Tag: Walk this Way

We’ve walked a long, long way together!

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DMovies first joined forces with Under the Milky Way and The Film Agency in 2017. Our objective to reclaim the hidden gems of European film often overlooked. These movies are part of the Walk This Way project, which is funded by EU Media (a sub-programme of Creative Europe) and is aimed at fostering and promoting straight-to-VoD European cinema. The Film Agency is handling the PR and communications of the initiative.

According to Walk This Way coordinator Nolwenn Luca “Walk this Way defends the diversity of European documentary works. The public thanks to the programme have the chance to have access to films that they would not have been able to discover otherwise if they were not available in VoD”.

We renewed our partnership in 2018, helping to promote and take a different, refreshing look at cinema make in all corners of Europe. The 18 films this year ranged from Latvia to Spain, from the Netherlands to Italy, touching on topics as varied as painting (The Key to Dali), serial killers, (Profilers: Gaze into the Abyss), cooking (Step Up the Plate), disability (Life Feels Good), grieving (Tonio) and even a very dirty and twisted Santa Claus (Le Pere Noel). Check out all the details, exclusive reviews and how to watch these films by scrolling down.

And that’s not all. On October 26th, DMovies, Walk This Way and Infinita Productions held a very successful industry event in the heart of London, at the prestigious May Fair Hotel (which is also home to the London Critics’ Award). The event was entitled An Evening of Straight-to-VoD, and it included the screening of VoD hit Home (Fien Troch, 2016), a debate about the future of Straight-to-VoD and networking drinks. Find out the event’s key messages and learning curves by watching the video below:

Walk This Way, the Creative Europe MEDIA programme supported project, now closes 4th edition. Along the way, 39 right-holders have trusted the initiative to give visibility to a wealth of 156 European films, reaching audiences in 48 countries around the world. You can find out more about Walk This Way, key facts and figures in the infographic below:

And there’s more information in the video below:

And here is the full list of dirty gems released in 2018. Just click on the film title in order to accede to our exclusive film review!

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1. 10 Billion (Valentin Thurn, 2015):

What will happen when the food runs out of food? Well, in his 2015 documentary Valentin Thurn places this very notion front and centre! Exploring the scientific, agricultural and environmental ways we can prevent global food shortages, all due to global warming, it’s not a feature filled with bias but educated solutions to an impending world problem. Globe jumping from India to England then Germany, the multifaceted nature of its tone makes the issues it is dealing with a tangible reality for the viewer.

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2. A Symphony of Summits: The Alps from Above (Peter Bardehle and Sebastian Lindemann, 2016):

Part of Europe’s natural beauty, The Alps are towering force over every country they touch. Approaching the scope of the natural phenomena in a highly cinematic manner, directors Peter Bardehle and Sebastian Lindemann deploy a cineflex camera to capture every inch of its beauty in filmic splendour. Telling the tale of its history, socio-political and geographical story, the sweeping shots of the snow-tipped mountains interpolate you into its vistas. Accompanied by the Germanic tones of Emily Clarke-Brandt, man and nature are combined into one form.

3. The Key to Dali (David Fernández, 2016):

This Spanish documentary explores Tomeu L’Amo’s maverick purchase of surrealist artist, Salvador Dali’s, first work for a cut-price 25,000 Spanish pesetas in 1988 (£132 in today’s money). Scratching away at the persona of L’Amo, scenes from the documentary allude towards a recent trend of re-creating history or pastness through a post-modern reimagination. Though the elaborate nature of the man could shadow the work, what emerges is a contemporary discussion on elitism, to which is unearthed in many aspects of society. Unlike the recent retelling of the life of Van Gough in Loving Vincent (Dorota Kobiela and Hugh Welchman, 2017) it is undeniable that The Key to Dali is grounded in the real world, opening pathways for art fans or not into the world of painting.

