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The History of Cinema: 1981

Albania - Ghana

Australia

Jun -

The government introduces the 10BA tax concession which gives financial backers of domestic film production a 150% tax allowance on their investment. [ADD]

7/8 -

Gallipoli, Peter Weir's tale of life in the trenches in the Dardanelles in 1915, is released.   A young Mel Gibson co-stars with Mark Lee as a pair of idealistic youths whose lives are devastated by their experiences. [ADD]

24/12 -

George Miller’s apocalyptic road movie sequel Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior is released.   Mel Gibson reprises his role as an ex-cop battling a gang of bandits desperate for petrol to fuel their road machines. [ADD]

Burkina Faso

23/2 -

Souleymane Cissé's Finyé (The Wind) wins the top award award at the eighth Ouagadougou Film Festival.   Gaston Kaboré’s Wend Kuni (The Gift of God) also receives a special prize. [ADD]

China

– The first Golden Rooster Awards take place. [ADD]

Ecuador

28/12 -

The National Film Library (CN) is established. [ADD]

West Germany

1/1 -

Carlos Saura’s Deprisa, Deprisa wins the Golden Bear at this year's Berlin Festival. [ADD]

17/9 -

Wolfgang Petersen's $12 million Das Boot, West Germany's most expensive film to date, is released.   Based on an autobiographical novel by German World War II photographer Lothar-Guenther Buchheim, the film stars Jürgen Prochnow as the captain of a U-boat, and examines the pressures placed on his crew as they patrol the Atlantic and Mediterranean in search of enemy vessels. [ADD]

25/9 -

Hungarian director Istvan Szabo's adaptation of Klaus Mann’s Mephisto is released.   Giving an acclaimed performance, Klaus Maria Brandauer stars as a German actor who stifles his conscience when the Nazis take power and then betrays his family and colleagues. [ADD]

Other Key Films of 1981

Albania

Agimet e stinës së madhe (The Dawn of a Great Season) (Albert Minga) [ADD]

Argentina

Tiempo de revancha (Time for Revenge) (Adolfo Aristarain) [ADD]

Armenia

Dzori Miro (Zhirayr Avetisyan) [ADD]

Australia

The Killing of Angel Street (Donald Crombie) [ADD]

The Wrong Side of the Road (Ned Lander) [ADD]

Winter of Our Dreams (John Duigan) [ADD]

Austria

Der Schüler Gerber (Wolfgang Glück) [ADD]

Bangladesh

Janmo Theke Jalchi (Amjad Hossain) [ADD]

Kalmilata (Shahidul Huq Khan) [ADD]

Lal Sabujer Pala (Syed Hasan lmam) [ADD]

Canada

Heartaches (Donald Shebib) [ADD]

Les Plouffes (Gilles Carle) [ADD]

Scanners (David Cronenberg) [ADD]

Ticket to Heaven (R. L. Thomas) [ADD]

Cuba

Cecilia (Humberto Solás) [ADD]

Cyprus

Avrianos polemistis (Tomorrow’s Warrior) (Michael Papas) [ADD]

Dominican Republic

Carnaval y caretas (Peyi Guzmán) [ADD]

Lumiantena (Martín Lopez, Max Rodriguez) [ADD]

Egypt

Al-Qadisiya (Salah Abouseif) [ADD]

Eire

Traveller (Joe Comerford) [ADD]

El Salvador

Cero a la izquierda (Guillermo Escalon, Manuel Sorto) [ADD]

Estonia

Ideaalmaastik (Ideal Landscape) (Peeter Simm) [ADD]

Georgia

Gza Shinisaken (The Road Home) (Aleqsandre Rekhviashvili) [ADD]

Motsurave (The Swimmer) (Irakli Kvirikadze) [ADD]

Three Hot summer Days (Merab Kokochashvili) [ADD]

Ghana

Love Brewed in the African Pot (Kwaw Ansah) [ADD]

The History of Cinema: 1981