Please Note: (MPA) Film Rating: NC-17.

Film: Memories of Murder (2003) - South Korea

Language: Korean with English subtitles

Director: Bong Joon Ho / Screenplay: Bong Joon Ho, based on the play by Kwang-rim Kim

Cast: Song Kang-ho, Kim Sang-Kyeung, Kim Roe-ha, Song Jae-ho, Byun Hee-Bong

Memories of Murder is a South Korean neo-noir crime thriller film based on the 1996 play Come to See Me. In the film, detectives Park Doo-man (Song) and Seo Tae-yoon (Kim) lead an investigation into a string of rapes and murders taking place in the late 1980s. The film is based on the real life serial murders. It is also inspired by detective fiction and elements of Bong's personal life.

It has received numerous awards and nominations, and is widely considered one of the greatest films of the 21st. Century!

A tense old-school crime story with a dark edge. This fictionalized but daring and nuanced film is about the investigation of the man reported to be South Korea's first serial killer.The film raises some troublesome questions about the nature of justice and the fallibility of investigative police methods before DNA testing. A refreshingly mature thriller that succeeds in its ambitious attempt to blend comedy and drama...

When a series of brutal murders begin in a South Korean village an inexperienced detective is completely overwhelmed. No one in the police department seems to have any idea what to do and the screenplay, without exaggerated comedy or melodrama, captures how investigations can be bungled not so much through ineptitude but by something closer to apathy...

Film: Theeb (2014) - Jordan

Language: Arabic & Turkish with English subtitles

Director: Naji Abu Nowar

Screenplay: Naji Abu Nowar & Bassel Ghandour

Awards: Academy Award Nomination: Best Foreign Language Film

Cast: Jacir Eid Al-Hwietat, Hassan Mutlag Al-Maraaiyeh, Hussein Salameh Al-Sweilhiyeen, Jack Fox, Marjji Audeh

A coming-of-age story about a Bedouin boy who must survive in the wide-open Wadi Rum desert in Jordan.

While war rages in the Ottoman Empire, two brothers grow up in a traditional Bedouin community that is isolated by the vast, unforgiving desert. Their quiet existence is suddenly interrupted when a British Army officer and his guide ask the older brother to escort them to a water well along the old pilgrimage route to Mecca. While he agrees to lead them on the long and treacherous journey his younger, mischievous brother, Theeb, secretly chases after them. They soon find themselves trapped in the midst of a threatening terrain riddled by Ottoman mercenaries, Arab revolutionaries, and outcast Bedouin raiders.

Hypnotic story beautifully captures the sprawling emptiness of the desert and its chilly, inhumane beauty while depicting the changing way of life in the desert.

• In collaboration with Alliance Francais d'Islamabad

Film: Mustang (2015) - a Turkey / France film.

Language: Turkish with English subtitles

Director: Denis Gamze Ergüven

Screenplay: Denis Gamze Ergüven & Alice Winocaur

Awards: Academy Award Nomination: Best Foreign Language Film

Cast: Günes Sensoy, Doga Zeynap Doguslu, Tugba Sunguroglu, Elir Esclan, Ilayda Akdogan

The film is a fearless celebration of womanhood and a timely exploration of patriarchy and conservatism.

Set at an unspecified time in the 2010s in a remote Turkish village, Mustang depicts the lives of five young orphaned sisters and the challenges they face growing up with extended family as girls in a conservative society.

The sisters begin their summer break from school by frolicking at the beach with their male classmates while walking home. Their alarmed guardians - grandmother and uncle -sequester the girls in a systematic campaign to break their unity and tame them into traditional female roles. They are locked up behind closed doors and potentially corrupting influences like computers and phones are removed, and they are outfitted in shapeless dung-colored frump dresses for rare outings in the village. The girls are given instruction by local women in traditional cooking and homemaking as their grandmother sets out to arrange marriages for each of them. The girls' instinct for survival and self-preservation kicks in as they strike back against their enforced captivity binding them even closer together.

The story's quiet power comes from its sensitive observation of the characters as normal, emancipated young modern women with healthy desires and curiosities, whose supposed transgressions are imagined and then magnified in the judgemental minds of others.

• In collaboration with Alliance Francais d'Islamabad.