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4. Profilers: Gaze into the Abyss (Barbara Eder, 2015):

Adopting the same global view as 10 Billion (Valentin Thurn, 2015), Barbara Eder’s hard-hitting work on the men and women whose job it is to investigate killers does not any soft punches. Intertextually referencing The Silence Of The Lambs, (Jonathan Demme, 1991) in numerous conversations, the grotesque nature of the classic is expressed as a means of the verbal descriptions. Not venturing into sadistic footage of murders etc, this doc holds respect for the victims. A natural intuition, we as humans constantly seek to explain the un-explainable and Eder’s film elicits this notion poignantly..

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5. Free Lunch Society (Christian Tod, 2017):

The concept of Universal Basic Income (UBI) has been around in some form or another for over half a century, but in recent years it has grown so much in prominence that even entire countries are considering implementing it. Spanning both the hard left and the libertarian right, UBI is an Utopian idea that threatens the very ideals of what most consider to be the economic ordering of society. The latest film from Christian Tod considers the possibility of such a scheme, amassing a wide variety of politicians, activities and businessman to discuss its potential revolutionary aspects. The result is both a fine primer on the history of the scheme and a look forward towards how it may change the world we live in.

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6. Home (Fien Troch, 2016):

17-year-old Kevin, sentenced for violent behaviour, is just let out of prison. To start anew, he moves in with his aunt and her family and begins an apprenticeship at her store. Quickly he adapts to his new home and gets along well with his cousin Sammy, in his last year of high school. Through Sammy and his friends, Kevin meets John. Upon discovering John’s unbearable situation with his mother, Kevin feels the urge to help his new friend. One evening fate intervenes and questions of betrayal, trust and loyalty start to direct their daily lives more than ever.

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7. Mellow Mud (Renars Vimba, 2016):

Loneliness, disillusionment and the experience of first love reveal the character of Raya, a 17-year-old living in rural Latvia with her grandmother and her little brother Robis. A staggering turn of events shakes up their lives, and the young girl must come to decisions that even a grown woman would find difficult to make.

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8. Bobbi Jene (Elira Lund, 2018):

Elvira Lind’s documentary profile of contemporary dancer Bobbi Jene Smith captures new beginnings, endings, and everything in between, and faces the fact that you can switch your life around at just about any time. Having left Guillard at 21 to join Israeli dance troupe Batsheva, we meet Bobbi in a state of arrested development, but about to change things. As a dancer her accomplishments are unparalleled, but she’s now 31 with a Kanken Backpack, a decade younger boyfriend, and little of her own agency.

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9. Fair Play (Andrea Sedlácková, 2014):

Set set for both a personal and a political journey. From the moment we enter Irene (Anna Gieslerova) and Anna’s (Judit Bardos) apartment, we are clearly in Eastern Europe during the Communist era. The evocatively decorated surroundings with ‘pull out bed’ and utilitarian furnishings, the drab clothing and simple bread and cheese breakfast immerse us immediately in this world. The country is Czechoslovakia, and the decade is the 1980s. As Irene switches on the ‘Free Europe’ radio channel, we meet a woman who is willing to risk listening to forbidden news, glimpsing her position on the political system under which she is forced to exist. Mother and daughter share the extraordinary ability of elite athletes, giving them opportunities not afforded to most citizens.

Not available in the UK.

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10. Fukushima, A Nuclear Story (Matteo Gagliardi, 2015):

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster on March 11th 2011 marked a turning point in the history of the Japan, when an earthquake followed by a tsunami hit the Tepco Nuclear Power Plant on the country’s Pacific coast. It was the first time in history that the Japanese government declared a nuclear emergency. It was also the first time ever Emperor Akihito spoke on television directly to his people. The last time an emperor broadcast a message live to his people was when his father Hirohito announced the end of WW2.

