MUBI In August Will Be On The Road With Besties

I think we can agree, Summer so far has been disappointing. MUBI want to make sure there is still hope with their August line up. A month that will see us going on the road and tiptoeing the pitfalls of platonic friendships.

August will once again bring a diverse range of films from all around the world. From Ira Sachs, Piotr Szulkin, along with Friendship films and films that hit the road!

MUBI RELEASE: CROSSING

Following its theatrical release in July, Levan Akin’s (And Then We Danced, Sweden’s 2019 Academy Award® entry) latest feature film Crossing (2024) will be available to stream exclusively on MUBI from 30 August.

Crossing (2024) is a moving and tender tale of identity, acceptance and unlikely connection that transcends borders and generations. Lia (Mzia Arabuli), a retired school teacher living in Georgia, hears from a young neighbour Achi (Lucas Kankava) that her long lost niece Tekla, a transgender woman, has crossed the border into Turkey. Hoping to bring Tekla home after a period of estrangement, Lia travels to Istanbul with the unpredictable Achi to find her. Exploring the hidden depths of the city, they cross paths with a transgender lawyer called Evrim (Deniz Dumanlı), who helps them with their search.

Crossing (Akin, 2024) – 30th August | Read our review

LATEST & GREATEST: LA CHIMERA

Alice Rohrwacher’s meditative La Chimera (2023), follows Arthur (Josh O’Connor), a taciturn man in mourning who lives his life in rural Italy. Arthur uses his archaeological intuitions to a local community of graverobbers in their quest to find Etruscan tombs, tombs filled with ancient artefacts ripe for fortune, but he uses the digs as a means of finding signs of the afterlife to contend with his sorrow and not material profits.

Rohrwacher’s Italian backdrop allows an onset of probing questions about the ephemeral nature of life and love, captured through a landscape in radiant sunlight and pregnant with the melancholic history of human civilisation—ultimately, are all living beings sentenced to become memories.

La Chimera (Rohrwacher, 2023) – 2nd August | read our review

LATEST & GREATEST: ROBOT DREAMS

In Pablo Berger’s Oscar-nominated, Robot Dreams (2023), Dog orders a build-your-own-robot kit and assembles Robot, and the two spend an entire summer exploring a 1980’s Manhattan together while forging an indivisible bond. Against his will, Dog is one day forced to leave Robot behind at the beach, but upon returning to claim him, misfortune strikes, and the duo may never be able to see each other again…

Berger’s dialogue-free animation is a paean to friendship and a therapeutic understanding of how the ing of time is the ultimate balm to our emotional ailments, scored to the soulful beats of Earth, Wind & Fire.

Robot Dreams (Berger, 2023) – 16th August | read our review

REDISCOVERED: THE SACRIFICE

Revered auteur Andrei Tarkovsky journeys to Sweden for The Sacrifice (1986), a symbolic masterpiece that sees him borrow Bergman’s frequent collaborators, actor Erland Josephson and cinematographer Sven Nykvist, for a timelessly relevant, cinematic swan song.

Faced with the impending threat of a nuclear holocaust, retired actor Alexander (Josephson) attempts to bargain with God in a desperate effort to prevent catastrophe, embarking on a spiritual journey toward redemption. Both haunting and beautiful—and a thought-provoking sign of the times—The Sacrifice makes its return newly-restored in breathtaking 4K.

The Sacrifice (Tarkovsky, 1986) – 9th August

LATEST & GREATEST: THE HYPNOSIS

Marking the directorial debut of Swedish filmmaker Ernst De Geer, The Hypnosis (2023) is an unapologetic and refreshing comedy of manners about female liberation. Filled with absurdly funny moments and cringe-worthy scenes, this satire skewers gender roles, societal norms and modern startup culture.

Vera and André, an entrepreneurial couple working on launching their women’s reproductive health mobile app, get the chance to pitch their business at a prestigious competition. But right before the contest, Vera tries hypnotherapy to quit smoking with an unexpected side effect: she starts to lose all social inhibitions.

