Tina Kakadelis
Attention film-lovers! There’s a new streaming service on the block. Film Movement+ is already home to 150+ feature films from all over the world. This new streaming service is your one-stop shop for arthouse, indie, cult classic, and award-winning movies that you won’t be able to find elsewhere. Not only does the service offer new releases, but hard-to-find classics like Sergio Corbucci’s The Great Silence (an iconic spaghetti western) and Marleen Gorris’ Oscar-winning Antonia’s Line are available to stream.
Film Movement+ will also be the exclusive North American home for select films. Below is a first-look at recently released movies that you won’t be able to find anywhere else in North America:
Behind the Haystacks
Behind the Haystacks is Greece’s entry for the 2024 Academy Awards. After already sweeping the 2023 Hellenic Film Awards (Greece’s version of the Oscars), director Asimina Proedrou has his sights set on sharing the film with North America. The film is told in an elliptical, Rashomon-esque narrative structure where the audience doesn’t realize the effects of the characters’ actions until the bigger picture is unveiled.
Stergios is a fisherman who is drowning in debt. He begins to smuggle migrants across the border from North Macedonia into Greece for a hefty cost. His wife is a devout churchgoer and his daughter is trying to find her own voice in this oppressive environment. All three characters are forced to reckon with the consequences of their own actions when a tragedy strikes. Behind the Haystacks is a lyrical, intense exploration of religious hypocrisy, xenophobia, and constrictive borders.
Chess Story
Based on Stefan Zweig’s final novella, Chess Story is a tense World War II thriller about one man’s will to survive. Director Philipp Stölzl has crafted an opulent period piece drama about a lawyer who is imprisoned by Nazi Gestapo. In an effort to maintain his sanity as he endures the torture of isolation, the lawyer finds a book of famous chess matches. It’s only through memorizing these chess matches that he is able to maintain his sense of self.
Padrenostro
Padrenostro made its debut in the main competition at the 77th Venice International Film Festival. The film is loosely based on the true story of the 1976 assassination attempt of deputy police commissioner Alfonso Noce by far-left terrorist group, Nuclei Armati Proletari. This story is particularly close to director Claudio Noce because he is the son of Alfonso Noce. The film tells the story of the assassination attempt through the eyes of ten-year-old Valerio, the fictional version of Claudio. The film follows young Valerio during a summer of immense change as he befriends Christian, a boy slightly older than him.
Confessions of a Hit Man
Confessions of a Hit Man is also based on a true story and takes the viewer to Quebec in the late 1970s. There, we’re introduced to one of the most prolific hitmen of our time: Gérald Gallant. From the years 1978-2003, Gallant murdered twenty-eight people and had an additional eight attempted murders. For fifteen years, Gallant managed to hide his profession from his deeply religious wife and maintain an “average Joe” persona in his day-to-day life. Confessions of a Hit Man immerses audiences in Quebec during a time when biker gangs ruled the streets and society turned away from its Catholic traditions.
