Global Voices Films

Hotel Rwanda Director: Terry George Country: Rwanda Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYwuXvA589A Summary: Hotel Rwanda is a powerful film, made on location in Rwanda about the true events of the Rwandan civil war from April to mid-July 1994 when Rwanda’s ruling tribe, the Hutus, slaughtered almost one million Tutsis. […. read more]

Beijing Bicycle Director: Wang Xiaoshuai Country: China Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpKh79XngZU Summary: Beijing Bicycle” is the story of two stubborn teenage boys, Guo from the country and Jian from the city. Both boys are engaged in a duel to claim ownership to the same bicycle. [… read more]

March of the Penguins Director: Luc Jacquet Country: Antarctica/France Film website: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/marchofthepenguins/ Summary: In the film’s opening, Morgan Freeman, the narrator, tells us as we watch thousands of Emperor penguins march in a single file, appearing so human-like, that this is a “story of life over death, a story of survival, a story about love.” But it is also the story of choosing a mate, breeding, protecting the chick, and the mother and father working together to assure continuation of the species. [… read more]

The Counterfeiters Director: Stefan Ruzowitzky Country: Austria Film website: http://www.sonyclassics.com/thecounterfeiters/ Summary: This is the true story of Salomon Sorowitsch, a swindler who made a name for himself as Berlin’s “King of the Counterfeiters” in the 1920’s. However, his life of women and easy money is cut short when he’s arrested in Berlin and sent to a concentration camp in Germany, Sachhausen and then on to Auschwitz. [… read more]

Osama Director: Siddiq Barmak Country: Afghanistan Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLMnB6OeJgU Summary: Osama is the story of a 12-year old girl who is disguised as a boy by her mother, a widowed nurse, so the child can work to get food for her mother and grandmother. [… read more]

Persepolis Director: Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud Country: Iran/France Film website: http://www.sonyclassics.com/persepolis/ Summary: Persepolis is based on Marjane Satrapi’s memoirs of her first-hand experiences of living in Iran under the Shah and the Fundamentalists, from the 1970’s until 1994. She recounts her teenage years as a student in Vienna, Austria; her return back to a theocratic Iran, and her need again to leave the country, this time permanently. [… read more]

Tsotsi Director: Gavin Hood Country: South Africa Film website: http://www.tsotsi.com/english/index.php Summary: The film, Tsotsi, set in Johannesburg and Soweto, shows six days in the life of a young man in a gang. Tsotsi, which means “thug” or “gangster” in a South African dialect, is the name the hoodlum gives himself. In the beginning of the film, he steals a car, accidentally shoots the woman driver, and unexpectedly finds her infant in the back seat. […. read more]

Water Director: Deepa Mehta Country: India Trailer/Reviews: http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/331171/Water/overview Summary: Water begins when seven-year-old Chuyia is married and then widowed after a pre-arranged marriage to an older man. Being sold by her parents, and then left a widow, she is taken to an ashram where she will have to live all her life according to Hindu tradition, in isolation, poverty and repentance. [… read more]

Central Station Director: Walter Salles Country: Brazil Trailer/Review: http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/160406/Central-Station/trailers Summary: The film Central Station is about a middle-aged former school teacher, Dora, who accompanies nine-year-old Josue on a search for his father. The film begins by showing Dora, who has a little stand in Rio de Janeiro’s train station. [… read more]

Journey of Hope Director: Xavier Koller Country: Switzerland Trailer: http://videodetective.com/movie_trailer /JOURNEY_OF_HOPE/movie_clip/P00001269.htm Summary: Journey of Hope is based on a tragic true story. A poor Kurdish farmer living in Turkey hopes to better his condition and find work in “rich Switzerland.” First he must sell the only thing he owns, his dry rocky land and animals, to pay for the necessary papers and passage.  [… read more]

Sophie Scholl Director: Marc Rothemund Country: Germany Film website: http://www.sophieschollmovie.com/ Summary: In 1943, as Hitler continues to wage war across Europe, five college students and their Philosophy Professor, mount an underground resistance movement in Munich. Dedicated expressly to the downfall of the dictatorial Third Reich war machine, they call themselves the “White Rose.” Its sole female member, Sophie Scholl, who is twenty-one-years-old. [… read more]

Pearl Director: King Hollis Country: United States/Chickasaw Nation Film website: http://www.pearlthemovie.net/; http://www.chickasaw.net/ Summary: Beautifully filmed, impeccably portrayed, the feature film “Pearl”, a production of the Chickasaw Nation, brings to life the endearing story of Pearl Carter Scott – Chickasaw aviatrix. A spunky 12 year old Pearl soars as she befriends world renowned pilot Wiley Post, which introduces her to a love for flying and to becoming the youngest pilot in American aviation history. [… read more]

Tokyo Sonata Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa Country: Japan Film website: http://www.tokyosonatamovie.com/ Summary: A typical household secretly teeters on the verge of collapse in this stark drama. Businessman Ryuhei Sasaki is the principal breadwinner of a seemingly happy family in Tokyo, with Ryuhei looking after his teenage sons, Takashi and Kenji with his wife, Megumi. But what Megumi and her children don’t know is that Ryuhei is out of a job; his position was outsourced to a company in China, and he’s too ashamed to tell his family the truth. [… read more]

War Dance Director: Sean Fine, Andrea Nix Fine Country: Uganda Film website: http://www.wardancethemovie.com/ Summary: Since the 1980s, Uganda has been in a state of civil war, with the nation’s leadership violently contested by a revolutionary force known as the Lord’s Resistance Army (or L.R.A.). The fighting is fiercest in the North of Uganda, and there the L.R.A. recruit many of their soldiers by abducting children from refugee camps and homes in the poverty-stricken villages, where electricity and running water are still luxuries known only to a few. [… read more]

Barefoot Gen Director: Mori Masaki Country: Japan Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtRLYh-xL-c Summary: Gen and his family are living in Hiroshima as Japan nears the end of World War II. Gen’s father has come to believe that the war is unwinnable, thus earning the wrath of the town officials and, in turn, discrimination from the rest of their neighbors. [… read more]