Written and directed by Ian Iqbal Rashid, who worked on the BBC series This Life. Jimi Mistry (The Guru) plays Alim, a gay Muslim Canadian living in London with his sunny boyfriend, Giles (Kristen Holden-Reid) and his imaginary friend, Cary Grant (gleefully embodied by Kyle MacLachlan). When Alim's devoutly Muslim mother, Nuru (Suleka Mathew) comes from Toronto to pressure him to find a wife, Alim takes his imaginary friend's advice and pretends he is engaged to his lover's sister. This familiar ruse doesn't stand long, and the film draws more strength from the developing relationship between Giles and Nuru. A delightful clash of cultures and family values in the style of The Wedding Banquet.

"Touch Of Pink, which was a huge hit at Sundance, is smart, funny and rather moving. It has the sort of superb performances so often associated with a brilliant screenplay. You can tell that everyone involved is happy to be there. You'll feel the same way." -- Liz Braun, Toronto Sun

  A deeply autobiographical coming-of-age story set in turbulent 1969 Argentina in 1969, Valentín is told through the eyes of a precocious 10-year-old boy. Estranged from his eccentric parents and raised by his grandmother, Valentín yearns for a 'real' family and dreams about being an astronaut. Forming unlikely friendships with a reclusive neighbour and an ex-girlfriend of his father, he brings wisdom and joy to the adults around him as he sets out to discover the harsh truths about his parents.

"Valentín makes a big emotional impact. Alejandro Agresti, Argentina’s answer to Pedro Almodovar, has elegantly reconstructed the ninth year of his own turbulent childhood in this moving drama of relationships.... Endowed with a childish curiosity that knows no bounds, Valentín forces the people he cares about to examine their own lives. A warm, honest and ambling little story that avoids over-sentimentality and gushiness." -- FutureMovies

  Toni Collette (The Sixth Sense), who recently announced her retirement from acting to pursue a career in music, gives a star-turn in this widely-acclaimed Australian feature. Collette plays Sandy Edwards, an ambitious geologist who suddenly finds herself having to baby-sit Hiromitsu (Gotaro Tsunashima). Hoping to strike up a business deal, she agrees to take the taciturn Japanese businessman on a field trip around Western Australia's remote Pilbara desert. Against the background of the outback, these two diametrically opposed strangers find themselves thrust together in a potentially life-or-death situation. As they journey farther and farther into the desert, they leave more and more of what they know about each other and themselves behind.

"Toni Collette can have an angular presence on the screen; she can look hard and tough, and is well cast ... But then there comes another side that is tender and dreamy. Her body becomes sensuous instead of distant, and her eyes are seeing from a different part of her soul." * * * ½ -- Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times  <  Caution -- this review contains a spoiler  >

"Japanese Story is a movie with surprises, some of which you should discover for yourself. But its main surprises may be the power of Collette's performance and the beautifully controlled mood and atmosphere Brooks creates ... a beautiful film and a chilling one. We're forced to look long and deeply at the world around us. What we see stays with us." * * * ½ -- Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune

  That rare accomplishment -- a film about an artist that is, in itself, a work of art -- Rivers and Tides: Andy Goldsworthy Working With Time is an extraordinary journey into the world and mind of Scottish sculptor Andy Goldsworthy. A land-artist who uses materials from nature to make site-specific works, Goldsworthy allows the elements to have the last say in his beautiful creations, as his ingenious patterns of wood, leaves, stone and ice move and erode over time. German filmmaker Thomas Riedelsheimer followed the artist for over a year in several outdoor locations, intimately documenting his improvisational process and capturing the serene spectacle of his works and their delicate changes.

"Some images verge on Kubrick territory." -- Ed Halter, The Village Voice

"Pure and sublime... Andy Goldsworthy's art borders on the religious.... It puts you into a profound conversation with the glorious, uncompromising and mesmerizing flow of nature. It is the artistic equivalent of ancient ritual offerings to the gods." -- Desson Howe, Washington Post

"Two thumbs up!" -- Ebert & Roeper

  Gabriele Salvatores (Mediterraneo) has dramatically fused together two genres in this beautiful and highly acclaimed film from Italy. Michele (Giuseppe Cristiano), a ten-year-old boy growing up in Southern Italy, goes out looking for his sister's glasses and accidentally discovers a boy chained in a hole. Not being quite old enough to know to call the police, he visits the boy in secret, bringing food and slowly piecing together the captive's circumstances. Things that might be obvious to adults are not obvious to Michele, and Salvatores successfully keeps us in the dark with him. What begins as a coming-of-age film gradually develops into a mystery, then a thriller.

