ABOVE: “The Last Five Years” stars Anna Kendrick and Jeremy Jordan. | SUPPLIED PHOTO
The Chicago International Film Festival today announced its full lineup for the 50th annual cinema extravaganza.
In addition to the films, the previously announced opening night gala screening of “Miss Julie” (starring Jessica Chastain and Colin Farrell) on Oct. 9 will include a special appearance by director Liv Ullmann. Special events include “An Evening with Kathleen Turner” on Oct. 14, featuring a 90-minute discussion with the acclaimed actress.
For screening times, tickets and up-to-the-minute information, visit chicagofilmfestival.com.
Here’s the lineup for this year’s competitive film festival, with descriptions by festival staff:
The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out The Window And Disappeared
Hundraåringen Som Klev Ut Genom Fönstret Och Försvann
Sweden
Director: Felix Herngren
Hilarity ensues when an elderly man discovers a suitcase full of money and embarks on a fantastic adventure, involving a frozen corpse, a circus elephant, and a biker gang. Meanwhile, episodes from his past reveal his decades-long proclivity for changing the course of history. Based on the bestselling novel by Jonas Jonasson, this crowd-pleasing Swedish take on Forrest Gump combines sidesplitting comedy with genuine tenderness. Swedish and English with subtitles. 114 min.
101 Reykjavik
Iceland
Director: Baltasar Kormákur
A highlight of the 36th Chicago International Film Festival’s New Directors Competition, Icelandic auteur Baltasar Kormákur’s sharp-witted breakout centers on a young Icelandic man who has an affair with his mom’s Spanish girlfriend, Lola, a fish-out-of-water lesbian (played exuberantly by Pedro Almodovar regular Victoria Abril). With the same droll wit and ribald energy as compatriot Fridik Thor Fridriksson, Kormakur gives insight not only into his winning characters, but a unique northern youth culture. Icelandic and English with subtitles. 89 min.
1001 Grams
Norway
Director: Bent Hamer
Anna, a scientist who specializes in weights and measures, lives a life of precision, rigidity and solitude. But when her father, a fellow scientist, suffers a heart attack, Anna’s world falls out of perfect alignment. Wry and winsome, this beautifully told and thoughtful human story—and Norway’s official submission for the Academy Awards—follows Anna on a journey from Norway to France and back, as she attempts to find the right balance in her life. Norwegian and French with subtitles. 97 min.
Chicago Intertnational Film Festival When: October 9–23 Where: AMC River East 21* (322 E. Illinois St.) *unless otherwise noted Festival Parking: Discounted parking available at River East Center Self Park (lower level of AMC River East 21, 300 E. Illinois; $19 up to 8 hours). Discounted parking vouchers at the Festival Information Table on the Theater Level. Tickets/Info: Visit www.chicagofilmfestival.org
ABC’s of Death 2
Various
Provocative, shocking, funny and at times confrontational, this sequel to the widely popular horror anthology is another global celebration of next generation genre filmmaking. With productions spanning from Nigeria to UK to Brazil and everywhere in between, ABC’s of Death 2 features 26 individual segments, each one loosely defined by a different letter in the alphabet, directed by over two dozen of the world’s leading talents in contemporary genre film. Various languages with subtitles. 122 min.
Ablations
France, Belgium
Director: Arnold de Parscau
After waking up to discover one of his kidneys has been removed, a pharmaceutical salesman sets out on a strange and unsettling journey to piece together what happened. Like a mix of David Lynch and Park Chan-Wook, this surrealist thriller shows how one man’s obsessive quest leads to his own undoing. Virginie Ledoyen co-stars, along with Philippe Nahon (Gaspar Noe’s I Stand Alone) as a menacing senior citizen. French with subtitles. 93 min.
Alexander: The Ultimate Cut
USA
Director: Oliver Stone
In honor of its 10th anniversary, Oscar-winner Oliver Stone presents this definitive version of his controversial epic about the rise and fall of Alexander the Great. Starring Collin Farrell as the titular hero, the film chronicles his decade-long quest to avenge the death of his hated father (Val Kilmer). No stranger to violence and politics, Stone infuses the battle scenes with gut-wrenching detail and provides yet another thought-provoking portrait of an historic leader. Also starring Angelina Jolie. Oliver Stone, IN PERSON. 207 min.
Algren
USA
Director: Michael Caplan
As a passionate chronicler and champion of the underclass, Chicago author Nelson Algren (The Man with The Golden Arm; Chicago, City on the Make) was second only to William Faulkner, according to ardent fan Ernest Hemingway. Illuminated by interviews with artists inspired by his work and embellished with a trove of Art Shay photographs, Algren is a long overdue celebration of an under-appreciated literary icon. 87 min.
Alleluia
Belgium, France
Director: Fabrice Du Welz
When pathologically shy Gloria and professional hustler Michel are set up on a blind date, the sparks between them ignite into an almost otherworldly torrent of passion that culminates in a gruesome, chaotic killing spree. A blistering, anxious fever-dream based on the disturbing true story of the Lonely Hearts Killers, Alleluia marks the long-awaited return of Belgian midnight movie maven Fabrice Du Welz (Calvaire). French with subtitles. 95 min.
The Alley Cat
Marie Ullrich
USA
Jasper, a brusque bike messenger, anxiously waits for the much-anticipated “alleycat,” her friends’ annual booze-soaked bike race across Chicago’s South Loop. When the big night finally arrives, Jasper starts off with a formidable lead, yet quickly finds herself caught in the web of her fellow racers’ longstanding secrets. A thrilling micro-budget road movie, The Alley Cat is also a heartrending portrait of a young woman coming to terms with her own family life. 68 min.
Ärtico
Spain
Director: Gabriel Velázquez
A prizewinner at this year’s Berlin Film Festival, this slow-burning, exquisitely photographed drama follows Simón and Jota, a pair of tightly wound young criminals, who each crave what the other one has. Gritty, bleak and breathtaking, and featuring intensely physical performances from its nonprofessional cast, Ärtico contrasts the picturesque natural landscapes of the Spanish province of Salamanca with the dire circumstances of these disaffected youths. Spanish with subtitles. 78 min.
August Winds
Ventos De Agosto
Brazil
Director: Gabriel Mascaro
Shirley and Jeison are young lovers in an isolated seaside community. After severe thunderstorms, a meteorologist arrives to record the sound of the wind. When his corpse washes up a few days later, Jeison becomes obsessed with giving the body a proper burial. Recalling the work of filmmakers as strikingly different as Vittorio De Sica, Alain Resnais and Terrence Malick, Gabriel Mascaro’s narrative debut beautifully captures the essence of a particular place out of time. Portuguese with subtitles. 77 min.
The Babadook
Australia
Director: Jennifer Kent
Sundance’s breakout horror hit, The Babadook tells the story of a troubled single mother, still grieving the sudden, violent death of her husband, who sees her already shattered world plunge deeper into madness when a two-dimensional monster from a mysterious picture book comes to life and relentlessly terrorizes her and her unruly son. Equal parts emotionally resonant and deeply horrifying, The Babadook represents a promising, self-assured debut. 95 min.
Beloved Sisters
Die geliebten Schwestern
Germany, Austria
Director: Dominik Graf
The aristocratic Lengefeld sisters, fiery and pragmatic Caroline and shy, doleful Charlotte, see their close-knit relationship profoundly tested when they become entangled in a ménage à trois with famed poet and philosopher Friedrich Schiller. Set during the 18th and 19th centuries in a Western Europe undergoing immense transition, Beloved Sisters presents a sprawling yet intimate portrait of people seized by the implacable forces of love, politics, and history. German and French with subtitles. 170 min.
Beyond the Lights
USA
Director: Gina Prince-Bythewood
Noni (Belle’s Gugu Mbatha-Raw), the music world’s latest superstar, is feeling the pressures of fame—until she meets Kaz Nicol (Nate Parker), a young cop and aspiring politician who’s been assigned to her detail. Drawn to each other, Noni and Kaz fall fast and hard, despite the objections of those around them. Writer-director Gina Prince-Bythewood (Love & Basketball) spins an inspirational story about a young woman learning to find her own voice. 116 min.
Birdman
US
Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu
In this black comedy from Alejandro G. Iñárritu (Amorres Perros), Riggan Thomson (Michael Keaton) hopes that by spearheading an ambitious new Broadway play he will revive his moribund career. Though a foolhardy move, the former cinema superhero has high hopes that this creative gambit will legitimize him as an artist and prove to everyone—and himself—that he is not just a Hollywood has-been. Also starring Zach Galifianakis, Edward Norton and Emma Stone. 119 min.
Black Coal, Thin Ice
Bai ri yan huo
China, Hong Kong
Director: Diao Yinan
Winner of the top prize at this year’s Berlin Film Festival, this stark and wintry Chinese thriller has all the ingredients of a classic 1940s film noir: a distraught ex-cop; a gruesome crime that is slow to unravel; and a mysterious femme fatale at the center of it all. But more than pulp fiction, Black Coal, Thin Ice is a penetrating look into the dark heart of contemporary China. Mandarin with subtitles. 106 min.
Black Panther – The Story of Emilie and Jacob
Schwarzer Panther
Germany, Switzerland
Director: Samuel Perriard
In this skillfully controlled drama, Emilie and her estranged brother Jacob are reunited at their family’s holiday home in the Swiss Alps. Their parents have passed, and as the twenty-something siblings reconnect, their former desire for one another permeates their every interaction. Within the solitude of the lush, remote terrain, the sexual tensions rise and Emile and Jacob reluctantly revive their most hidden secret, now complicated by adulthood and the passing of time. German and French with subtitles. 79 min.
The Boss, Anatomy of A Crime
El Patron, Radiografia De Un Crimen
Argentina, Venezuela
Director. Sebastián Schindel
A hard-working man is allowed to run his own butcher shop, but his sleazy boss subjects him to a series of escalating exploitations and abuses that build to a violent climax. Assured new director Sebastián Schindel expertly captures beautifully understated performances with a naturalistic, unobtrusive camera, while detailed close-ups of meat being ground up underscore this incisive story about the unfair treatment of the working-class. Spanish with subtitles. 98 min.
