Chhadke (2015)

AKA: छड्के

Synopsis:
The film tells the story of three childhood friends. The trio all had dreams to fulfill 'when they grew up', but time and destiny seem to have other plans for them. A difficult life is forced upon them when the elder brother of one of these three men is hit by the vehicle of a shady character called Chewang (Robin Tamang) and left completely paralyzed. The three friends then find themselves in the way of a criminal gang called 'Royal', of which Chewang is the leader.

Starring:
Saugat Malla
Namrata Shrestha
Robin Tamang
Arpan Thapa
Dayahang Rai
Sushil Pokharel

Director: Nigam Shrestha

Birkhelai chinchhas? ()

AKA: बिर्खेलाई चिन्छस्?

Starring:
Supash Thapa
Binita Khadka
Aayusha Rai

Director: Aaraj Keshav

Jholey ()

AKA: झोले

Starring;
Daya Hang Rai
Priyanka Karki
A.gurung
Sisir Rana
Shankar Achrya
Madhav Achrya
Prasant

Director: Dpendra K Khanal

Jheli ()

AKA: झेली

Starring:
Surbina Karki
Anil Thapa
Dipasha BC

Director: Kamal Dahal

Jhola (2014)

Starring:
Garima Panta
Desh Bhakta Khanal
Sujal Nepal
Laxmi Giri
Deepak Chhetri

Director: Yadav Kumar Bhattarai


About: Based on a book "Jhola" written by Krishna Dharabasi.

Synopsis:
The film begins when an old man called Ghanashyam (Sujal Nepal) leaves his bag for a night at the writer's home. Suspicious, the writer checks the contents of the bag only to find an old manuscript which contains 11 short stories. As Dharabasi starts reading, he is transported to Nepal of the 18th century. We are introduced to a young Ghanashyam who lives with his mother Kanchhi (Garima Panta) and his ailing father (Deepak Chhetri). After her husband passes away, Kanchhi's life becomes a nightmare. Expected to sacrifice herself on the funeral pyre, Kanchhi enters almost a daze like state and goes from being a strong-willed, loving mother to a helpless widow. As she prepares herself for the ceremony and Ghanashyam comes to terms with being orphaned, the anguish of both mother and son becomes palpable on screen. While expertly depicting the pain of the protagonists, director Yadav Kumar Bhattarai also explores the tender relationship between a mother and a son. Perhaps the best two lines in the movie are delivered by the sister-in-law who sums up the audiences' thoughts when she says: "Why is it that only a woman has to sacrifice her life when a man dies, why can't he do the same ... And why is it acceptable for a man to marry for the second time" Although the Sati system was abolished decades ago, Jhola is still relevant to today's Nepal where, unfortunately, cases of sexual harassment, violence against women, trafficking remain all too common.

Tamas (1987)

AKA:
Darkness

Synopsis:
Tamas ( Darkness) (1987) is a period television film directed by Govind Nihalani, based on the Hindi novel of the same name written by Bhisham Sahni (1974), which won the author the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1975.

The film was first shown on India's national broadcaster Doordarshan as a mini-series and later as one-off 4-hour-long feature film. It was also shown on History TV18 as a series in the month of August 2013.

The film is about the massacre and exodus of Sikh and Hindu families to India, in the backdrop of riot-stricken Pakistan, at the time of Partition of India in 1947. It shows a gruesome side of politics, and the compassionate side of humanity that survives any carnage.

Pre-Independence India, on the cusp of freedom; suspicion, pent-up ire, religious fervour fills the air, & then the unthinkable happens; a dead pig is found at the doorsteps of a mosque in, Jalalabad, propelling a frenzy of seamless violence that engulfs scores of Hindu, Muslim & Sikh lives in its ravages. In spite of the best efforts of the well meaning from the warring communities to salvage the situation the spark soon morphs into a huge, wild fire that claws into the fragile communal situation. Bestiality prevails as man slays man with all the ruthless energy in him. Tamas, throws light on how communal prejudice can scar generations of lives throwing them into a bottomless abyss of physical and psychological agony recovery from which is slow and excruciating.

Starring:
Om Puri
Deepa Sahi
Amrish Puri
Ila Arun
Surekha Sikri
Uttara Baokar
Others

Director: Govind Nihalani

Safe House (1998)

Synopsis:
A psychological thriller; Mace Sowell, an ex-intelligence operative and whose past government activities catches up with him, faces his own mortality, in the shape of the onset of Alzheimer's disease. Holding the electronic key to secret information which implicates a Presidential front-runner, Mace struggles for his life while battling the debilitating effects of the disease.

Starring:
Patrick Stewart, Kimberly Williams-Paisley, Hector Elizondo

Director: Eric Steven Stahl

Safe House (2012)

Synopsis:
A young CIA agent is tasked with looking after a fugitive in a safe house. But when the safe house is attacked, he finds himself on the run with his charge.

