21st Century Cinema
121 Episodes
Explore the best of contemporary cinema from around the world.
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13:45Episode 1
Lady of the Night
Episode 1
Directed by Marin Håskjold • 2017 • Norway
Starring Jonas Strand Gravli, Sverre KvammeThe 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.
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38:27Episode 2
Ala Kachuu – Take and Run
Episode 2
Directed by Maria Brendle • 2020 • Kyrgyzstan, Switzerland
Starring Alina Turdumamatova, Nurbek Esengazy Uulu, Madina TalipbekNineteen-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 ...
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12:45Episode 3
Behemoth: or the Game of God
Episode 3
Directed by Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese • 2016 • Lesotho, Germany
Starring Tseko MonahengA preacher walks the streets of Lesotho’s capital, Maseru, dragging a mysterious coffin whose contents elicit unexpected—and unscripted—reactions from passersby.
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1:26:30Episode 4
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...
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46:50Episode 5
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.
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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...
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11:30Episode 7
The Couple Next Door
Episode 7
Directed by Abbesi Akhamie • 2020 • United States
Starring Baboucarr Camara, Ellie Foumbi, Jennifer TchiakpeA single woman’s feelings of loneliness begin to stir when an eccentric African couple moves in to her building.
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Mosonngoa
Episode 8
Directed by Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese • 2014 • Lesotho
Starring Siphiwe Nzima-Ntskhe, Masele Tokane, Chaka Phehlamarole KhalecheneLemohang Jeremiah Mosese made this narrative short film in 2014, inspired by the real-life legend of Lesotho’s only known female stick fighter.
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Keane
Episode 9
Directed by Lodge Kerrigan • 2004 • United States
Starring Damian Lewis, Abigail Breslin, Amy RyanLodge 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...
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14:08Episode 10
Successful Thawing of Mr. Moro
Episode 10
Directed by Jerry Carlsson • 2021 • Sweden
Starring Richard Sseruwagi, Doreen Ndagire, Lisette PaglerWhen 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...
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1:35:19Episode 11
The Clay Bird
Episode 11
Directed by Tareque Masud • 2002 • Bangladesh
Starring Nurul Haque, Russell Farazi, Jayanto ChattopadhyaySet 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...
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1:20:55Episode 12
The Village Detective: A Song Cycle
Episode 12
Directed by Bill Morrison • 2021 • United States
Starring Gísli Fannar Gylfason, Erlendur Sveinsson, Peter BagrovDuring 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...
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Nina
Episode 13
Directed by Hristo Simeonov • 2019 • Bulgaria
Starring Plamena Stefanova, Margita Gosheva, Borislav Rusev-BiniWith 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.
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1:27:32Episode 14
ABC Africa
Episode 14
Directed by Abbas Kiarostami • 2001 • Iran
Starring Abbas Kiarostami, Seifollah SamadianIn 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...
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14:55Episode 15
Masquerade
Episode 15
Directed by Olive Nwosu • United Kingdom, Nigeria • 2021
Starring Teniola Aladese, Sheila Chukwulozie, Loveth OnyemaobiSalewa (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...
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13:58Episode 16
A New Year
Episode 16
Directed by George Sikharulidze • 2018 • Georgia
Starring Eka Demetradze, Giorgi Bandzeladze, Demetre GratiashviliIn 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 ...
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1:34:43Episode 17
Marx Can Wait
Episode 17
Directed by Marco Bellocchio • 2021 • Italy
Starring Marco Bellocchio, Alberto Bellocchio, Pier Giorgio Bellocchio1968 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...
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Tattoo
Episode 18
Directed by Farhad Delaram • 2019 • Iran
Starring Behdokht Valian, Alireza Sanifar, Anahita EghbalnejadA 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.
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14:47Episode 19
All the Crows in the World
Episode 19
Directed by Tang Yi • 2021 • Hong Kong
Starring Chen Xuanyu, Xue BaoheWinner 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...
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2:36:39Episode 20
Celluloid Man
Episode 20
Directed by Shivendra Singh Dungarpur • 2012 • India
Starring P. K. Nair, Krzysztof Zanussi, Lester James PeriesAn 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...
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16:49Episode 21
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.
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15:45Episode 22
The Headhunter’s Daughter
Episode 22
Directed by Don Josephus Raphael Eblahan • 2022 • Philippines
Starring Ammin Acha-ur, Pablo QuintosThis 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...
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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...
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1:46:49Episode 24
Clara sola
Episode 24
Directed by Nathalie Álvarez Mesén • 2021 • Sweden, Costa Rica
Starring Wendy Chinchilla Araya, Ana Julia Porras Espinoza, Daniel Castañeda RincónThis 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...