The Olive Tree

(El olivo)

A deceptively simple drama about a family and its thousand-year-old olive tree that is rooted in the best cinematic soil there is — emotional truth — The Olive Tree gets its hooks in early on, and then never lets up. Combining social criticism with a deeply human story about the broken and unbroken bonds between generations, this story about a young Spanish woman’s quest to recover a symbolically significant olive tree from its new corporate owners is, cinema that cares about making the world a better place. This hugely popular film is a must-see.

Song of Granite

Song of Granite portrays the life of the great traditional singer, Joe Heaney. The beautiful yet harsh landscape combined with the myths, fables and songs of his Connemara childhood helped shape this complex and gifted character.                             

The Odyssey

(L’Odyssée)

1948: Jacques Cousteau, along with his wife and sons, lives in paradise, in a beautiful house overlooking the Mediterranean. But Cousteau dreams of adventure. Thanks to his invention of scuba gear that lets humans breathe underwater, he’s discovered a new world, and now this world is calling to him to be explored. For that, he is ready to sacrifice everything. Jérôme Salle’s sweeping biopic finally brings the ocean explorer’s life to the big screen.

Graduation

(Bacalaureat)

A Romanian doctor takes matters into his own hands when an attack on his daughter jeopardizes her scholarship to a prestigious overseas university in this fascinating and complex study of one man’s moral choices that also stands as a sad indictment of a contemporary European nation. Critics have described Cristian Mungiu’s latest film as a masterpiece which offers proof that Romania’s cinematic upsurge remains the most vital and important national film movement of the current century.