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© 2026 The Couch Critic
Browse 29 movies from Bande à Part Films
April, an idealistic lawyer dedicated to lost causes, agrees to defend Cosmos, a dog that has bitten three people, leading to the first canine trial. She has no choice but to win the case, as otherwise, her unusual client will be put down.
Sep 2024
An eccentric family portrait set during the May 1968 protests in Paris. A nine-year-old boy stays with his grandparents and uncles while his parents protest. When an illustrious guest seeks refuge in the apartment, the family’s dynamics change.
Mar 2025
Sophie is a brilliant student. Encouraged by her maths teacher, she leaves the family farm to attend a science preparatory class. Between new encounters, successes and failures, and faced with fierce competition, Sophie realizes that her dream of joining the Polytechnique represents more than an entrance examination but a true challenge of social climbing.
Aug 2023
Competitive bodybuilder Léa Pearl is preparing to compete for the prestigious Miss Heaven title. Her coach, Al, a former bodybuilding star, hopes that, thanks to Léa, he will be back in the spotlight once again. But at the last minute, Léa's ex arrives with their son Joseph, who she hasn't seen in four years.
Aug 2018
A drama set at a Swiss ski resort and centered on a boy who supports his sister by stealing from wealthy guests.
Apr 2012
Diane Kramer is led by one obsession: to find the driver of the mocha color Mercedes which hit her son and devastated her life. With a few belongings, some money and a gun, she goes to Evian, where she's learned the driver lives.
Aug 2016
Is it possible to replicate the human brain on a computer? To connect it to machines? Research aimed at understanding the functioning of our biological brain is being matched by spectacular progress in the development of artificial intelligence.
Aug 2021
Thirteen European directors explore the theme of Sarajevo; what this city has represented in European history over the past hundred years, and what Sarajevo stands for today in Europe. These eminent filmmakers of different generations and origins offer exceptional singular styles and visions.
Jul 2014
A behind-the-scenes look at the of how the Paris Opera is run under the direction of Stephane Lissner.
Apr 2017
A pediatrician's chance encounter with an old acquaintance inspires her ill-timed confession to a past drunken sexual daliance while her husband looks for a parking spot.
Jan 2007
A view of the religious tensions between Muslims and Buddhist through the portrait of the Buddhist monk Ashin Wirathu, leader of anti-Muslim movement in Myanmar.
Jun 2017
Set within the confines of this exceptional construction site, the film paints a portrait of a miniature society, driven by a common goal: to build cinemas for the next century. From the architect to the journeymen carpenters, from the site manager to the head of the Pathé group, from the designer of the speakers to the future projectionists, the film paints a vivid portrait of this society at a human level.
May 2026
David Miller wants to die and chooses assisted euthanasia. He planned everything: the place, the time and the manner. However, nothing goes right. With Esperanza, member of the association, and Tréplev, young prostitute, David embarks on his ultimate night with total strangers.
Sep 2015
It is April 1974 and Julie Dujonc-Renens, young feminist journalist and the cunning Joseph-Marie Cauvin, leading reporter for the Swiss radio, have been sent to Portugal to investigate Switzerland’s aid to poor countries. Sparks fly during the bus trip with Bob, sound engineer approaching retirement. The projects financed by Switzerland prove to be calamitous and the workers’ revolution that suddenly breaks out doesn’t help, obliging our heroes to disregard first the radio’s management, and then their own codes of conduct.
Aug 2013
The daily life of Petra, Virginie, and Estelle, three stuntwomen, from the dangerous film sets, where they face all kinds of deadly dangers, to the safety of their homes.
Nov 2022
Claude Goretta directed “L'invitation” in 1973. For filmmaker Lionel Baier, born in 1975, it is like a “travelling companion”, to adapt Serge Daney’s expression. He feels it is definitive proof that a Swiss can be deeply Chekhovian. The young filmmaker goes to Geneva to ask his elder how he achieved the whoosh of water effect in the film, why attention to detail matters so much, and how to film great actors such as François Simon. This encounter with Claude Goretta – but also with Isabelle Huppert, Nathalie Baye, Michel Robin and Frédérique Meininger – leads one of the greatest of Swiss filmmakers to open up about his work.
Aug 2011
Five days before D-Day, the day of the last voyage of the Order of Sirius, a sect nestled in the Vaudoise Alps, Switzerland. Five days during which a community of 48 people, women, men, children, fed with esotericism and guided by a narcissistic guru, will test their faith and be deprived of their identity. Five days in which every gesture will be the last. Sirius is inspired by the massacre of the Order of the Solar Temple in 1994 in western Switzerland.
Jan 2018
The film shows life in contemporary Sarajevo as reflected through glass covers of the black-and-white photos of its defenders, taken by the Bosnian photographer Milomir Kovacevic in 1992 during the siege of the city.
Sep 2020
Sight, like other senses, is as much a matter of personal experience as of the absence of possible comparisons. How can we know what others see and in what way? How can we describe when our reference points are constantly escaping? Faced with the risk of blindness since childhood, Manuel von Stürler lives in dread of this fate and condition; his lust for sight (Fureur de voir) retraces an initiatory journey into the universe of vision and senses, into the definition of darkness or of nothing.
The prison in Volterra, Tuscany, is home to a unique artistic practice: It is within these walls that Armando Punzo, shut away for three decades with men serving long sentences, has created his plays.
Apr 2026