The Hypnosis (De Geer, 2023) – 16th August

LATEST & GREATEST: SLOW

In Marija Kavtaradzė’s delicate Slow (2023), dancer Elena meets sign-language interpreter Dovydas and the two share an instant cosmic chemistry. Dovydas is a asexual however, and the duo must navigate the impact this has on their relationship while respecting each others’ individual needs.

Kavtaradz’s tender portrayal of this pairing celebrates intimacy that does not conform to the expected status-quo of relationships, and it is one of the first times a nuanced representation of asexuality has been put to screen with such comionate detail.

Slow (Kavtaradzė, 2023) – 9th August

HIT THE ROAD: ROAD MOVIES

Sate your thirst for adventure and chase new horizons on a winding journey across countries, genres, and eras with surprises at every turn. Our beloved collection, Hit the Road: Road Trips, spotlights unforgettable cinematic journeys, from their ecstatic highs to every bump in the road.

On the Road (Salles, 2012) – 1st August
Alice in the Cities (Wenders, 1974) – Now Streaming
Vagabond (Varda, 1985) – Now Streaming
Crossing the Bridge – The Sound of Istanbul (Akın, 2005) – Now Streaming
Thursday Till Thursday (Castillo, 2012) – Now Streaming
Frank (Abrahamson, 2014) – Now Streaming
Trenque Lauquen: Part 1 (Citarella, 2022) – Now Streaming
Trenque Lauquen: Part 2 (Citarella, 2022) – Now Streaming
Gasoline Rainbow (Ross Brothers, 2023) – Now Streaming

BESTIES ONLY

The soaring heights and occasional pitfalls of platonic friendships are exhibited in Besties Only, our collection of friendships in their many multifaceted forms. s Ha (2012), stars Greta Gerwig as a late-20s self-proclaimed autodidact struggling to make her artistic dreams manifest while they seemingly come naturally to her best friend and the people around her, whereas Carol Morley’s enigmatic The Falling (2014) follows a fainting epidemic at a British girls school after a tragedy hits campus, allowing for an exploration of female solidarity and grief.

s Ha (Baumbach, 2012) – 16th August
The Falling (Morley, 2014) – 16th August
Robot Dreams (Berger, 2023) – 16th August
Rita, Sue and Bob Too! (Clarke, 1987) – Now Streaming
Lick the Star (Coppola, 1998) – Now Streaming
First Cow (Reichardt, 2019) – Now Streaming
Shagbands (Carmoon, 2020) – Now Streaming
Petite Maman (Sciamma, 2021) – Now Streaming
The African Desperate (Syms, 2022) – Now Streaming
How to Have Sex (Walker, 2023) – Now Streaming

IRA SACHS: THE EARLY WORKS

Journey back in time with director Ira Sachs to his native Memphis, where he explores the blurred parameters of sensuality and desire in three profound works. Featuring his first short, Lady (1993), his first feature, The Delta (1996), and the newly-restored Sundance Grand Jury Prize-winning Forty Shades of Blue (2005), our new collection Ira Sachs: The Early Years chronicles the director’s studies of forbidden sexualities and queer awakenings as an exciting prelude to his critically-acclaimed ages (2023).

The Delta (Sachs, 1996) – 23rd August
Forty Shades of Blue (Sachs, 2005) – 23rd August
Lady (Sachs, 1996) – Now Streaming

APOCALYPSE NOW: FOUR SCI-FI PARABLES BY PIOTR SZULKIN

Follow science-fiction legend Piotr Szulkin to the epicentre of the apocalypse with his newly-restored Apocalypse Tetralogy – the dystopian anthology that masterfully blends imaginative escapism and alarming realism. Drenched in razor-sharp socio-political commentary and guilefully created under the strict censorship of Cold War-era Poland, our new collection Apocalypse Now: Four Sci-Fi Parables by Piotr Szulkin features four cornerstones of dystopian sci-fi including the critically-acclaimed O-Bi, O-Ba: The End of Civilization (1985) and the precursor to Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner, Golem (1979).

Golem (Piotr Szulkin, 1979) – 16th August
The War of the Worlds: Next Century (Piotr Szulkin, 1981) – 16th August
O-Bi, O-Ba: The End of Civilization (Piotr Szulkin, 1985) – 16th August
GA-GA: Glory to the Heroes (Piotr Szulkin, 1986) – 16th August