The year 2020 although put our active lives on hold, it gave us an excuse to slow down and enjoy some leisurely time catching up on some of the best movies from across the world. Now as we step closer to 2021, Mubi, the OTT platform for world cinema has released its January schedule of movies. Here's a look at some of the must-watch titles:
The Traitor
Selected as Italy’s entry for Best International Feature Film at the 92nd Academy Awards, Marco Bellocchio’s Mafia biopic is based in the 1980s and tells the story of Tommaso Buscetta, the first Sicilian Mafia boss who was treated by some as pentito. The 2019 film was chosen to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival and also won seven awards at Nastro d'Argento.
John & Jane
Directed by Ashim Ahluwalia, the 2005 film offers a fascinating look at call centers in Mumbai and at the desires, fantasies, and hardships of the people who answer your outsourced calls. The story masterfully weaves among six characters in a surreal and disturbing meditation on the pursuit of happiness, American-style, and the perils of globalization.
City of God
We’re thrilled to be showing the 2011 flick from Lijo Jose Pellissery. Lijo is the director of Jallikattu which is India’s official entry for the 93rd Academy Awards. The filmmaker's sophomore feature, City of God, is a thriller set in Cochin and tells the story of a series of incidents that connect the lives of a Tamil laborer couple, an actress, a builder, a criminal, and the wife of a businessman.
Ham on Rye
A dreamy piece of American Indie, the 2019 movie by Tyler Taormina debuted to great acclaim at last year’s Locarno Film Festival. Following a group of girls at the end of high school, it puts a stylish and subversive spin on the coming-of-age genre.
Citadel
Mubi is thrilled to present the world premiere of English artist-filmmaker John Smith’s Citadel, a short film made during the lockdown, combining images of London’s skyline with extracts from Boris Johnson’s speeches, using the city’s architecture to comment on the opposition between economic interests and individual experiences.
Bhuvan Shome
The 1969 movie is the debut film of Mrinal Sen, one of the leading filmmakers of India’s Parallel Cinema wave, that also marked the first-ever big-screen outing of Amitabh Bachchan as the narrator of the film. Starring Utpal Dutt and Suhasini Mulay in the lead roles, this drama tells the story of the isolated life of Bhuvan Shome, a lonely widower, a proud old man, and a strict disciplinarian.