BEHIND THE HAYSTACKS, CHESS STORY & More Arrive On Film Movement Plus This January

If your New Year's resolutions include watching more award-winning, internationally-acclaimed festival favorites from around the world, look no further than FILM MOVEMENT PLUS, now available as a channel via Prime Video (as well as its free-standing SVOD platform, filmmovementplus.com). 

Priced at $5.99 per month, with a 7-day free trial for eligible new subscribers, there is no better destination for Film Movement's curated collection of independent and world cinema, cult and arthouse classics, documentaries and North American exclusives, including January's BEHIND THE HAYSTACKS from director Asimina Proedrou.

A powerful and timely drama, Greece's submission for Best International Film at this year's Oscars swept the 2023 Hellenic Film Awards capturing Best Film and Best Director among its 10 category wins.

Also coming in January are the North American exclusive premiere of director Cludio Noce's third film PADRENOSTRO, which debuted in the main competition at the Venice Film Festival, CHESS STORY, an opulent WWII drama based on Stefan Zweig's stirring final novella, Luc Picard's CONFESSIONS OF A HITMAN starring the Genie-Award winner, and the sixth annual MY FRENCH FILM FESTIVAL.COM, offering eight films featuring the best up-and-coming Gallic talent.

The January Film Movement Plus premieres are as follows:

Friday, January 5

FM+ EXCLUSIVE: PADRENOSTRO

Director Claudio Noce

Italy's period of combatting terrorism and the accompanying social unrest from the late 1960s to the late '80s, was known as the “Years of Lead” and PADRENOSTRO is loosely based on the 1976 assassination attempt of deputy police commissioner Alfonso Noce, Director Claudio Noce's father, by far-left terrorist group, Nuclei Armati Proletari.

Rome 1976. 10-years-old Valerio witnesses together with his mother a failed assassination attempt on his father by a terrorist commando. From that moment on, fear and a constant sense of vulnerability dramatically mark the feelings of the whole family. That summer, Valerio meets Christian, a boy slightly older than him. Lonely, rebellious, and bold, he seems to have come out of nowhere and the meeting, in a summer full of discoveries, will change their lives forever.

Making its international debut in the main competition section of the 77th Venice International Film Festival, Pierfrancesco Favino won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor in this “handsomely made ‘inspired by' drama” (Variety) which also captured a Silver Ribbon for Best Original Story from the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists, and was nominated for Best Film at Venice, Best Cinematography at the Italian Golden Globes and the David di Donatello Awards, among other honors. (2020 | 120 minutes | Italian with English Subtitles)

FM+ PREMIERE: CHESS STORY

Director Philipp Stölzl

To withstand the Gestapo's psychological torture, a lawyer imprisoned by the Nazis finds refuge in the world of chess in this opulent period drama from director Philipp Stölzl called “diabolically knotted… a nerve-scraping exercise in grand deception” (Kyle Smith, THE WALL Street Journal) and “a tautly calibrated, intricately constructed Chinese puzzle.” (Michael Rechtshaffen, Los Angeles Times).

Vienna, 1938: Austria is occupied by the Nazis. Dr. Josef Bartok (Oliver Masucci) is preparing to flee to America when he is arrested by the Gestapo. As a former notary to the deposed Austrian aristocracy, he is instructed to hand over access to their private bank accounts. Refusing to cooperate, Bartok is locked in solitary confinement by the local secret police operative Böhm (Albrecht Schuch). Just as his mind is beginning to crack, he happens upon a book of famous chess matches. To withstand the torture of isolation, Bartok disappears into the world of chess, maintaining his fragile sanity only by memorizing every move.

Adapted with opulent attention to period detail by filmmaker and opera director Philipp Stölzl of North Face & The Physician, CHESS STORY brings Stefan Zweig's stirring final novella to life featuring an impressive ensemble cast featuring Masucci (“Dark”, When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, Never Look Away, Look Who's Back), Schuch (Berlin Alexanderplatz, System Crasher, “Bad Banks”), Birgit Minichmayr (3 Days in Quiberon, The Goldfish, Everyone Else) and Rolf Lassgård (A Man Called Ove). (2021 | 111 minutes | German with English Subtitles)

