uncertain times.
- DirectorDuncan CampbellStarsBernadette DevlinBernadette is a portrait of Bernadette Devlin, a socialist activist in Northern Ireland who, at the age of 21, became the first woman member of the House of Commons
- DirectorEsther RotsStarsRifka LodeizenWim OpbrouckChris BorowskiThe silent aftermath of a young woman's disaster is broken by her discovery of nature's old rhythms.
- DirectorMarcel LozinskiIn Poland, letters with incorrect address end up at the Department of Unsent Mail in Koluszki. The film follows one of these letters, on which a child's hand has written an unusual address: 'God. Heaven.'
- DirectorKira MuratovaStarsLena KostyukRoma BurlakaZhan DanielTwo young orphan siblings travel to Moscow in search of their missing father. Scared of being separated and sent to orphanages, they hope to reunite with the last link of their shattered family.
- DirectorRobert ConnollyStarsJane HampsonBea ViegasChristine MartinsWar correspondent Roger East and the young Jose Ramos-Horta travel to East Timor to investigate the murders of the Balibo Five in 1975.
- DirectorVladimir PerisicStarsRelja PopovicBoris IsakovicMiroslav StevanovicA recent recruit is one of seven soldiers posted to an abandoned farm with little information. Soon a bus full of frightened men arrive and the soldiers are told they are the enemy.
- DirectorFredrik EdfeldtStarsBlanca EngströmShanti RoneyAnnika HallinStory of a nine-and-a-half year old girl left alone in Sweden while her family is in Africa during the summer of 1981.
- DirectorIsaki LacuestaStarsBárbara LennieDaniel FanegoLeonor MansoAn exiled Argentinean returns home after living in Spain for more than 30 years to help find the remains of a political activist who disappeared during the Junta dictatorship.
- DirectorBui Thac ChuyênStarsDo Thi Hai YenLinh-Dan PhamDuy Khoa NguyenA young newlywed couple in Hanoi begin to experiment with their sexual desires.
- DirectorLaxmikant ShetgaonkarStarsChittaranjan GiriVeena JamkarPrasanthi TalpankerA recently widowed forest ranger in India strikes up an unlikely relationship with a woman he finds lost and alone in the woods.
- DirectorPeter KerekesStarsVassily Nikolaevich LogunovFranz WeinhartKlavdia Matveevna LobanovaInterviews with military cooks from various European armies.
- DirectorVladimir PaskaljevicStarsLazar RistovskiDanica RistovskiMarija ZeljkovicA series of interconnected stories taking place in Belgrade during the course of one day. A teenage girl from a poor family wants to accompany her well-off friend in her tennis lessons, but she can't afford it. A man recently returned after many years abroad finds it difficult to conduct business in his native country. A rich young man doesn't accept that his girlfriend wants to leave him after meeting someone else. A chronically unemployed man pays more attention to a tennis match on TV than to his young baby.
- DirectorGoran PaskaljevicStarsNebojsa MilovanovicJelena TrkuljaJozef Shiroka'Honeymoons' shows us that the distance between Eastern and Western Europe is more than a question of kilometers. The films follows two couples, one is Albania, one in Serbia, who in the midst of wedding celebrations decide to leave their respective countries to realize their dreams in Western Europe. They soon find themselves trapped between their countries' past and their future lives together.
- DirectorAndrei GruzsniczkiStarsAndi VasluianuSimona PopescuDan AstileanuSecurity guard Aurel (Andi Vasluianu) and his wife Irene have a moderately happy marriage and a moderately comfortable lifestyle in urban Romania. Irene takes a working trip to Cairo and returns invigorated with the swell of success. She sets out again and never returns. What follows is both predictable and unpredictable. Aurel, and the audience, are suspicious of the official explanation of her death so the foundation is laid for the traditional who-dunnit. Aurel proceeds on an emotional search against all odds.
- DirectorYu-Chieh ChengStarsSandrine PinnaRay ChangBing-Chen ChenYang-yang is a French-Taiwanese mix. She has never seen her French father. She does not speak a single French word. Her mum has re-married but she has been very lonely. She started working at the entertainment industry. The fact that she is a mix is a good selling point. The film depicts how Yang-yang dealt with her life, her relationships with men, with her mother and friends.
