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© 2026 The Couch Critic
Browse 34 movies from Riva Film
A haunting sociopolitical drama blending fiction and documentary to elucidate the turbulent history of a Kurdish family. Mehmet (co-director Zeynel Dogan) lives with his pregnant wife in Diyarbakir, eastern Turkey. His father was fatally injured while working in Saudi Arabia and all he has left is an audio tape letter. Now he is to become a father himself, he visits his mother to ask about more of these cassettes but she’s evasive, reluctant to upset Mehmet’s view of his father with the whole dark story.
Nov 2012
A noir thriller told from the point of view of a femme fatale, who falls for the detective in charge of a murder case.
Mar 2012
25-year-old Sibel lives with her father and sister in a secluded village in the mountains of Turkey’s Black Sea region. Sibel is a mute, but she communicates by using the ancestral whistled language of the area.
Jan 2019
Deniz and her friends, who have been apart for the summer, have much to tell each other. While adults are busy with their professional lives, Deniz and her friends are still confused about their university plans. Through the worries of their daily routines, they make plans for the future, yet the challenges of teenage years/adolescence are burdensome. Deniz desires a life that is different than the ideals of her friends. A song nobody has heard of, a hopeless love, solitude. A different world, but where exactly?
Oct 2013
A supernatural encounter burdens the recently retired Mr. Melih with an existential awakening. Soon he, his wife, and their daughter are all haunted by the "ghosts" of lost opportunities, abandoned dreams, and alternate possibilities -- literally...
Nov 2025
Moving from the city to the countryside, 11-year-old Anni has a tough time settling in – until she encounters Wild Heart, an untamed horse, to whom she feels an almost magical connection. But soon after, their bond is put at risk, as some ruthless horse thieves are targeting Wild Heart’s herd.
Aug 2023
Eastern Cape, South Africa. A lonely factory worker, Xolani, takes time off his job to assist during an annual Xhosa circumcision initiation into manhood. In a remote mountain camp that is off limits to women, young men, painted in white ochre, recuperate as they learn the masculine codes of their culture. In this environment of machismo and aggression, Xolani cares for a defiant initiate from Johannesburg, Kwanda, who quickly learns Xolani's best kept secret, that he is in love with another man.
Apr 2017
An eccentric multimillionaire signs an agreement to have his life ended. While selecting his coffin he meets a young woman who has signed up for the same arrangement. Trouble ensues when the couple falls in love and wishes to get out of the contract.
May 2015
Salma Zidane, a widow, lives simply from her grove of lemon trees in the West Bank's occupied territory. The Israeli defence minister and his wife move next door, forcing the Secret Service to order the trees' removal for security. The stoic Salma seeks assistance from the Palestinian Authority, Israeli army, and a young attorney, Ziad Daud, who takes the case. In this allegory, does David stand a chance against Goliath?
Feb 2008
A young nurse starts a new assignment in a small isolated village in the farthest reaches of Turkey, a place that seems asleep in an endless winter. A thick layer of snow covers the souls as well as the lands. But under the snow, unspeakable secrets hibernate.
Sep 2022
In 2007, Yahya works at his friend Osama’s falafel shop in Gaza, which doubles as a drug dealing front. His entanglement leads him to witness a terrible crime. A couple years later, Gaza’s Ministry of Culture randomly chooses Yahya to star in a TV series that highlights martyrs and heroes of the resistance. As conflict simmers in the distance, Yahya unexpectedly receives real weapons, heightening the stakes as the show provides him with an opportunity to confront the perpetrator of the offense that changed his life.
Jun 2025
The documentary filmmaker Robert Bober revisits the world of his great-grandfather, who left Poland to live in the modern and cosmopolitan city of Vienna, home to intellectuals such as Stefan Zweig, Joseph Roth, and Arthur Schnitzler, on the eve of the National Socialist regime's rise to power, which put an end to the city's status as Europe's cultural capital. What emerges is an emotionally powerful double portrait that reveals a search for identity with universal resonance.
Mar 2017
The trial story of Viviane Amsalem's five year fight to obtain her divorce in front of the only legal authority competent for divorce cases in Israel, the Rabbinical Court.
Jun 2014
While handing out food at a charity organization, Laura, Evîn and Julia unexpectedly cross paths. Laura, a released prisoner, defends Evîn, a Kurdish woman, when she is racially insulted by a man waiting in line. Eventually the situation gets out of hand.
Feb 2026
The lonely bank-employee Phillip follows a strict pattern of somewhat compulsive actions keeping his encounters with strangers to a minimum. When his home one day is robbed of all content and he later meets the enchanting blind cellist Lina, he finds, however, he needs to start improvising and taking chances.
Jan 2009
A psychological drama with thriller elements about despair of love. Forty year old Thomas stalks his ex-wife while struggling with his emotions.
May 2014
On 8th May 1978 Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler were the first humans to reach the 8,848m high summit of Mount Everest without additional oxygen. Therewith they exceeded a limit which wasn’t considered to be possible and initiated a new era of Alpinism.
May 2018
A wellness hotel in a small German castle specializes in well-off couples, offering a wide range of services, including one some partners feel trapped into : relational therapy. It's truth time, for some liberating, forcing others to face their secrets of dysfunctional relationship.
Nov 2016
A middle-aged Orthodox Jew, Aaron, living and working in Jerusalem with his wife and children, meets a homeless 19-year-old student. Aaron offers to give Ezri work as his assistant at his family's butcher shop. The two men grow close and their attraction becomes sexual. Aaron must now confront his own sexuality, his feelings for Ezri, and his obligations to his family and faith.
May 2009
Moshe and Tami are a couple, Moshe is in his fifties and Tami is in her early twenties. They live together in a cruel and violent relationship, from which Tami seems unable to set herself free. Tami and Moshe are father and daughter...
Aug 2014