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11. I Can Quit Whenever I Want (Sydney Sibilia, 2014):

This film is a clash between the “rise-and-fall” gangster genre and a traditional fish-out-of-water comedy. Director Sydney Sibilia does a great job of depicting his group of oddballs adapting to their new life. Plot-wise, comparisons to the TV series Breaking Bad are inevitable, but while the acclaimed TV series carefully built up its world block by block, I Can Quit Whenever I Want is a much looser affair. In fact, with all its hyper-specific nerd jokes, it is closer in tone to The Big Bang Theory. The mileage of these jokes will vary with how much you understand each subject.

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12. One Wild Moment (Jean-François Richet, 2015):

It all starts like a conventional French comedy. Laurent (Vincent Cassel) and Antoine (François Cluzet) are old friends going on holiday with their daughters, Louna (Lola Le Lann) and Marie (Alice Isaaz). But initial appearances can be deceiving, as director Jean-François Richet has something far deeper on his mind. A remake of the 1977 film with the same title, One Wild Moment exploits the limits of male desire, offering up a queasy moral play with no easy answers. As the title suggests, the film is structured around one key incident; the seduction of Laurent by Louna by the beach during a party. She may be the one who has started it, but she is only 17 and his best friend’s daughter, making Laurent’s willingness to go along with it all that more problematic.

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13. Heart of Glass (Jérôme de Gerlache, 2016):

They’ve chosen to name this work Heart of Glass, which evokes the existence of two widely-rcognised projects, the first typified from Joseph Conrad’s prose detailing the descent from maddening stance to madness, the other Blondie’s greatest song, one of the few New Wave records that sounds more contemporary with age. This Heart of Glass, on the other hand, shows how passionate work can saves lives and challenge the human experience in entirely novel ways, in the hands glass artist Jeremy Maxwell Wintrebert.

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14. Step Up to the Plate (Paul Lacoste, 2012):

An ensemble piece that combines fly-on-the-wall observation with lyrical reflections on the Bras family and food, plus a warm work that expertly depicts the passing of the baton– that’s probably the most succinct and accurate way of describing the documentary Step Up The Plate. The French title Entre Les Bras has a double meaning that’s impossible to translate: it means both “in your arms” and “amongst the Bras”.

It stars Michel Bras, owner of the the world-acclaimed three Michelin-star rated Bras restaurant in Laguiole, Southern France, and his son, Sebastien, who has worked in the restaurant for over 15 years and is being prepped to take over.

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15. Life Feels Good (Maciek Piepryca, 2013):

Getting the disability biopic right can be a difficult task. Lean too hard on the struggle and it can feel exploitative, lead too hard on the sentimentality and it can feel mawkish. Life Feels Good, directed by Maciej Pieprzyca, manages to avoid these pitfalls to discover the deeply human story underneath. Depicting one Polish man’s struggle with cerebral palsy from 1987 to almost the present day, Life Feels Good is a heartwarming and uplifting tale that never softens the edges and is that much stronger for it.

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16. Tonio (Paula Van Der Oest, 2016):

There is much to be made from death leading to life. Tonio (Chris Peters) is a 21-year-old finding joy through photography. His ambitious father, novel writer Adri (Pierre Bokma), has a differing view on life, while his wife Mirjam (Rifka Lodeizen) plays the peacekeeper in what still appears to be a functional family unit. The film cuts quickly to the untimely death Tonio undergoes and the grief his parents have to endure from now on. At times the film tries to find answers to grief, an unanswerable commotion, and the performances are stellar. A cutback to the past shows two new parents finding joy sleeping with their new baby.

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17. Father-Son Bootcamp (Emile Gaugreault, 2015):

Being a good father to a son is not an easy task. And neither is being a good son to a father. The bizarre and grotesque societal connotations of masculinity will often stand on the way of what should be a beautiful and tender relationship. As a result, fatherly love is often murky, sons are traumatised and whole notion of affection is mired in mud. Thankfully someone in France invented a father-son bootcamp where the two generations can reconnect through group therapy and bizarre activities. Well, actually the outcome isn’t as rosy as many would hope!