- DirectorJaak KilmiStarsKiur AarmaJaak KilmiAlo KõrveA story about growing up in the Soviet Union. The film tells the story of a strange kind of information war, where a totalitarian regime stands face to face with the heroes of popular culture. And loses. It was a time when it was possible for erotic film star Emmanuelle to bring down the Red Army and MacGyver to outdo an entire school administration. It is a film about our generation, who were unknowingly brought to the front line of the Cold War. Western popular culture had an incomparable role shaping Soviet children's world views in those days. Finnish television was a window to a world of dreams that the authorities could not block in any way. Though Finnish channels were banned, many households found some way to access the forbidden fruit.
- DirectorBenny SafdieJosh SafdieStarsRonald BronsteinAlex GreenblattSage RanaldoA father juggling his kids with the rest of his responsibilities is ultimately faced with the choice of being their father or their friend.
- DirectorRigoberto PérezcanoStarsHarold TorresAlicia LagunaSonia CouohAndres reaches the Mexican border to cross into the United Sates. There between each attempt, he discovers that Tijuana is a troubled city. As he waits there, Andres is not only confronted with his feelings and what he left behind, but also with those he meets.
- DirectorAndrey KhrzhanovskiyStarsAlisa FreyndlikhSergey YurskiyGrigoriy DityatkovskiyA semi-fictional account of the life of Nobel-Prize-winning Russian poet Josif Brodsky, who was forced into American exile in 1972.
- DirectorGoran DevicZvonimir JuricStarsIvo GregurevicKresimir MikicFranjo DijakLooking for the enemy, they found it where nobody expected - in themselves.
- DirectorBobby PaunescuStarsMonica BarladeanuDorian BogutaLuminita GheorghiuWanting to follow the current trend, Francesca, a young teacher from Bucharest, is eager to emigrate to Italy. Unfortunately, whilst desperately seeking support from those nearest and dearest to her, various untold truths unravel.
- DirectorPietro MarcelloStarsVincenzo MottaMary MonacoFranco LeoThe story of a criminal Vincenzo and his trans lover Mary, who waited for him for many years while he served his prison sentence.
- DirectorLee DanielsStarsGabourey SidibeMo'NiquePaula PattonIn New York City's Harlem circa 1987, an overweight, abused, illiterate teen who is pregnant with her second child is invited to enroll in an alternative school in hopes that she can re-route her life in a better direction.
- DirectorSéverine CornamusazStarsOlivier RabourdinCamille JapyAntonio BuílIn a remote region of rural Switzerland, a farmer and his wife eke out a harsh existence, appearing to live in a century far removed from our own. Paul is incapable of showing any kindness towards his wife Rosine, and is unconcerned when she starts to suffer from severe stomach pains. He treats her worse than his animals, a slave willing to attend to his every need and every command. One day, he hires a Spanish migrant worker, Eusebio, to take on the more demanding jobs on his farm. He treats his new farmhand no better than his wife and becomes suspicious when Rosine begins showing him some kindness. Convinced that his wife has started an affair with Eusebio, Paul beats her in a wild frenzy. A short while later, he sees her being flown by helicopter to the nearest hospital. Feeling betrayed, he turns his anger towards Eusebio but has a change of heart when he discovers that his worker has marital problems of his own.
- DirectorPeriklis HoursoglouStarsPeriklis HoursoglouEvangelia AdreadakiEfstathia TsapareliAfter ten years of marriage, a kind fifty-something building manager sees the passion wane for his wife. Now, the apartment building's ruined main sewer line complicates his already humdrum life. Will this disaster lead to a sudden change?
- DirectorMerzak AllouacheStarsLamia BoussekineNabil AsliSamir El HakimSet in the northern Algerian port city of Mostaganem. The title refers to the hordes of refugees, the 'Harragas', who smuggle themselves out of the country via any means possible. Here we meet one such group, Rachid, Nasser and Imene who pay a smuggler, Hassan, to take them to Spain in his rickety boat. Along with a group of African and Arab migrants, they are risking all they have to cross the stormy Straits.
