Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress

Beijing, 1970s. The Cultural Revolution has driven most adults to the provinces leaving 14-year-old Monkey and his pals with free rein over the city. They hang around, get up to no good, and discover that unsolvable mystery known as "girls."

Runtime

2h 21m

Director

Jiang Wen

Cast

Xia Yu, Ning Jing, Geng Le

Based on a novel by the same name written by Gu Hua, a melodrama about the life and travails of a young woman who lives through the turmoil of the Cultural Revolution.

Runtime

2h 44m

Director

Xie Jin

Cast

Liu Xiaoqing, Jiang Wen, Zheng Zaishi

Ming Wang is an impoverished Chinese prodigy who flees Communist China to become a pioneering eye surgeon in America. When tasked with restoring the sight of an orphan in India, who was blinded by her stepmother, Wang must confront the trauma of living through the violent uprising in his youth, the Cultural Revolution.

Runtime

1h 43m

Cast

Terry Chen, Greg Kinnear, Fionnula Flanagan

A movie fan escapes from a labour camp during the Chinese Cultural Revolution and strikes up a relationship with a homeless female vagabond.

Runtime

1h 44m

Cast

Zhang Yi, Liu Haocun, Fan Wei

Young teen girl Xiu Xiu is sent away to a remote corner of the Sichuan steppes for manual labor in 1975 (sending young people to there was a part of Cultural Revolution in China). A year later, she agrees to go to even more remote spot with a Tibetan saddle tramp Lao Jin to learn horse herding.

Runtime

1h 39m

Director

Joan Chen

Cast

Li Xiaolu, Lopsang, Zheng Qian

Prague, Czechoslovakia, during the inter-war period. Jan Dítě, a young and clever waiter who wants to become a millionaire, comes to the conclusion that to achieve his ambitious goal he must be diligent, listen and observe as much as he can, be always discreet and use what he learns to his own advantage; but the turbulent tides of hist...

Runtime

1h 55m

Director

Jiří Menzel

Cast

Ivan Barnev, Oldřich Kaiser, Julia Jentsch

The movie's main storyline follows the life of Otík, a young man, in a tight-knit village community. The sweet-tempered Otík works as an assistant truck driver with Mr. Pávek, his older colleague and practical-minded neighbor. Pávek's family takes care of Otík, whose parents are dead. However, the two coworkers become at odds over Otík...

Runtime

1h 38m

Director

Jiří Menzel

Cast

János Bán, Marián Labuda, Zdeněk Svěrák

In post-WWII Communist Czechoslovakia, several characters considered bourgeois are sentenced to work in a junkyard for rehabilitation. Among them is a young man who pines for a female convict.

Runtime

1h 34m

Director

Jiří Menzel

Cast

Rudolf Hrušínský, Václav Neckář, Jitka Zelenohorská

Francin, manager of a small-town brewery, has a charming wife whose abundant blonde locks are an adornment to the town. Maryska looks ethereal but loves meat and beer, while Francin is an ascetic. The strict members of the brewery board of directors come to audit the accounts, but are diverted from concentrating on Francin's detailed r...

Runtime

1h 33m

Director

Jiří Menzel

Cast

Magda Vášáryová, Rudolf Hrušínský, Petr Čepek

An episodic film about the inhabitants of Kersko, their hardships and their joys, most prominently hunting. A lyrical and humorous adaptation of writings by Bohumil Hrabal.

Runtime

1h 23m

Director

Jiří Menzel

Cast

Rudolf Hrušínský, Jaromír Hanzlík, Josef Somr