[descriptions below are taken from the IFFR website and do not necessarily represent the opinions of Jigsaw Lounge or its contributors]

1. Jerichow (2008, Germany) by Christian Petzold
   Even in his contemporary remake of The Postman Always Rings Twice Petzold reveals himself to be a precise and merciless film maker of interpersonal confrontations in a desolate East Germany.

2. The World's Greatest Sinner (1958, USA) by Timothy Carey
   If Elvis had ever done a movie where he played a cult leader, it might look like this. An underground classic, with a score from a very young Frank Zappa.

3. Of Time and the City (2008, UK) by Terence Davies
   The first film by Terence Davies in eight years is one of the cinematographic high points of the year. An exciting and viciously critical documentary journey through the Liverpool of his childhood. The present is also not particularly rosy. See also The Terence Davies Trilogy.

4. Blue Film Woman (1969, Japan) by Mukai Kan
   When rates fall on the Tokyo exchange, Kenzo offers his wife to his landlord to pay his debts. Later his daughter Mariko takes revenge on the world by filming her having sex with rich corrupt men and blackmailing them. Sweltering, dramatic and socially critical pinku eiga from 1969.

5. O'er the Land (2008, USA) by Deborah Stratman [52m; SHORTS COMPETITION]
   This is America! A visual essay that poses questions about the mythical concept of freedom that is so deeply anchored in American culture.

6. The Inheritors [Los herederos] (2008, Mexico) by Eugenio Polgovsky
   Small children's hands pluck green beans at high speed and chop wood for a fire. Just as their (grand) parents have lived for years, so too is the life of these children in the Mexican countryside. Sad? Maybe. An impressive documentary, that's for sure.

7. Floating In Memory (2009, China) by Peng Tao
   Grim drama about an unavoidable fate is a kind of Chinese Dardennes Brothers film. The young man with the wrong connections shows an interest in a nice shop-girl. Not with honourable intentions.

8. Tattoo (2009, China) by Wang Liren
   Group of young Chinese in a small village in the south of China earn their living with theft, drugs and prostitution. They spend the rest of their days smoking and drinking. Wang Liren watches them with the gaze of a poet from times long gone.

9. California Company Town (2008, USA) by Lee Anne Schmitt
   A documentary essay which casts a probing gaze at California towns abandoned by the industries that created them - onetime boomtowns now haunted by the twilight of the American promise, made by multidisciplinary artist, CalArts educated Lee Anne Schmitt.

10. Survival Song (2008, China) by Yu Guangyi
   Yu Guangyi documents in this prize-winning portrait of outsiders and marginalisation how a sacked Chinese forest ranger survives as a hunter gatherer in the snow-covered wilderness of northern China. He also tries to maintain his primitive yet fascinating tenant XiaoLi. Rules and progress get in their way.