NEW DIRECTORS
Breaking the Waves
Denmark
Director: Lars von Trier
Heralded as one of the best films of the ‘90s, Lars von Trier’s emotionally ravaging breakthrough stars Emily Watson, in her Oscar-nominated debut, as an innocent Scottish girl who goes to sexual extremes to prove her unwavering love for Jan (Stellan Skarsgård), an oil-man who is paralyzed on the job. Balancing the raw and the sublime, Breaking the Waves is a magnificent tour-de-force whose epic intimacy powerfully translates best on the big screen. 159 min.
Buzzard
USA
Director: Joel Potrykus
Not since 2007’s underground film Frownland has the American cinema created such a fascinatingly unlikeable creature as Marty Jackitansky, a disaffected serial cheater. When his boss gives him a stack of undeliverable checks, Marty embarks on his biggest swindle yet, propelling him on a downward spiral of transgressions. Blistering, provocative, and outrageously funny, Buzzard depicts one of the most repellent millennials you’ll ever meet. 97 min.
Camera
Singapore, Hong Kong
Director: James Leong
In this futuristic neo-noir, Ming, a surveillance expert, films everything that happens to him—a compulsion linked to a childhood accident, which left him blind in one eye. Thanks to an advanced technology, Ming gets a new digital eye, which functions as both camera and hard-drive. But his latest case, involving the beautiful daughter of a ruthless corporate boss, will reveal to him more than he is ready to capture. Cantonese with subtitles. 95 min.
Cathedrals of Culture
Dirs: Robert Redford (USA), Wim Wenders (Germany), Michael Glawogger (Austria), Margreth Olin (Norway, Denmark), Karim Aïnouz (France), Michael Madsen (USA),
A major cinematic event for Chicago, center of architectural innovation, this visually stunning omnibus 3D project uncovers the soul of buildings, as six internationally celebrated filmmakers focus on six iconic and very different edifices from around the globe: the Berlin Philharmonic; the National Library of Russia; Norway’s Halden Prison, California’s Salk Institute; the Oslo Opera House; and Paris’ Centre Pompidou. A must-see for architecture-philes. Presented in two 90-minute programs with a 30-minute intermission.
Chaplin Tribute
Meet Charlie Chaplin authority David Robinson, who will celebrate the centenary of the first appearance of Chaplin’s famous Tramp costume. Robinson will explore the origins of the costume and the character, taking a fresh look at the first film in which the character was seen, Kid’s Auto Races at Venice, as well as his landmark short The Immigrant, a masterpiece of farcical comedy, sentiment and social commentary.
The Circle
Der Kreis
Switzerland
Director: Stefan Haupt
Founded in early 1940s Switzerland and exploding in the post-war era, “The Circle” was Europe’s grandest underground gay publication, which hosted a private club offering refuge for homosexuals at the time. It was also the site of a budding romance between shy teacher Ernst and flamboyant drag star Röbi, still together to this day. Through lavish recreations, the film brings the world of “The Circle” to life, as the present-day couple reminisces about the joys and tragedies of the past. 102 min.
DOC, LGBT
Clouds of Sils Maria
Sils Maria
Switzerland, Germany, France
Director: Olivier Assayas
Juliette Binoche stars in this mesmerizing psychological drama about an actress who agrees to re-stage the play that launched her career long ago—only this time, not as the alluring ingénue, but as the ill-fated older woman. Co-starring Kristen Stewart and Chloë Grace Moretz (Kick-Ass), this All About Eve update is a nuanced inquiry into the nature of performance and the perils of aging in an industry that worships youth. German and English with subtitles. 123 min.
Concrete Night
Betoniyö
Finland, Sweden, Denmark
Director: Pirjo Honkasalo
In Helsinki’s feverish twilight hours, impressionable 14-year-old Simo traverses the concrete jungle with his criminal brother. As the night progresses, he is exposed to poisonous influences and dubious sexual encounters that could prove damaging to his unformed young mind. A dreamy voyage shot in astonishing black and white cinematography, Concrete Night presents a stunning nexus between the cold-sweat surrealism of David Lynch and the fatalism of film noir. Finnish with subtitles. 96 min.
El Cordero
Juan Francisco Olea
Chile
When Domingo, a mild-mannered, highly devout Catholic, accidentally kills his secretary, he suffers… from a lack of remorse. Tormented by not feeling a sense of guilt, he sets out, ironically, on a spree of unlawful and increasingly bloody acts in order to recover his moral compass. El Cordero—which literally means “the lamb”—is a pitch-black comic character study and skillful inquiry into the double standards of Catholic guilt and repentance. Spanish with subtitles. 90 min.
NEW DIRECTORS, CINEMA OF THE AMERICAS
Corn Island
Director: George Ovashvili
In this exquisite and resonant fable, an old Abkhaz man and his granddaughter set out to plant a diminutive corn plantation on a sliver of newly arable land floating midway between the shores of Georgia and the disputed area of Abkhazia. Georgian director George Ovashvili has crafted a gorgeous parable of a place and a people, caught between both unceasing political conflicts and the equally unforgiving cycles of nature. Georgian, Russian and Abzhak with subtitles. 101 min.
Creep
USA
Director: Patrick Brice
A cash-strapped filmmaker heads to a cabin in the woods (wink, wink) in response to a cryptic online ad promising $1,000 for a day of “filming services.” His cinematic subject, Josef (indie film multi-talent Mark Duplass), seems sincere enough at first, but it rapidly becomes apparent that his agenda is far more sinister in this bizarre and quietly terrifying debut film. 82 min.
CRU
USA
Director: Alton Glass
Winner of five awards at this year’s American Black Film Festival, including Best Film, CRU follows a group of four formerly tight-knit high school athletes meeting up 15 years after graduation. The reunion opens up old wounds and long hidden secrets, including the lingering effects of a car crash they experienced on the way back from winning a state championship. CRU is a nuanced portrait of friendship, forgiveness and redemption. 85 min.
Dear White People
USA
Director: Justin SimienDear White People follows the stories of four black students at Winchester University, where a riot breaks out over a popular ‘African American’ themed party thrown by a white fraternity. With tongue planted firmly in cheek, the film explores racial identity in ‘post-racial’ America while weaving a universal story of forging one’s unique path in the world. Winner of the Sundance Film Festival’s Breakthrough Talent Award. 108 min.
The Deep
Djupio
Director: Baltasar Kormákur
Based on a true story, this harrowing survival tale recounts the events surrounding Gulli “The Human Seal” Fridporsson’s six-hour swim in the North Atlantic Ocean after his fishing boat capsized in 1985. Baltasar Kormákur’s latest film shrewdly tweaks the survivor biopic formula and presents Gulli’s ordeal as a far more complex superhero origin story overrun with existential dread and survivor’s guilt. Icelandic with subtitles. 93 min.
Doctor Proctor’s Fart Powder
Norway
Director: Arild Frölich
When young Lisa and her new neighbor Nilly team up with a reclusive inventor, an adventure begins and the farts begin to fly. Based on the popular children’s books by Jo Nesbø (The Snowman), Doctor Proctor’s Fart Powder is a modern-day fairy tale lovingly brought to the big screen with a raucous mix of childhood wonder, bright colors and a wry sense of humor. Norwegian with subtitles. 87 minutes.
WORLD CINEMA, SCANDINAVIA SPOTLIGHT
A Dream of Iron
Cheol-ae-kum
South Korea, USA
Director: Kelvin Kyung Kun Park
Winner of a special prize at this year’s Berlin Film Festival, A Dream of Iron fulfills the poetic, personal, and historical potential of the documentary form. After being spurned by a lover who left in search of a shamanic god, Kelvin Kyung Kun Park undertook a sprawling search for a deity among whales in the sea, a shipyard, and a steelworks factory. An essay film about faith, modernity, and Korea’s industrial history told through rapturous imagery. Korean with subtitles. 100 min.
Dust on the Tongue
Tierra en la lengua
Colombia
Director: Rubén Mendoza
A dying family patriarch, the cruel, miserly don Silvio Vega, offers to bequeath all of his holdings to two of his grandchildren, but only if they agree to accompany him on a mountainous road trip—and then kill him. But the young progenies have other plans. A dark, wry examination of one family’s tattered relationship, Dust On The Tongue is part road trip, part oral history, and part bacchanal. Spanish with subtitles. 89 min.
Echo of the Mountain
Eco de la montaña
Mexico
Director: Nicolás Echevarría
Chronicling Mexican muralist Santos de la Torre’s pilgrimage to gain the gods’ blessing for a new project, documentarian Nicolas Echevarria captures the creative process of an unsung master and the traditions of Mexico’s marginalized Huichol culture. Simultaneously emotive and ethnographic, Echevarria’s camera provides impressionistic views of a shrinking landscape dotted with healing springs and hallucinogenic cacti, as Santos’ family performs ancient rituals of rejuvenation. Spanish with subtitles. 91 min.
The Editor
Canada
Directors: Adam Brooks and Matthew Kennedy
Gory, bloody and deliciously campy, this horror comedy from Canadian genre vets Brooks and Kennedy (Father’s Day, Manborg) takes a page from 1970s Italian giallo directors Dario Argento and Mario Bava and tears it to shreds. Masterfully stylized and entirely unabashed, The Editor spins the twisted tale of a once-revered film editor who becomes the prime suspect in a brutal murder case involving the actors in his latest project. 99 min.
El Gort
Director: Hamza Ouni
Tunisia, United Arab Emirates
In this award-winning chronicle of life on the margins of the Arab Spring, two young Tunisian men eke out a living in the hay trade, slowly growing embittered as they feel their youth slipping away without hope of advancement. Though spanning six tumultuous years, including the corrupt rule of President Ben Ali and the revolution that deposed him, the film’s subjects have little time for politics when their struggle to make ends meet remains constant. Arabic with subtitles. 88 min.