Film: L'insulte / The Insult (2017) - Lebanon / France

Language: Arabic with English subtitles

Director: Ziad Doueri / Screenplay: Ziad Doueri & Joelle Touma

Awards: Academy Award Nomination: Best Foreign Language Film

Adel Karam, Kamel El Basha, Camille Salameh, Diamand Abou Abboud, Rita Hayek

The film was nominated for an Oscar, the first from Lebanon.

A powerful film is inspired by the Lebanese Civil War, it speaks a universal truth about humans who- in the absence of a sense of closure- are unable to control their political hatred and prejudice which continues to grow and fester in their souls. The film also shows the positive and modern emergence of empowered womanhood in the mainly patriarchal Middle East.

The story, set in Beirut, could apply to any neighborhood of the globe dealing with prejudice and hatred. A minor altercation between two men - a Christian and a Palestinian refugee - escalates gradually from a single slur (the "insult") to a physical assault to more heated words involving racial prejudice which result in two heated court sessions. The matter then moves from physical skirmishes between people attending the trial to outright riots in the streets of Beirut. The high profile trial becomes less about the insult and bodily injury and more about a nation in the grip of a deep rooted morass gestating within like a festering wound which erupts time and again with violence.

Although the film has a rather simplistic ending - imploring to move on and find a way to make mutually respectable peace and not allow wounds to fester - it still manages to provide good drama and an important message nonetheless.

• In collaboration with Alliance Francais d' Islamabad

Director: James Ivory / Screenplay: Ruth Prawar Jhabvalla - based on her book.

Awards: British Academy Award: Adapted Screenplay

Cast: Julie Christie, Greta Scacchi, Shashi Kapoor, Christopher Cazenove, Nickolas Grace, Jennifer Kendal, Julian Glover, Susan Fleetwood, Madhur Jaffrey, Zakir Hussain, Ratna Pathak Shah, Patrick Godfrey, Barry Foster.

Heat and Dust is a 1983 British historical romantic drama film with a screenplay by Ruth Prawaer Jhabvala based on her novel by the same name (written in 1975). The film formed part of a cycle of productions which emerged during the first half of the 1980s, reflecting Britain's growing interest in the British Raj. It moves effortlessly between the past and the present examining two very different women both of whom ultimately take the same route.

In 1982, an Englishwoman named Anne (Julie Christie) begins an investigation into the fate of her great-aunt Olivia (Greta Scacchi) whose letters and the diary she has inherited. Anne's search brings her to India, where the story of Olivia's life is told in flashbacks. The plot follows two intertwined stories. The first is set in British India of the 1920s, and deals with an illicit affair between Olivia, the beautiful young wife of a British Colonial official, and an Indian Nawab. The second, set in 1982, deals with Anne, Olivia's great-niece, who travels to India, hoping to find out about her great-aunt's life, and while there, gets involved herself with a married Indian man…

The Merchant-Ivory team - American director James Ivory and Bombay born producer Ismail Merchant - bring Ruth Prawer Jhabvala's "Booker" prize winning novel to the big screen. An impecably produced film with superb costumes, sets, a memorable score by Richard Robbins and dazzling cinematography by Walter Lassally.This was Merchant-Ivory's first film made on a lavish scale (though on a still fairly limited budget) and proved to be a springboard in helping them on to bigger budgets and far more acclaim with their adaptations of Henry James, E. M. Forster, Evan S. Connell, Edward Albee and Kazuo Ishiguro- all of which soon followed this success.

The Impossible (2012) - Thailand / USA

Director: J. A. Bayona / Screenplay: Sergio G. Sánchez & María Belón

Awards: Academy Award Nomination: Best Actress (Naomi Watts)

Cast: Naomi Watts, Ewan McGregor, Tom Holland, Samuel Joslin, Marta Etura, Oaklee Pendergast

An emotionally realistic film, it is extremely compelling in its epic recreation of the catastrophic Indian Ocean 'Tsunami' -that hit Thailand the day after Christmas in 2004...one of the worst natural disasters in history.

The screenplay charts the true story of a British couple (Ewan McGregor & Naomi Watts) and their three sons (Tom Holland, Oaklee Pendergast and Samuel Joslin) who arrive to spend their Christmas vacation at a peaceful beach resort.

