21st Century Cinema

21st Century Cinema

125 Episodes

Explore the best of contemporary cinema from around the world.

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21st Century Cinema
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    Episode 1

    Directed by Ursula Meier • 2008 • France
    Starring Isabelle Huppert, Olivier Gourmet, Adélaïde Leroux

    This mesmerizing fable of modern family life stars Isabelle Huppert as Marthe, a happy-go-lucky mother whose family enjoys an idyllic existence in their isolated, ramshackle home, which edges ont...

  • Orthodontics

    Episode 2

    Directed by Mohammadreza Mayghani • 2021 • Iran
    Starring Maryam Hossieni, Yas Farkhonde, Arezou Aali

    Confined by her orthodontic headwear, an alienated teenage girl seeks release through a series of transgressions in this surreally stylized vision of adolescent ennui giving way to shocking rebel...

  • Bleue

    Episode 3

    Directed by Ornella Pacchioni • 2021 • France

    Thirteen-year-old Lucie is alone during the summer holidays when she meets a mysterious boy named Léo. Though she sees him as a remedy for her loneliness, strange events come to pass as they spend time together.

  • The Intruder

    Episode 4

    Directed by Claire Denis • 2005 • France
    Starring Grégoire Colin, Béatrice Dalle, Florence Loiret Caille

    Rich, strange, and tantalizingly enigmatic, Claire Denis’s uncanny odyssey is a mesmeric sensory experience that haunts like a half-remembered dream. Inspired by a book by philosopher Jean-Lu...

  • Who I Am and What I Want

    Episode 5

    Directed by Chris Shepherd and David Shrigley • 2005 • United Kingdom
    Starring Kevin Eldon

    Appropriately crude hand-drawn animation evokes the manic rantings and ramblings of a singularly self-deluded man.

  • Spring Blossom

    Episode 6

    Directed by Suzanne Lindon • 2021 • France
    Starring Suzanne Lindon, Arnaud Valois, Florence Viala

    The delicate, beautifully observed debut feature from writer-director-star Suzanne Lindon is the rare tale of adolescent romantic awakening to be told from the perspective of an actual teenager. Lin...

  • Loving Highsmith

    Episode 7

    Directed by Eva Vitija • 2022 • Germany, Switzerland
    Starring Gwendoline Christie, Annina Butterworth, Marijane Meaker

    The life and work of celebrated American writer Patricia Highsmith are revealed through her diaries and notebooks and the intimate reflections of her lovers, friends, and family...

  • Lady of the Night

    Episode 8

    Directed by Marin Håskjold • 2017 • Norway
    Starring Jonas Strand Gravli, Sverre Kvamme

    The dynamics between friends are challenged when Martin arrives at a Christmas party wearing a dress. As hidden desires come forth, the evening becomes an exploration of gender roles.

  • In Another Country

    Episode 9

    Directed by Hong Sang-soo • 2012 • South Korea
    Starring Isabelle Huppert, Yu Jun-sang, Jung Yu-mi

    Legendary French actress Isabelle Huppert stars in the first English-language film from South Korean master Hong Sang-soo. In a triptych of overlapping stories, three different French women—a filmma...

  • Ala Kachuu – Take and Run

    Episode 10

    Directed by Maria Brendle • 2020 • Kyrgyzstan, Switzerland
    Starring Alina Turdumamatova, Nurbek Esengazy Uulu, Madina Talipbek

    Nineteen-year-old Sezim wants to fulfill her dream of studying in the Kyrgyz capital when she is kidnapped by a group of young men, taken to the hinterlands, and forced ...

  • Behemoth: or the Game of God

    Episode 11

    Directed by Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese • 2016 • Lesotho, Germany
    Starring Tseko Monaheng

    A preacher walks the streets of Lesotho’s capital, Maseru, dragging a mysterious coffin whose contents elicit unexpected—and unscripted—reactions from passersby.

  • Abuse of Weakness

    Episode 12

    Directed by Catherine Breillat • 2013 • France
    Starring Isabelle Huppert, Kool Shen, Laurence Ursino

    Inspired by director Catherine Breillat’s real-life experiences, ABUSE OF WEAKNESS is a daring exploration of power and sex from a director fearlessly confronting her own demons. Isabelle Huppert...

  • Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

    Episode 13

    Directed by Ang Lee • 2000 • Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, United States
    Starring Chow Yun-fat, Michelle Yeoh, Zhang Ziyi

    Two master warriors (Chow Yun-fat and Michelle Yeoh) are faced with their greatest challenge when the treasured Green Destiny sword is stolen. A young aristocrat (Zhang Ziyi) pre...

  • Invoking Justice

    Episode 14

    Directed by Deepa Dhanraj • 2011 • India

    In Southern India, many family disputes are settled by Jamaats—all-male bodies that apply Islamic Sharia law to cases without allowing women to be present, even to defend themselves. Recognizing this fundamental inequity, a group of women in 2004 establis...

  • Boy and the World

    Episode 15

    Directed by Alê Abreu • 2013 • Brazil
    Starring Vinicius Garcia, Lu Horta, Marco Aurélio Campos

    Brazilian artist Alê Abreu’s vibrant, Academy Award–nominated animated adventure is a riotous explosion of music and color that depicts the wonders and struggles of the modern world as seen through the...

  • Love in the Time of AIDS

    Episode 16

    Directed by Deepa Dhanraj • 2006 • India

    LOVE IN THE TIME OF AIDS follows a group of kothis (gay men who identify as femme) in Belgaum, a small city in Karnataka, and traces their stories of love, desire, and ostracization, as well as their work with an NGO that promotes safe-sex practices.

  • Things to Come

    Episode 17

    Directed by Mia Hansen-Løve • 2016 • France, Germany
    Starring Isabelle Huppert, André Marcon, Roman Kolinka

    What happens when the life you’ve worked so hard to build falls apart all at once? Nathalie (a radiant Isabelle Huppert) is a philosophy teacher with a seemingly settled existence, jugglin...

  • Mother, I Am Suffocating. This Is My Last Film About You.

    Episode 18

    Directed by Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese • 2019 • Germany, Lesotho

    Part poetic essay, part documentary, this rapturous film by director Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese (THIS IS NOT A BURIAL, IT’S A RESURRECTION) analyzes the complexities of his relationship to his native country of Lesotho from his new hom...

  • The Couple Next Door

    Episode 19

    Directed by Abbesi Akhamie • 2020 • United States
    Starring Baboucarr Camara, Ellie Foumbi, Jennifer Tchiakpe

    A single woman’s feelings of loneliness begin to stir when an eccentric African couple moves in to her building.

  • So Late So Soon

    Episode 20

    Directed by Daniel Hymanson • 2020 • United States
    Starring Jackie Seiden, Don Seiden

    Half a century into their marriage, Chicago artists Jackie and Don Seiden approach the fragility of old age in their own distinct ways. Jackie, notorious for her unbounded energy, is constantly on the move, ins...

  • Mosonngoa

    Episode 21

    Directed by Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese • 2014 • Lesotho
    Starring Siphiwe Nzima-Ntskhe, Masele Tokane, Chaka Phehlamarole Khalechene

    Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese made this narrative short film in 2014, inspired by the real-life legend of Lesotho’s only known female stick fighter.

  • INAATE/SE/

    Episode 22

    Directed by Adam Khalil and Zack Khalil • 2016 • Canada, United States

    INAAT/SE/ reimagines an ancient Ojibway story, the Seven Fires Prophecy, which both predates and predicts first contact with Europeans. A kaleidoscopic experience blending documentary, narrative, and experimental forms, INAAT...

  • Keane

    Episode 23

    Directed by Lodge Kerrigan • 2004 • United States
    Starring Damian Lewis, Abigail Breslin, Amy Ryan

    Lodge Kerrigan’s stunningly immersive portrait of a father in crisis is one of the most searing and unforgettable independent films of the early 2000s. William Keane (Damian Lewis in a tour-de-forc...

  • The Task

    Episode 24

    Directed by Leigh Ledare • 2017 • United States

    Twenty-eight strangers shuffle into a nondescript room, where they sit down for day three of a radical social experiment orchestrated by taboo-breaking artist Leigh Ledare. Veering between brutal honesty, righteous indignation, manipulative cagines...