Everything We Loved
New Zealand
Director: Max Currie
This lucid and poignant debut film imagines how a magician and his wife, still in mourning over the death of their son, attempt to form a new family with another child. With poignant performances, stunning cinematography and well-scripted suspense—as they struggle to keep the illusion a secret from their community—Everything We Loved is a moving and compelling account of a couple coming to terms with guilt and grief. 100 min.
Evolution of a Criminal
USA
Director: Darius Clark Monroe
When he was 16, Darius Clark Monroe and two friends robbed a Texas bank. Seventeen years later, and seven years in the making, Evolution of a Criminal analyzes the causes and reverberations of this one fateful day in the filmmaker’s life. Through vivid reenactments of the heist, home videos, and interviews with friends, family, and witnesses, Monroe weaves an uncommonly perceptive piece of autobiographical cinema. 83 min.
The Evolution Of Bert
USA, 2014
Director: Jeffrey Wray
Bert, an African-American first-generation college student, struggles to define himself. Diving headfirst into a world of campus poetry readings, jazzy beats, and unavailable women, Bert tries to avoid the stereotyped social roles that so often pigeonhole black men. Employing a free essayistic style, bold new director Jeffrey Wray offers a witty and poignant meditation on the cultural factors that shape African-American identity. 77 min.
An Eye for Beauty
Le règne de la beauté
Canada
Director: Denys Arcand
Chicago International Film Festival veteran and Oscar-winner Denys Arcand (The Decline of the American Empire, The Barbarian Invasions) returns with a drama about a highly successful married Québécois architect who embarks upon a torrid love affair with a Toronto woman. Telling more than just a story of marital infidelity, Arcand employs his trademark acerbic wit to cast a critical eye on a consumerist society out of touch with its roots. French and English with subtitles. 102 min. Denys Arcand in person.
Fair Play
Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany
Director: Andrea Sedlácková
Czechoslovakia, 1984. Anna, a sprinter training for the Olympics, is pressured by the Soviet system to take anabolic steroids to giver her a competitive edge. Realizing too late the dangers of taking the drugs, she is drawn into a personal struggle that goes way beyond the racetrack. A political and psychological thriller with deftly drawn characters, Fair Play exposes the dangerous entanglement of ideology and sports in times of oppression. Czech with subtitles. 100 min.
Family Life
Acclaimed Polish director Krzysztof Zanussi returns to the Festival to present his 1971 Silver Hugo winner, an intense chamber piece about an industrial designer who returns to his family’s dilapidated country estate to help his alcoholic father and depressed sister. With powerful performances by Polish greats Daniel Olbrychski, Jan Nowicki, and Maja Komorowska, and a foreboding setting, the film remains an outstanding examination of the inability to break free from one’s past and a haunting evocation of the most suffocating kind of family life. Krzysztof Zanussi, IN PERSON. Polish with subtitles. 88 min.
Family Life
Życie rodzinne
Poland
Director: Krzysztof Zanussi
One of the Polish master’s best films, this intense chamber piece follows an industrial designer who returns to the haunting environs of his dilapidated country estate to help his alcoholic father and depressed sister. In this outstanding examination of the inability to break free from one’s past, “family life” has never felt more suffocating. With powerful performances and its memorably foreboding setting, the film won the Festival’s 1971 Special Jury Prize. Polish with subtitles. 88 min.
Fanny and Alexander
Fanny och Alexander
Sweden
Director: Ingmar Bergman
A highpoint of not just Scandinavian cinema, but widely considered among the best films of all time, Bergman’s autobiographical masterpiece examines the highs and lows of the bourgeois Ekdahl family at the turn-of-the-twentieth-century through the eyes of ten-year-old Alexander. A four-time Academy Award–winning triumph that combines Bergman’s thematic interests in religion, family and fantasy, Fanny and Alexander is an intense, sensual and sprawling epic that deserves to be seen on the big screen. Swedish with subtitles. 188 min.
Fasten Your Seatbelts (Allacciate le Cinture)
Italy
Director: Ferzan Ozpetek
Elena and Antonio are complete opposites, but they can’t deny their intense mutual attraction for one another. Defying romantic comedy clichés, this drama by Turkish-born auteur Ozpetek (Facing Windows) examines the real life impact of love between two people who don’t understand each other until it is almost too late. Set seductively among the coastal towns of Southern Italy, Fasten Your Seatbelts is a winning tale about the importance of friendship and the need for connection. Italian with subtitles. 110 min.
A Few Cubic Meters of Love
Chand Metre Moka’ab Eshgh
Iran, Afghanistan
Director: Jamshid Mahmoudi
In a shantytown encampment comprised of sheet metal and abandoned tires, Sabar, an Iranian worker, and Marona, the daughter of an illegal Afghan laborer, meet for chaste romantic encounters in a shipping container. But faced with the threat of Marona’s deportation and the prejudice of their communities, can their dreams of marriage be realized? This year’s breakout film from Iran’s Fajr Film Festival is a bittersweet tale of pure love and racial tolerance. Farsi with subtitles. 90 min.
The Fool
Durak
Russia
Director: Yury Bykov
This suspenseful and searing exposé of widespread corruption in Russia follows an idealistic chief plumber racing against time to save the inhabitants of an apartment building on the verge of collapse. A combustible mix of The Sopranos and Kafka, The Fool presents a scathing portrait of contemporary Russia, where working-class folks are wife-beaters and drug addicts, government officials are killers and extortionists, and one good man will learn the folly of the righteous. Russian with subtitles. 121 min.
Force Majeure
Turist
Sweden, Denmark, France, Norway, 2014
Director: Ruben Östlund
When an avalanche disrupts a Swedish family’s ski vacation in the French Alps, the effect is disastrous—but not in the ways one would expect. In this razor-sharp dark comedy of bad manners, rising Swedish director Ruben Östlund (Play) skillfully chronicles the dissolution of a seemingly perfect family, and a father’s attempt to redeem himself and his wounded masculinity. Winner of the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard Jury Prize. Swedish and English with subtitles. 120 min.
Foreign Body
Chicago International Film Festival winning filmmaker Krzysztof Zanussi (Family Life) returns to the Festival with his latest film, an acerbic critique of his country’s spiritually vacant society. As an Italian Catholic man caught between the obsessive affections of two Polish women, an aspiring nun and a merciless corporate shark, he is precariously torn between his nation’s religious past and its moneyed present. Krzysztof Zanussi, IN PERSON. Polish, Italian and Russian with subtitles.117 min.
Foreign Body
Obce Ciato
Poland, Italy, Russia
Director: Krzysztof Zanussi
Italian Angelo is caught between the affection of two Polish women, a young nun and an implacable corporate shark. As he wrestles with Catholicism on one side and capitalism on the other, he becomes precariously torn between his nation’s religious past and its moneyed present. Continuing to unpack the social and political morass of contemporary Poland, Foreign Body presents an acerbic critique of a spiritually vacant society. Krzysztof Zanussi, IN PERSON. Polish, English, Italian, and Russian with subtitles. 117 min.
Fort Tilden
USA
Directors: Sarah-Violet Bliss, Charles Rogers
Taking “a day off from nothing,” two flaky best friends set out on a bike trip from Williamsburg, Brooklyn to a trendy but remote beach. Their ostensibly straightforward journey is swiftly derailed, however, thanks to a nonstop series of bizarre and hilarious incidents in this sharp, satirical amalgam of Girls and Scorsese’s After Hours. Winner of the SXSW Grand Jury Prize for Best Film, Fort Tilden is a laugh-out-loud portrayal of urban millennial angst. 97 min.
Free Fall
Szabadesés
Hungary
Director: György Pálfi
After an elderly woman miraculously survives a fall from her apartment building’s rooftop, she drags herself up the stairwell, witnessing a series of pitch-black, surreal, hilarious and sometimes shockingly violent vignettes involving her neighbors. Hungarian iconoclast Palfi (Taxidermia) creates images that sear themselves into the brain, skillfully combining gleeful Pythonesque silliness with moments of jaw-dropping Cronenbergian body horror. A one-of-a-kind film. Hungarian with subtitles. 80 min.
Futuro Beach
Praia do Futuro
Brazil, Germany
Director: Karim Aïnouz
When Brazilian lifeguard Donato fails to rescue a drowning swimmer, he acquaints himself with the victim’s friend, an ex-soldier. Grief and comfort soon evolve into a love affair—one complicated years later by the reemergence of a figure from Donato’s past. Unfolding atop the hot sands of Brazilian beaches and amongst the chilly vistas of Germany, this kinetic, stylish film charts the heady ecstasy and engulfing despair of a romance in flux. Portuguese and German with subtitles. 106 min.
Gente De Bien
Colombia, France,
Director: Franco Lolli
When a divorced carpenter takes his impetuous ten-year-old son to the luxurious home where he works, the rich matriarch invites them to spend the holidays with her family. But as the young boy strikes up several friendships, the father watches helplessly as his son yearns to adopt the wealthier family’s lifestyle. First-time director Franco Lolli creates enormously sympathetic characters, while deftly displaying the social politics lurking beneath the most innocuous childhood moments. Spanish with subtitles. 86 min.
Gett: The Trial Of Viviane Amsalem
Gett: le procès de Viviane Amsalem
Israel, France, Germany
Directors: Ronit Elkabetz, Shlomi Elkabetz
Viviane wants a divorce from her ultra-orthodox spouse, Elisha, but Israeli law dictates only the husband may end a marriage—something Elisha is unwilling to grant. Undergoing a grueling, five-year legal process, Viviane is forced to contend with a religious court system that refuses to acknowledge her autonomy. Driven by Ronit Elkabetz’s extraordinary performance, this award-winning Israeli drama powerfully documents the injustices of a culture stubbornly committed to the oppression of women. Hebrew, French and Arabic with subtitles. 175 min.
MAIN COMPETITION
Gian Luigi Rondi: Life, Cinema, Passion
Gian Luigi Rondi: Vita, cinema, passione
Italy
Director: Girgio Treves
One of the most powerful forces in the Italian film industry, critic, historian, director and former head of the Venice and Rome Film Festivals Gian Luigi Rondi dedicated his life to cinema. Through interviews with its still perspicacious 92-year-old subject, this documentary is a tour through Italian film history and the life of a tireless advocate of the medium. An early supporter of the Chicago International Film Festival, we are honored to present this celebration of Rondi’s career at our 50th anniversary. Italian with subtitles. 74 min.
