French films about rulers

On the Arabian Peninsula in the 1930s, two warring leaders come face to face. The victorious Nesib, Emir of Hobeika, lays down his peace terms to rival Amar, Sultan of Salmaah. The two men agree that neither can lay claim to the area of no man’s land between them called The Yellow Belt. In return, Nesib adopts Amar’s two boys Saleeh and Auda as a guarantee against invasion. Twelve years later, Saleeh and Auda have grown into young men. Saleeh, the warrior, itches to escape his gilded cage and return to his father’s land. Auda cares only for books and the pursuit of knowledge. One day, their adopted father Nesib is visited by an American from Texas. He tells the Emir that his land is blessed with oil and promises him riches beyond his wildest imagination. Nesib imagines a realm of infinite possibility, a kingdom with roads, schools and hospitals all paid for by the black gold beneath the barren sand. There is only one problem. The precious oil is located in the Yellow Belt.

In 1988, Chilean military dictator Augusto Pinochet, due to international pressure, is forced to call a plebiscite on his presidency. The country will vote ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ to Pinochet extending his rule for another eight years. Opposition leaders for the ‘No’ vote persuade a brash young advertising executive, Rene Saavedra, to spearhead their campaign. Against all odds, with scant resources and while under scrutiny by the despot’s minions, Saavedra and his team devise an audacious plan to win the election and set Chile free.

Paris, June 1940. The de Gaulle couple is confronted with the military and political collapse of France. Charles de Gaulle joins London while Yvonne, his wife, finds herself with her three children on the road of the exodus.

Vincent, a former air rifle champion lives a quiet life with his wife and his daughter. Despite his happy family life he ends up with economic problems. One day at the shooting range he meets the mysterious Renaud who promises him a solution to his problems by offering him an unusual job. Suddenly Vincent finds himself in a very dangerous spiral which turns out to be even harder to get out of than finding a solution to his economic problems.

A narcissistic plastic surgeon, who prefers women of a certain high quality, meets an everyday woman who questions his morals, his methods and his meaning to life.

France, 1940. In the first days of occupation, beautiful Lucile Angellier is trapped in a stifled existence with her controlling mother-in-law as they both await news of her husband: a prisoner of war. Parisian refugees start to pour into their small town, soon followed by a regiment of German soldiers who take up residence in the villagers' own homes. Lucile initially tries to ignore Bruno von Falk, the handsome and refined German officer staying with them. But soon, a powerful love draws them together and leads them into the tragedy of war.

Unable to repay their debts, Milan and Victor, best friends and co-owners of a Paris nightclub, are lured into a drug deal that goes bad. Tortured by police, they negotiate their freedom against an overwhelming testimony that condemns their psychotic liaison to prison. Six years later, the men's nightmare begins again when the pyschopath is granted his freedom. Now, not having talked for years, the old friends are united again in order to survive.

A veteran chef faces off against his restaurant group's new CEO, who wants to the establishment to lose a star from its rating in order to bring in a younger chef who specializes in molecular gastronomy.

A housewife takes over her husband's umbrella business after his illness.

Dead Shadows tells the terrifying story about a young man, Chris, whose parents were brutally killed 11 years ago, on the same day that the comet of Haley could be seen from earth. Tonight, a new comet is going to appear and everyone in Chris’s building are getting ready for a big apocalypse party to celebrate the event. As the night falls, Chris starts to discover that people are acting strange and it seems to somehow be connected to the comet. People are becoming disoriented and violent and it doesn’t take long before they start mutating into something from beyond this world.

A family together with their grandpa go on a vacation, when their new car won't stop and it nearly escapes crashing into a hundred cars.

Sarah's life is in pieces after the brutal death of her 18 year-old son. One night, her car accidentally hits Arthur, a young man the same age as her boy who is running from a burglar. Sarah sympathizes with him and takes him in, only to be tracked down by the burglar whose murderous rage towards Arthur forces her to take action.

Agathe runs an art gallery. Her husband François is a publisher. Together they have one son, and in every way seem to be the picture of normality — but emotions are stewing under the surface. All it takes is the arrival of a complete stranger for things to start unravelling. Patrick is brash, uncouth and totally unselfconscious...

In Montreal, the unemployed fashion designer Sophie Malaterre is shown a website, switch.com, where it is possible to switch houses with a stranger for vacation. Sophie seeks an apartment in Paris nearby the Eiffel Tower that belongs to Bénédicte Serteaux and they change apartments. Sophie arrives in Paris on Saturday morning. The next morning, policemen break in the apartment and arrest Sophie while she is having a bath. Detective Damien Forgeat interrogates Sophie believing that she is Bénédicte and she learns that a beheaded body was found in her room and all evidence of her life has been deleted.

Sebastien Nicolas is a reclusive realtor leading a double life – in his spare time he creates complex disguises based on acquaintances. Combined with minutely studied and rehearsed impersonations, Sebastien can disappear completely into other people's lives. Things spiral out of control after he impersonates the wrong man.

Two unlikely friends — a supply teacher and a lonely young boy suspended between two estranged parents — embark on a weekend motorcycle voyage full of surprises and unforeseen consequences in this surprisingly tough, unsentimental drama.

