Dome Cinema Gisborne

Winner of Best Film and the Audience Award at the Rome International Film Festival, CHINESE TAKEAWAY is a comedy following the relationship between a reclusive Spanish hardware store owner and a Chinese immigrant, thrown together by an absurd twist of fate.

For over 20 years, introverted hardware store owner Roberto (Ricardo Darín, THE SECRET IN THEIR EYES) has lived virtually shut off from the outside. After a chance encounter with Jun, a Chinese man who has arrived in Argentina looking for his only living relative, Roberto takes him in. Their unusual cohabitation helps Roberto bring an end to his loneliness, but not without revealing to the impassive Jun that destiny's intersections are many and they can even divulge the film's surreal opening sequence: a brindled cow falling from the sky.

Cannes-winning French drama about a wild 11-year-old boy rebounding between the care of a kind, single woman (Cécile de France) and the blandishments of a streetwise older boy.

"Belgian brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, already two-time Cannes victors with Rosetta and L’Enfant, this year shared the Festival’s Grand Prix for this gripping emotional drama. Filming for once in summer, and evincing unusual hopefulness, they bring their inimitable tough love to the story." (Source: NZ International Film Festival 2011)

Boardroom thriller following the employees of a large New York investment bank over the opening 24 hours of the 2008 financial crisis. All-star cast includes Kevin Spacey, Demi Moore, Paul Bettany.

"When entry-level analyst Peter Sullivan (Zachary Quinto) unlocks information that could prove to be the downfall of the firm, a roller-coaster ride ensues as decisions both financial and moral catapult the lives of all involved to the brink of disaster... an examination of the human components of a subject too often relegated to partisan issues of black and white. A portrayal of the financial industry and its denizens as they confront the decisions that shape our global future." (Sundance Film Festival 2011)

An audience favourite at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival (winning the runner-up prize for most popular film) Starbuck focuses on David Wozniak, a lovable, middle-aged man who's a bit of a train-wreck. A disappointment to his family and his pregnant girlfriend Valerie – he also owes a decent amount of money to some loan sharks. Yet things are about to get even worse. His life is upended when a lawyer informs him he’s fathered no less than 533 children via his regular sperm bank donations more than two decades earlier, under the nickname Starbuck. And now a hundred or so of the young-adult offspring have gotten together to take legal action to reveal the true identity of their father.
What sounds like an outlandish premise turns into a sparkling crowd-pleaser. With an immensely likeable main character, and a poignant comedy script that goes in unexpected directions (from the writer of Seducing Doctor Lewis), Starbuck is a charming, smart, funny and tender film that speaks volumes about what it means to be a family.

John Cleese stars in this South African coming-of age comedy-drama about a middle class boy who wins a scholarship to a snooty private school. Based on the novel by John van de Ruit.

With his lunatic parents fearing Nelson Mandela's release from prison will lead to communist rule in South Africa, Spud is initially glad to leave home for the safety of a boarding school in Kwazula-Natal. But surrounded by well-to-do boys with nicknames like Gecko, Rambo, Rain Man and Mad Dog, Spud struggles to adapt to his new home. He seeks advise - in all matters, including sex - from his eccentric, alcoholic English teach: The Guv (Cleese).

Academy Award Winner 2012 - Best Foreign Language Film

A Separation is an utterly compelling and profound film that focuses on a contemporary Iranian middle-class couple who separate, and the intrigues which follow. The film received the Golden Bear for Best Film and the Silver Bears for Best Actress and Best Actor at the 61st Berlin International Film Festival.
Nader and Simin have been married for fourteen years and live with their eleven-year-old daughter Termeh in Tehran. Not exactly out-of-love, Nader and Simin are attempting to divorce on the grounds of irreconcilable differences. They have acquired visas to emigrate from Iran - Simin is anxious to ensure a better future for Termeh, but Nader refuses to leave his elderly father who suffers from Alzheimer's disease. When the judge refuses to formalise their separation, Simin departs the family home, leaving the obstinate Nader to hire a housekeeper. Razieh is a devout, impoverished woman who tends to the apartment and Nader's father. When Nader returns one day to find his father alone, it leads to an altercation that has unexpected consequences.
Propelled by an acute attention to class, religious and gender differences, Farhadi's meticulous script questions the very basis of truth and ethics, and explores the cultural, social and judical minefield that plagues contemporary Iran. At its heart a gripping, humane drama that recalls classic Hitchcock in its twists and turns, A Separation puts director Asghar Farhadi at the front rank of contemporary world directors.


Winner - Best Film - Berlin International Film Festival 2011

Winner - Best Film - Sydney Film Festival 2011

Winner - Best Film - Asia Pacific Screen Awards 2011

Winner - Best Film - World Cinema Amsterdam Festival 2011

Winner - Best Film - Durban International Film Festival 2011

Winner - Best Foreign Film Award - British Independent Film Awards 2011

Winner - Audience Award - Melbourne International Film Festival 2011

Winner - Audience Award - Vancouver International Film Festival 2011

Winner - Best Film and Audience Award - Fukuoka International Film Festival 2011

Runner-up - Audience Award - Toronto International Film Festival 2011

Winner - Critics Choice Award - Best Foreign Language Film 2012

Winner - Golden Globes - Best Foreign Language Film 2012

Oscar nomination - Best Original Screenplay 2012

Winner - Best Foreign Language Film 2012

Shot in Europe and New Zealand, The most fun you can have dying tells the tale of young and charming Michael, who learns he has just a few months to live. Determined to have the time of his life, Michael "borrows" the money raised for his treatment and heads overseas.

He is determined to be carefree and irresponsible, with no ties or attachments, everything goes as planned until he meets and falls in love with Sylvie, a beautiful and enigmatic young French woman.

In this warmhearted portrait of the French harbor city that gives the film its name, fate throws young African refugee Idrissa (Blondin Miguel) into the path of Marcel Marx (André Wilms), a well-spoken bohemian who works as a shoeshiner. With innate optimism and the unwavering support of his community, Marcel stands up to officials doggedly pursuing the boy for deportation. A political fairy tale that exists somewhere between the reality of contemporary France and the classic cinema of Jean-Pierre Melville and Marcel Carné, Le Havre is a charming, deadpan delight.