Prout

Weekly current affairs show

t's 6:20 a.m. The camera pans a slew of alarm clocks that start to ring simultaneously, all set to awaken a solitary middle-aged man. The alarms are elaborate: in addition to traditional clocks, horns blow, bright lights flash, and a pot even blows smoke at the sleeper. After several minutes, the bed itself finally bounces him to his feet and he begins to make his way through his house, slowly, keeping only a step ahead of things falling, or cutting through the air head high. He grabs his coat, shambles out the door - and it becomes apparent why it is he must wake up. These surprising duties completed, it's time for an espresso. It arrives like clockwork, right on schedule.

The testimony of an artist who continues to believe in the socialist ideal. The story of a man who loves women.

In 1967, experimental filmmaker Jorgen Leth created a striking short film, The Perfect Human, starring a man and women sitting in a box while a narrator poses questions about their relationship and humanity. Years later, Danish director Lars von Trier made a deal with Leth to remake his film five times, each under a different set of circumstances and with von Trier's strictly prescribed rules. As Leth completes each challenge, von Trier creates increasingly further elaborate stipulations.

Perhaps the most ebullient “musical” you’ll see this year, Marc-Henri Wajnberg’s singular documentary/fiction hybrid follows a group of street children in the Congolese capital.

Placide's dad tells him on his deathbed he'll haunt Placide if he doesn't find a wife soon. Placide cautiously agrees, but he only wants to settle for a very beautiful woman. That might be easier said than done, since he is a vagabond. When he accidentally enters a photo shoot, Placide meets Sarah. He falls in love, but she is way out of his reach.

How the last King of the Belgians becomes the first Emperor of Europe.

Jack has a tenor saxophone and he plays jazz. In the 1950s, in the Belgian harbor town Antwerp, there is not a lot off future for a jazz musician. Jack and his band try to earn a living by playing at weddings and the odd tea party, usually resulting in mixed emotions and hilarious scenes. Most of the time, he earns a living by unloading bananas in the Antwerp docks. Jack is convinced that New York is the place to be for a jazz musician, but where will he get the money for the big trip? And what is more important: a woman or a saxophone?

A female vampire must bathe in the blood of virgins in order to stay alive. The trouble is that virgins are in short supply nowadays, and she is running into major problems in finding one.

I am Chance follows the microcosm of a group of street savvy girls in the surprisingly bright, pop and artistic megacity of Kinshasa. Astute, sassy and resilient, Chancelvie and her friends take on the world, fighting and nurturing, stealing and sharing, turning tricks and making art. Vibrant and exuberant, Kinshasa itself becomes a character in the film, combining its voice with that of the girls.