„Un peuple et son roi" crosses the destinies of the men and women of the population, and those of historical figures. Their meeting place is the newly founded National Assembly. At the heart of the story lie the fate of the king and the birth of the French Republic.

Journalist Denis Robert sparked a storm in the world of European finance by denouncing the murky operations of banking firm Clearstream. His quest to reveal the truth behind a secret world of shadowy multinational banking puts him in contact with an ever-expanding anti-corruption investigation carried out by Judge Renaud Van Ruymbeke. Their paths will lead them to the heart of a political/financial intrigue, which will rock the foundations of Europe and the French government itself.

A French woman mourning over the death of her husband three years prior is courted by a Swedish co-worker.

During the elimination of the Belgian/French border in the 90s, a Belgian customs officer is forced to team up with one of his French counterparts.

Transport Minister Bertrand Saint-Jean is awoken in the middle of the night by his head of staff. A bus has gone off the road into a gully. He has no choice but to go to the scene of the accident. Thus begins the odyssey of a politician in a world that is increasingly more complex and hostile.

Mr Guy aussi populaire que loufoque est un animateur à succès d'une émission de télé-achat. Et comme la nature fait quelques fois bien les choses, Mr Guy se trouve malencontreusement et pour son plus grand plaisir embarqué dans une sombre histoire mêlant les services secrets de la république à un réseau de dangereux trafiquants venus de l'Est.

In the hospital where she works in Brest, France, a lung specialist discovers a direct link between suspicious deaths and state-approved medicine. She fights single-handedly for the truth to come out.

Diane is a well-known lawyer, divorced for three years. She loses her mobile telephone and receives a call from the person who finds it. That person is Alexandre, a charming man and the perfect gentleman. They make a connection over the phone and agree to meet up the following day. But when Alexandre arrives, there's a surprise in store when Diane discovers he is only 4' 6" tall. From that moment on, Diane tries to overcome the prejudices of society and her own fears to experience the best time of her life...

It is 1979 and Albertine, 10, and all her family members have gathered in Brittany to celebrate the birthday of her grandmother. Everyone thinks that the Skylab space station from NASA will fall on their heads this summer. The meeting turns into a crazy weekend full of revelations, love and song.

Mrs. Géquil is an eccentric teacher despised by her colleagues and students. On a stormy night, she is struck by lightning and faints. When she wakes up, she feels different. Will she now be able to keep the powerful and dangerous Mrs. Hyde contained?

Ruben, Durex and Nora are three students in their last year of college. Ruben has already failed his exams once due to his lack of self-confidence. He's been as useless with Nora, to whom he dares not confess his feelings. And his childhood friend Durex, the most embarrassing guy in the world, is no help at all. When Ruben discovers that Nora is a dealer and that she's going to Amsterdam to bring back a new kind of drug, Ruben bucks up the courage to accompany her. This trip to Amsterdam is an ideal situation in which to at last seduce Nora. But his bad luck: Durex comes along for the ride. While the trio discover Europe's craziest capital, their lives really get complicated when they realize that the drug they've just picked up belongs to one of Amsterdam's most dangerous gangsters. Very quickly, Ruben, Durex and Nora will understand that to get their old lives back, they must stop being nerds in order to become true heroes.

A struggling writer finds a shortcut to fame, but a blackmailer threatens to ruin his perfect life.

Once upon a time... consumer goods were built to last. Then, in the 1920’s, a group of businessmen realized that the longer their product lasted, the less money they made, thus Planned Obsolescence was born, and manufacturers have been engineering products to fail ever since. Combining investigative research and rare archive footage with analysis by those working on ways to save both the economy and the environment, this documentary charts the creation of ‘engineering to fail’, its rise to prominence and its recent fall from grace.

A robber escapes from prison with a single objective in mind: to track down his former cellmate, a serial killer who intends to pin his crimes on him. A cop is sent after the robber who, despite his best efforts, soon becomes Public Enemy Number One. As the protagonists are driven to their limits, it becomes increasingly unclear who is the hunter and who is the prey.

In this lively French remake of Humpday, best buds reunite and revive their friendship on a questionable dare. Can two straight guys really make a gay sex film, together?

A romantic drama set in Germany just before WWI and centered on a married woman who falls in love with her husband's teacher. Separated by the war, they pledge their devotion to one another.

Tony, a promising young motorcycle racer, is forced to do perilous drug runs to save the mother of his child from a dangerous mobster.

Aram, a young man from Marseille of Armenian origin, blows up the Turkish ambassador's car in Paris. Gilles, a young cyclist who was passing at that precise moment, is seriously injured. Aram's mother feels guilty and feels the need to visit Gilles at the hospital and beg for his forgiveness, something that Gilles does not understand. Against the advice of his comrades in Beirut, Aram decides to go meet his victim.

Marianne leaves Abel for Paul, his best friend and the father of her unborn child. Eight years later, Paul dies and Marianne returns to Abel. However, things have changed for the both of them and feelings of jealousy surround their new relationship.

