On Sunday, the Chicago International Film Festival’s last day, Best of the Festival screenings bring back three of the 26 award winners announced on Friday: “Happy as Lazzaro,” recipient of the Gold Hugo for best international feature film (capsule below); the highly recommended “Ash Is Purest White,” winner of two Silver Hugos (5 p.m.), and “The Raft,” voted a Silver Hugo by the documentary jury (8:45 p.m.). There is a repeat show at 1 p.m. of “Shorts 8: Meditations (Experimental)” even though none of the four titles in this outstanding program won an award this year.
The Chicago International Film Festival concludes at AMC River East, 322 E. Illinois.
‘Funny Cow’ (U.K.)
Adrian Shergold directs a compelling Maxine Peake (also appearing in the fest’s “Peterloo” today) playing a stand-up comic in the 1970s and 1980s. Misogyny is leaden in Northern England. But words are her weapons of defense. She oh so quietly uses the same solicitously vicious lines on her abusers — her father and later her boyfriend: “Are you angry Dad/Bob? You seem angry.” As a child she greets news of her dad’s death with a grin into the camera: “Yippie!” 5:45 p.m. Oct. 21
‘Becoming Astrid’ (Sweden/Germany/Denmark)
One of many features about self-made women in this year’s line-up, this “inspired-by-events-in-the-life-of” drama portrays Astrid Lindren (1907-2002), author of Pippi Longstocking books. Director Pernille Fischer Christensen frames the years leading up to her literary career via voiceovers of letters children wrote her. Distributed by Music Box Films in Chicago, this rewarding work recalls the 2008 festival film “Everlasting Moments,” inspired by the life of a Swedish woman photographer. 7 p.m. Oct. 21
‘El Angel’ (Argentina/ Spain)
Set in 1971 Buenos Aires, this semi-creepy study of a cute sociopath is “inspired” by a true crime spree of the now-incarcerated Carlos Robledo Puch. Director Luis Ortega offers an intriguing take on his character: “Carlitos acts like a movie star. He thinks he is being filmed. He wants to get God’s attention, to make an impression on Him. … It’s very attractive to follow a character who believes he is a spy working for God.” This is Argentina’s entry to the best foreign language film competition in this year’s Oscars. 8 p.m. Oct. 21
‘Happy as Lazzaro’ (Italy/Switzerland/France/Germany)
Alice Rohrwacher writes and directs a likable tale about an innocent redeemer of a life on the margin. The title simpleton toils on an out-of-the-way tobacco farm under medieval conditions. One day he falls off a cliff, then gets up decades later — unscathed and unaged — long after everyone has moved away. Happy as ever, he finds them in the city squatting by train tracks and surviving by petty crime. Publicized as a “political fable,” this Gold Hugo winner evokes Vittoria de Sica’s 1951 film “Miracle in Milan.” The backstory, though, is a 1982 scandal about a cigarette-selling noblewoman exploiting her sharecroppers. 8:15 p.m. Oct. 21
