ÁGA

Drama – 2019 – Bulgaria – 96 Minutes – Big World Pictures – In Yakut with English Subtitles – Unrated

VIEW TRAILER

In a yurt on the snow-covered fields of the North, Nanook and Sedna live following the traditions of their ancestors. Alone in the wilderness, they look like the last people on Earth. Nanook and Sedna’s traditional way of life starts changing — slowly, but inevitably. Hunting becomes more and more difficult, the animals around them die from inexplicable deaths and the ice has been melting earlier every year. Chena, who visits them regularly, is their only connection to the outside world — and to their daughter Ága, who has left the icy tundra a long time ago due to family feud. When Sedna’s health deteriorates, Nanook decides to fulfill her wish. He embarks on a long journey in order to find Ága.

Written & Directed by Milko Lazarov

A winning combination of the cozily intimate and the sublimely epic. – The Hollywood Reporter

A small gem of focused filmmaking, Ága tells a minimal story so beautifully it holds us completely. – Los Angeles Times

Milko Lazarov seems driven to record the inner workings of a singular slice of Inuit culture before it goes the way of the reindeer. – Slate

The screenplay’s simplicity is enriched by memorable images whose stillness adds to the overall aura of a period coming to an end. – Variety

The slice of life story has the look and feel of a documentary work and, as it immersed me in Nanook and Sedna’s daily struggle, I felt I was living it with them…A mysterious, stunning, melancholy tale about a disappearing way of life, one being corrupted by humankind’s progression…”Ága” goes to the ends of the earth to reveal global truths. – Reeling Reviews

While much of the film quietly observes details in this white-on-white place, filmmaker Milko Lazarov gently allows a story to unfold in ways that almost silently convey the weight of the world. It’s an transcendental movie that isn’t easy to shake. – Shadows on the Wall

It is the singularly most informative film I can think of that came out this year. Ága is representative of the way we forget our own histories. – Film Inquiry

FRANKIE

Drama – 2019 – France/Portugal/Belgium – 98 Minutes – Sony Pictures Classics – R

VIEW TRAILER

Three generations of a European family come together in the fabled town of Sintra, Portugal, for one last vacation before the family matriarch faces the next, and last, chapter of her life. Over the course of one crisp October day, the fairy tale setting brings about everyone’s most romantic impulses, revealing both cracks between them, as well as unexpected depth of feeling. A successful actress used to getting her way, Francoise “Frankie” Cremont has a secret plan: she wants to marry off Paul, her perpetually single son, to Ilene, an American hairstylist she befriended on a film shoot in New York. As Frankie tries to manipulate her son’s future, her adoring Irish husband Jimmy is forced to confront his own feelings of imminent loss. Meanwhile, Jimmy’s daughter Sylvia faces the potential dissolution of her own marriage to the remote, but financially successful, Ian. And as the adults play out their intricate plots and machinations, Sylvia and Ian’s teenage daughter Maya spends the afternoon with a group of local boys by the sea, discovering the joys and surprises of first love. Watching from the sidelines is Frankie’s ex-husband, and Paul’s father, Michel, who, accompanied by João-Miguel, a handsome Portuguese tour guide, observes all with a wry and seasoned understanding. When Frankie’s plans are thwarted by the arrival of Ilene’s boyfriend, Gary, she is forced to come to terms with the mysteries of life, death, and our all too human limitations. From one morning to late afternoon, each of the nine members of the extended clan will be transformed by both the dramas of the family, and the magic and beauty of this mythical place.

Directed by Ira Sachs

Starring Isabelle Huppert, Brendan Gleeson, Greg Kinnear, Marisa Tomei, Jérémie Renier

The film studiously avoids melodrama or theatrics of any sort, enfolding instead as a kind of melancholic tone poem. – The Wrap

The whole thing struck me as pleasant, nicely judged, and unremarkable, right up to a final shot so graceful and moving that it sent waves of poignancy backwards through the movie. – The AV Club

Sachs offers many gentle pleasures in his latest film. – The Hollywood Reporter

It drifts by with all the force of a mild summer breeze, and — as is typical of Sachs’ jewel-like work — it leaves you feeling like you could have spent another 90 minutes with these characters. – IndieWire

COMING SOON

JAY MYSELF

Documentary/Biography – 2019 – USA – 79 Minutes – Oscilloscope – Unrated

VIEW TRAILER

JAY MYSELF documents the monumental move of renowned photographer and artist, Jay Maisel, who, in February 2015 after forty-eight years, begrudgingly sold his home–the 36,000 square-foot, 100-year-old landmark building in Manhattan known simply as “The Bank.” Through the intimate lens of filmmaker and Jay’s protégé, noted artist and photographer Stephen Wilkes, the viewer is taken on a remarkable journey through Jay’s life as an artist, mentor, and man; a man grappling with time, life, change, and the end of an era in New York City.

Directed by Stephen Wilkes

COMING SOON