Alessandro teaches musicology at the university of Strasbourg. He is also a volunteer reader in hospitals. He shares his apartment with his daughter, 15-year-old Irina, and his anarchist brother Luigi. Life is not always rosy at Alessandro's for three main reasons : he is a widower and has never really recovered from the death of his young wife ; his brother is some kind of parasite who refuses to sell his paintings to capitalist speculators and so to contribute to the cost of the household ; Irina, whom he has raised alone since she was five months old and always felt close to, is rapidly changing from little girl to teenager and wishes to be treated as such. One day, Florence, a beautiful young woman, gets into Alessandro's life. Will he eventually take his chances with her? And will he manage to stop stifling Irina? And will he finally get on with Luigi?

Saturday 24th December 1994. Four GIA terrorists hijack an Air France A300 Airbus at the Algiers airport. The Airbus, bound for Paris, has 227 passengers on board. No one knows exactly what the terrorists’ intentions are, just that they are armed and extremely determined. They demand the liberation of their “brothers in arms” and want the aircraft to take off at once. After very lengthy and intense negotiations between the French and Algerian governments, the plane is finally allowed to leave. There are three main characters at the heart of the action: a member of the GIGN, Carole Jeanton, an ambitious technocrat willing to do anything it takes to achieve personal gain from the events, and Yahia Abdallah, a determined jihadist who grew up in the slums of Algiers and was being manipulated by an obscure GIA envoy, Ali Touchent.

Set in the 1920s French Riviera, a master magician is commissioned to try and expose a psychic as a fraud.

Ben, who dreamed of himself as a comic in New York, is back in Paris, his professional and emotional life in complete disarray. He encounters Alex, the star host of the Breakfast Club, a popular morning radio show. With Cyril, a forty-something who'd prefer not to be, and Arnold, the charismatic leader of the gang, they call the shots on Blast FM. In next to no time Ben is hired to write for them. He's barely joined the team when a tidal wave hits the station: Breakfast Club listenership is in free fall. They set out on a bus to travel to every corner of France to meet and win over their public once again. For these arrogant Parisians, a real journey of initiation arises from this radio-phonic road trip, shaking up all their certainties.

A man remembers holidays at his uncle in a little village in the French countryside when he was something like 10. He feels so bored until he finds a pond and starts discovering the life in it.

Christian, a visionary scientist, studies wild geese. For his son, a teenager obsessed with video games, the idea of spending a holiday with his father in the wilderness is a nightmare. However, father and son will get together around a crazy project: save a species endangered, thanks to the ultralight of Christian! Then begins an incredible and perilous journey ...

Fatima, an Algerian-born woman who now lives in France with her two teenage daughters, with whom she is barely able to communicate.

Jérôme Varenne, a French financier, lives and works in Shanghai with Chen-Li, his life and business partner. One day, during a short stay in Paris, while paying a call to his mother, he is very displeased to learn from her and his hated brother, that the family house in Ambray is going to be sold. Jerome decides to go to the town where he grew up to see what is going on. Little does he know how eventful his escapade will be. Little does he know that it will change his life from soup to nuts...

Brussels, early '60s. Alice and Céline live in twin bourgeois houses. They are best friends as are their children, Theo and Maxime, who have grown up like brothers. Both families spend all their time together. This perfect harmony is broken when an accident creates strong divisions between the two families.

A french police unit that try to stop a group of criminals.

Suzanne Simonin describes her life of suffering in letters. As a young woman she is sent to a convent against her will. Since her parents cannot afford the dowry required for a marriage befitting her rank they decide she must instead become a nun. Although a kind and understanding Mother Superior helps her to learn the convent’s daily routine, Suzanne’s desire for freedom remains unabated. When the Mother Superior dies, Suzanne finds herself faced with reprisals, humiliation and harassment at the hands of the new Abbess and the other Sisters. For many years, Suzanne is subjected to bigotry and religious fanaticism. (Berlinale.de)

Werner Herzog gains exclusive access to film inside the Chauvet caves of Southern France, capturing the oldest known pictorial creations of humankind in their astonishing natural setting.

François, a young thirty-year-old Asian, has not been back in his family for 10 years after a violent dispute with his father Meng. Since then, he has always tried to avoid questions about his origins, until he lies to believe that he has been adopted. But when he learns that he is going to be a father, he realizes that he will have to reconnect with his past and his origins. Pushed by his companion Sophie, he decides to reconnect with his family and returns to his XIIIth native district to announce the good news, accompanied by his best friend Bruno. François is welcomed with open arms by his family, with the exception of his father and his younger brother. The return to his community is not going to be so simple .

Alexander, the King of Macedonia, leads his legions against the giant Persian Empire. After defeating the Persians, he leads his army across the then known world, venturing farther than any westerner had ever gone, all the way to India.

Seyolo Zantoko is a doctor from Congo who wants to get away from dictatorship and he is hired by the mayor of a small village in the north of France. The locals fear Seyolo and his family as they have never seen African people before, and Seyolo and his family struggle to adapt to this new life. But Seyolo is determined to succeed and to win the trust of the villagers.