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WATCH ON CINEUROPA

Watch on Cineuropa: Never stop fighting - 10 films of hope and resilience that stunned Venice

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- Eager to revisit some of the best films unveiled in Venice during the past few years? Watch them on Cineuropa!

Watch on Cineuropa: Never stop fighting - 10 films of hope and resilience that stunned Venice
Pearl by Elsa Amiel

The oldest film festival in the world is fast approaching. While all other major fests of the past few months have either cancelled or rolled out digitally, Venice is moving ahead, and will celebrate its 77th edition in a couple of weeks. Never been to the Lido, and eager to soak in the festival’s magic? We got you covered: below, we’ve put together a list of ten films that stunned the festival in recent years, stories of hope and resilience that celebrate the importance of fighting for your dreams, no matter the odds. Sit down, and enjoy them on our pages!

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These titles are brought to you in partnership with eyelet (read the news), a streaming platform designed to give cinephiles around the world access to the very best in independent cinema. In conjunction with eyelet, we are now able to showcase films we’ve been reviewing over the years - titles you can stream and read about on Cineuropa. Stay tuned for the new movies coming your way soon!

Court

Chaitanya Tamhane will be one of the hottest names to look out for at the 77th Venice Film Festival, but this will be the Indian director’s second time on the Lido. In 2014, he nabbed the top prize in the Orizzonti sidebar with this devastating take on injustice and cast prejudice, featuring an old folk singer brought to court on farcical charges… here’s your chance to catch up with Tamhane’s debut feature, and one of the festival’s greatest surprises from the past few years.

Still Life

Jia Zhangke's entrancing fifth feature, winner of the 2006 Golden Lion, takes place around China’s monumental Three Gorges, where a town is being demolished and flooded to make room for the world's largest dam. A man and a woman struggle to locate their estranged spouses, and witness the seismic changes that landscape and community undergo around them.

Pearl [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Elsa Amiel
film profile
]

Only three days left before Léa Pearl will get to fight for the prestigious Miss Heaven title, a bodybuilding prize she’s trained all her life for. But when her past finally catches up with her in the shape of an estranged former lover and a son she’s never met, the fight takes on a whole new meaning.

Tom at the Farm [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]

Xavier Dolan claims he never watched any Hitchcock before he began directing, but this spellbinding psychodrama, where lies and grief and lust are all tied together, is worthy of a Master-of-Suspense top-tier thriller. A sexy and wildly entertaining entry in the filmography of Canada’s own enfant terrible.

Neon Bull [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]

In the arid, dusty steppe of northeastern Brazil, Gabriel Mascaro sets his sensual Neon Bull, a wondrous and stupefying take on the primal kinship between people and animals, where love surfaces as primal and raw as the landscape that surrounds us.

The Nightingale

One of the most violent films of the last few years is also one of the most ferocious studies of colonial horrors and racism. From the director of The Babadook comes The Nightingale, a nightmarish revenge tale set in 1820s Tasmania, where a young Irishwoman and an Aboriginal tracker seek justice for the unspeakable atrocities the British have committed against their families.

Theeb [+see also:
trailer
interview: Naji Abu Nowar
film profile
]

You won’t believe Theeb was Naji Abu Nowar’s debut feature, considering the exquisite commingling of pathos and atmosphere and the staggering performances from his largely non-professional cast, which grace this fulminating first effort with spell-binding mystery, beauty and adventure. A film that will remind you of the finest desert-set epics ever shot, and will keep you hypnotized until the very last shot.

The House by the Sea [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Robert Guédiguian
film profile
]

Ariane Ascaride teamed up with husband-director Robert Guédiguian for the 19th time in this wistful tale of three middle-aged siblings who return to their childhood home on the French Riviera to look after their bed-ridden father. A house is not a home, but in Guédiguian’s harrowing family story, it’s a dream worth fighting for.

Marguerite [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Xavier Giannoli
film profile
]

Marguerite has devoted her whole life to her passion: music. She sings, but always terribly out of tune. The many sycophants surrounding her have convinced her she’s a diva, a preternaturally talented soprano. But when a has-been divo decides to train Marguerite for her first recital in front of a crowd of strangers, the woman’s dream will be put to the test…

Metamorphoses [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Christophe Honoré
film profile
]

A high schooler is drawn into a world of gods in Christophe Honoré’s very audacious, very seductive adaptation of Ovid’s anthology of classical myths in which mortals are changed into plants and animals by deities. A fluid, engrossing hymn to freedom and transgression.

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