The Aroma of Tea 2006    star_border 5.8
The Aroma of Tea is a 2006 Dutch animated short film made by Michaël Dudok de Wit. It shows how a small sphere travels in a determined and rhythmical manner through landscapes, emerging at the end into a larger sphere of white light. Both the graphic brushstroke and the music, with its haunting rhythms, are strikingly simple and direct. The theme of the film, a quest followed by a union, is as old as time and recognizable despite its limitless variations.

Cefalonia 2005    star_border 6.5
Cefalonia tells the real story about what happened in September 1943 on the Greek island of Kefalonia (Cefalonia in Italian), when the 12,000 men in the Italian 33rd Acqui Infantry Division, following Italy's surrender to the Allied, refused to put themselves under German command and also refused to surrender their weapons. The local German force, supported by Stuka dive-bombers and additional troops, attacked the Italians and after several days of combat the Italians surrendered, having lost 1,300 men. As punishment, the German High Command ordered that all surviving Italians should be executed. Some 5,000 were executed during a week of killings. A handful were rescued by locals and the Greek guerrilla, while the rest were shipped off as prisoners, whereof 3,000 drowned when their ships hit mines. The film "Captain Corelli's Mandolin" is based on a novel about the Italian occupation of Cefalonia, but the massacre was much toned down in the Hollywood version.