Starring:
Denzel Washington
Ryan Reynolds
Robert Patrick

Director: Daniel Espinosa

Ninja: Shadow of a Tear (2013)

Synopsis:
Ninjitsu master Casey is back and out for revenge when his pregnant wife is murdered.

Fight everyone and trust no one: it's the code of survival practiced by martial-arts master Casey Bowman after his life of domestic bliss is shattered by a savage act of violence. Vowing revenge, the fearless American stealthily tracks the killer from Osaka to Bangkok to Rangoon with the help of a wise and crafty sensei. His only clues: a series of victims whose necks bear the distinctive mark of strangulation by barbed wire. Fighting to avenge as well as to survive, Casey must sharpen his razor-like responses and take his battle skills to the next level, even using deep meditation to fake his own death. His target: the sinister drug lord Goro, who is flooding the streets with deadly meth cooked at his remote jungle factory. To prepare for his ultimate confrontation, Casey must finally become an invisible warrior worthy of the name Ninja. But just when his prey is cornered, an unexpected twist shows Casey that his battle is only beginning: he truly can trust no one.

Starring:
Scott Adkins
Kane Kosugi
Mika Hijii

Director: Isaac Florentine

Captive (2012)

Synopsis:
The movie was based on the 2001 Abu Sayyaf kidnapping of tourists from the Dos Palmas Resort in the province of Palawan. Two of the kidnap victims then were Martin and Gracia Burnham. Gracia survived her ordeal and wrote a book about her harrowing experiences entitled "In The Presence of My Enemies." I thought that acclaimed French actress Isabelle Huppert will be playing her, but it turned out that Ms. Huppert's central character of social worker Therese is fictional. Another Caucasian couple played minor characters who seemed to be based on the Burnhams.

Starring:
Isabelle Huppert
Katherine Mulville
Marc Zanetta

Director: Brillante Mendoza

Patrick (2013)

Synopsis:
When a young nurse begins work at an isolated psychiatric ward, she quickly becomes fascinated with Patrick, a brain dead patient who is the subject of a mad scientist's cruel and unusual experiments. What starts as an innocent fascination quickly takes a sinister turn as Patrick begins to use his psychic powers to manipulate her every move, and send her life into a terrifying spiral out of control.

Starring:
Charles Dance
Rachel Griffiths
Sharni Vinson

Director: Mark Hartley

Days and Nights (2014)

Synopsis:
Reckless desire wreaks havoc over Memorial Day weekend as a family confronts the volatile and fragile nature of love. Inspired by Anton Chekhov's "The Seagull," set in rural New England in 1984.

Starring:
Katie Holmes
William Hurt
Allison Janney

Director: Christian Camargo

The Dark Hour (2006)

Synopsis:
The eight years boy Jesús has been living in a crumbling underground facility since he was born with eight survivors of an apocalyptical war: the leader Maria and her lover Pablo; the gays Lucas and Mateo; the astronomer Magdalena and the teenager Ana; the soldier Pedro and the lonely Judas. They are permanently is state of surveillance, threatened by the contaminated mutants The Strangers and once a day they have to lock themselves in their rooms without heating to protect against the dangerous ghosts The Invisibles that attack in the Cold Hour. They cannot go to the surface, destroyed by a nuclear war. When they need supplies, medications and ammunitions, they organize expeditions to a store. When the menace of The Invisibles affects the safety of the group of survivors, they need to reach the surface.

Starring:
Silke
Omar Muñoz
Pepo Oliva

Director: Elio Quiroga

Captain Phillips (2013)

Synopsis:
Captain Phillips is a multi-layered examination of the 2009 hijacking of the U.S. container ship Maersk Alabama by a crew of Somali pirates. It is - through director Paul Greengrass's distinctive lens - simultaneously a pulse-pounding thriller, and a complex portrait of the myriad effects of globalization. The film focuses on the relationship between the Alabama's commanding officer, Captain Richard Phillips (two time Academy Award®-winner Tom Hanks), and the Somali pirate captain, Muse (Barkhad Abdi), who takes him hostage. Phillips and Muse are set on an unstoppable collision course when Muse and his crew target Phillips' unarmed ship; in the ensuing standoff, 145 miles off the Somali coast, both men will find themselves at the mercy of forces beyond their control.