A Girl at My Door
Dohee ya
South Korea
Director: July Jung
Doona Bae (Cloud Atlas) and newcomer Kim Sae-ron deliver electrifying performances in this penetrating drama about a complicated relationship between two young women. Taking up post at a small seaside town, policewoman Lee Young-nam finds herself coming to the rescue of Do-hee, a local girl damaged by abuse at the hands of family and peers. As the two form a close, controversial relationship, Young-nam confronts a broader tapestry of social discrimination and destruction. Korean with subtitles. 119 min.
Goal of the Dead
France
Directors: Thierry Poiraud, Benjamin Roche
A rapidly spreading virus transforms soccer players and fans alike into flesh-eating, vomit-spewing zombies in the midst of a not-so-friendly match between two bitterly rivaled teams in a remote French village. Gallic horror aficionados Thierry Poiraud (The Return of James Battle) and Benjamin Roche (The Horde) team up to direct this slick, gory horror-comedy that proves soccer isn’t always such a “Beautiful Game.” French with subtitles. 138 min.
González
Christian Díaz Pardo
Mexico
Spiraling into debt, González takes a job at a call center in a Christian cult’s headquarters, bilking money from its disciples. Fascinated with the charismatic televangelist, Pastor Elías (standout Carlos Bardem, Javier’s brother), González pleads with him to make him a pastor too, setting in motion a dangerous chain of events. A searing study of faith and fraud amid the global recession, González is a bracing thriller bolstered by its striking visuals and performances. In Spanish with English subtitles. 100 min.
Here’s Your Life
Här Har Du Ditt Liv
Sweden
Director: Jan Troell
Winner of the Gold Hugo at the 1967 Chicago International Film Festival, Jan Troell’s gem of a film poetically traces the trials and tribulations of Olof, a boy coming of age in Sweden during World War I. A visually lush, stirring bildungsroman spread out over three hours and in gorgeous black-and-white widescreen, Troell’s rarely seen stylistic tour-de-force is rightfully heralded as a classic for its emotional candor. Swedish with subtitles. 169 min.
High Five
Relocos y Repasados
Brazil, Uruguay
Manuel Facal,
A pair of immature stoners on the verge of graduation blow off a vow to clean up their acts when they serendipitously stumble upon a large cache of illegal drugs and opt instead to spend their day high out of their minds. From Uruguayan cult director Manuel Facal, High Five is at once a raucous drug comedy and a surprisingly insightful lament to lost youth. Spanish with subtitles. 98 min.
Hotel Nueva Isla
Cuba, Spain
Director: Irene Gutiérrez
This masterful observational documentary follows the elderly Jorge and his dog, living among and wandering the halls of an abandoned, run-down hotel, accompanied by occasional homeless friends. With a keen eye that is both highly stylized and intimate, Irene Gutiérrez captures Jorge’s life, spent doing rudimentary “maintenance” on a building haunted by faded glory and craving a community on the outskirts of society. Spanish with subtitles. 71 min.
Human Capital
Il capitale umano
Italy
Director: Paolo Virzì
Amores Perros, Italian-style: This slick tripartite drama recounts the same story from three different character’s perspectives, each one disclosing new revelations about the tragic incident at its core. Winner of Italy’s best film, writing, and acting awards, Human Capital combines excellent performances (from Italian luminaries Valeria Golino and Valeria Bruni Tedeschi), with an incisive critique of the country’s culture of greed and the resulting low value put on human life.
Italian with subtitles. 110 min.
The Idolmaker
USA
Director: Taylor Hackford
The Opening Night Film of the 1980 Festival, Hackford’s lively rock-‘n’-roll debut follows the making of budding teen idols in the 1950s. Ray Sharkey—in his buoyant Golden Globe-winning performance—plays Vincent Vacarri, a Bronx songwriter who takes nobodies and turns them into legends, vicariously living out the fame he never managed to win himself. The Idolmaker, which launched the real-life career of Peter Gallagher, is a humorous and harrowing look into the machinations of showbiz. TAYLOR HACKFORD, IN PERSON.
If You Don’t, I Will
Arrête ou je continue
France
Sophie Fillières
Pomme (Emmanuelle Devos) and Pierre (Mathieu Amalric), a squabbling, spoiled, and dysfunctional French couple, are feeling the strain on their marriage more than ever. During a woodland hike, she makes a life-altering choice, deciding to remain in the forest alone and eke out an existence among the elements. A witty portrait of a turbulent marriage, If You Don’t, I Will is a comedic trek through the absurdities of love in the modern world. French with subtitles. 102 min.
The Imitation Game
USA, UK
Director: Morten Tyldum
Benedict Cumberbatch stars as Alan Turing, the genius British mathematician, logician, cryptologist and computer scientist who led the charge to crack the German Enigma Code that helped the Allies win WWII. Turing went on to assist with the development of computers at the University of Manchester after the war, but was prosecuted by the UK government in 1952 for homosexual acts, which the country deemed illegal. 113 min.
In Order of Disappearance
Kraftidioten
Director: Hans Petter Moland
Norway
Stellan Skarsgård stars in this witty thriller about a snowplow driver out to avenge the murder of his son. Caught between Scandinavian criminals and Serbian mobsters, Skarsgård’s mild-mannered dad transforms himself into a merciless Dirty Harry-type who doesn’t think twice before pulling the trigger. An enormously satisfying comedy, In Order of Disappearance sends up Norway’s attitudes about immigration, while ratcheting up a bloody body count. Norwegian and Swedish with subtitles. 116 min.
In Silence
V tichu
Czech Republic, Slovak Republic
Director: Zdeněk Jiráský
A beautifully photographed and very unique kind of Holocaust tale, this docudrama traces the fates of several Czechoslovakian musicians and ballet dancers when they are interned in a Nazi concentration camp. Told through voiceovers, ravishing images and stylized dance sequences, this lyrical film—like Roman Polanski’s The Pianist via Terrence Malick—shows how artistic expression can thrive and save lives even in the most horrific of circumstances. Czech with subtitles. 84 min.
Into the Clouds We Gaze
K Oblakům Vzhlížíme
Czech Republic
Director: Martin Dušek
With little interest in getting a job, Ráďa puts all his money and time into a singular dream: tricking out his aging Ford Escort. With this sweet ride, he earnestly pursues love and glory at “tuning” competitions for like-minded aftermarket car enthusiasts. Dušek’s documentary takes a stylized and sympathetic look at Ráďa’s life in a hypnotic and surreal world of glowing neon and pulsating Top 40 radio. Czech with subtitles. 66 min.
DOCUMENTARY
It Follows
USA
Director: David Robert Mitchell
A seemingly casual sexual encounter turns into a living hell for teenage girl Jay when she discovers that a sinister curse has been passed on to her—a nameless, shapeless presence that doggedly pursues her everywhere she goes. Infused with an ominous sense of dread, It Follows turns familiar archetypes of suburban life into a horrifying nightmare as the terrified Jay tries to rid herself of the stalking shape-shifter. 107 min.
The Iron Ministry
China, USA
Director: J.P. Sniadecki
Shot over three years, The Iron Ministry is a documentary portrait told exclusively aboard the many trains that crisscross China: some pristine and nearly empty, others rickety and packed to capacity with exhausted riders. An alumnus of Harvard’s Sensory Ethnography Lab (Leviathan), Sniadecki’s approach embodies the group’s filmmaking ethos, capturing artful images of train travel and observing passengers’ candid conversations, together creating an engrossing snapshot of contemporary life in China. Mandarin with subtitles. 82 min.
I’ve Seen the Unicorn
Canada
Director: Vincent Toi
Independent since 1968, the island nation of Mauritius retains one highly visible legacy of British rule: horse racing. Toi’s documentary follows the lead-up to the country’s flagship event, the Maiden Cup, through the stories of a young fisherman who dreams of becoming a jockey, a Rastafarian gambler, a bookie, and stable owner. The result is both a thrilling sports film and a unique portrait of the vestiges of colonialism. English, Creole, French with subtitles. 61 min.
Jamaica Inn
UK
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
On the 75th anniversary of its original release, this restored version of Hitchcock’s 19th Century thriller follows an Irish girl (Maureen O’Hara) who arrives in a coastal village and finds herself caught up in a murderous gang’s plot, surreptitiously led by a deliciously nasty Charles Laughton. Adapted from a book by Daphne Du Maurier (Rebecca, The Birds), this rarely seen adventure film is as wicked as its successors. Hitchcock expert John Russell Taylor presents.107 min.
Joy of Man’s Desiring
Que ta joie demeure
Canada
Director: Denis Côté
A poetic and captivating meditation on work from Québécois auteur Denis Côté (Bestiare), Joy of Man’s Desiring opens with a woman talking to a silent off-screen presence that could just as likely be a machine or person, asking for its trust and cooperation. From there, the film goes on a hypnotic tour of labor in manufacturing, laundering, and carpentry, navigating ever-fluid boundaries between man and machine, abstraction and conversation, documentary and fiction. French with subtitles. 70 min.
The Kindergarten Teacher
Haganenet
Israel, France
Director: Nadav Lapid
This engrossing drama from rising Israeli auteur Nadav Lapid (Policemen) follows Nira, an Israeli schoolteacher who becomes obsessed with the poetry of one of her five-year-old pupils, going so far as to protect him from a materialistic father and a society that she believes is too superficial to appreciate him. Political and profound in unexpected ways, The Kindergarten Teacher confirms the boldness and mastery of a new wave in Israeli cinema. Hebrew with subtitles. 119 min.
The Lamb
Kuzu
Turkey, Germany
Director: Kutluğ Ataman
A rural family decides to throw a feast to celebrate their son Mert’s circumcision. But there’s one problem: they can’t afford the most crucial element—a lamb to sacrifice. As Mert sets out to find a lamb and his father shacks up with a prostitute, his mother struggles to keep her family’s integrity intact. Set amid the majestic vistas of Northeast Turkey, The Lamb tackles themes of female empowerment with a sharp-edged humor. Turkish with subtitles. 85 min.