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18. Santa Claus (Alexandre Coffre, 2014):

Nailing both the comic and sentimental sides of the festive farce, Le Père Noël is the perfect kind of holiday film to settle down to after a few mulled wines. Fun and tender in equal measure, it makes the most of its inspired conceit, cleverly pairing a career criminal with a young child slowly coming into contact with the cruel ways of the adult world. Key to the film’s mischievous sense of misdirection is its opening, layering different children’s Christmas wishes on top of each other. It lulls us into a false sense of security, thinking that this will be a very run-of-the-mill Christmas tale.

I Can Quit Whenever I Want (Smetto Quando Voglio)

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If you have spent your entire life in academia, you may feel that you are only suited for one thing. This is certainly the case of Pietro Zinni (Edoardo Leo), a neurobiologist, who upon losing his university contract realises that the only thing he is suitable for now is creating party pills. He is 38, behind on all of his bills, and has no idea how to apply himself to new work. Enrolling a gang that includes a cultural anthropologist, an archaeologist, and two Latin scholars, the hapless Pietro enters the black market only to find himself way in over his head.

The film is a clash between the “rise-and-fall” gangster genre and a traditional fish-out-of-water comedy. Director Sydney Sibilia does a great job of depicting his group of oddballs adapting to their new life. Plot-wise, comparisons to the TV series Breaking Bad are inevitable, but while the acclaimed TV series carefully built up its world block by block, I Can Quit Whenever I Want is a much looser affair. In fact, with all its hyper-specific nerd jokes, it is closer in tone to The Big Bang Theory. The mileage of these jokes will vary with how much you understand each subject.

Hidden behind the comedy is a critique of a society that has left its smartest people behind. All these men are more than qualified to hold positions in university, but are now working menial jobs to get by. The results of the financial crisis as well as Italian austerity looms heavy over the film. With endless bills to pay, as well as his girlfriend Giulia (Valeria Solarino) pressuring him to buy a dishwasher, Pietro doesn’t think twice about the ethical implications of taking up this line of work. After all, you don’t think about ethics when you can’t afford anything. This situation is later milked by the fact Giulia works in social care looking after drug addicts. While her position as the nagging girlfriend could’ve reduced her to a common stereotype, Solarino does great work here to make Giulia a three-dimensional character, giving the movie a moral depth it might’ve otherwise lacked. She is crucial to humanising what could have been a trivial movie.

Like nearly all gangster movies, the rise in I Can Quit is accompanied by a fall. The gang are not used to such lavish wealth and suddenly find themselves surrounded by escorts, wearing fine clothes and splashing cash on extravagant cars. But they are not the only men in town, finding out that they have muscled in on top dog Murena’s (Neri Marcorè) turf. As far as villains go, he is neither comic or scary, instead coming across as rather generic. We do learn more about him, in a nice twist that sums up the overall feel-good vibe of the movie.

With a style reminiscent of early Guy Ritchie films, the movie constantly distorts traditional gangster tropes. For example, when they need to rob a pharmacy, they use ancient guns that were originally intended for The Hermitage. Then, in a true Ritchie locale, a crucial drug deal is conducted at a traditional Sinti wedding. What makes it different from classics such as Ritchie’s Snatch (2000) however, is the kind of breathless non-linear storytelling that forces the viewer to imagine some of the details themselves. With a little more daring in the editing, more voiceover, and more montages, I Can Quit Whenever I Want could’ve been as cinematically entertaining as it is comically satisfying. Nevertheless, for fans of Breaking Bad and Guy Ritchie movies, this movie will go down just like a good pill.

I Can Quit Whenever I Want is available on all major VoD platforms on Monday, July 9th, as part of the Walk This Way Collection, European Film on Demand. Click here in order to view the film in the UK, or here if you are elsewhere in Europe.

