With a story involving a conflict between the Brits and the Indians, BEFORE THE RAINS, directed by acclaimed Indian director Santosh Sivan (THE TERRORIST, ASOKA) holds great promise.  Unlike films like THE CHILDREN OF HUANG SHI and SHOUT AT THE DEVIL, films made by directors of the native country capture more vividly and accurately the details of the story while often providing insight that outsiders overlook.

Filmmaker Guy Maddin is from Winnipeg.  Winnipeg is a province in the heartland of Canada where bitter winters and extreme hot and cold temperatures are the norm.  Those familiar with Maddin’s films (THE SADDEST MUSIC IN THE WORLD, TWILIGHT OF THE ICE NYMPHS and my personal favourite ARCHANGEL, know what to expect from his work - a German impressionistic-type mostly silent black and white personal feature full of startling images and odd narrative story-telling.

Do the means justify the ends or do the ends justify the means?  Sam Garbarksi’s new overly serious film IRINA PALM attempts to answer these questions in his film on ends and means.  A woman takes a job at an Oxford Street sex club giving hand jobs through a glory hole in order to earn 6000 quid to pay for her terminally grandson’s operation.

Busy with work, preoccupied with immediate family but mostly staying apart from his father by choice, Blake Morrison (Colin Firth) is forced to look back at the past to ponder the question: WHEN DID YOU LAST SEE YOUR FATHER?  Anand Tucker’s film (HILARY AND JACKIE) is a surprisingly non-sappy sentimentally constrained film, based on the book by Blake Morrison despite its theme and lengthy sickness scenes. 

When the film opens, Scientist Bruce Banner (Edward Norton) is in hiding somewhere in Brazil hunting for a cure from the radiation that turned him into the green rage known as THE INCREDIBLE HULK.