- DirectorGabriela DavidStarsLuis MachínLuciano CáceresCecilia RossettoTwo close girlfriends come to Buenos Aires from the Northwest of the country looking for a better future, but they are coaxed and eventually forced to work in a brothel. One of them will adapt to survive while the other will try to flee.
- DirectorMohammad Al-DhahriStarsMohammed Al-KulaifTurki Al-RwaitaHazim AljuryyanAn ordinary day in a street kid's life that examines family, society and security.
- DirectorKarim AïnouzMarcelo GomesStarsIrandhir SantosA geologist is sent to an isolated region in the Northeast of Brazil to survey water sources, but begins to feel a a sense of abandonment and loneliness.
- DirectorSamuel MaozStarsYoav DonatItay TiranOshri CohenDuring the First Lebanon War in 1982, a lone tank and a paratroopers platoon are dispatched to search a hostile town.
- DirectorPelin EsmerStarsNejat IslerMithat EsmerLaçin CeylanMithat Bey is a retired civil servant. Ali is doorman of his apartment. The two men belong to different worlds, unless they live in same apartment.
- DirectorXavier DolanStarsAnne DorvalXavier DolanFrançois ArnaudA semi-autobiographical story about Hubert as a young homosexual at odds with his mother.
- DirectorÓscar Ruiz NaviaStarsKarent HinestrozaArnobio Salazar RivasRodrigo VélezA drama set in the black communities of Colombia's Pacific coast, where a man looking to flee the country by boat encounters a local fisherman.
- DirectorBen RussellStarsMonie PansaBenjen PansaErwin AkobeThe film traces the extensive journey of two unidentified brothers who venture from the outskirts of Paramaribo, Suriname, on land and through rapids, past a Maroon village on the Upper Suriname River, in a rehearsal of the voyage undertaken by their ancestors, who escaped from slavery at the hands of the Dutch 300 years prior. A path still traveled to this day, its changing topography bespeaks a diverse history of forced migration.
- DirectorDeepa BhatiaP.Sainath and Bhatia take us into the villages of India, where a quarter million farmers have committed suicide since 1992 due to faulty government, corporate and IMF WB policies and the increasing scale of the sad reality.
- DirectorIsao YukisadaStarsTatsuya FujiwaraKarinaShihori KanjiyaFour youths share a two bedroom apartment in a corner of Tokyo. A series of assault cases occur in the same district. Eighteen year old Satoru, a male prostitute, joins them as a new house mate. Their daily life slowly starts to change.
- DirectorStéphane BrizéStarsVincent LindonSandrine KiberlainAure AtikaWhen family father Jean meets his son's teacher, his thoughts only revolve around her. Again and again their paths cross in the small rural town and the two of them come closer by small steps. What future does this silent desire have?
- DirectorDurul TaylanYagmur TaylanStarsEngin GünaydinBinnur KayaSettar TanriögenA reckless electrician, who is struggling with debt, decides to kill his wife and use her savings as a way out. His plan takes an unexpected twist when his loving wife, comes back from the dead to be with her family.
- DirectorIrena PavláskováStarsVilma CibulkováMiroslav EtzlerIgor BaresAdolescence is always a difficult time; it is doubly so for Gábina. For one thing, she is growing up in the normalization years of the 1970s, and then she also has to face the reality that her father is a well-known actor disavowed by the regime. Although he abandoned the family years before, his existence casts an ominous shadow over the lives of not only Gábina, but also her older sister and mother, who are trying to find a civilized way through the social mire of the times.
- DirectorVeiko ÕunpuuStarsTaavi EelmaaRavshana KurkovaTiina TauraiteA mid-level manager who develops an aversion to being "good" finds himself confronting the mysteries of middle-age and morality as he loses grasp of what was once his quiet life.
- DirectorSamantha MortonStarsMolly WindsorRobert CarlyleSusan LynchA film that gives a child's eye view of the U.K.'s government-run care system for orphans and children in danger.
- DirectorRaja AmariStarsHafsia HerziSondos BelhassenWassila DariA teenager unwittingly reveals a terrible family secret to the new neighbors.