Men on the verge of a criminal break-in

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Many people think of Hollywood when they think of action movies, and they forget that Europe is also teeming with gangsters, bank robbers, crooks and all sorts of dirty criminals. These rogues are everywhere: in Southern Spain, on the roads of France, in the dark and derelict suburbs of Berlin and even in virtually “crime-free” Scandinavia. You just have to look! Thankfully, the Men on the Edge Collection, which is part of the Walk This Way initiative, is here to help us. Walk This Way is funded by EU Media (a sub-programme of Creative Europe) and is aimed at fostering and promoting straight-to-VoD European cinema.

We spoke again to Muriel Joly, Head of the Walk this Way, and asked her where the idea for Men on the Edge came from. She explained: “our aim is to create a collection of thrillers that would more embody the European film noirs in all their diversity. A typical genre carried out by a great tradition of famous authors and scenarists. Thriller is a genre for audience everywhere in the world thus this is one of the most successful Walk this Way Collection. We wanted to highlight the characters more than the genre, as all these films have in common to have heroes and plots that are intense, but each story is so different, as they take place in France, Scandinavia, United-Kingdom…”

She goes on to described how the films are compiled: “Since 2015, 17 films (including this year’s releases) have been part of the collection. Each film is available in at least three European countries and we ask for the movies to be also available in at least one of the three priority areas outside Europe: United States, Latin America and Japan. We select them on both editorial and sales criteria, thanks to our network of sales agents partners.”

So let’s now change this notion that European cinema can’t go fast, wild and dirty. Our men too know how to shoot and misbehave. Long live our robber, swindlers and racketeers! Click here for the full catalogue of the Men on the Edge collection. And check out the two latest releases just below, both from – dirty reviews of both movies will follow soon!

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1. Fast Convoy (Frédéric Schoendoerffer, 2016):

A “go fast” convoy shipping a ton of cannabis Malaga in southern Spain is disrupted following a shoot out that results in the kidnapping of a tourist. The picture at the top of the article in from Fast Convoy.

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2. Thank You for Calling (Pascal Elbé, 2016):

Biography based on the life of conman Gilbert Chikli who invented the “CEO scam” and was able to persuade bank and company officers to transfer money by simply ringing them and impersonating their CEO. He is now living in luxury in Israel. The second picture illustrating this piece was taken from Thank You for Calling.

Fancy an emotional walk through European cinema?

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This Autumn take a walk on the wild side of European cinema without leaving the comfort of your home. DMovies is delighted to announce that we are joining forces with Under the Milky Way and The Film Agency in order to reclaim the hidden gems of European film often overlooked. These movies are part of the Walk This Way project, which is funded by EU Media (a sub-programme of Creative Europe) and is aimed at fostering and promoting straight-to-VoD European cinema. The Film Agency is handling the PR and communications of the initiative.

So we took the opportunity to talk to Muriel Joly, Head of the Walk this Way project, and find out why we should be watching European films on VoD, what’s so special about the Collection, how it all started and where we’re going next!

DM0vies – Where did the idea for the Walk this Way Collection come from?

Muriel Joly – The idea came from the fact that too few European films are seen outside their country of origin each year (only 37% out of the 1740 European films produced on a yearly basis). Indeed, a “traditional” distribution (meaning in theatres) for these films can be complex, costly and not profitable, while a straight to digital release can be much less expensive and highly flexible (you can target the territories you want, stop the distribution when you need).

As an aggregator, Under the Milky Way is a real pure player in terms of digital distribution. Hence building these collections of films and distributing them on global and local VOD platforms throughout Europe is really our core business.

So, with the support of Creative Europe MEDIA we decided to create a real editorial line to highlight the wealth of European Films regrouping them by genre (thrillers or comedy) or by commercial potential.We invest a lot in subtitling and marketing to maximise the distribution effort.

DM – How does VoD help to give visibility to innovative European cinema overlooked elsewhere?

MJ – VoD is really opportunity for this European cinema for two main reasons. On the one hand, for these European films, hardly distributed, VoD represents really low entry costs. In addition, the existence of pan-European platforms covering many territories with only a single point of entry for the supply allows for a considerable smoothness in term of process, and a real cost efficiency.

