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© 2026 The Couch Critic
Browse 43 movies from BALDR Film
Pregnant Amal lives together with her family in Al Baraneya, a village outside Cairo, surrounded by jasmine fields. Their chaotic yet loving way of life is upset when a landowner offers to buy their land. The pressure to sell divides the family and doubts begin to grow. When Amal’s cousin Rania visits from Cairo, she captivates Amal and her younger sisters with her modern lifestyle: jeans, TikTok videos, and lively city stories. Amal starts to question the life that seems to have been laid out for her and dreams of moving to Cairo. Now that the potential sale of the land offers the prospect of a future in the city, the family’s unshakable faith in their own life in the village starts to waver.
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In Mumbai, Nurse Prabha's routine is troubled when she receives an unexpected gift from her estranged husband. Her younger roommate, Anu, tries in vain to find a spot in the city to be intimate with her boyfriend. A trip to a beach town allows them to find a space for their desires to manifest.
Sep 2024
A mother attempts to reconnect with her jihadist son when he is allowed to await his trial at home with her.
Sep 2016
Jazz and decolonization are intertwined in a powerful narrative that recounts one of the tensest episodes of the Cold War.
After his mother passes away, Rein moves to a small village in the Alps to be immersed in nature, meditate and work as a snowboard teacher. His quiet bubble bursts when his extroverted father Gijs comes to visit. But it isn’t long before Rein has had enough.
Feb 2025
Three youngsters take a road trip to Seville that will change their lives forever.
Oct 2012
The hotel room as a place where everyone is a stranger. A place that is yours for just a moment. A temporarily intimate space entered by a maid in order to clean it while, if possible, not leaving a trace of her visit. Each episode of Stranger is set in such a place, and each is captured in one long take. Weaving together a series of episodic stories – some humorous and absurd, some poignant and mysterious – that all unfold within a seemingly confined space, Stranger explores the idea of home while being away from it, and sheds light on the distinctive yet universal experiences of isolation and loneliness.
Jul 2024
“37 years after her daughter Mitra was executed in Iran and she fled her home country, Haleh leads a successful life as a renowned academic in the Netherlands. Her peaceful existence is shaken by the arrival of a woman she believes may be the traitor responsible for Mitra’s death.”
Aug 2021
Promising young gymnast Timo and his disabled father Ward share a big dream, to win Olympic gold. But when Timo meets physiotherapist Irene, these new and intense feelings conflict with Timo's dedication to his father and the Olympic 'mission'.
Jan 2020
With the Cold War about to break out in Afghanistan, young, lifelong friends Suraya and Sima must question their life choices and moral principles when they get involved in opposite sides of the conflict.
Oct 2024
The Amazon flows lazily through the goldmine-gashed landscape of northern Peru. Using real eyewitness accounts, directors Bénédicte Liénard and Mary Jiménez tell the story of a young woman who winds up in the clutches of forced prostitution when her initially hopeful attempt to escape the constrictions of her village goes wrong. Step by step, she is robbed of her moral and physical integrity. The film reconstitutes a space of dignity and returns voice and identity to a fate formally made nameless. With its powerful imagery, the girl’s traumatic odyssey embodies the destruction of life in a capitalist world in connection with horrific natural devastation.
Feb 2019
How does one grow up on a planet that is destroying itself? Filmmaker Pieter Van Eecke provides a possible response to this urgent question. For four years, he has followed the beautiful and mischievous friendship between Bo and Luca, two teenagers who are as enthusiastic in their ecological activism as in their experience of the contradictory and surprising travails of growing up.
Apr 2023
Three members of an extended Afghan family start their lives over in Iran as refugees, unaware they face a decades-long struggle ahead to be "at home".
Aug 2024
A stifling summer day. A small town in China, where everything feels stagnant. Middle school dropouts Cheng (14), Zhang(14), and Li(13), each burdened by their own troubles, hatch a plan to escape the town. Broke and desperate, they wander around the streets, looking for ways to "make money." Eventually, they set out on a reckless robbery, and what begins as an ordinary day ends violently... The film follows them through this oppressive day, delving into the dark corners of adolescence. Their acts are brutal, yet they themselves are brutalized by a world indifferent to their struggles.
At the far end of Europe, on the southern border of Spain, lies Almería. It is a huge province completely covered with white plastic, harbouring Europe’s largest vegetable garden. It is the place where our tomatoes come from, even in winter. But under all the plastic, strange things happen… Today, the vegetable garden inevitably moves to Morocco. Spanish farmers dive well under their prices to keep in the race. 120.000 migrants work in slave-like conditions on the plantations.
After a bizarre accident leaves Fransje Hermans in a wheelchair, he seems doomed to live out his days in the sluggish village of Lomark. The accident leaves him unable to move or speak, and with the exception of one functional arm, his life seems hopeless. All that changes when charismatic newcomer Joe Speedboot arrives and forms an unlikely friendship with Fransje.
Mar 2026
In the slums of Manila, 11-year-old Ginto dreams of gang life over scavenging, rejecting his sister Asia’s care as she turns to sex work to survive. As Ginto falls for another boy in the gang, he’s forced to confront his identity and desires amid violence and poverty. Meanwhile, Dutch tourist Michael, consumed by dark impulses, descends into the city’s red-light district. When their paths cross, Ginto faces an impossible choice that will shape both their fates in a world where innocence is currency and survival comes at a cost.
May 2025
When Thanatos meets a lonely birdwatcher, a special friendship ensues. But he knows in advance that a farewell will be inevitable.
Sep 2015
In the insulated bubble of white Apartheid South Africa, Marnus, a sheltered 11-year old boy accuses the grandson of his family’s domestic worker of steeling his fishing rod. A brutal chain of events is set in motion, shattering the illusion of his family’s wholesome facade.
Jenjira, a Thai widow, travels to the ancient Buddhist temple Sigiriya in Sri Lanka to scatter her husband’s ashes. As her visions blur time and space, she is swept into a journey through across dimensions.