Hiner Saleem

European Mavericks - Love Gone Wrong Hiner Saleem

Triple-bill of iconoclastic European cinema. 'Together' (2000) is set in 1975 and bourgeois mother of two Elisabeth (Lisa Lindgren) tires of her husband Rolf's abusive and drunken behaviour. She moves out with her two children to stay with her brother Goran (Gustav Hammarsten) who lives in a hippy commune called 'Tillsammans' (Together).

The move proves challenging to everyone in the commune as Elisabeth's lifestlye conflicts with the seventies idealism of the other inhabitants. The air is suddenly ripe with change, sexual possibility and the loss of idealism for all concerned. In 'Dear Wendy' (2005), Jamie Bell plays Dick, a loner living in a poor US mining town who happens upon a small antique handgun, and finds himself strangely drawn to it.

He convinces other young outcasts to join him in a secret club he calls 'The Dandies'. It's a club based on the conflicting ideals of pacifism and guns; with the most important rule: 'never draw your weapon'. But they soon find themselves in a predicament where they realise that rules are made to be broken.

Finally, 'Vodka Lemon' (2003) is a dark comedy by Kurdish filmmaker Hiner Saleem. Widowed army veteran Hamo (Romen Avinian) lives alone in the tiny village of Caucasus, waiting for correspondence - and, more importantly, money - to reach him from his son, who has begun a new life in Paris. Every day he takes the bus to visit his wife's snow-covered grave in an isolated cemetery.

While there, he spies on Nina (Lala Sarkissian), an attractive widow taking a few contemplative hours out from her low-paid job at a roadside vodka lemon stall. With his son's sporadic letters yielding little in the way of comfort or money, his thoughts increasingly turn to his burgeoning friendship with Nina - a union that, despite its tentative beginnings, will change both of their lives forever.