Gotta Have Faith

Without the slightest exaggeration, this is one of the greatest comedies ever made. Monty Python’s razor-sharp satire spares nothing and no one, inviting us to "always look on the bright side of life". And if you do find yourself offended, just remember: Brian isn’t the Messiah - he’s just “a very naughty boy”. — The Three Wise Men, bearing their gifts, arrive at the wrong manger and mistakenly proclaim Brian, born on the very same day as Jesus, the Messiah. The mix-up follows him into adulthood with events quickly spiraling beyond his control.

An Italian aristocrat really did keep a village working for free long after sharecropping had been abolished, and Rohrwacher (“La Chimera”) builds her Cannes prize-winner on that story, a parable in which honesty has dark curls and a disarmingly innocent face. Fellini would have been proud. — The young peasant Lazzaro is so good-hearted that everyone in his isolated Italian village takes him for a fool and makes use of him. Tancredi, son of the marchesa who owns everything for miles around, is just bored enough to do something stupid. When he asks Lazzaro to help him stage his own kidnapping, Lazzaro agrees, as he always does. — Best Screenplay | Cannes Film Festival | 2018 Official Selection | London Film Festival | 2018 Best Film | Chicago International Film Festival | 2018

Malick’s Palme d’Or winner is about faith, family and where we came from, and for the birth of the universe he asked the man behind the famous tunnel in “2001: A Space Odyssey”, who made it from paint, milk and water. It still divides people: you give in to it or you don’t. Plus Brad Pitt. — Jack grows up as the eldest son in 1950s America, in a house where his father corrects everything and his mother forgives it all. Time and again the film leaves that house for the story of the universe being born, the first cells and the dinosaurs, and Jack, now an adult, is still arguing with his father in his head. — Palme D'Or | Cannes Film Festival | 2011 Nomination for Best Picture | Oscars | 2012 Nomination for Best Director | Oscars | 2012 Nomination for Best Cinematography | Oscars | 2012 FIPRESCI Prize | San Sebastián Film Festival | 2011

Kevin Smith’s blasphemous comedy - one that sparked waves of outrage even before its theatrical release - fearlessly mines religion for laughs, bringing an all-star cast to the screen including Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Salma Hayek, and Alan Rickman. — Two fallen angels, cast out of Heaven, find themselves stranded and hunted in Wisconsin. Their journey leads them to New Jersey, where they discover a loophole that could allow them to re-enter Paradise. There’s just one catch: it would wipe out humanity. As the end of the world looms, an unlikely band of misfits joins forces to stop them.

The film that stood out like no other after its participation in Un Certain Regard at Cannes 2022 is an epic of unparalleled beauty and charming ferocity about the eternal battle between the spiritual and the material, nature and man, religion and desire. — At the end of the 19th century, a young Danish priest is ordered by his superiors to go to a remote area of Iceland to build a church. He has a passion for photography and is interested in photographing the locals, something no one has attempted before. — Official Selection - Un Certain Regard | Cannes Film Festival | 2022 Best Film Special Mention | London Film Festival | 2022 Zabaltegi-Tabakalera Prize | San Sebastian Film Festival | 2022

Two years after the over-ambitious Fountain, Darren Aronofsky took everyone by surprise with an anthropocentric look at the world of the fallen, while Mickey Rourke delivered a great performance that put him back on the cinematic map. Golden Lion in Venice and two Oscar nominations. — Randy Robinson, a veteran professional wrestler, was at the height of his career in the 1980s, but twenty-five years later, he is trapped in the life that followed and is now doing one thing only, fighting to survive. When things change and while realizing the dark and underground way in which the ring operates, Randy will overcome the limits he set for himself and attempt to change his life. — Golden Lion | Venice Film Festival | 2008 Nomination for Best Leading Actor (Mickey Rourke) | Oscars | 2009 Nomination for Best Supporting Actress (Marisa Tomei) | Oscars | 2009 Best Actor (MIckey Rourke) | BAFTA Awards | 2009 Best Actor (MIckey Rourke) | Golden Globes | 2009

A sweet embrace to an unknown world, the one that every young person must discover when coming out of their shell. A supernatural growth of the need for emancipation in one of the most beautiful European films of recent times. — A shy young girl leaves her religious parents behind, in a small west coast town in Norway, in order to study at one of Oslo's universities. One day, while she is in the university library, she experiences an intense and unexpected seizure, which resembles those caused by epilepsy. Equally unexpected is the attraction she feels for a beautiful fellow student, which seems to respond to the magnetic presence of the lonely, strange provincial girl.

In a deeply oppressive society God loves the sinner, but not the sin itself. The rising and unpredictable Jayro Bustamante in a deeply personal, shocking family drama about religion, family acceptance, sexuality and the sense of belonging. — When Pablo arrives at his family home outside Guatemala, everyone is waiting for their beloved brother, son and husband. But they are horrified: Pablo fell in love with another man named Francisco. In doing so, he challenges all the values this deeply religious family lives by. Despite resistance from his relatives, Pablo goes out with Francisco. With the help of their deeply religious community, the family is doing everything they can to bring back their prodigal son, no matter the cost. — Best Latin American Film | San Sebastián International Film Festival | 2019 Official Selection | Athens International Film Festival | 2019 Official Selection | Berlin International Film Festival | 2019

Powell and Pressburger (“The Red Shoes”) shot their famous Himalayan convent film nowhere near a mountain, with painted peaks and a convent built at Pinewood, and still won Oscars for cinematography and art direction. Five English nuns, one agnostic, and a faith that loses out to the flesh. — Five English nuns, led by the young Sister Clodagh, arrive at a palace on a Himalayan cliff to open a school and a dispensary in what was once a harem and now belongs to the Church. The air is thin and peace never comes. Mr Dean, the only Englishman for miles around, doesn’t pretend to believe in anything, and Sister Ruth can’t stop looking at him. — Best Cinematography | Oscars | 1948 Best Set Decoration | Oscars | 1948 Best Cinematography | Golden Globes | 1948

Jerome Bixby's last screenplay after his legendary work on Star Trek and The Twilight Zone is an incredible science fiction story that manages to transcend the boundaries of space-time, even though it takes place in a single room. — An impromptu goodbye party for Professor John Oldman becomes a mysterious interrogation after the retiring scholar reveals to his colleagues he has a longer and stranger past than they can imagine.