Summary: A group of wealthy friends leaves Rome for a yachting trip to an island off the coast of Sicily. They loiter on the island coast while the boat is docked, and then they realise that their friend Anna has disappeared at some point during the day. After an unfocused search for her, they summon…
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A collection of high-quality academic essays.
Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner – Summary and Analysis
Summary: The story of Atanarjuat: the Fast Runner is based on an ancient Inuit legend that deals with the dangers of setting personal desires above the needs of a whole community. The film’s narrative unfolds at the dawn of the first millennium, when Atanarjuat is still an infant. Inside a large igloo, families have gathered…
L’Atalante: Summary and Analysis
Summary: Jean, a barge captain, marries Juliette in her rural village. The newlyweds depart for Paris to complete Jean’s cargo delivery. They are joined on the boat by Père Jules and ‘le gosse’, a cabin boy. Jean promises Juliette a night away from the monotony of the barge once they reach their destination. However, their…
Halfaouine: Child of the Terraces (Asfour Stah) – Summary and Analysis
Summary: With his mother’s agreement, 12-year old Noura, looking younger than his age, is still admitted to the women’s hammam in Halfaouine, a neighbourhood in Tunis. His older friends ask him to provide licentious details on the life in the hammam and on the bodies of the women taking baths there. On the day of…
Apocalypse Now: Summary and Analysis
Summary: Special Forces operative, Captain Willard, is given the task of journeying up the Mekong River during the Vietnam War to find and kill a US army officer, Colonel Kurtz, who has set up his own kingdom deep in the jungle where he is worshipped as a god by the local people. A series of…
Antonia’s Line: Summary and Analysis
Summary: A Dutch matron oversees a close-knit, matriarchal community where feminism and liberalism thrive. Analysis: Antonia’s Line won the Oscar for the best foreign language film of 1995, the first film by a female director ever to accomplish this feat. The woman in question was the Dutch filmmaker Marleen Gorris, who had sprung to prominence…
Fear Eats The Soul: Summary and Analysis
Summary: After a chance meeting in a bar in Munich, Emmi, a cleaning woman (Mira) and Ali (El Hedi Ben Salem), a much younger Moroccan guest worker, fall in love and marry. Family, neighbours and work colleagues respond with horror and disgust, ostracising the couple. In despair, they take a vacation to escape social disapproval….
Amores Perros: Summary and Analysis
Summary: After the tragic crash which occurs in the opening scene the film is divided into three parts; three separate stories edited together, each dealing with characters from different social backgrounds. The first story, Octavio y Susana, focuses on characters from the Mexican lower class. Octavio is infatuated with his teenage sister-in-law Susana, who, along…
Amar Akbar Anthony: Summary and Analysis
Summary: Amar Akbar Anthony narrates the story of three brothers separated at birth. Kishen Lal, who works as a driver for a smuggler, Robert, takes the blame for an accident committed by his master in return for monetary compensation for his wife and three small boys. On his release, Kishen Lal discovers that Robert has…
Out On The Big Ranch: Summary and Analysis
Summary: In flashback, Esperanza tells her son, a young military cadet, the story of his father. Esperanza falls in love with José Luis Castro, the son of wealthy hacendados. Despite his high-class status, José Luis is an idealistic supporter of the Mexican Revolution and its goal to bring political, economic and social justice to the…