Their idyllic holiday is shattered when a Tsunami hits the resort. In the chaos of the giant wave and swirling waters the family gets separated. The mother and her eldest son are swept away by the waves and she is seriously injured by debris. They manage to find their way to a makeshift hospital where her injuries almost prove fatal and she has to be operated upon.Meanwhile her husband and their other two sons manage to survive the onslaught. He puts the two young boys in the care of a family and goes in search of his wife and son...

Will the family be reunited or is tragedy in store for them as it proved to be for tbousands of victims?

Director: Yimou Zhang

Screenplay: Zhihong Bian, Yimou Zhang  & Nan Wu

Academy Award Nomination:Best Costume Design

Cast: Chow Yun-Fat, Gong Li, Jay Chou, Ye Liu, Dahong Li, Man Li

If you like to be dazzled, this movie is your treat. The music and script richly augment the drama. The artworks are endless mosaics without repeating. This is China in all the pageantry, in an age before the ages. Everything is in accordance with physical laws, while mystery and intrigue are the principal game...

‘The Curse of the Golden Flower’ was the most opulent, visually astonishing film to grace movie theatres . It fused high drama and romantic intrigue with the best of contemporary martial arts. Set in the lavish and breathtakingly colorful world hidden from the eyes of mere mortals, a tale of a royal family divided against itself builds to a mythic climax as lines are crossed, trust is betrayed, and family blood is spilled in the quest for redemption and revenge...

Set in the late 10th century, during China’s 10th. Century Tang Dynasty, Curse of the Golden Flower follows the complex and tragic power struggles that occur within the Forbidden City.

The Emperor (Chow Yun-Fat), who has just returned in time for the annual Chrysanthemum Festival, rules both the palace and his family with an iron fist and unpredictable will. The Empress (Gong Li) chafes under the Emperor’s disdainful, patronizing authority, as their marriage is a purely political one. What’s more, she’s afflicted with a strange ailment that, despite the constant attention of her husband’s physician, has suddenly grown worse.

The Emperor’s three sons by his previous wife only add to the strife. The oldest son, Crown Prince Wan (Liu Ye), is in line to succeed his father, though he is little in the way of a ruler. He yearns to be free of the palace and his father’s rule, as well as the attention of the Empress, with whom he has had an illicit affair. The middle son, Jai (Jay Chou), seems to be the Emperor’s favorite, having served many years in the military, but his close relationship with the Empress clouds his loyalties. The youngest son, Yu (Qin Junjie), is on the cusp of manhood, and seems completely oblivious to all of the familial turmoil surrounding him...

As the Chrysanthemum Festival approaches, and the multitudes of palace staff busy themselves with the preparations, the pressure and hatred continues to heat up within the family’s quarter. The Empress’s condition continues to worsen until a mysterious spy confirms her worst suspicions: the Emperor has slowly been poisoning her, ostensibly so that he can remove her influence from the palace and gain her family’s wealth and power. Realizing her back is up against the wall, the Empress begins to plot her move against the seemingly omnipresent Emperor, whose eyes, ears, and assassins are in every corner of the country. But what of the princes? Who will side with her, and who will betray her? And who is the mysterious woman who alerted her to the poison?

Duration: 1 hr 54 min

Director: Mira Nair

Screenplay: Sabrina Dhawan

Award: Venice Film Festival: Best Picture Golden Lion Award

Cast: Naseeruddin Shah, Lillete Dubey, Shefali Shah, Vijay Raaz, Tillotama Shome, Vasundhara Das, Parvin Dabas, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Rajat Kapoor, Randeep Hooda, Roshan Seth,Soni Razdan, Ram Kapoor & Renuka

Monsoon wedding is an International co production invoving production companies from several countries.Though shot on location in Delhi , it can be considered an Indo-US-French-Dutch Co-Production reflecting its diverse funding and production sources.

Mira Nair plunges the audience straight into the joys and chaos of a Subcontinent wedding where things get tense among the family members when hidden agendas, secrets, and fears threaten to cause disruption and destroy family relationships for good.

Set in present day Delhi, this comedy-drama focuses on the Punjabi Verma family – led by the harassed father (Naseeruddin Shah) and mother (Lillete Dubey) - who are about to celebrate their daughter's marriage. With days to go, the final preparations are chaotically put in place amidst the arrival of the extended family.

The main theme is the healing power of unconditional love- the struggle between modern and traditional ways is one of the primary undercurrents ...the director cleverly uses the wedding as a guide to examine the stresses and strains that families can face- based in any part of the world!