Land of Storms
Viharsarok
Hungary, Germany
Director: Adam Csaszi
In this uncompromising and visually evocative drama of homosexual desire and homophobia, Szabi, a Hungarian star player on a German soccer team, retreats to his family’s country house, where he strikes up a physical relationship with a young man from the village. Faced with a rival lover and local intolerance, Szabi is forced to choose the kind of life he wants. Land of Storms is a turbulent story of sexual awakening and self-discovery. Hungarian and German with subtitles. 107 min.
The Last Five Years
USA
Director: Richard LaGravenese
Based on the beloved Off-Broadway hit play that originated at Chicago’s Northlight Theatre in 2001, this faithful adaptation from writer-director Richard LaGravenese (The Fisher King) tells of the tumultuous five-year relationship between Cathy (Anna Kendrick), a struggling actress, and Jamie (Jeremy Jordan), a rising novelist. Told separately from each of their perspectives, exclusively through striking and heartrending songs, without any spoken dialogue, this by turns, uplifting and melancholy charmer is a musical love story for a new generation. 94 min. Scheduled to attend: director Richard LaGravanese.
The Lesson
Izlaiduma Gads
Latvia, Russia
Director: Andris Gauja
An attractive Russian language teacher takes a new job in the Latvian city of Riga mentoring an unruly group of graduating seniors. After wooing them with drunken parties at her apartment, she shrewdly takes control of the class—until one of her male students begins to pursue her. Superbly directed with subtlety, empathy and suspense, director Andris Guaja lets this surprising and satisfying character-driven story unfold with all the messiness of real life. Latvian with subtitles. 108 min.
Life After Death
USA, Rwanda
Director: Joe Callander
In this lucid critique of the complexities of international charity, documentary filmmaker Joe Callander chronicles the erratic life of Kwasa, a 20-something survivor of the brutal Rwandan genocide. Charming and yet helplessly irresponsible, he relies almost entirely on the generosity of two quirky Christian American couples. As wry and idiosyncratic as its subjects, Life After Death creates a compelling and complex portrait of life in the shadow of tragedy. English, Kinyarwanda with subtitles. 75 min.
The Look of Silence
Director: Joshua Oppenheimer
Denmark, Indonesia
Joshua Oppenheimer’s indispensible follow-up to his landmark film The Act of Killing again confronts the legacy of government-sanctioned mass murder in 1960s Indonesia, this time from the victim’s perspective. Still haunted by his brother’s murder, a village optometrist spends time watching Oppenheimer’s footage of the killers gleefully reminiscing about their atrocious acts, then confronts the responsible parties in person. Oppenheimer has crafted yet another powerful look at the intersection of personal and historical memory. Indonesian and Javanese with subtitles. 102 min.
Low Down
USA
Director: Jeff Preiss
A hit at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, where it won an award for its moody, burnished cinematography, Low Down is a moving biopic about troubled jazz pianist Joe Albany (captivatingly portrayed by John Hawkes). Told from the perspective of his daughter, Amy-Jo (Elle Fanning), the film tracks Albany as he falls into a cycle of drugs and prison sentences, while she mournfully watches on, powerless to help the man she loves the most. 114 min. Presented by the Cinema/Chicago Junior Board.
Maestro
Director: Léa Fazer
France
Inspired by the 2006 production of French New Wave master Eric Rohmer’s final film The Romance of Astrea and Celadon, this witty behind-the-scenes romantic comedy chronicles the come-uppance of a struggling unpolished actor, who evolves into a true admirer of the art form. Influenced as much by the late great Rohmer himself as by Woody Allen, Maestro is a funny and poignant examination of generational difference and the craft of moviemaking. French with subtitles. 84 min.
Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles
USA
Director: Chuck Workman
Chronicling the life of one of the greatest directors in film history, Oscar-winner Chuck Workman delivers a lavishly sourced examination of the life of legendary filmmaker Orson Welles, from childhood through the full course of his tumultuous, brilliant career. Employing a vast array of Welles’s interviews and reflections from the likes of Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese and Peter Bogdanovich, Magician is a testament to the master’s lasting legacy. 93 min.
Marie’s Story
Marie Heurtin
France
Director: Jean-Pierre Améris
An extraordinary tale inspired by true events, Marie’s Story recounts the story of a French farm girl born blind and deaf who is sent to a convent where she learns to communicate with the world. When her devoted teacher falls ill, the crisis threatens to undo all that she has learned. A sensitive character study, Marie’s Story is a moving narrative about the roles kindness and persistence play in our everyday lives. In French with subtitles. 95 min.
The Midnight After
Hong Kong
Director: Fruit Chan
Seventeen strangers crammed on a minibus are the only survivors of an apocalyptic pandemic that suddenly erases all human life from the face of the earth. Can they solve the mystery of this global-scale disappearance, or will their own malevolent human nature tear them apart? Hong Kong-based midnight maestro Fruit Chan strikes again with this witty and trenchant comic-horror send-up of Hong Kong’s post-colonial society. Cantonese with subtitles. 120 min.
Miss Julie
Norway, UK, Ireland, France
Director: Liv Ullmann
A country estate, Ireland 1890. Over the course of one midsummer night, the haughty Miss Julie (Jessica Chastain) and her father’s lowly valet John (Colin Farrell) charm and manipulate each other. By turns seductive and bullying, savage and tender, their intimate relationship leads to a desperate plan, culminating in a final act as sublime and devastating as anything in Greek tragedy. Past Chicago Festival honoree and veteran Ingmar Bergman collaborator Liv Ullmann brings renewed vitality and emotional resonance to August Strindberg’s classic play of class, power and seduction. 130 min. Scheduled to attend: director Liv Ullmann.
Mr. Kaplan
Uruguay, Spain, Germany
Director: Álvaro Brechner
After fleeing Europe for Uruguay during WWII, Jacob Kaplan built a quiet life. Now 76, he begins to question his life. After learning of a mysterious German prowling the shores of a nearby beach, he becomes convinced that he’s found a Nazi in hiding and plans to expose him. Expertly distilling a potent mixture of emotional depth and deadpan comedy, Mr. Kaplan is a vivacious meditation on family, aging, and the drive for significance. Spanish with subtitles. 98 min.
Nabat
Azerbaijan
Director: Elchin Musaoglu Guliyev
When war forces the evacuation of villagers out of a mountainous region in Azerbaijan, the formidable aging Nabat, faithfully tied to her family and her land, refuses to leave. Persevering in a deserted village, her resolve is tested through progressively dire circumstances. With breathtaking cinematography, unfolding in long, masterful tracking shots, the stunning Nabat is a sublimely moving testament to the enduring power of one woman—and of a country—surviving against all odds. Azeri with subtitles.105 min.
National Gallery
USA, France
Director: Frederick Wiseman
For his latest institutional portrait, Frederick Wiseman trains his ever-perceptive gaze on London’s venerable National Gallery museum. By showing us the breadth of the Gallery’s audience—from schoolchildren to elite donors—and its offerings—from high-profile exhibitions, such as a major Leonardo da Vinci show, to the fascinating process of painting restoration –Wiseman makes both an observational argument for how an arts organization stays relevant and lovingly celebrates the aesthetic experience. 181 min.
Natural Born Killers: Director’s Cut
USA
Director: Oliver Stone
In honor of its 20th anniversary, Oscar-winner Oliver Stone presents his black-hearted satire of the media’s obsession with violent crime. Starring Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis as a pair of bloodthirsty lovers on a violent rampage, the film gleefully evokes the aesthetics of popular entertainment, weaving together a lurid, frenetic collage of cartoons, police procedurals and sitcoms that drives his social critique with a blunt and inimitable force. Oliver Stone, IN PERSON. 122 min.
Natural Born Killers: Director’s Cut
USA
Director: Oliver Stone
Oscar-winning filmmaking Oliver Stone returns to the Festival to presents this special 20th anniversary screening of his black-hearted satire of the media’s obsession with violent crime. Starring Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis as a pair of bloodthirsty lovers on a violent rampage, the film gleefully evokes the aesthetics of popular entertainment, weaving together a lurid, frenetic collage of cartoons, police procedurals and sitcoms that drives his social critique with a blunt and inimitable force. Oliver Sone, IN PERSON. 122 min.
Ne Me Quitte Pas
Netherlands, Belgium
Director: Sabine Lubbe Bakker, Niels van Koevorden
The year’s breakout dark comedy alcoholism-themed bromance, Ne Me Quitte Pas is one of the nonfiction treasures of 2014. When his wife leaves him, sad-sack Marcel takes comfort in the bottle and the company of his stoically soused friend Bob. Hanging out in the beautiful Belgian countryside, the two navigate friendship, loneliness, and substance abuse in this unexpectedly entertaining and tender film that defies categorization. French and Dutch with subtitles. 107 min.
Next to Her
At Li Layla
Israel
Director: Asaf Korman
Chelli is the sole caretaker for her mentally disabled, self-destructive sister Gabby. When Chelli begins a romantic relationship with the kindly Zohar, a fascinating triangle develops between the threesome, as Chelli loses her controlling grip on her vulnerable sibling. With stellar performances and startling plot twists, Next to Her is a compelling, complex and affecting drama about co-dependency and learning to let go. Hebrew with subtitles. 90 min.
No Thank You
Ei Kiitos
Finland
Director: Samuli Valkama
Heli is in a midlife rut. With an oafish husband who favors video games over intimacy, she begins a torrid affair with one of her adult students—and eventually learns what she’s really been missing. Set to an exuberant jazz soundtrack, No Thank You is a punchy, humorous look at marital malaise and the difficulties of maintaining, and revitalizing, the luster of old relationships. Finnish with subtitles. 92 min.