Starring:
Tom Hanks
Barkhad Abdi
Barkhad Abdirahman

Director: Paul Greengrass

A Lonely Place to Die (2011)

 

Synopsis:
"A Lonely Place to Die" opens with a beautifully lensed rock-climbing scene with some fucking breathtaking landscape photography (from a low-budget of $4M).  Even being shot on a Red One Camera, the Scottish Highlands look gorgeous.  And the opening scene is a real nail-biter.  Alison (Melissa George) and Ed (Ed Speleers) prepare a leg of the climb with Rob (Alec Newman) waiting ahead.  Distracted, Ed falls when Rob draws the rope.  They eventually save Ed from dangling off a cliff and continue on their journey.  Cut to the opening credits playing over ballad “The Burning of Achindoun” while the camera features the Highlands in all of their long-shot natural glory.

On their way to camp, Alison informs Ed that “complacency is a killer out here,” meaning he needs to pay more attention on their next ascent.  They meet up with Jenny (Kate Magowan) and Alex (Gary Sweeney) and settle for a bit at a chateau.  Alison has a nightmarish flashback to the accident while taking a bath.  Later, the group plays cards.  The next day, on their way to a climb, they discover an air pipe sticking out of the ground.  After digging, they find little Serbian girl Anna (Holly Boyd) buried alive in a small confined space.  Rob decides to take Alison to scale a dangerous face in order to get help as quickly as possible.  He instructs the others to take a longer trail to the closest village.  During the climb down, a stranger cuts Rob’s rope mid-climb and he plummets to his death.  A minor avalanche also causes Alison to fall, but branches and a river landing save her.

She has a nightmare about waking up in the confined area they found the girl.  Two hunters (Douglas Russell, Alan Steele) watch the hiking group.  The two kidnappers Mr. Kidd (Sean Harris) and Mr. McRae (Stephen McCole) stumble across and murder the hunters, absconding with their weapons.  Andy (Eamonn Walker) drives Darko (Karel Roden) and Chris (Paul Anderson) to meet with the kidnappers.  The climbing team find Alison across a loud river and they experience trouble communicating.  The kidnappers start picking off the climbers.  Jenny is the first to go and she inadvertently drags Anna down with her into the river.  Alison receives a minor hit, knocking her into the water, but she manages to save Anna in the process.  They lose each other, but are reunited again when Ed grabs Anna to escape the kidnappers.  They also meet up with Alex, who chooses to run off with a decoy doll bundled up to look like Anna (where they found this doll is beyond me).  They shoot him like an animal.  As Alex slowly dies, Mr. Kidd enjoys his suffering for fooling them.  “Do you feel that?  That’s the price of your nobility.  It hurts, doesn’t it?”

Alison and Ed scale a small face with Anna.  Ed figures out that she is probably in the middle of a ransom situation.  Andy coaches Darko on how to conduct himself during the negotiations with Mr. Kidd.  When Darko expresses his doubts about receiving proper backup, Chris gets cheeky and chimes in, “We’re English, Darko.  We leave friendly fire to the Yanks."  During carnival (of all things) in the small town of Dingwall (?), Alison and Ed find a local police station.  But, there aren’t any officers available to help them, because they’re all on patrol at the festival.  Darko sits down with Mr. Kidd and refuses to pay until he sees Anna.  Mr. Kidd goes on to explain a botched kidnapping that occurred, because the parents tried to outsmart him.  The threatening scene is unnecessary for the characters, but the back-and-fourth bluffing between the two gentlemen buys Mr. McRae time to find Anna.

Ed convinces Alison to leave, because the officer doesn’t appear to be of much help, but the authority insists the pair must leave the girl in his custody.  Mr. McRae shoots the officer dead from outside the building and the electricity goes out.  The group escapes into the revelry and loudness of the fireworks.  A backup officer has been killed.  Mr. McRae emerges wearing a pig mask and shoots Ed, as well as another officer.  The females disperse and Mr. McRae continues to kill people, including innocent festival goers.  Andy finds the dying Ed and leaves him a gun to protect himself.  Alison and Anna find a house owner (Jamie Edgell) willing to let them in to his home.  Unfortunately, Alison doesn’t lock the door to even buy them a little time.  Mr. McRae shoots the man and takes off his piggy mask.  The house begins to burn.  After a few scuffles, Alison kills Mr. McRae and helps Anna escape from an upstairs window.  Fireman save the injured Alison.  Apparently, Mr. Kidd makes off with the money, though we never see how things ended with Darko.  Andy crashes through Mr. Kidd’s vehicle and beats the living shit out of him.  Darko observes Alison being wheeled off to the hospital with Anna at her side and a police officer (Gillian MacGregor) in attendance.

Darko and Andy meet with some Serbs, one of which is Anna’s father Mr. Rakovic (Mathew Zajac).  Mr. Kidd is brought to his feet and ordered to die.  Mr. Rakovic informs Andy that he wired a payment to his account.  The Serbs begin to bury Mr. Kidd.  Roll End Credits.

Starring:
Alec Newman
Ed Speleers
Melissa George

Director: Julian Gilbey