Mira Nair directs with unflagging energy, style and pizzazz, periodically whisking her crew out into the teeming streets for external locations and using the real-life crowds as a seamlessly integrated real backdrop for her family drama. The screen is filled with blooming marigolds, blossoming romances... but every time "Monsoon Wedding" starts to seem candy-coated, Nair mixes romantic optimism and conflict, with the movie mirroring the violent weather season during which it is set...

• In collaboration with Alliance Francaise

Director/ Screen Play: Celine Song

Awards: Academy Award Nominations: Best Picture, Original Screenplay

Cast: Greta Lee, Teo Yoo, John Magaro, Moon Seung-ah, Leem Seung-min, Yun Ji-hye

'The Korean belief of "in-yeon" says if you meet someone- even briefly- it means you also met in a past life, and lovers are people who have met over and over in their past lives...'

A boy and a girl- 12-year old school friends in South Korea- develop a crush on each other. However, she immigrates to Canada with her parents and they lose touch with each other. Twelve years later - she (Greta Lee) is living in New York while he (Teo Yoo) has finished military school. By chance they reconnect via Facebook and start chatting on Skype- although after sometime- feeling her focus on becoming a writer is waning, she suggests they move on with their lives...

Time goes by and she is now a playwright married to a Jewish-American writer (John Magaro), while he is in China learning Mandarin, and with a girlfriend. He visits New York on the pretext of a vacation, but in reality to meet her. They connect again, and she eventually introduces him to her husband . During a conversation, the three characters each discover what the universe planned for them, and what plans it has for their future...

A deeply felt humane film, it has deep currents running through each layer ,which first-time director Celine Song presents in a very simple matter-of-fact manner. The perceptive screenplay focuses on how culture plays such a huge role in a person's psyche. The superbly shot film has many moments captured during the outdoors in New York ,as well as in the end at the restaurant ,where the camera placement captures the three characters in both isolation ,as well as with a strong sense of intimacy...

• In collaboration with Alliance Francaise

'Baaji' -

Director: Saqib Malik

Rating: Adults Only (no one under 18 allowed)

Screenplay: Irfan Ahmed Urfi

Cast: Meera, Amna Ilyas, Osman Khalid Butt, Ali Kazmi, Nisho, Mohsin Abbas Haider, Nayyar Ejaz, Mehwish Hayat, Aamir Qureshi, Angeline Malik, Ali Azmat, Mustafa Qureshi, Humayun Saeed, Sania Saeed

Irfan Ahmed Urfi's female-centric screenplay revolves around the relationship between two very different women who bond as friends but jealousy and intrigue shatters their friendship resulting in tragedy..every dream has a price !

A poor but ambitious young woman (Amna Ilyas) -from the 'other side of the tracks' (the old city in Lahore)- by chance becomes an assistant to a glamorous movie queen (Meera) whose popularity is seriously on the wane.

Desperate to regain her position as star, she accepts an offer as the leading lady in a film by a hot new director (Osman Khalid Butt) just returned from America. Both women fall for him leading to a love triangle that wrings itself into a frenzy of lust, longing, desire, treachery and ultimately murder.

Amna Ilyas gives a superbly nuanced performance balancing her two very different lives - as the poor woman living in a cramped house in the old city, who transforms into a confident do-gooder thanks to her new job as friend, confidante and advisor to her rich benefactress ,while living in a huge modern mansion. Lollywood star Meera, making a comeback on the big screen, easily captures the star quality of a famous screen diva, as she moves stealthily across the screen stunningly dressed in high fashion. The entire cast - many appearing in small cameo parts - provide superb support to the two main characters. The film incorporates two memorable classic songs - ''Yeh Aaj Mujh Ko Kya Hua'' & ''Oh, Don't be Silly' - giving them a modern upbeat tempo.

The film's most memorable moment comes during the rap ''item'' number - ''Gangster Guriya'' - danced by actress-singer Mehwish Hayat, while many famous Pakistani celebrities from the world of fashion, music, television and cinema make cameo appearances.

Saqib Malik, a long-time movie buff and a successful director of music videos, makes his celebrated debut as a film director. The plot incorporates many vivid movie-going memories from past films and superbly placed contemporary Pakistani pop culture. The film has been recognised at numerous International film festivals and some of the top Award platforms in Pakistan.

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