On the other hand, for the VoD platforms these films do represent a real opportunity to diversify their offer and differentiate themselves towards their audience.

DM – Which Way are we Walking next?

MJ – To the rest of the world !! For the first time this year, we enlarged our distribution to the US, Canada, Latin America and Japan. We are thrilled to see how our European films will be welcomed over there! [end of interview]

Our first four films are part of the Award Winning Collection, which is being launched on November 6th. They are fabulously dirty movies that deservedly snatched various prizes and accolades across the globe in the past four years. There are gems from Portugal, Germany, Iceland and France (with a scary Japanese twist). Enough to keep you entertained every Friday night this November!

All films are available on iTunes, Google, Sony, Microsoft and Amazon Instant Video. Daguerrotype is also available on Sky. Stay tuned for our exclusive dirty reviews in the next few weeks, as well as the upcoming Men of the Edge Collection (in December):

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1. Daguerrotype (Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 2016):

From acclaimed Japanese master Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Tokyo Sonata, Pulse), comes the French-Japanese production Daguerrotype, a classic ghost story bent through the lens of one of the most singular horror visionaries at work today.

Jean (Tahar Rahim), a young Parisian with few skills and even fewer prospects, seems an unlikely candidate for assistant to famed photographer Stéphane (Olivier Gourmet), an obsessive perfectionist living in isolation since his wife’s unexpected death. Yet he soon finds himself in his new employer’s vast, decaying mansion, helping to create life-sized daguerrotypes so vivid they seem almost to contain some portion of their subjects’ souls. Their model is most often Stéphane’s daughter and muse, Marie (Constance Rousseau), and as she and Jean fall in love they realise they must hatch a plot to leave Stéphane’s haunted world forever. But is there something malevolent within the massive daguerrotypes that will prevent their escape?

Kurosawa has recently directed Creepy (2016) and Before we Vanish (2017), both already featured on DMovies.

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2. Saint George (Marco Martins, 2016):

Portuguese director Marco Martins reunites with Nuno Lopes after the success of his first acclaimed feature film ‘Alice’ (2005). Drowning in debt, unemployed boxer Jorge (Nuno Lopes) is on the verge of losing his young son and his Brazilian wife. He is one of shocking amounts of Portuguese families and companies unable to repay their loans in the time of European troika bailout measures. Due to his intimidating physique, Jorge must reluctantly accept a job with a collection agency which drags him into a world of violence and crime.

Nuno Lopes role of boxer Jorge was awarded with Best Actor en the Venice Horizon Award 2016.

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3. Metalhead (Ragnar Bragason, 2013)

This dirty gem comes from Iceland. It’s the year 1970 and as Black Sabbath record their first album and mark the birth of Heavy Metal, Hera Karlsdottir (Thora Bjorg Helga) is born on the cowshed floor at her parents’ farm in rural Iceland. The years of her youth are carefree until a tragedy strikes when her older brother is killed in an accident. In her grief she finds solace in the dark music of Heavy Metal and dreams of becoming a rock star.

Director Ragnar Bragason is one of Iceland’s most popular and critically acclaimed filmmakers of the younger generation. He is best known for his twin feature-films Children (2006) and Parents (2007) and the popular TV series trilogy The Night Shift.

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4. All of a Sudden (Asli Ozge , 2016):

A German film with a Turkish gaze. After the party in Karsten’s apartment, everybody leaves except Anna (Natalia Belitski). Admiringly, Karsten (Sebastian Hülk) approaches this mysterious woman. How could he have known, that in a moment of weakness, his well-established life would spiral out of control and turn into a disaster? In this small provincial German town, disappointment soon fuels anger, justice hides behind hypocrisy, and evil gradually unfolds.

Istanbul-born, Germany-based director Asli Ozge was recognised for All of a Sudden with the Label Europa Cinemas – Special Mention award at Berlin International Film Festival 2016 and the Fipresci Award at the Istanbul International Film Festival 2016.