Of Horses and Men
Hross í oss
Iceland, Norway, Germany
Director: Benedikt Erlingsson
Six deliciously morbid vignettes about people and their passionate relationships with horses intertwine in this highly acclaimed and darkly comic fable set in an Icelandic valley. Through eye-opening images that capture the absurdities of man and beast alike, often blurring the line that separates the two, the film humorously presents an unforgettable look into a community’s obsession. Icelandic, Swedish, English with subtitles. 81 min.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
U.S.
Milos Forman
Celebrating its 1975 world premiere at the Festival, Milos Forman’s darkly funny masterpiece stars Jack Nicholson as a rabble-rouser who fights against the oppressive rules of a mental hospital, presided over by the tyrannical Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher). Winner of five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor (for Nicholson), and Best Actress (for Fletcher), the film will screen in a newly restored version, honoring producer Saul Zaentz, with surprise guests in attendance. 134 min.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
USA
Milos Forman
Celebrating its 1975 world premiere at the Festival, this darkly funny masterpiece stars Jack Nicholson in one of his career-defining roles as a rabble-rouser who fights against the oppressive rules of a mental hospital. Winner of five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor (for Nicholson), and Best Actress (for Louise Fletcher), this special film revival will show in its newly restored version, honoring producer Saul Zaentz. With surprise guests in attendance. TK min.
On Beauty
USA, Kenya
Director: Joanna Rudnick
From Emmy-nominated filmmaker Joanna Rudnick (In the Family), On Beauty follows former fashion photographer Rick Guidotti as he focuses his lens on people who are often excluded or misrepresented in popular media. Highlighting vibrant individuals with genetic conditions, Rick’s work challenges conventional visions and helps redefine notions of beauty. Filmmaker and subject will participate in a post-screening panel discussion about the importance and difficulties of changing mainstream definitions of beauty. 77 min.
The Other One
USA
Director: Josef Steiff
In this bold, atmospheric story of loss and acceptance, former schoolteacher Amber returns to her childhood home to look after her ailing mother. Still haunted by a tragedy that took the life of her husband, Amber tries to cope with her mother’s deteriorating mental state. As she slowly uncovers secrets from her childhood, she must also confront her own tenuous grasp on reality. 98 min.
The Owners
Kazakhstan
Director: Adilkhan Yerzhanov
In this bizarrely darkly comic adventure set in the Wild Wild East of rural Kazakhstan, three orphaned siblings from the city try to reclaim their mother’s home in a far-flung village, only to encounter corruption, indifference, and cruelty at every turn. With outbursts of singing, dancing, violence and visually arresting tableaus, The Owners presents a lurid and shocking vision of injustice that is as idiosyncratic as it is alarming. Kazakh and Russian with subtitles. 93 min.
Paris of the North
París Norðursins
Iceland, Denmark, France
Director: Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurðsson
Relocated from Reykjavik to a dilapidated rural fishing village, former alcoholic Hugi spends his time teaching elementary school and attending AA meetings. His path to recovery, however, is derailed by the arrival of his philandering, beer-guzzling dad. A droll and gentle character study, Paris Of The North is a captivating account of fathers and sons mending their stunted relationships while finding the courage to push forward with their own lives. Icelandic with subtitles. 95 min.
The Piano Room
Soba so pijano
Macedonia
Director: Igor Ivanov
In the only functioning room in a rundown hotel, the scene is set for a series of guests. As occupants check in and out over the years, the film skillfully weaves their stories, revealing the highs and lows of relationships and the dangers of desire. Both heartbreaking and comic, this wonderfully acted and sensual tale is an exquisite examination of the cyclical nature of life. Macedonian, German, Russian, Turkish, Serbo-Croatian, Hebrew and English with subtitles. 103 min.
Pink Noise
Ruida Rosa
Colombia
Director: Roberto Flores Prieto
In the dilapidated small town of Barranquilla, Colombia, amid rolling electrical blackouts and torrential downpours, Luis, an elderly repairman, and Carmen, an aging hotel-worker, briefly come together and rekindle long dormant passions. Bolstered by its exquisitely framed compositions and two amiable characters, Pink Noise is a beautiful and bittersweet portrait of aging, loneliness, and love, as gently paced as its characters’ tender lives. Spanish with subtitles. 110 min.
NEW DIRECTORS, CINEMA OF THE AMERICAS
The President
Georgia, France, UK, Germany
Director: Mohsen Makhmalbaf
In this dark satire of power, dispossession and revenge from Iranian New Wave master Mohsen Makmalbaf (Kandahar), a dictator comes face to face with the people he previously subjugated. When a coup d’état overthrows a leader’s brutal rule and the rest of his family flees the country by plane, The President becomes a fugitive, along with his young grandson, and confronts, first-hand, the hardships and anger experienced by his own people. Georgian and English with subtitles. 115 min.
The Princess of France
La princesa de Francia
Argentina
Director: Matías Piñeiro
When a young director returns to Buenos Aires to record Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost for radio broadcast, his reappearance triggers memories from previous love affairs and shakes up the relationships in his drama troupe. Playfully mixing art and life, past and present, The Princess of France reveals the quick-witted banter of love in fugue-like variations that keeps the viewer enthralled in its narrative flow. Spanish with subtitles. 70 min.
Red Army
USA, Russia
Director: Gabe Polsky
From Emmy award-winning Chicago filmmaker Gabe Polsky, Red Army is a documentary about the Soviet Union and the most successful dynasty in sports history: the Red Army hockey team. Told from the perspective of its captain Slava Fetisov, the story portrays his transformation from national hero to political enemy. An inspiring Cold War drama played out on the ice rink, Red Army follows a man who stood up to a powerful system and paved the way for change. Russian and English with subtitles. 85 min.
Red Rose
Iran, France, Greece
Director: Sepideh Farsi
With riots erupting on Tehran’s streets following the 2009 election, a group of demonstrators finds sanctuary in a middle-aged man’s flat. After one of the activists, a progressive and vivacious young woman, returns to the near-reclusive man, a playful yet provocative relationship between the two unfolds. Skillfully weaving scripted drama with ground-level footage from the Green Revolution, Red Rose is a multi-layered chamber piece set against the country’s cycle of political protest and oppression. Farsi with subtitles. 88 min.
Refugiado
Argentina, Colombia, France, Poland, Germany
Director: Diego Lerman
After escaping the clutches of her abusive husband Fabian, Laura and her seven-year-old son Matias venture through Buenos Aires shelters, factories, and flophouses seeking refuge. With Fabian on their tail, the duo’s perilous journey alternates between safety and terror. Veteran director Diego Lerman, working in a mode of delicate realism, sensitively limns the social and emotional plight of a mother and child upended by harrowing domestic circumstances. Spanish with subtitles. 93 min.
Roger and Me
USA
Director: Michael Moore
Michael Moore will present, in person, this 25th anniversary restored version of his breakthrough debut. An irreverent look at Moore’s hometown, Flint, Michigan, which had been economically decimated by downsizing at General Motors, the film charts Moore’s much-thwarted efforts to meet with then-GM Chairman Roger Smith. Blending humor with scathing indictment, Roger and Me ignited a national discussion about the cruelties of corporate America that remains just as relevant today. 91 min.
RETRO
Roger and Me
Michael Moore presents this 25th anniversary restored version of his breakthrough debut. An irreverent look at his hometown, Flint, Michigan, which had been economically decimated by downsizing at General Motors, the film charts Moore’s much-thwarted efforts to meet with then-GM Chairman Roger Smith. Blending humor with scathing indictment, Roger and Me ignited a national discussion about the cruelties of corporate America that remains just as relevant today. Michael Moore, IN PERSON. 91 min.
Rudderless
USA
Director: William H. Macy
After a tragic shooting takes the life of his teenage son, a grieving father (Billy Crudup) discovers the boy’s demo tapes. When he musters the will to perform one, he forms a tight bond with a young musician (Anton Yelchin) and together, they form a rock band that revitalizes their lives—until a hidden secret is revealed. Actor William H. Macy (Fargo) delivers a poignant and inspirational drama about the power of love, forgiveness and redemption. 104 min.
The Salvation
Denmark
Director: Kristian Levring
In this faithful tribute to the classic American Western, Mads Mikkelsen (Casino Royale) stars as a peaceful European settler who sets out to avenge the murder of his family and cleanse the black heart of his community. With majestic desert landscapes, a ruthless black-hatted bad guy and a duplicitous lass (Eva Green), The Salvation miraculously deploys familiar conventions in exciting new ways. Danish and English with subtitles. 89 min.
Sand Dollars
Dólares de Arena
Dominican Republic, Argentina, Mexico
Directors: Laura Amelia Guzmán and Israel Cárdenas
In a Dominican resort town, Noeli, a dark-skinned local, hooks up with international tourists in exchange for money, sharing the proceeds with her boyfriend. But Noeli’s longstanding romantic relationship with Anne, a wealthy lesbian woman (the extraordinary Geraldine Chaplin) threatens to upend their lives. This deftly directed multi-character portrait, both tender and cynical, paints a highly sensitive and sophisticated picture of the collision between haves and have-nots. Geraldine Chaplin, IN PERSON. Spanish with subtitles. 80 min.
Seven Little Killers
Eppideis
Italy
Directed by: Matteo Andreolli
In a small village in Southern Italy in the 1980s, a group of 13-year-old boys and girls enjoy their adolescence—until a seemingly accidental death in the town shakes up their lives. Thirty years later, now grown-up, the gang becomes suspects in a crime they all want to cover up. First-time director Matteo Andreolli crosses back and forth in time to weave together an engaging and incisive drama about guilt, revenge and growing up. Italian with subtitles. 86 min.
Something Must Break
Nånting Måste Gå Sönder
Sweden
Director: Ester Martin Bergsmark
With long hair, epicene features, and an increasingly dominant alter-ego he calls Ellie, Sebastian defies easy gender identification. When the leather jacket-donning Andreas comes to his rescue during a homophobic beating, a cautious yet steamy relationship begins between the two that forces both to confront the relative fluidity of their sexualities. Unflinching and intimate, Something Must Break soulfully examines the permeability of identity and the ambiguity of desire. Swedish with subtitles. 81 min.