"'I'm Not Scared' is a reminder of true childhood, of its fears and speculations, of the way a conversation can be overheard but not understood, of the way that the shape of the adult world forms slowly through the mist.... Summer was not a season but a lifetime. Parents represented a law that stood above our own best thinking." * * * ½ -- Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

"An engaging experience ... With its unique perspective on both the coming-of-age and thriller genres, the movie deserves to be seen by a wider audience than the one that normally frequents subtitled movies." * * * -- James Berardinelli

  In this gently comic film based on Somerset Maugham's novel Theatre and directed by Hungary's István Szabó (Sunshine), Annette Bening (American Beauty) stars as Julia Lambert, an aging stage actress in 1930s London. Her miserable demeanour is rejuvenated when she embarks on a love affair with Tom, a much younger American played by Shaun Evans. Things head south and she soon finds out that Tom has his own agenda (he's a social climber with eyes for a younger actress). The fun begins as she plots her revenge against him, his lover and her husband (Jeremy Irons), who's also shagging the up-and-comer who, it turns out, has an agenda of her own.

"A lot of fun to watch .... The film is enjoyable all the way to the very end thanks to its humour and solid acting. -- eFilmCritic

  The film opens in Spring in South Korea, where a young boy lives in a small floating monastery on beautiful Jusan Pond, together with an elderly master who teaches him the ways of the Buddha. With each changing season, the film advances a decade in the boy's life. As a teenager, the boy experiences his sexual awakening with a girl who has come to the temple to be healed. After straying from his master's teachings to experience the 'real world,' he returns to the monastery seeking redemption and spiritual enlightenment. The themes are so universal and explored with such beauty that they will touch people from all walks of life, regardless of faith.

"A gorgeous motion picture, using perfectly composed shots to amplify an emotionally resonant story.... The film raises questions about how we live our lives and how actions, like ripples in the waters of time, can have unexpected consequences years later." * * * ½ -- James Berardinelli

  The Motorcycle Diaries is based on the journals of Che Guevara, brought to life by Brazilian director Walter Salles (Central Station). 23-year-old Guevara, played by the beautiful Gael García Bernal (Y tu mama también), recounts his adventures with his best friend Alberto Granado (Rodrigo de la Serna) during a formative motorcycle journey across South America in 1952. The inequities he witnessed as a young man inspired him to lead the Cuban Revolution. Hailed as a road movie that's all grown up, the film explores how the world can change one person, and one person can change the world.

"Director Walter Salles avoids the easy path of politicizing Guevara's life and turning him into a symbol or an icon. As portrayed by Gael García Bernal, he is an ordinary 23-year old whose exposure to the realities of poverty and disease causes a monumental spiritual upheaval. The transformation is presented slowly and subtly.... Aside from the location shooting, The Motorcycle Diaries' greatest assets are the actors. Both Bernal, who is quickly rising to the rank of international superstar, and Rodrigo de la Serna turn in natural, charismatic performances." * * * -- James Berardinelli

  This 'narrative documentary' uses real people in real places and essentially has them play themselves in a story inspired by their lives. A family spanning four generations of nomadic shepherds in the Gobi Desert of South Mongolia assists the births of their camel herd. One of the camels has an excruciatingly difficult delivery but, with help from the family, out comes a rare white colt. Despite the efforts of the shepherds, the mother rejects the newborn, refusing it her milk and her motherly love. When any hope for the little one seems to have vanished, the nomads send their two young boys on a journey through the desert to a backwater town in search of a musician who will play a traditional song to the camel to try to persuade her to embrace her offspring.

"Told in a narrative that is not a cute true-life animal tale, but an observant and respectful record of the daily rhythms and patterns of these lives. We sense the dynamics among the generations, how age is valued and youth is cherished ... I believe this film would be fascinating for smart children, maybe the same ones who liked 'Whale Rider,' because so much of it is told through the eyes of the younger brother. Although the desert society is alien to everything we know, in another way it is instantly understandable, because we know about parents and grandparents, about working to put food on the table, about the need of babies to nurse. Here is a film that is about life itself, and about those few humans who still engage it at first hand." * * * -- Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times