Social Realism
see all genres ›Gritty looks at life as most folks live it. Not neatly plotted but often hand-to-mouth, coping with the vagaries of survival in harsh societal or natural environments.
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Genres / Drama / Realism / Social Realism
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Wendy and Lucy
Named to over sixty "Best of 2008" lists (and even many "Best of the Decade" lists), WENDY AND LUCY solidified filmmaker Kelly Reichardt's reputation for films that are (according to the New York Times) "a touchstone of the new realism in American cinema." Drifting upwards to Alaska like a 21st...Watch Movie
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Elles
Director Malgorzata Szumowska's ELLES paints an unromantic picture of upper-crust domesticity. ELLES stars the fearless Juliette Binoche (CHOCOLAT) as Anne, a well-off Parisian journalist investigating the lives of two student prostitutes (Joanna Kulig and AnaпїЅs Demoustier) for a magazine...Watch Movie
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Scherezade
Adapting the story-within-a-story framework of ARABIAN NIGHTS to modern times, SHEHERAZADE TELL ME A STORY is a brilliantly honest unveiling of the position of women in Egyptian society today. Hugely controversial in its native Egypt for its risky portrait of female sexual desire and repression,...Watch Movie
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In the City of Sylvia
A young artist searches the winding streets of Strasbourg for an old love in Jose Luis Guerin's acclaimed and exceedingly beautiful IN THE CITY OF SYLVIA. During a languid summer, a young man spends his afternoons sketching in an outdoor café. He is looking for a woman he met...Watch Movie
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17 Girls
Based on a headline-grabbing incident in the U.S., sister directing duo Delphine and Muriel Coulin's provocative debut feature (which they also co-wrote) follows the fallout in a sleepy French coastal town of Brittany, when a group of seventeen teenage girls from the same high school all decide...Watch Movie
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Neighboring Sounds
One of the most acclaimed films of the year, NEIGHBORING SOUNDS is the thrilling debut from filmmaker Kleber Mendonça Filho. On a quiet block in the coastal city of Recife, ruled by an aging patriarch and his sons, a recent spate of petty crime has rattled the nerves of the...Watch Movie
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Today and Tomorrow
The seemingly unavoidable downward spiral of Argentina's middle class during the current economic and social crisis is vividly brought to life in the character of young, street-smart Paola. A talented, would-be actress with a paying job as a waitress, she is always on the run:...Watch Movie
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Paulista
In this steamy Brazilian drama, SпїЅo Paulo is a hotbed for intrigue amongst the young, restless and alive. A freespirited actress who leaves her devoted provincial boyfriend behind to make it in the big city, Marina (Sylvia Laurenco) dives into the big city's nightlife-driven energy. She finds...Watch Movie
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Treeless Mountain
When their mother needs to leave in order to find their estranged father, seven year-old Jin and her younger sister Bin are left to live with their Big Aunt for the summer. With only a small piggy bank and their mother's promise to return when it is full, the two young girls...Watch Movie
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Where the Green Ants Dream
Werner Herzog's films have taken him from the jungles of Peru to the peaks of Himalayas to the sole human outpost in Antarctica in a quest to find landscapes to inspire him and the dreamers who embrace those lands. WHERE THE GREEN ANTS DREAM is the Australian outback,...Watch Movie
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Tulpan
Winner of the Prix Un Certain Regard at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, acclaimed Kazakh documentarian Sergey Dvortsevoy's first narrative feature is a gorgeous mélange of tender comedy, ethnographic drama and wildlife extravaganza. Following his Russian naval service, young dreamer Asa returns to...Watch Movie
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Spare the Rod
At the rough Worrell Street School in London's East End, the pupils are kept in line by the harsh discipline of the staff and the occasional savage beating. An idealistic young schoolteacher (Max Bygraves) takes up his first post since leaving the Navy and resists the authoritarian rule of his...Watch Movie
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As Tears Go By
Though as gritty as any 80s Hong Kong gangster picture, AS TEARS GO BY is a watershed film heralding one of the most auspicious directorial debuts in international cinema. Wong Kar-Wai's visually stunning, tough and romantic 1988 first feature deftly smuggles the director's now celebrated genius...Watch Movie
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All the Light in the Sky
Jane Adams stars as an actress living in Malibu who faces harsh realities of the industry as her age exempts her from more and more acting opportunities. Amidst this career and life crisis enters the actress's niece, played by Sophia Takal, who arrives for a weekend stay and...Watch Movie
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Accattone
The first of Pier Paolo Pasolini's highly acclaimed films and the winner of numerous film festival prizes, ACCATTONE uses a talented cast to present a vivid picture of the Roman slums. Based on one of the filmmaker/poet's novels, this story of a pimp, his friends, his enemies and his girls is...Watch Movie
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The Gospel According to Saint Matthew
The birth, life, teachings and death on the cross of Jesus Christ presented almost as a cinéma-vérité documentary. Pasolini's second feature seemed a strange choice for such a revolutionary director, but it is an attempt to take Christ out of the opulent church and present him...Watch Movie
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Shyamal Uncle Turns Off the Lights
An eighty year old Kolkata retiree is on a mission to get his neighborhood streetlights turned off after sunrise after he notices they stay on all day as well. Shyamal Uncle finds his sense of propriety upset by this wasteful expense of electricity. But finding someone to take...Watch Movie
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Little Brown Boy
For his follow-up to MY JOSEPHINE, Barry Jenkins turned to an issue closer to his Florida home in the early 2000s: the spate of young black boys being tried as adults for the gunshot deaths of other kids. But this is no crime drama. There is no trial in this short film and the...Watch Movie