Speed Walking
Kapgang
Denmark
Director: Niels Arden Oplev
Being twelve is hard enough, but for Martin, a budding speed walker, this minefield is made more bewildering by his mother’s sudden death and Denmark’s newly liberalized pornography laws. With a candid and sensitive perspective, director Niels Arden Oplev (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) uses the story of a boy’s sexual coming-of-age in the mid-‘70s as a tender allegory about a society coming to terms with its new and sudden openness. Danish with subtitles. 108 min.
A Star Is Born
USA
Director: George Cukor
The most quintessential show-business drama of all time, A Star is Born (1954) stars Judy Garland as rising singer Esther Blodgett. When she catches the eye of an erudite alcoholic actor whose career is in decline, their intense love transforms them both. Returned to its initial length and digitally re-mastered, this glorious digital presentation restores this Hollywood Star to its original shining glory. Film historian and George Cukor expert John Russell Taylor will present.176 min.
Stations of the Cross
Kreuzweg
Germany, France
Director: Dietrich Brueggemann
Winner of the Berlin Film Festival’s best screenplay prize, this revelatory drama traces the inexorable journey of Maria, a 14-year-old Catholic girl bent on purification and sacrifice. Is she a victim of her tyrannical mother and their fanatical religious sect, or is she a bona fide saint? Divided into 14 segments, each one inspired by Jesus Christ’s Stations of the Cross, this accomplished film is formally audacious and yet surprisingly touching. German, French and Latin with subtitles. 107 min.
Still
UK
Director: Simon Blake
A powerhouse performance from Irish actor Aiden Gillen (Game of Thrones) fuels this dramatic thriller about a photographer, reeling from the death of his teenage son. One day, a chance encounter with a street gang sends him down a dangerous path. In his breakout debut film, director Simon Blake paints a gritty, menacing portrait of North London’s cruel urban environs, where the dividing lines between evil and innocence are blurred. 96 min.
Stockholm
Stokholm
Director: Rodrigo Sorogoyen
Spain
A cocky young man declares his love to a fetching woman at a nightclub; what follows is a riveting and unsettling tête-à-tête, which begins romantically on the deserted late-night streets of Madrid but rapidly shifts into far darker and more intriguing terrain the following day. A cult hit in Spain and festival prizewinner, this superbly written and brilliantly executed slow-burning psychological drama stars young actress Aura Garrido in a riveting performance. Spanish with subtitles. 91 min.
Summer
Zomer
Netherlands
Director: Colette Bothof
Quiet timid Anna lives under the shadow of her rural community’s power plant—a continually humming reminder of her town’s traditional ways. Unable to fit in and searching for her sexual identity, she gets just the boost she needs with the arrival of an alluring leather-clad biker chick. With genuine performances and warm cinematography that captures the heat and suffocation of summertime, Collette Bothof’s touching second feature examines a girl daring to be different. Dutch with subtitles. 85 min.
Superegos
Über-Ich Und Du
Austria
Director: Benjamin Heisenberg
In this quirky comedy, Nick, a con man, looks for a place to lay low, and ends up house-sitting at the home of eccentric elderly psychologist Curt Ledig. Mesmerized by Nick’s chaotic lifestyle, Curt begins to study him, and in the process begins reconciling his feelings about his own dark past. A lively romp, Superegos deftly combines slapstick with intellectual wit and charm, transforming the often-predictable buddy comedy into something fresh. German with subtitles. 93 min.
Supernova
The Netherlands, Germany, Belgium
Director: Tamar van den Dop
Frustrated with her isolated, rural existence, 15-year-old Meis spends her days thinking about exploding stars and reveling in erotic fantasies, while she and her family live in fear (and hope) that a car will come careening through their front window, and reinvigorate their torpid lives. With everyday events portrayed on a cosmic scale, this sexy coming-of-age film sumptuously chronicles one girl’s sexual awakening within the context of the larger universe. Dutch with subtitles.102 min.
The Third One
El Tercero
Argentina
Director: Rodrigo Guerrero
Seeking to sate his sexual desires and perhaps even find something more, young Fede takes to online chat-rooms to interact with other men. Two in particular strike his fancy—a couple in an apparently open relationship. Per their invitation, Fede spends a night at their apartment that powerfully enlightens him to the possibilities of love. Disarmingly sweet, The Third One is a frank account of sexual exploration and acceptance. Spanish with subtitles. 70 min.
WORLD CINEMA, LGBT
This Afternoon
USA
Director: Stephen Cone
After accidentally stumbling into a therapy group for sex addiction, an aspiring youth pastor strikes up a friendship with a lonely housewife who has a proclivity for picking up strangers on Craigslist. The two spend the afternoon together, revealing themselves to one another through a profound and penetrating conversation, which eventually leads to transformative personal revelations. Raw and sensitive, this micro-budget Chicago indie is an intimate look into individuals struggling to find fulfillment in their lives. 66 min.
Timbuktu
Mauritania, France
Director: Abderrahmane Sissako
A beautifully crafted and devastating account of the takeover of Northern Mali by Islamic militants two years ago, Timbuktu tells a deeply humanist tale about a diverse group of citizens’ struggles in the face of adversity and intolerance. Like his previous cinematic gem Bamako, veteran filmmaker Sissako focuses on the inner fortitude of his characters, particularly the steadfast women, who, despite abuse and oppression, still sing in defiance. Arabic, Bambara, French, English, Songhay, Tamasheq with subtitles. 97 min.
Tir
Italy
Director: Alberto Fasulo
Branko, a schoolteacher-turned-trucker, attempts to provide for his family while drudging across the European continent in his semi truck. Searching for moments of rest punctuate his quotidian existence as he pushes to meet his deadlines, while intermittent calls from his wife paint a portrait of familial turmoil. Winner of the top prize at the Rome Film Festival, Tir offers a breathtakingly humanistic and ultra-realistic look at the transient life of an industrial cog. Italian with subtitles. 85 min.
WORLD CINEMA
La Tirisia
Mexico, 2014
Director: Jorge Pérez Solano
Set amid the surrealist cacti-filled landscapes of Oaxaca, Mexico, this sensual, subtle drama follows the interwoven stories of two women, impregnated by the same uncaring man and unsure of whether they want to keep their babies. Driven by its beautiful cinematography and evocative imagery, La Tirisia is both a melancholic portrait of rural Mexico and a poignant tale of feminine pain and triumph. Spanish with subtitles. 110 min.
Titli
India
Director: Kanu Behl
In the cutthroat environs of Delhi, a young man named Titli struggles to escape from his brutal and abusive family. But his plans are complicated when his criminal brothers instigate an arranged marriage, bringing the unsuspecting bride Neelu into their domestic rat’s nest. Acclaimed at its Cannes 2014 premiere, this outstanding debut film is a gritty and absorbing drama ripped straight from the hardscrabble mean streets of contemporary India. Hindi with subtitles. 127 min.
Two Days, One Night
Deux jours, une nuit
Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne
Belgium, France, Italy
Actress Marion Cotillard teams up with neorealist masters Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne for this powerful slice-of-life drama about a factory worker who has 48 hours to save her job from being downsized. Like their previously acclaimed films (Rosetta, The Son), the Dardennes combine the high stakes of everyday life with a deeply felt humanism, as Cotillard’s character journeys door-to-door seeking help from her co-workers, each shouldering their own burdens, as she encounters encouragement and selfishness along the way. French with subtitles. 95 min.
Underdog
Svenskjävel
Sweden, Norway
Ronnie Sandahl
A financially strapped, disaffected young Swede lands in Norway in search of employment. When she begins work as a housekeeper at middle-class Steffan’s home, neither anticipates the impact she will have on their lives and his family. Ronnie Sandahl’s emotionally satisfying debut features an urban modern-day romance while tackling issues of class, privilege and the changing balance of power between Sweden and Norway. Swedish and Norwegian with subtitles. 97 min.
Viktoria
Bulgaria, 2014
Director: Maya Vitkova
Bulgaria, 1979. Viktoria is a miracle child for the Communist authorities—with her mystifyingly missing belly button, she’s been chosen as “Socialist Bulgaria Baby of the Decade.” Despite her mother’s wishes to escape her oppressive home country, Viktoria becomes a talentless cause célèbre. But as Eastern European Communism erodes, so too does the girlish celebrity’s political renown. Darkly funny and surreal, this impressive and ambitious satire explores the mercurial ties between mind, body, and country. Bulgarian with subtitles. 155 min.
Vive La France
Sweden, Iceland, Finland, Norway
Directors: Helgi Felixson, Titti Johnson
As officials and scientists debate the environmental impact of France’s nuclear program, the people of Tureia quietly continue their way of life despite living 100km away from one of the world’s largest nuclear waste dumps. Vive La France reveals the willful existence of a small island community, while delivering a grave lesson on the ecological consequences of nuclear testing and the political ramifications of French colonialism in Polynesia. French with subtitles. 87 min.
The Way He Looks
Hoje eu quero voltar sozinho
Brazil
Director: Daniel Ribeiro
São Paulo teen Leonardo is facing the challenges of adolescence, including overbearing parents and a burgeoning sexuality—he also happens to be blind. When new kid Gabriel shows up at school, drawing the attraction of both he and his best girlfriend, Leonardo’s world is turned upside down. A jubilant portrait of young gay love, this assured debut feature tenderly parses the terrain of growing up different in more ways than one. Portuguese with subtitles. 95 min.
The Well
USA
Director: Tom Hammock
A tense, gritty, post-apocalyptic thriller, The Well takes place in a drought-stricken valley, where 17-year-old Kendal is the sole defender of a well that contains some of the last precious resources the earth has to offer. When a greedy, amoral water baron rolls in and violently disturbs her uneasy status quo, Kendal must decide whether to turn tail and run or bravely face down her ruthless enemy in a finale that would make Quentin Tarantino proud. 95 min.
We Love You, You Bastard
Salaud, on t’aime
France
Director: Claude Lelouch
Johnny Hallyday, the septuagenarian singer, bon vivant and French icon, stars in this exuberant family drama about an aging ladies man who wants to reconnect with his unwieldy offspring (which includes four daughters—and maybe more—with four different women). Veteran director Lelouch (A Man and A Woman) tells an emotionally sweeping story, by turns funny and sad, of burgeoning romance and the heady rush of a family reunited. Co-starring Sandrine Bonnaire. French with subtitles. 108 min.
