21st Century Cinema

21st Century Cinema

121 Episodes

Explore the best of contemporary cinema from around the world.

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21st Century Cinema
  • Lady of the Night

    Episode 1

    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.

  • Ala Kachuu – Take and Run

    Episode 2

    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 3

    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.

  • Invoking Justice

    Episode 4

    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...

  • Love in the Time of AIDS

    Episode 5

    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.

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

    Episode 6

    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 7

    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.

  • Mosonngoa

    Episode 8

    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.

  • Keane

    Episode 9

    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...

  • Successful Thawing of Mr. Moro

    Episode 10

    Directed by Jerry Carlsson • 2021 • Sweden
    Starring Richard Sseruwagi, Doreen Ndagire, Lisette Pagler

    When Mr. Moro finds out that his ex-partner Adrian, who has been cryogenically preserved for the past forty-three years, will be thawed and brought back to life, he must confront his complex fee...

  • The Clay Bird

    Episode 11

    Directed by Tareque Masud • 2002 • Bangladesh
    Starring Nurul Haque, Russell Farazi, Jayanto Chattopadhyay

    Set during the turbulent late-1960s period leading up to Bangladesh’s independence from Pakistan, this lyrical drama tells the story of a family torn apart by religion and war. Anu (Nurul Is...

  • The Village Detective: A Song Cycle

    Episode 12

    Directed by Bill Morrison • 2021 • United States
    Starring Gísli Fannar Gylfason, Erlendur Sveinsson, Peter Bagrov

    During the summer of 2016, a fishing boat off the shores of Iceland made a most curious catch: four reels of 35 mm film, seemingly of Soviet provenance. Unlike the film find explored...

  • Nina
    19:57
    Episode 13

    Nina

    Episode 13

    Directed by Hristo Simeonov • 2019 • Bulgaria
    Starring Plamena Stefanova, Margita Gosheva, Borislav Rusev-Bini

    With heartrending realism, this powerful portrait of a stolen childhood evokes the world of a young pickpocket who receives an unexpected chance to escape her desperate circumstances.

  • ABC Africa

    Episode 14

    Directed by Abbas Kiarostami • 2001 • Iran
    Starring Abbas Kiarostami, Seifollah Samadian

    In 2000, Abbas Kiarostami traveled to Africa at the request of the United Nations to document a humanitarian crisis unfolding in Uganda, where 1.5 million children had been orphaned by civil war and AIDS. Wo...

  • Masquerade

    Episode 15

    Directed by Olive Nwosu • United Kingdom, Nigeria • 2021
    Starring Teniola Aladese, Sheila Chukwulozie, Loveth Onyemaobi

    Salewa (Sheila Chukwulozie), a young queer woman living with her wife in London, returns to her hometown in Nigeria for her mother’s funeral. There, she confronts her complex f...

  • A New Year

    Episode 16

    Directed by George Sikharulidze • 2018 • Georgia
    Starring Eka Demetradze, Giorgi Bandzeladze, Demetre Gratiashvili

    In this poignantly understated portrait of everyday resilience, a mother and son face a difficult holiday season when the patriarch of the household announces he is leaving to join ...

  • Marx Can Wait

    Episode 17

    Directed by Marco Bellocchio • 2021 • Italy
    Starring Marco Bellocchio, Alberto Bellocchio, Pier Giorgio Bellocchio

    1968 was the year Camillo died. Nearly fifty years after the death of his twin brother at the age of twenty-nine, acclaimed director Marco Bellocchio (FISTS IN THE POCKET) gathers h...

  • Tattoo
    15:15
    Episode 18

    Tattoo

    Episode 18

    Directed by Farhad Delaram • 2019 • Iran
    Starring Behdokht Valian, Alireza Sanifar, Anahita Eghbalnejad

    A young Iranian woman attempting to renew her driver’s license is plunged into a menacing bureaucratic limbo when officials begin questioning her about her tattoos.

  • All the Crows in the World

    Episode 19

    Directed by Tang Yi • 2021 • Hong Kong
    Starring Chen Xuanyu, Xue Baohe

    Winner of the Palme d’Or for best short film at Cannes, this blissfully bonkers, neon-drenched odyssey follows a teenage girl as she embarks on an irreverent night of adventure—complete with surreal dance numbers and queer ro...

  • Celluloid Man

    Episode 20

    Directed by Shivendra Singh Dungarpur • 2012 • India
    Starring P. K. Nair, Krzysztof Zanussi, Lester James Peries

    An engaging, heartfelt look at one man’s battle to preserve his nation’s cinematic heritage, CELLULOID MAN is an intimate portrait of legendary Indian archivist P. K. Nair, who founde...

  • Bad Night for the Blues

    Episode 21

    Directed by Chris Shepherd • 2010 • United Kingdom

    It’s a holiday to remember—or not—when a young man joins his dotty elderly aunt for a Christmas party at her local Conservative Club, where the wine is flowing, the bingo is heated, and the cracks in the genteel facade start to show.

  • The Headhunter’s Daughter

    Episode 22

    Directed by Don Josephus Raphael Eblahan • 2022 • Philippines
    Starring Ammin Acha-ur, Pablo Quintos

    This sublime winner of the Short Film Grand Jury Prize at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival follows Lynn (Ammin Acha-ur), who leaves her family’s remote home behind to traverse the harrowing roads o...

  • Cane Fire

    Episode 23

    Directed by Anthony Banua-Simon • 2020 • United States

    The Hawaiian island of Kauaʻi is seen by many as a paradise of leisure and pristine natural beauty, but these escapist fantasies obscure the colonial displacement, hyperexploitation of workers, and destructive environmental extraction that h...

  • Clara sola

    Episode 24

    Directed by Nathalie Álvarez Mesén • 2021 • Sweden, Costa Rica
    Starring Wendy Chinchilla Araya, Ana Julia Porras Espinoza, Daniel Castañeda Rincón

    This revelatory first feature from Nathalie Álvarez Mesén is a mesmerizing portrait of a woman in the process of taking ownership of her body and sel...