Friday, January 12

FM+ PREMIERE: CONFESSIONS OF A HITMAN

Director Luc Picard

CONFESSIONS OF A HITMAN, directed by and starring Genie Award-winner Luc Picard and inspired by the best-selling novel, “Gallant: Confessions of a Hitman”, tells the incredible true story of one of the most prolific hitmen of our time – Canada's own “Irishman” -- a paid assassin who worked for the biker gangs of Quebec from 1978-2003. Yet with twenty- eight murders and 12 attempted murders across 25 years, Gérald Gallant (Picard) surprised and confused. How did a stuttering “average Joe” with fragile health and a modest IQ, living a conventional lower-middle-class life with a deeply religious wife in a quiet neighborhood, manage to outsmart both the most hardened criminals and the smartest lawmen for decades while continuing to ply his “trade”?  

In CONFESSIONS OF A HITMAN, which captured Best Director at the Whistler Film Festival and a trio of Canadian Screen Award nominations, Picard has constructed a true-life Canadian classic, one that captures a time and a place in Quebec's history where biker gangs terrorized the streets, and society had moved away from the traditional constraints of the Catholic church. The banality of evil has never been more forcefully depicted. (2022 | 109 minutes | French and English with English Subtitles)

Friday, January 19

FM+ PREMIERE: MY FRENCH FILM FESTIVAL.COM

Returning for a sixth year on Film Movement Plus, MY FRENCH FILM FESTIVAL.COM is an innovative concept designed to showcase the latest generation of French-language filmmakers and deliver them to cineastes the world over. From January 19 through February 19, 2024, movie lovers will have the opportunity to stream new French feature films in competition with a Film Movement Plus subscription.  

After viewing all the festival selections, film lovers will then have the opportunity to go to myfrenchfilmfestival.com, create a login and cast votes, helping to recognize some of the most talented young filmmakers on the international stage today! For more information, go to: https://www.myfrenchfilmfestival.com/en/presentation

Friday, January 26

FM+ EXCLUSIVE: BEHIND THE HAYSTACKS

Directors Asimina Proedrou

A tragic incident on Greece's northern border strikes a local family of three, pushing them to face their own personal impasses, while having to deeply consider the price for their actions in the FIPRESCI Award-winner BEHIND THE HAYSTACKS, Greece's 2024 Submission for Best International Film. 

Stergios, a middle-aged fisherman living on Greece's northern border, is drowning in debt, so he begins smuggling migrants across Dorian Lake, the border lake dividing North Macedonia and Greece, in exchange for a hefty fee. His wife, a housewife and devout churchgoer, is seeking the truth in God's Word, while their daughter tries to define her own life within an oppressive environment. Until a tragic incident strikes the family, pushing the three heroes to face their own personal impasses and weaknesses, whilst having to consider, for the first time in their life, the price to pay for their actions.

Told through an elliptical, Rashomon-esque narrative, director Asimina Proedrou gradually reveals the consequences of self-motivated desires and prejudices. Intense and visually lyrical, BEHIND THE HAYSTACKS is an exploration of religious hypocrisy, xenophobia and constrictive borders.

Winner of 10 Awards at the 2023 Hellenic Film Awards, Greece's Oscars, including Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor, Supporting Actor and Actress, Best Cinematography, Best Screenplay, Best Costume Design, best Sound and Best Editing, BEHIND THE HAYSTACKS has been called “an intense psychological study of murky morality, ingrained community animosity to outsiders and the lengths people will go to for self-preservation.” (Alissa Wilkinson, Screen Daily). (2022 | 118 minutes | Greek, Arabic, Macedonian and English with English Subtitles)  

About FILM MOVEMENT PLUS

FILM MOVEMENT PLUS (www.filmmovementplus.com) opens up a world of provocative, compelling and award-winning films. Priced at $5.99 per month with a free 7-day trial, the SVOD subscription service, currently available as a Prime Video Channel and on  Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Android TV, mobile (iOS and Android), Chromecast, and most Samsung Smart TVs, offers consumers immediate access to festival favorite movies from around the world, including a growing catalog of acclaimed films not available anywhere else. New films are added weekly. 

Classics from the Film Movement catalog include Sergio Corbucci's iconic 1968 Spaghetti Western, THE GREAT SILENCE, Marleen Gorris' landmark Oscar-winning film ANTONIA'S LINE, and much more.