White Nights
USA
Director: Taylor Hackford
In honor of Oscar-winning director Taylor Hackford (Ray), whose debut The Idolmaker premiered at the 1980 Festival, we present this special revival of the film that boasted its world premiere here in 1985. A stirring Russia-set thriller, White Nights stars famed actor-dancers Mikhail Baryshnikov and Gregory Hines as unlikely allies pitted against a nefarious Soviet empire. Featuring a stellar supporting cast, including Helen Mirren, Geraldine Page, Isabella Rossellini and choreography by the great Twyla Tharp. Taylor Hackford, IN PERSON.135 min.
Why Be Good?
Director: William A. Seiter
USA
The top box-office draw of 1927 and a defining figure of the Roaring Twenties (and later, co-founder of the Chicago International Film Festival), Colleen Moore stars in this delightful jazz-age romp about a poor flapper girl with a bad reputation whose wealthy beau puts her virtue to the test. Long thought lost, the film, now having its North American premiere, was recently discovered and restored with its original score. A rare movie event! English intertitles. 84 min.
Wild
USA
Director: Jean-Marc Vallée
In Wild, director Jean-Marc Vallée (Dallas Buyers Club), Reese Witherspoon (Walk the Line) and screenwriter Nick Hornby (An Education) bring bestselling author Cheryl Strayed’s extraordinary adventure to the screen. After years of reckless behavior and haunted by memories of her mother (Laura Dern), Strayed sets out to hike on her own more than a thousand miles on the Pacific Crest Trail. Wild powerfully reveals her terrors and pleasures—as she forges ahead on a journey that maddens, strengthens, and ultimately heals her.
Winter Sleep
Kis uykusu
Turkey, France, Germany
Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Winner of this year’s top prize at Cannes, the latest masterpiece by Nuri Bilge Ceylan (Once Upon a Time in Anatolia) takes place in a remote, wintry Turkish village where a privileged ex-actor runs a small hotel with his much younger wife. An engrossing and penetrating character study—with evocations of Ingmar Bergman’s Scenes From a Marriage—this gorgeously photographed epic drama is a searing journey into the complex mire of human relationships. Turkish with subtitles. 196 min.
The Word
Obietnica
Poland, Denmark
Director: Anna Kazejak
When 14-year-old Lila discovers her boyfriend has betrayed her, she sets in motion a series of events that will shake up the lives of everyone around her. Unfolding like a millennial Macbeth crossed with a police procedural, this impressively crafted coming-of-age thriller deftly explores the disturbing emotional intensity of high-schoolers, whose even the smallest misdeeds can sometimes spark dire repercussions. Polish and Danish with subtitles. 97 min.
MAIN COMPETITION, WOMEN
Words with Gods
Directors: Warwick Thornton (AUSTRALIA), Hector Babenco (BRAZIL), Bahman Ghobadi (IRAN), Mira Nair (INDIA), Hideo Nakata (JAPAN), Emir Kusturica (SERBIA), Guillermo Arriaga (MEXICO), Amos Gitai (ISRAEL), Álex de la Iglesia (SPAIN)
God is everywhere—as evidenced by this bold compilation of nine short films that tackle the religions of the world. Organized by Amores Perros screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga, the stories in this omnibus project run the gamut, ranging from the irreverent to the transcendent. 129 min.
Words with Gods
Various
Directors: Various
God is everywhere—as evidenced by this bold compilation of nine short films that tackle the religions of the world. From Spanish filmmaker Álex de la Iglesia’s story of an unexpectedly repentant Catholic hit man to Kurdish director Bahman Ghobadi’s fable about conjoined twins struggling with Muslim conceptions of sin and virtue, the stories in this omnibus project organized by Amores Perros screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga run the gamut, ranging from the irreverent to the transcendent. 129 min. Guillermo Arriaga in person.
The World is Mine
Lumea e a mea
Romania
Director: Nicolae Constantin Tanase
A meaner Mean Girls set in a coastal town along the Black Sea, this assured feature debut follows Larisa, a teenage girl, struggling to stay afloat after falling for the wrong guy. Increasingly at odds with her school, her friends, and her parents, Larisa lashes out—with devastating consequences. The World is Mine offers a powerful look into the inner lives of teen girls, and the lengths they must go to keep from drowning. Romanian with subtitles.103 min.
The World of Kanako
Kawaki
Japan
Director: Tetsuya Nakashima
When his beautiful, straight-A student daughter suddenly goes missing, a drunken, reckless ex-cop sets out on a desperate journey to locate her and reunite his “perfect family,” only to discover his seemingly squeaky-clean progeny was leading a deep, dark double life on the side. A characteristically psychedelic venture from Japanese genre veteran Tetsuya Nakashima (Confessions), The World of Kanako leads its viewer on a disturbing and disorienting trip down the rabbit hole. Japanese with subtitles. 118 min.
Xenia
Greece
Director: Panos H. Koutras
After the death of their Albanian lounge-singing mother, sprightly gay Dany and his heterosexual older brother Odysseus set out on a journey to find their estranged Greek father, in order to be able to remain in the country legally. A candy-colored, crowd-pleasing road movie, filled with dance sequences and celebrity cameos, Greek New Wave pioneer Panos Koutras lovingly presents a celebration of tolerance, while revealing the disturbing fascist strains currently threatening his nation. Greek and Albanian with subtitles. 128 min.
The Young Kieslowski
USA
Director: Kerem Sanga
In this screwball coming-of-age story, Brian Kieslowski, a well-intentioned physics major, drunkenly stumbles into a one-night stand with fellow freshman Leslie Mallard. The tryst proves eventful, particularly when Mallard finds that she is pregnant with twins. An irreverent sex comedy in the tradition of The Graduate, as well as a sensitive portrait of the onset of young parenthood, The Young Kieslowski is an entertaining crowd-pleaser from a promising new American voice. 94 min.
WORLD CINEMA
Zurich
Und Morgen Mittag Bin Ich Tot
Germany
Director: Frederik Steiner
In a brazen act of self-will, a young woman with a life-threatening genetic disease decides to arrange her own peaceful death on her 23rd birthday. Heartrending, impassioned, and featuring a powerful central performance by rising German starlet Liv Lisa Fries, Zurich is an unflinching look at the lives of those impacted by terminal illness. Profoundly humanistic, the movie depicts difficult moral choices with a balance of sentiment and painful honesty. German with subtitles. 103 min.
Tribute: Isabelle Huppert
Join the Festival in honoring Isabelle Huppert, the French star of stage, screen and television, with four of her favorite films.
The most heralded French star of her generation, the illustrious redheaded actress has blazed a trail of fiercely committed performances through the course of her auspicious career, and in roles so diverse, from ingénue to comedienne to tragic heroine, that she’s been dubbed “l’actrice caméléon.”
Coinciding with Huppert’s visit to the Festival, The Alliance Française de Chicago will also host “Isabelle Huppert à l’Alliance,” an exclusive exhibition of the Gallic star seen through the lenses of 17 famous photographers.
The Piano Teacher
La pianiste
Austria, France, Germany
Director: Michael Haneke
In one of the most courageous characterizations of her celebrated career, Huppert’s 2001 Cannes award-winning performance effortlessly illuminates the darkest corners of the human psyche. Based on Elfriede Jelinek’s controversial 1983 novel, The Piano Teacher tells the story of Erika (Huppert), a middle-aged masochistic classical piano instructor, who becomes involved with a vain and handsome student who tragically mistakes her unraveling sanity for passionate ardor. French with subtitles. 125 min.
Comedy of Power
L’ivresse du pouvoir
France
Director: Claude Chabrol
In this still timely and provocative 2007 film about corporate and political corruption, Huppert stars as Jeanne, a tenacious magistrate known as “the piranha” of the judiciary system, who puts her personal life on the back burner to pursue white-collar criminals. After gaining fame for locking up an embezzling CEO, Jeanne pushes the limits of her intoxicating power further than ever and winds up isolated in a dangerous game of threats and intimidation. French with subtitles. 105 min.
White Material
France, Cameroon
Director: Claire Denis
In an unnamed African country, Maria Vial (an electrifying Huppert) fights to save her family’s coffee plantation in the face of rising civil unrest. When withdrawing French forces warn the remaining white residents that they’re on their own if they stay behind, Maria refuses to leave, continuing to run the farm as the specter of impending tragedy looms. White Material (2009) is an extraordinarily visceral and very personal rumination on a society turned upside down. French with subtitles. 100 min.
Copacabana
France
Director: Marc Fitoussi
Huppert co-stars with her real-life daughter Lolita Chammah in this 2010 bittersweet comedy about an eccentric free-spirited mom at odds with her conventional by-the-book daughter. Trying to abide by her daughter’s wishes, Huppert’s exuberant rebel can’t suppress her maverick nature for long and has to find another way to regain her daughter’s respect. This charming feature paints a picture of a woman struggling to stay true to herself while conforming to social realities. French with subtitles. 107 min.
Tribute: Ted Hope
Producer Ted Hope is one of the most respected voices in independent film. His 70-plus movies include such breakthroughs as The Ice Storm, American Splendor and Happiness, and the debut features of Michel Gondry and Nicole Holofcener. Now as CEO of Fandor, the movie streaming community of filmmakers and film lovers, Hope resides at the nexus of technology and film culture. Join Hope for a spirited discussion about the present and future of indie film.
Tribute: Kathleen Turner
Known for her sultry voice and formidable screen presence, Kathleen Turner will forever be known for her sexy breakthrough debut in 1981’s Body Heat. Over the years, Turner has continued to stun audiences with powerhouse roles in films such as Romancing the Stone (1984), Prizzi’s Honor (1985) and Peggy Sue Got Married (1986) and in Broadway plays such as Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Join the legendary star for a candid discussion of her craft and career. 75 min. Kathleen Turner in person.
