mwdw's - Rented List

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12-year-old gymnast, Tinja (Siiri Solalinna), is desperate to please her image-obsessed mother, whose popular blog presents their family's idyllic existence.

One day, after finding a wounded bird in the woods, Tinja brings its strange egg home, nestles it in her bed, and nurtures it until it hatches. The creature that emerges becomes her closest friend and a living nightmare, plunging Tinja beneath the impeccable veneer of her family and into a twisted reality that her mother refuses to see.

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Fallen Leaves is a timeless, hopeful and ultimately satisfying love story about two lonely souls' path to happiness - and the numerous hurdles they encounter along the way.

Set in contemporary Helsinki, and shot through with Kaurismaki's typically playful, idiosyncratic style and deadpan humor, this tender romantic tragicomedy is a timely reminder of the potency of movie-going from one of cinema's living legends.

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During the last desperate days of WWII, a solitary prospector (Jorma Tommila) crosses paths with Nazis on a scorched-earth retreat in northern Finland. When the Nazis steal his gold, they quickly discover that they have just tangled with no ordinary miner.

While there is no direct translation for the Finnish word "sisu", this legendary ex-commando will embody what sisu means: a white-knuckled form of courage and unimaginable determination in the face of overwhelming odds. And no matter what the Nazis throw at him, the one-man death squad will go to outrageous lengths to get his gold back – even if it means killing every last Nazi in his path.

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When her husband Samuel (Samuel Theis) is mysteriously found dead in the snow below their secluded chalet, Sandra (Sandra Hüller) becomes the main suspect when the police begin to question whether he fell or was pushed.

The trial soon becomes not just an investigation, but a gripping psychological journey into the depths of Sandra and Samuel's complicated marriage. With conflicting evidence and inconsistent testimony, words are wielded like weapons and shocking truths come to light...

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Examining the close bond shared by an elderly couple when one of them begins to suffer from an illness, Amour tells a heart-rending story of sacrifice, devotion and the limits that love can drive us to.

Amour is one of the most honest, intimate and deeply affecting portraits of love ever committed to film.

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Desperate to free herself from a loveless marriage, an Israeli woman named Viviane Amsalem files for divorce from her cruel and manipulative husband. But Israeli law and its Rabbinical court dictates that a divorce can only be granted under the husband's consent.

Determined to obtain her dignity and freedom Viviane finds herself fighting an epic and deeply dramatic psychological battle against a profoundly absurd legal system and her cold and calculating estranged husband.

The stand-out film of the 2011 Berlin Film Festival and winner of the Golden Bear is a suspenseful and intelligent drama that details the manipulations and confrontations brought into play when a couple's marriage painfully breaks down.

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Ex-con Alex (Johannes Krisch) spends his days working as an assistant in a Viennese brothel. It's here he meets Ukranian prostitute Tamara. Their desperate plans for escape and a new life unexpectedly clash with the the lives of a police office and his wife - with horrific results.

Spielmann creates a tense and surprising portrait of vengeance and redemption, and a journey into the darkest forests of human nature, in which violence and beauty exist side by side.

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The future looks promising for amateur actors Emad (Shahab Hosseini) and Rana (Taraneh Alidoosti) as they prepare for opening night on their production of Arthur Miller's 'Death of a Salesman'.

However, when dangerous work on a neighbouring building forces the couple to leave their home and move into a new apartment, a case of mistaken identity sees a shocking and violent incident throw their lives into turmoil. What follows is a series of wrong turns that threaten to destroy their relationship irreparably. Academy-Award winning filmmaker Asghar Farhadi (A Separation) returns with 'The Salesman', a characteristically taut drama exploring how unexpected cracks can form in the foundations of a seemingly happy marriage.

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This utterly compelling psychological thriller from Michael Haneke - one of cinema's most daring original and controversial directors - stars Daniel Auteuil as Georges, a television presenter who begins to receive mysterious and alarming packages containing covertly filmed videos of himself and his

family. To the mounting consternation of Georges and his wife (Juliette Binoche) the footage on the tapes - which arrive wrapped in drawings of disturbingly violent images - becomes increasingly personal, and sinister anonymous phone calls are made. Convinced he knows the identity of the person responsible, Georges embarks on a rash and impulsive course of action that throws up some unpleasant facts about his past and leads to shockingly unexpected consequences.

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When devout university student Nour (Shaden Kanboura) moves in with successful lawyer Laila (Mouna Hawa) and club DJ Salma (Sana Jammelieh), she is shocked by their lifestyle.

As Laila fights to retain her freedom in the face of a new relationship, Salma falls for beautiful trainee doctor Dounia (Ashlam Canaan), a romance she must hide from her family. Nour is set for an arranged marriage to Wissam, an exemplary member of the community who may not be as respectable as he appears. 'In Between' follows the lives of these strong, independent minded Palestinian-lsraeli women in Tel Aviv. Away from the constraints of their families and enforced tradition, they find themselves 'in between' the free and unfettered lives they aspire to lead and the restrictions imposed on them by a blinkered society. First-time director Maysaloun Hamoud's exhilarating depiction of the lives of 'liberated' Palestinian women in Israel earned her the first Palestinian fatwa in 70 years.

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In the business end of a kitchen, a polyglot staff strives to cope with a superhuman task.

A microcosm of the world, the kitchen looms around and encloses its workers; they include Peter (Carl Möhner), the German cook, who is in love with waitress Monica (Mary Yeomans), and constantly asks her to leave her husband. The pressure of the day becomes unendurable, and when Peter realises that Monica does not mean to divorce her husband his grief and pain cause him to run berserk!

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A vain sports reporter (Leon Niemczyk) and his beautiful but frustrated wife are on their way to the lake, for a days sailing, when they nearly run over a young hitch-hiker (Zygmunt Malanowicz).

The couple invite the hitch-hiker to join them on their boat which triggers a battle of wits between the two men as they jostle for superiority. But will the hitch hikers obession with his knife cause the tension to end in tragedy...

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Sao Paulo is an urban jungle, and a desperate father has lost his son... Theo (Wagner Moura) is living the good life in an upscale Brazilian neighbourhood; he is a hardworking doctor, husband, and father.

However, Theo has chosen his career over his family and his wife announces that she wants a divorce. Nothing could prepared him for the day he comes home to discover his 15-year-old-son, Pedro, has gone missing. Theo takes to the road in search of his son - a journey that leads him across Brazil, where will discover what truly matters to him. This film whisks us through the Sao Paulo nightscape - from swanky suburbs to shantytown slums. Theo embarks on a journey of discovery, exposing the realities of Brazil's population outside the realms of big cities and picture-perfect beaches.

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After failing to be admitted into the renowned Sao Paulo Symphonic Orchestra, talented violinist Laerte is forced to teach music in a public school in Heliopolis, the biggest and most violent slum of Brazil. There, Laerte experiences the brutal reality himself.

Little by little, he is able to gain the trust of the students and the community while he starts to give classes in a less conventional way, opening the doors to a new world.